New paintings and regular art updates.
Light under trees
Leaves fluttering in breeze
Grey blue above
Green grey below
the colour of doves
Space that is hollow
A cathedral of branches
Light into it lances
Startling nature
Human hands stature
Creating an arched void
Where you can hide.
My owl painting has a grey background like moving air. But today someone suggested adding a starry night sky. I decided to digitally change the background and I have to agree. The paints are coming out and I will change it. Its good to have someone else looking at your work. It can change your opinion. I think you have to be open to other ideas. But also you have to stick to your guns if you don’t feel it will better. I hope that makes sense.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was above. Thinking of above, anything over 5ft 6in is higher than me it could have been tree branches, buildings, Blackpool tower, but I went astronomical, Moon above Earth…, felt pen drawing.
Imagine a green world, floating through space. Surrounded by a spherical forcefield that holds air and water in and keeps damaging radiation out. It can only survive where there is bright enough sunlight to allow the vegetation to survive unless it is equipped with power to keep it warm enough and keep artificial lights working for photosynthesis to happen. But plants have a limited lifespan, then they die and with the right biology break down and turn into compost. So the sphere needs to have enough space to keep growing, and enough resources to maintain a steady environment. Maybe there are large bodies of water to supply the plants.
I could be describing little spacecraft that could travel across space and seed new worlds? Or maybe it’s our planet. In either case, the environment needs protecting so that it can survive and thrive. If we imagine earth to be just a small spacecraft, where an imbalance could end its life, then perhaps we might take more care of it. X
Digital mosaic of a coastline. I was watching a programme about Nasa’s Perseverence Rover on Mars tonight and saw that it is due to try and climb the delta into a crater on Mars called Jezero crater. It struck me how the martian landscape is very similar to ours. There was water on the planet a few billion years ago which filled the crater. This could be one of the places where they find evidence of life on Mars.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was Africa. It is such a large continent with such varied flora and fauna and landscapes so I decided to draw a view of it and part of the surrounding countries from space. Drawn with felt pens. I used a plastic tub to draw round for the circle.
Another drawing, Earth and Moon, drawn at Sketchfu. My interests in science and astronomy are shown here. Also trying to render the appearance of cloudscape from space. The website was simple, four or five sized circular brushes, opacity and transparency, a basic pallette and a colour picker and eraser. Not much more. But lots of people, artists, writers, enjoyed the site. It just got too big, wasn’t monetised, and the owners decided to move on to something else. I miss it. X
Want to find out more about Sunspots? Also the Solar Wind, Near Earth Objects, Meteor showers, Cosmic rays?
Try viewing https://spaceweather.com – today it has information and photos about the largest sunspot seen in years. The Sun has a solar cycle, it has a minimum and maximum activity over a period of 11 years. It is caused by the Sun’s magnetic activity. I can’t explain the science properly so have a look at the site.
It also shows information about Auroras and comets among other things, and it is understandable and not too technical.
Stand on the North of the Earth and look at the full moon. It seems to be one way up. Stand in the Southern Hemisphere and it will be the other way up. Basically one view is 🙃 upside down compared with the other. In fact if you are near the equator the view will be at right angles to the normal view. I think some people see the moon as a boat crossing the sky when it is waining. ie a young or old moon. When you only live in one Hemisphere you dont realise that other people can have a different perspective. Trying to put yourself in there position can change the way you look at life. I’d love to go south of the equator and see the Southern Cross and the greater and lesser Magellanic clouds (small galaxies near our milky way galaxy) which are not visible in the North.
A couple of years ago I painted this picture of Earth. I was trying to get the shading right so the clouds sit above the surface was difficult. This is North America, Canada and part of Mexico and the Caribbean.
I hope the cloud shapes work and you can see the weather patterns. I wonder if anyone would be interested in paintings of worlds. It’s something I’m interested in. I’ve painted pictures of Jupiter and other astronomical images. I don’t use an airbrush for painting so it’s quite hard to get the granularity and softness of space and planets.
Mallaband-Brown