Cherry ripe

Posted on July 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Cherries, Cherry tree, Crop, Eating, Fun, Gardening, Happy, Harvest, Pick, Tasty, TreeLeave a comment

Got to try and harvest some more cherries between the thunderstorms.

We got a lot off the lower branches. We need a rake or something to grab some of the other branches. We have almost eaten the other ones we picked. I’m jealous of the birds that can get at the ones on the top branches. It’s great to have fresh fruit grown in your own garden. My friend bought a cherry tree but hers was a sour type. Ours is sweet. It’s worth checking and this tree is self fertile which means it sets fruit without the need of a companion tree.

Happy gardening.

2000 year old yew tree

Posted on June 21, 2020June 21, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A34, Astbury, Church Yard, Day out, English countryside, Near Stoke-on-Trent, Propped up tree, Tree, Yew tree5 Comments

From a friend’s photo,

At Astbury just off the A34 near Stoke on Trent and Congelton. I can’t remember the church grounds it is in. The trunk is hollow. It goes to show that it is only the outer layers of plants that are really alive. Water and nutrients are drawn up the trunk by transpiration. The trunk is propped up with timbers.

I once saw an experiment on the TV when scientists cut through a mature tree, they placed the trunk into a container full of water. The tree continued to suck up the water despite being cut, this was because of capillary action. There are tiny tubes in plants called phloem and xylem which are there to take up water and also transport sugars and starches from the leaves into the body of the plant. These are the building blocks of the grass, shrub, flowering plant or tree. I don’t know much more about plant biology though. I’m searching round in my mind for facts from biology classes over forty years ago!

Nature was today’s prompt

Posted on June 2, 2020June 2, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #uskstoke, Art, Black and white, Black ink, Drawing, In the park, Nature, Sketching, Thinking, Tree, Usk Stoke-on-Trent8 Comments

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Mature tree in the park, today’s #uskstoke challenge was Nature.

This was the first time I had been out to a park in ten weeks (well longer as I don’t generally go to them). The weather was lovely, and no one came near to me and two friends. We didn’t get close. At one point I started to fill up with tears at the immense feeling of freedom. It suddenly hit me that I was with two people whose company I enjoy and who I haven’t been able to have a proper talk with for months.

I get on with my hubby, but this was a real release. I did go out wearing a mask and gloves like I do when I’m shopping. I was offered a fold up chair, but I declined because I’m still very nervous of touching anything outside the house. When I came home I washed my hands and face. I’m going to find it difficult to accept things when they get back to normal.

Tree trunks

Posted on March 12, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Fun, Funny, Humour, Life, Nature, Photo, Poem, Poetry, TreeLeave a comment

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He has tree trunk legs,

Tree trunk knees,

There is a nest

Of tree trunk bees.

He has tree trunk arms,

And tree trunk ears,

Made of wood

He has a tree trunk soul.

The leaves have fallen,

From his branching head,

The winter comes,

And he looks dead.

But when sap arises,

Come the spring,

He’ll be renewed

And start again.

Tree spirits

Posted on March 9, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Colours, Design, Facebook, Memories, Painting, Surreal, Time, Tree, Tree spiritsLeave a comment

Four years ago. Tree spirit painting.

This is an idea I have painted a few times. I’m convinced that we need to do more to encourage tree planting. I guess I’m a bit of a tree hugger on the quiet!

I’ve painted trees with faces in them from spring, to autumn and winter. I’ve not done a summer one so far.

This went to a friend who really loves it. There are three faces in the painting as you can see. I did have a picture of it from the front but can’t find it. This came up on my Facebook page ( a useful way of recording my art). I was really pleased with the bright colours in this. I wanted it to look like a glowing sunset. The faces are mysterious and stare out at each other. I think it’s slightly surreal. I admire the movement but it probably needs more of a twist to it to actually be classed as surreal art.

Urban sketchers yesterday

Posted on March 8, 2020 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Brick, Drawings, Eccleshall, Sketches, Staffordshire, Stone figure, Tree, Trees, Urban sketchers Stoke on trent, WorkshopLeave a comment

The cat? He got in front of my sketch pad as I tried to take the photos of my drawings from yesterday. They are a large tree and workshop, a gate with a seated artist hidden behind it, and a stone figure half hidden in the bushes. These might make the basis for some new paintings as I work towards creating art for a new exhibition. I took a few photos too so I can use them to work out the colours.

Fruit

Posted on March 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Chain saw, Colour, Exhibition, Fruit, Garden, Gardening, Life, Painting, Photo, Subjects, Tree2 Comments

Just found out I have been offered an exhibition at the Waiting room gallery in April. The theme will be gardening, green men and women and spring, but I also want to do colourful work. I’ve been going around looking for subjects in the house as the garden isn’t growing yet, just a few buds.

The light was streaming in through the kitchen window and illuminating all the fruit my hubby bought yesterday. So I took a photo of it.

I will try and get some more interesting shots later. At the moment a neighbour is cutting down a tree, so I’m staying out the way. The sound of chainsawing doesn’t fill me with confidence!

Designing tiles

Posted on February 15, 2020February 15, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged art nouveau, Arts and crafts, Colour, Design, Digital drawing, Fun, Monochrome, Pattern, Tiles, TreeLeave a comment

I decided to make a drawing of a tree shape then played with it in various apps to change its colour and shape.

I love old fashioned Art Nouveau and Rennie Mackintosh designs from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Also the Arts and Crafts movement. We have become so interested in glossy and sleek, modern, monochrome that we don’t seem to recognise that patterns can be exciting and interesting. You can do anything you want really.

Spider or beetle?

Posted on February 8, 2020February 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fun, Humour, Life, Looking, Mirror, Moss, Photos, Picture, Roots, Tree, WalkLeave a comment

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Roots can be interesting and exciting. Just be duplicating a picture you can get something fascinating. This looks like a spider to me, but someone else suggested a beetle about to fly. Or I guess it could be a land crab?

Anyway see what you think, have you got any images you can play with and create flights of fancy?

Tree and faces

Posted on January 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Cat face, Design, Digital art, Digital drawing, Duplicated, Humour, Patterns, TreeLeave a comment

Untitled76_001 IMG_20200120_185123 I decided to draw a tree with a pinkish sunset in the background. I used the ArtRage oils app.then I decided to see what it would look like if I duplicated and mirrored it. Now I can see a 🙀 cat! And various other patterns…. I’m one of those people who see faces in anything. I think I heard people saying that you can be employed to look for faces in patterns so they can alter designs and remove them. I could do that job! Art and Design seems full of them…. X

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Tree