New paintings and regular art updates.
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.
X
I went out with Urban sketchers today and was at an old farm near Eccleshall to draw. I took a few photos. I need to take good pictures of my drawings.
The day was grey, overcast with great rushes of wind that you could hear soughing through the trees. Starting far way you could hear it rushing and pushing the tree branches. Rooks were flying and calling in the air, scooting about and apparently enjoying it. We even saw a murmuration of Starlings flocking in the distance.
I sat on a white metal garden chair, strong but cold. I ended up folding up my scarf to stop my bum going numb with the cold. Within a few minutes I was shivering and then I got used to it although my hands started to go numb with the chill. Luckily there was hot tea available. It was very kind of the artists that live there to let a crowd of about twenty urban sketchers come round and draw everything from trees to stone dogs.
X
Late visit to the lake for coffee and oatcakes. Then took half a bag of Swan, duck and goose food for a short stroll round the small lake. We were mobbed by Canada geese who got a bit aggressive, and one bold Swan who stepped onto the bank in front of me. I threw a handful of food onto the ground and it pecked at it before the other birds got a chance. The pigeons were not as lucky as the food was in large pellets. I tried to break them up a bit but they were to hard to split. I probably should have thrown more in the water but when you are being mobbed it’s hard not to give in and throw it down quickly.
As we walked round the lake I noticed the path was muddy and it looked like it has washed over the pathway at some stage recently. In the field by the children’s playground a large pool of water stood waiting to drain away. Buds were starting to burst on the smaller scrubby trees, bright green against the black and grey twigs. I also spotted something like dandelion (coltsfoot?) yellow ragged flowers, just a cluster of three below a group of trees. Coots and moorhens were also on the lake together with mallard ducks. The sun that had been shining all day had gone behind the clouds and only peeked out as we walked back to the car. Low and bright, dazzling us as we drove away.
I have just written to my local Councillor about a stand of about eight trees that have been cut down as you approach our City centre.
I wrote:
Dear Councillor__________
I was concerned today as I was driving into _____from _____, that a whole stand of mature trees has been cut down on the corner of the ________opposite the new hotel and ____field site (on a patch of land next to the traffic lights). I have always liked those trees and am shocked that the council has removed them. There seem to be more and more of these acts of environmental vandalism. In a time when we should be planting more to mitigate the effects of climate crisis why are you implementing this? I’m sure they were not all diseased. Please consider replacing any trees on a two for one basis. Street trees are recognised as a way of cleaning urban pollution. It has recently been reported that thousands of people die every year from pollution. And as the most congested city in the world last month it should be important to your administration to mitigate these problems.
Yours Sincerely
A few days ago there was a reddish sunset, today it was more silvery. Each one was beautiful.
I like the glow in the sky on the second one. I’m sad when the sun goes down in the winter because of how long it is until the sun returns in the morning. As the days go on I look forward to longer days.
I’m already noticing the change of position of the sunrise and Sunset, gently moving along the horizon, gradually changing the time it rises and sets.
The weather should look very different on Sunday. A storm called Keira is on its way, due to give gale force winds.
In the meantime if I see more beautiful skies I will post pictures. X
My hubby came home today with this print of North Eastern Railways ‘the Yorkshire Moors’…. Tranquil solitude. What is interesting is its a railway poster, with no railway visible!
Yorkshire is the largest county in England. It is home of the National Railway museum in York and is crossed by the North Yorkshire moors railway which runs through wooded hills and moors from Whitby on the coast to Pickering in the heart of the moors.
All of the East coast of the county is interesting. There are towns like Scarborough there. A lot of the coast is not very stable. There are cliffs where landslides occur and parts made of mud, called blue lias which is crumbling and full of fossils. You can find Whitby jet in it which is fossilised monkey puzzle trees which is jet black.
Whitby Abbey was a setting for the Dracula story and every year they have goth and steam punk festivals there.
Three maps, dated 1970-74, 1997-2001, 2015-19. There were others but I didn’t snap them in time. So we are getting hotter. Life will change, and possibly catastrophically if we don’t do something. I remember doing a collage about population growth in the 1970’s. I did a picture of earth with a line of people snaking away from it towards the moon. I’ve always been conscious of the environment. I was a tree warden in about 1975 and told people off for damaging trees. I think I got carried away once and really told some boys off about their behaviour. Fast forward several decades, and things are only getting worse. X
Walking through the snow she came across some peculiar shaped trees, each one in flower with cherry blossom. In mid winter?! Was that a face? How could this be, what spirit of nature could have created this?
The trees seemed to breathe mist into the cold, crisp air. The frost turning it to tiny ice crystals. Sound reverberated from the mist. A whisper but so loud it shook her body.
“I AM SPRING”….
Life is here, waiting in the ground, waiting for water.. Now you are here this will be your place. You will not leave, you will nurture us with your body.
She realised she could not move, she could feel her feet lengthening, pushing into the soil, her arms were rising in supplication. Twisting and growing longer. Her eyes became knots in the wood, her body a trunk. No she would never leave here….. And she silently screamed as she transformed.
Soon all the leaves will be gone. A big storm is due in overnight so I guess they will be torn from the trees. My hanging baskets still have a few flowers opening in them despite the minus temperatures we have had. The sky has been lovely in the last few mornings, with gentle hints of colour, rosy glows and golden hues.
Then it will be time to cur back and prune some of the trees. Tidying up a little bit, but not enough to harm where the birds sleep. Now dawn is getting later, after 7am. It means I get to see more of them. X
When you duplicate a photo you can get some interesting effects, like this duplicated photo of the moon through trees and looking out of a wet window. Somehow I see xrays of brains, or skulls, or pictures of alien twins, or strange little aliens with outstretched arms.
I remember looking at flock wallpaper and seeing animals, or looking at clouds and seeing dragons or elephants.
There is a name for this, but I don’t remember. I must have a very active visual mind.
Mallaband-Brown