New paintings and regular art updates.
It was raining this morning at three in the morning, but through the mild mirk of a December night the sound of a blackbird was heard singing.
The rain continued and the raindrops splattered my window, the drips from the gutter splashed down onto me as I opened the front door to get the milk bottles in. Water was running down the road and overflowing the drains.
I didn’t hear the bird but I could hear the cars whooshing through the rain… Being on a main road can be noisy.
It rained very heavily a few days ago.
I wrote this poem in response :
Rain flowed down the hill
Flooded the gutters
A wall of water
In the midst of it
A man on a mobility scooter
Drove it through two feet of water
Flash flood wheel chair hero!
The man on the scooter was videoed, it made the local TV news! Legend! I think it’s on tiktok in Stoke on Trent.
Foam, bubbles, froth
Soap and water
Float on water
Sploshing
Splishing
Splashing
Soft to the skin
Bathing
Washing
Suds for cleaning
Where would we be
Without them?
We sang about the boats and pots
Of horses pulling barges.
Before the cuts were built and dug.
The plates broke on the carts
A third of pottery destroyed
Because of mud and ruts
For a hundred years the canals enjoyed
The busy work of transport
Then motorways and rail roads were built
And ware shifted to “faster” ways.
The cuts were clogged with water weeds
The towpaths overgrown.
Until the leisure cruisers came
And cleaned the weeds away.
Now British waterways they rule
And you can moor your boat
Anglers dip their rods in water
And catch all sorts of course fish.
The canals are better than before
No shopping trolleys in them.
A resource for walkers, boaters, folk,
To enjoy and rest and play.
Another #bandofsketchers prompt was wet, after taking a photo of rain on my window I decided to try and interpret it as a digital sketch using Artrage app. I usually finger paint but as I wanted more control I used my stylus.
Yes it’s raining a lot here in England, so wet I dare not go out. I’m not allowed to get my face wet or get water or grit in my eye.
I really want to go out and do some shopping. I need to get cat food, but it’s still raining after about 12 hours. But I can hear the cars splashing through the water outside the front door. It’s only 2 or 3 steps to my car. But I need to use a brolly and my walking stick, so by the time I’ve put them in the car I will get soaked. Luckily I’m parked right by the pavement so I don’t need to step through a rushing river of water that runs down the gutter. The grates for the run off are full.
Anyway I’m off to grab a coffee… Decaff of course.
Send us mares tails that precede rain.
Send clouds full of water
England’s Green is fading
Brown fields abound
River levels dropping
Paddle your canoes no more
Canal boats stuck in place
High and dry on mud!
Give us a cup or two of rain
To water our parched countryside
Let the land drink
Again.
Not a nut but the ring off the bottom of a wet glass. Water absorbed into the open unvarnished oak grain. A temporary signature that will soon dry.
Food and drink finished, I abandoned it to its quiet fate of invisibility. Evaporated, gone.
Goodness it’s got hot.
Someone serving me in a shop bought me a bottle of water when I was buying more plants. I’d got myself in a real tizzy!
People can be kind xxxx
“fishscales” Artrage app, digital drawing I’ve just completed this using metallic and non metallic pens. I love this app. It feels like a truly free way of using digital methods.
Mallaband-Brown