July drawing

It has been a warm and dry summer so far, although when we had heavy rain yesterday it released so may strong smells in the humid air it felt almost tropical. I have been out and about with my crayons, experimenting with colour.

Another in my series of world rivers from the air. The Ganges in North India with Himalayas in the background. They are so high that they are at eye level with the plane and the perspective seems all wrong.

Congo

I am lucky to have flown over DRC and seen the Congo flowing through a vaste expanse of forest with no human activity visible for about 2 hours of the flight. This is the picture I made afterwards.

April escapes me!

...and here we are in May. This is the product of snatched minutes, trying to get a rubbing of the cracks in the very dry ground we had a week or so ago. I am so busy I wonder when the cracks will appear.....

In Bangladesh, working and watching cricket, I also became a little obsessed with the painted and decorated cycle rickshaws that are everywhere. 'The people their culture - likes and dislikes - are conveyed through paintings done at the back of peddle rickshaw' (Dr Khalid Hasan writing in a Brand Forum publication). They have idyllic places, heroes and heroines from films, and decorated curtains and chrome. My idyllic place is the Sher-e-Bangla national cricket stadium, my heroes are the vocal wicketkeeper for Bangladesh, Mushfiqur and the grim faced Enland batsmen who wore down the opposition. My curtains and adorned with pictures of the match, whilst my chrome is overlaid with the key moments from the game. Luckily, I was able to make a design for my own rickshaw while in Bangladesh and very soon it could be seen plying for trade in the street of Dhaka!

We never told them how much we loved this tree,
Ripening to maturity,
Striped by age, but not crippled.
But someone's gripe,
Risk assessment tripe,
Tripped up,
Ripped down,
Machine's grip
Strips.
RIP
Tree.

I grabbed a handful of wood shavings from around some freshly cut trees as the smelled great. When I mixed those with the paint they just smelled of....paint!



I'm getting more comfortable with the acrylics now. I realise that you use the colours separately and don't try to mix/muddy them up. Used in spots/splatters against the white paper they look very good.

January art

I have been very busy and not blogging, but I have done a few arty bits and pieces recently. Here's a selection.