Acrylic on canvas 20″ x 16″. View of Croyde Beach. Titanium White always looks a little stark in photograph but in the original the white certainly isn’t this vivid. Although gives quite a nice effect. Al
Author Al Brown Artist.
Storm Clouds With Rainbow.
Quite a large composition for me (830mm x 60mm) mixed media entitled Storm With Rainbow. Quite a few overlapping glazes and tones creates a look that I’m seeking. Pity the camera loses the details and colour. On the whole I quite like the direction my paintings are going in. Al
Glastonbury Festival Farewell
Well Glastonbury 2016 proved to be an ordeal. In other words, I fought the mud and the mud won! I work every year at the festival and this year was my last. I think that everyone should go at least once. It’s a little oasis from everydayland where the straightest people can paint their faces and dress up in costumes and escape the confinements of their lives. For me this year’s highlights were The Savages, Richard Hawley the Showhawk Duo! So now it’s time to move on the festivals new! Al
Sunlight Through Low Cloud.
Pastel picture of Bideford/Barnstaple Bay (470mm x 300mm). Now and again you rush and produce something like this. Not very happy with the finished picture but there and again art is a moving and linear leaning process. The particular lesson learnt here, don’t rush when you’ve only got limited time and observe, observe, observe! Time spent 45mins. Al
Original picture from a photograph from Facebook. Not too sure who’s it was.
Road Rage?
I very rarely drive a car: that’s my wife’s domain. When I do I notice how, once behind the wheel people become more aggressive and unpleasant. Once in a car no one is in the wrong, it’s always the other driver’s mistake. Once behind the wheel the only important person in the world is them. What has happened to courtesy? Mutual politeness? If we walked we would behave differently toward each other. Therefore it’s the anonymity and protection of being in a car that separates us from others. Similar to being on the net where you make remarks, positive or negative, from the comfort of your own sofa. It’s amusing how people want to over take you, they want to get in front, be first, get one up on you. They don’t know me and I don’t know them what’s the point then? Time urgency, late for work, just feeling angry then think about others and perhaps extend some courtesy to others. Smile and the world will be a better place for you and that bloke you’ve just cut up at the traffic lights! Al
Picture taken as my wife drove home from a rather nice weekend in Bristol. This is on the M5 motorway somewhere near Taunton.
Mortehoe to Bull Point Lighthouse.
A wonderful walk with friends and another’s Birthday. A walk along the North Devon coastal path from Morthoe to Bully Point and back into the village for some beer n food. Finally on the way home a stop at the top of Woolacombe Hill to watch the hang gliders. The view breath taking as usual. Al
Westward Ho!
A quick pastel sketch from a photograph of Westward Ho from a magnificent picture off Facebook. One thing about the North Devon Beaches is that you get magnificent reflections in the wet sand. They’re full of wonderfully subtle colours and shapes an artists dream. (Pastel 470mm x 300mm). Al
ps Original photograph by Rob Elson.
Thai Islands.
Koh Samet.
Deep green and distant islands
I have been off Ban Pae Pier.
Where the salt white sands are bleached,
And the water’s crystal clear.
Sweeping shadows of the palm trees,
Open fingers brush the shore.
Band of grey approaching thunder,
Monsoon rain a little more.
Without care for tortured world
We bronzed our thoughts away.
Cosmopolitan games of volleyball,
Oriental Eden made for play.
Beachside huts now mute and toppled,
No more bucks from Uncle Sam.
My friends have now gone elsewhere,
Have they gone to Vietnam?
Korean families with their beach craft,
Who’ve discovered Diamond Sands.
While away their humid moments,
Where a noisy jet ski lands.
My uncovered secret heaven
Was impossible to hide.
Speeding years and aging faces,
From those memories we cried.
Why couldn’t it last forever?
Tearful dreams of carefree days.
Fleeting moments of impermanence,
They’re our lives the Buddha says.
So now it’s time to move along,
Relieved so one pretends.
Now I’ll sit alone and drink awhile,
To the ghosts of dancing friends.
Portraits! Portraits! Portraits!
Why is it that when it comes to portraits I have to be in the mood? A portrait is such a personal thing and as an artist that idea of what the sitter desires and what the artist portrays can be a gulf apart. I’ve not drawn likenesses for awhile but who knows I may get a second wind. Al
When having my portrait painted I don’t want justice, I want mercy.
Billy Hughes
Diggin’ For Pignuts.
Well this evening my son and I decided to go out for a walk and dig for some Pignuts. Finding them was quite easy amongst the buttercups. With the use of a sharp stick my son Archie dug around the stem to tease out the root ball and pignut. A very successful evening’s foraging. Pignuts taste rather like hazelnut crossed with a carrot with a slight hint of hotness. Better than watching the TV or the Laptop. AL
Al Brown Artist. 