Tag: painting

What do we do to talk more: painting and phone/ Co robimy by rozmawiać więcej: malowanie i telefon?

Gratitude for time to talk and create

One of the things that I do with my daughter is painting. She is 6 at the moment and loves creative expression. To talk about colours, mixing and cleaning brushes covered with oil paints, we sat down at our dining table, lied down a huge white canvas and painted together with old dry and new brushes, wooden blocks and all available fingers and tools at hand. After the session at the table, we hang the painting, took a photo and edited the screenshot in a photo app on my phone using available filters and tools erasing parts of the photo, smudging it or camouflaging some elements of the photo. Talking while creating is very natural to us so we were able to create a nice conversational flow focused on filling up the empty canvas. Try this too and show us your creations. 🙂

Jedną z rzeczy, które robię z moją córką, jest malowanie. W tej chwili ma 6 lat i uwielbia twórczą ekspresję. Aby porozmawiać o kolorze, mieszaniu, czyszczeniu pędzli z farby olejnej w zeszły piątek usiadłyśmy przy stole w jadalni, rozłożyłyśmy ogromne białe płótno i pomalowałyśmy je razem używająć starych i nowych pędzli, drewnianymi klockó i wszystkimi narzędziami, które miełyśmy pod ręką. Po sesji przy stole powiesiłyśmy obraz, zrobiłyśmy zdjęcie i edytowałyśmy zrzut ekranu w aplikacji fotograficznej w telefonie za pomocą dostępnych filtrów i narzędzi wymazujących części zdjęcia, rozmazujących je lub kamuflujących różne elementy zdjęcia. Rozmowa podczas tworzenia jest dla nas bardzo naturalna, więc udało nam się stworzyć przyjemny przepływ konwersacyjny skoncentrowany na wypełnieniu pustego płótna. Gorąco polecam wszystkim.

Zachęcam do eksperymentów i pokażcie nam swoje prace!

Pozdrawiamy,

Alicja Pyszka-Franceschini i córka Gabi

First published by my on my other site: Accomplished Squirrel dedicated to multilingual communication.

Abstract from ice (modified and updated)

Once upon a time we had a rabbit. The rabbit died over a year ago just on New Year’s Eve. We took the rabbit tray outside, it was in our garden collecting rain water and algae. It was a big cage, capacious. When the big freeze came over the last week all that water with algae froze creating interesting patterns and compositions. I chopped the ice with an old bread tin. It was also filled with heavy ice. Our son lifted it off the tray. He placed it next to his knee to show how tall and thick it was, impressive in size. I photographed the blocks of ice while they were still floating among the icy water and when son was holding the ice.

The algae surrounded them. I then post-processed the photos in Lightroom. My favourite abstract composition is below.

I wonder what you think of it all?

Let me know.

x

And yesterday while walking, I met this little being. I think its eye is in the abstract.

Writing and photography: Alicja Pyszka-Franceschini, 2025, Home Studio, Derby, UK. Outdoor photo taken in Willington, South Derbyshire.

Updated 16.01.2025.

Gratitude for ice

It’s hard to see this. This amount of flooding and the road closure. It is easy to become overwhelmed. After all, we see Earth in a trauma response. With a compromised immunity system. When we cross Earth’s boundaries, Earth crosses ours. You feel this too? And yet Earth never stops being generous. Giving beyond the easily discernible. It tells us to look harder, better. Beyond the ‘road closure’ sign. There is art to be grateful for.

Two pieces of work abstracted from ice. Mostly created on this road.



Willington, Derbyshire, UK.

Work of Alicja Pyszka-Franceschini, 2025.

Oh, by the way, I updated

my photo art portfolio. You can see it here: https://a-credible-dreamer.co.uk/

I have one more post to share soon. Expect a new arrival on Sunday.

I hope you are really taking care of yourself. Make use of the refreshing icy weather if you’re based in this hemisphere. And do what makes you happier and stronger. Speak soon. x

It’s no longer only about buying nothing new

painting

February is over and as promised I haven’t bought anything new for myself or my son this year. This challenge is really growing on me and my family and I’m really starting seeing and appreciating its influence. In fact, I came to realise that ‘Nothing New’ is no longer only about buying nothing new… it’s much more than this…

I’ve been following the blog of the original initiator of this idea Sash at Inked in Colour and observing how she’s approaching her challenge. I’m reading her posts and I am often taken aback at how far she takes that challenge… how much she pushes herself to live by her rules. Just recently, for example, she has posted an article about making her own paint. I’ve been painting a lot recently… stroking our kitchen walls layer after layer. Not for a second did I think about making my own paint. It just never occurred to me that I can do it. That there is a way for me to do it on my own.

malowanie23

So thinking about Sash’s post while I was applying the last coat of the paint, I began wondering how many other skills are there that we haven’t developed because we are so used to buying things? How many skills have we forgotten because we shop? Are we not de-skilling ourselves because it’s just so convenient to buy things? The answers to these questions made me look at our different lists (shopping list, wish list, DIY list) and seriously consider if there are things on these lists that I can do by myself or learn to do by myself… and there are of course, quite a few… like making your own yoghurt, juices, jams and breads… and learning to craft home décor and sew.

This year I really would like to make some improvements and alterations to our garden, to make it look nice and neat, improve our herb patch and build a raised bed to grow some vegetables. In the spirit of ‘Nothing New’ I am preserving ‘bits’ of our old kitchen to use them for our garden and I also collected quite a few old-style bricks from our distant neighbours who just a few weeks ago knocked down a wall or two in their house. Last year I would probably have just gone to one of the big chain DIY supermarkets and I would try to find articles for my garden there… this year I am thinking differently… this year I want to be creative with what I have and what I can find and above all I want to do it with my own hands and learn some new skills too. Can’t wait.

painting the door