Ellen Bryn
LightNews LightNews
banner
sepdet.bsky.social
Ellen Bryn
@sepdet.bsky.social
170 followers 84 following 420 posts
Former classics major (greekgeek), art dabbler, fandom old (whovian, lotr, et alia), lifelong learner, chronic illness haver, and cat servant. She/her. 🏳️‍🌈
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
sepdet.bsky.social
Ellen Bryn @sepdet.bsky.social · Mar 10
Pinned bio update. Oil painter journeyman and childless cat lady still mourning loss of senior cat.
Fibro/arthritis has steamrolled me. I apply limited spoons to call reps, support those my govt hates, and lose myself in nerdly subjects from Dr Who to archaeology to earth sciences to train travel.
oil painting of orange and white cat curled up asleep on its side with paws over eyes. Mostly finished study of older, balding van Gogh Self portrait with lots of pale blue, no hat. Photo shows canvas on easel pegboard standing next to easel on which is propped an ipad with image of original painting. In the background of the room is a shelf halfway up the wall holding colored ceramic cups bowls, and other random objects for still lifes. Underneath the shelf hang many canvases from small eyehooks forming a drying rack. The canvases are turned with edges facing the wall like books to save space. Fat blonde middle aged lady embracing a red Dalek. As you do. Photo out train window aimed forward, showing engine of Amtrak rounding bend halfway up wall of red rock canyon dusted in snow with a snow and ice covered stream below and a brilliant blue sky above with white puffy clouds, everything glowing with afternoon sunlight.
sepdet.bsky.social
#ArtAdventCalendar Day7 Only trouble with art class is it's all about capturing what I see. I almost never draw from imagination. When I do, it's usually clumsy, because of an odd quirk: I struggle to hold images in my mind's eye (Maybe bc I was a nearsighted baby?) I just have to let my pen wander:
procreate drawing of a big lump of a green dragon with ludicrously small purple wings clutching the string of a small purple balloon in its left forepaw. The dragon has yellow half-lidded eyes with lashes and is looking back under them somewhat coyly, a large jutting jaw resting on the ground with protruding yellow snaggly teeth, a back that slopes up steeply like a scaly mountain and then falls off to a thick green tail snaking back and forth on the ground with a tiny purple bow on the end, and four croc-like stumpy legs ending in yellow nails tucked against the dragon's stout sides. It's more comical-looking than dangerous, apart from its bulk.
December 8, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
julia-laing.bsky.social
#ArtAdventCalendar
Day 7

My art from this year.
This one is Melba, in an almost heart-shaped pose. Charcoal and grey conti pastel. A3 size.

#art #cats #tabbycats #charcoaldrawings #catart #monochrome #contipastel #catsky #catsofbluesky #animaldrawings #expressivedrawing #drawing #feline
Charcoal and conti pastel drawing of a long haired tabby cat with outstretched crossed front legs.
December 7, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
nasobem.bsky.social
Hatte heute endlich mal wieder Zeit, was Größeres zu malen

230x310mm
300g/m² Baumwollpapier
Lichtechte Farben

Falls jemand Interesse hat, bevor ich es heut auf Etsy stelle ➡️ schreib mir eine DM

Noch geht sich der Versand für Weihnachten aus

#art #kleineKunstklasse #wattiskunst #artadventcalendar
Aquarellbild eines gefrorenen Sees in der Abendstimmung
December 7, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
jayispainting.earthskyart.ca
For day 4 #ArtAdventCalendar evening

Bolt From The Blue
26×34 66×86cm
Oil on canvas
2023
Storm clouds at night with a lightning bold in the middle over a valley with a river
December 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
crumplings.bsky.social
For #ArtAdventCalendar Day 5, a friendly but very shy bog dweller.

Finished today and made from paper mache, wood, dyed hemp fibre and mulberry bark. 🐌
A gremlin or goblin figure with huge ears and a curious expression. He is draped in a cloak made from coarse mulberry bark, and bits of muted green hemp fibre that resemble seaweed functioning as a scarf. He has duck-like orange webbed feet, and carries a bucket in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. He is standing against a soft white background decorated with pieces of driftwood and some dried grass.
December 6, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
earthlingnoreally.bsky.social
It's #portfolioday! Here's a smattering of my artwork.

I draw, paint & take photos. My paintings & drawings are abstract to illustrative to comic.

My photos are mostly flowers, architecture, graffiti, the sky, as well as abstract minimalism of what I find around me in my urban or rural setting.
A collage of peeks at my #NatureIsArt series of flower photos. A pile of lumber from the end perspective A watercolour illustration of an elephant in studded black leather shoes with a heart tattoo A collage of mostly paintings and drawings that I've done. The paintings are either acrylic, watercolour, and there's also a mural I worked on. Two are nature photos I've taken
October 15, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
suzspetals.bsky.social
Day 6 of #ArtAdventCalendar. Mona Lisa and I express how we really feel about generative, soulless, appropriated slop.
Drawing of the Mona Lisa flipping off AI “art” in a frame of light bulbs plugged into the wall. #fuckAI
December 7, 2025 at 3:16 AM
sepdet.bsky.social
#ArtAdvenCalendar 6 Again, I draw a lot of #CatPortraits . I saw this great cat photo (link below)and couldn't resist the personality. She reminds me of my family's Elder Statescat who lived until the age of 23. #ProcreateApp
www.tumblr.com/communities/...
digital drawing of black and white chonky cat (mostly white with one black blotch on her back) facing camera with neutral expression. A collar mostly hidden in her fur has a small jingle bell and a crumpled reddish-pink bow. The background is the same color.
December 7, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
kwh.bsky.social
USGS reports triple fountains at Kīlauea right now! 🌋
December 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM
sepdet.bsky.social
Day5 #ArtAdventCalendar I don't usually post work from my Learning From the Great Masters class, but I just finished a #FantinLaTour study. While I'm at it, here's my #Sargent, #Henri and #vanGogh #oilpainting studies. The goal is to analyze & learn technique, not simply copy. Work names in altText.
My study of "Roses" by Fantin-Latour, original 1894. Floral arrangement of many large, fully-open, some starting to droop roses in a glass vase. They are light colors: pale pink, champagne, pale yellow, cream. Background is simple sienna brown with shadow under vase indicating surface like a table. Ref image (note it's square, unlike my canvas): https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6387075 My study of Sargent 1906 self-portrait, cropped to just his head. Bearded distinguished-looking man with raised white collar and dark jacket. He looks out at viewer with level, neutral gaze, possibly appraising. "ENB after sargent" written in awkward gray paint at lower right. Source image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sargent,_John_SInger_(1856-1925)_-_Self-Portrait_1907_b.jpg My study of Robert Henri's "Tam Gam" painted in 1914. Chinese girl of about 14 in traditional cross-collar blouse or robe, pale blue fastened with button below right shoulder. Her black hair is pinned up, attractively wispy/bushy with longer wisps falling around her ears outside small gold earrings with white drop pendants. She has a slightly shy, pleasant but reserved expression and faint smile. Reproductions of this painting vary wildly in intensity; I chose the one in the museum housing it as my main model for color: https://buffaloakg.org/artworks/19152-tam-gan See this short article on Henri preferring to paint "my people," indigenous and immigrant communities being harassed and discriminated against by the state: https://art-for-a-change.com/blog/2015/05/robert-henri%E2%80%99s-california.html my study of van Gogh's 1889 self porrtrait, hatless, sky blue with lots of swirlies. Reference image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/57669468@N00/2518277452
December 6, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
barnabyedwards.bsky.social
Still, at least everyone who watches the new Harry Potter TV series can feel reassured by the knowledge that every penny the show makes for JKR will be lovingly spent sending legal threats to every organisation on the planet until trans people are banned from existence.
December 6, 2025 at 1:06 PM
sepdet.bsky.social
#ArtAdventCalendar Day 4 I was recently importing images from an early 2000s photo library and found my old MYST journal — a labor of love back when I could still do this kind of thing by hand without arthritis barking at me. @cyan.com
Blank book filled with somewhat eccentric ink calligraphy, written as if it's the diary of the traveller who fell into the world of the old 1990s game of MYST. This and the following 3 pages are excerpts from the diary. The writing is occasionally interrupted by simple ink and colored pencil drawings of locations in the game: a wooden dock next to a green bank with some sort of building above so the left and stairs mounting a craggy hill in the distance, a rather retro finned rocketship lying on its side on a raised platform jutting out from a cliff overlooking an ocean, an odd umbrella-shielded contraption in a flooded area of pointed rocks, and a treehouse with a plank bridge leading towards it.
December 5, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
elizabethkennen.bsky.social
#ArtAdventCalendar day 3 🎨 Harbor Seals at Hopkins Beach
My watercolor painting is inspired by walks along the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail. Always nice to see the harbor seals of Pacific Grove.
#art #watercolor #nature #Monterey #California #coast

1-elizabeth-kennen.pixels.com
Watercolor painting of harbor seals resting on a beach. Group of seals on the shore with sand and seaweed. Blue/green water, rocks, cliff and trees.
December 3, 2025 at 5:40 PM
sepdet.bsky.social
😂
sciencesocks.bsky.social Daniel | ScienceSocks et al. @sciencesocks.bsky.social · 5d
Today is the last day to order my #puzzles, so I'm sharing this monstrocity again 🤣

Yip yipp yippp!

Pillars of Googly Eyes available as 1000-piece puzzle 🧩

🔗 sciencesocks.co/pages/puzzle...

🔭🐡🧪🎨 #ArtAdventCalendar
Pillars of Creation but with googly eyes and printed on a 1000-piece puzzle. Don't ask.
December 4, 2025 at 2:31 AM
sepdet.bsky.social
#ArtAdventCalendar 3 - Procreate portrait of the late, great Pumpkin at his floofiest. (2005-2024) I certainly seem to have drawn a lot of cats this year.
Digital drawing of orange cat probably sitting in sphinx position, but he's almost pear-shaped with just the white toes of paws extending out from his lion's mane, which is heaped up on his shoulders, then his back slopes gently up to a mass of ripply orange-and-rust fur flecked with scattered tan and white fur. His head and large ears are up and alert, framed by his fur ruff of a mane, his white whiskers wide, and he has gorgeous mint-green eyes, about the same color as the background.
December 4, 2025 at 1:23 AM
sepdet.bsky.social
@philplait.bsky.social Cold call from someone who hasn't said much in a decade (hi!), but What If?
— What are the chances there's still some loose chunks of Theia out there? Could they be on Mars? What are the chances we could find one?
December 3, 2025 at 11:40 AM
sepdet.bsky.social
#ArtAdventCalendar 2 - Happy Luna, from a photo shortly after I adopted her, a year after prev #drawing - 2 hours experimenting with new Procreate brushes (and a few of MattyB's old Flora brushes when I ran out of time)
scratchy digital portrait of fluffy black and white tuxedo cat standing on haunches looking up with pleased expression, 3/4 view. Green eyes, head tilted and chin raised, sketchy dirt and a few plants and purple flowers beside and in front of cat, streaky wooden wall behind.
December 3, 2025 at 8:34 AM
sepdet.bsky.social
I wonder if I have enough for this year's #ArtAdventCalendar ?

Stopping by with a doodle of Luna as a 4mo kitten based on a blurry shelter photo of her (see link) that I SAW only AFTER I adopted her & mom a year later. Poor little mump— she's much happier now!

www.petfinder.com/cat/mimi-and...
Ipad doodle of a droopy black and white kitten. She sits on her haunches looking pensively over her shoulder towards viewer; most of her back forms a black plump triangle like a tent, with sparse white hairs sticking out and a white neck, chest, and rump. She has large sad green eyes, a pink nose, a black mask and ears with a white blaze over her nose, wispy white whiskers (including huge eyebrow-feelers), and tufts of fur hanging out of her sideways ears. A long scraggly black tail with a white bushy tuft on the end trails on the ground behind her.
December 2, 2025 at 7:59 AM
sepdet.bsky.social
Earlier I started to post my #drawtober art, but got embarrassed seeing other folks' #originalart
However I just remembered amateur is still better than AI
Anyway happy #artober here are my 20 minute doodles using "the nearest items I can grab that don't meow" & chat's prompt pics that inspired them
Colored pencil sketch of a vaguely egg-shaped critter grasping the straight foreleg of unknown animal in its teeth like a dog with a bone. text from above with line indicating speech says "Bad Gob, drop it!" Gob is brown and tan and furry with a cream colored tummy, a vaguely monkeylike face with beady black eyes, two haunches tucked against the sides of its body like the hindlimbs of a squirrel standing up, a short ratlike tail with a tassle of pinkish-purple fur on the end and a similar tuft of fur on its scalp. If you know 80s toys, it looks like a cross between a Troll (the kind with a colorful tuft of hair on its scalp) and a weeble wobble) Loose sketch of a flustered looking owl in gold, metallic marker and sharpie sandy egg-shaped paperweight bisected by a fingerlike darker rock photograph of irritated long-eared owl posted by owlsintowels.org
October 3, 2025 at 11:11 PM
sepdet.bsky.social
So, what's up: I was finally ready for another #catadoption . Chosen by TINY lovebug snowshoe siamese, Mimi, unaccountably at shelter 3 years. Came with 1.5 yo kitten who'd grown up in cage w/mum. Luna needed a LOT of socializing but has gone from hiss & hide to "pet me!" Papa supposedly Maine Coon!
Cat photo: small caramel and chocolate colored siamese cat with white underbelly, legs and muzzle, some chocolate blotches on nose and legs. Extremely long-legged black and white kitten, 3-4 months old, crawling over her back. Same 2 cats a year later: mimi sitting on haunches; blue eyes. Cat toy at feel looks like sushi. Luna now bigger than Mom looking much more relaxed with green eyes. Green eyed cat with black fur over ears and eyes, white lower half of face peeping out from under bed warily. medium haired fluffy black and white cat with sweet expression and white-tipped black tail curled over bare leg of photographer against whom she is snuggled in bed.
October 3, 2025 at 5:25 PM
sepdet.bsky.social
I return with trepidation and am immediately hit with so much news of despair that my fibromyalgic self is flattened. It's not that I bury my head in the sand — I donate, I call reps — but there is so MUCH it's overwhelming, and I haven't learned to filter bsky.
October 3, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
erinbiba.bsky.social
This sounds wacky but it is backed up by science.
rahaeli.bsky.social rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · Sep 10
3. If you see content that disturbs you, immediately (or as fast as possible) go and play 20-30 minutes of Tetris (or any other fast-paced game with your eyes sweeping over the visual field that has caused visual artifacts to linger when you close your eyes for you in the past).
September 10, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
erinbiba.bsky.social
For real! It’s pretty fascinating.
September 10, 2025 at 9:26 PM
sepdet.bsky.social
I have a suggestion for how to #fightfascism which might be called #WhiteboardWarriors in honor of @katieporteroc.bsky.social — since a big problem is uninformed supporters of 😡, protestors meet his goons with placards of infographics, news headlines, facts & quotes which FOX & he don't want shown:
September 1, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Ellen Bryn
goldenlassogirl.bsky.social
Friends! Anyone in SoCal looking for a sweet little golden floof to join their family? This little one is super sweet and is living outside my friends house. They are caring for him, but can’t officially adopt since they have two large dogs that aren’t cat-friendly. Let me know!
estelofimladris.bsky.social Cai K 𓄿 𝖈𝖔𝖜𝖇𝖔𝖞 𝖈𝖔𝖗𝖛𝖎𝖉.𝖞𝖊𝖊𝖈𝖆𝖜. @estelofimladris.bsky.social · Jul 28
hey LA folks, anyone looking to adopt a cute little cat?

he's safe and cared for for now, but needs a forever home! I'm helping a friend find a place for this little guy to go be loved forever!

[moots message me for details. others, please comment below and I'll reach out if it seems apropriate.]
a picture of an orange kitten with large pointy ears and big green eyes.
July 29, 2025 at 7:31 PM