Quick sketch, crafty group, I wasn’t well so just did this. Pencil on cartridge paper. I think I still have my skill in drawing but Parkinsons makes it harder. I still hope to get better medication and reduce the dopamine breaking down in my brain. I love art and hate the way this disease is making me “stick”, or shaking uncontrollably.
I’m trying hard to keep going, I do not enjoy how things are. But I realise my life is a lot better than some peoples lives. I’m lucky to live in a country with a universal health service. My eternal gratitude goes to the NHS., without which I would be stuffed!
At the Beehive pub in Honeywall on Wednesday night. I don’t go very often to listen to the Boatband and their cajun and folk music. But it was the day before the 2nd anniversary of a very sad occasion and I wanted to take my mind off it.
The thing was someone had given me a pencil to make some notes with and I had some scraps of paper in my bag, so I decided to try and do some drawings. This was one of them.
I loved the sinuous shape of the violin and the way the musician held it and the bow, and I was transported back 40 years to my younger self drawing and sketching. I’m rather pleased with the result despite my shaking hands.
Painted in 1991? that was when I flirted with getting my first studio, but one of the three people sharing it enjoyed playing loud music too much. Eventually it drove me out. I just wanted to paint in quiet and peace.
The cat was one of the first cats I had when I came to live in Stoke on Trent. She was extremely intelligent and followed me everywhere or rode on my shoulder. I was in my early thirties when I painted this. It was acrylic on canvas. Called familiar friends.
Yesterday in Newcastle under Lyme for the Christmas lights opening. A large reindeer puppet strolled round the town centre. It’s movements steered by three puppeteers, directing it’s head downwards so that young children could stroke it’s nose. The head was lit up and you could see it’s eyes blink.
It was a lovely and beautiful sight. I think it was made by BArts.
Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
Arthur Berry was an artist, author, poet and playwright from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
One of Arthur’s portraits.
Arthur was also one of my tutors at college and I was really happy when he said my paintings had a bit of something about them. He always seemed to wear a flat cap and tweed jacket. He was a well built man but had a withered arm. His voice sometimes boomed with emotion and joy.
His art is distinctive, charcoal and pastels, oils, mixed media. Often called the Potteries Lowry, he depicted local people and the interior and exterior landscape of the industrial north Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent.
The works are semi abstract and strongly atmospheric. The portraits show emotions and feelings, aging couples kissing. The titles are often amusing.
Arthur wrote a series of intriguing plays, darkly comic. Set in old libraries or local pubs. They depict everyday life in the 6 towns of potteries, Grit, Grime and Clay. I saw several of them in the Victoria Theatre in Hartshill. This was replaced by the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme.
Arthur’s poems were funny and about his life and surroundings. His “ode to the oatcake” celebrating a local food delicacy which he once described as the potteries papadum
Our Orme group continues to meet and create new art.
We are holding our annual exhibition, with paintings, sculpture, jewellery and other art and crafts available. There will be festive refreshments available.
We have new artists who have joined this year so there will be different work amongst the art on display. If you are in the area of Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, on 23rd November 2025 why not come along?
My first drawing after my cateract operation. It was just a quick sketch, a drawing of a friend. I was really scared I wouldn’t be able to sketch, but there I was shading in with a pencil. I had forgotten the pleasure I get from being creative. Now I need to keep doing more!
My friend Eve let me used a black and white photo of a horse as the basis of this acrylic on canvas titled “Red Horse”. I had thought of doing a blue or green version too, but I think this works best. He’s certainly a character. On display at the Etruria Industrial museum in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. I think he could be one of the horses that used to haul barges along the Trent and Mersey canal.
Mallaband-Brown 