Category: Fine Art

Spark plug machine

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Memory of a prop for the Penkhull Mystery Plays, I think this was a couple of years before covid?

The inventor of the spark plug, Oliver Lodge, lived in Penkhull and there are two local streets named after him, Oliver and Lodge Roads.

I can’t remember exactly what happened in the show but we had to try and make this pretend engine start with a starting handle and inserting a spark plug into the top of the engine.

I do think the prop and scenery people were fantastic. I got to paint some of it and make some of it but there was a great team of volunteers including making things from willow and papier mache, seamstress and stitches and making towers and buildings from bits of two by four and 8ft x 4ft flats of hardboard.

Hopefully the Mystery Plays will return in the summer of 2025.

Lands end

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I still like this old oil painting I did of lands end twenty or more years ago. I actually painted it from a postcard. Lands End is at the furthest west part of Cornwall which is in turn the furthest west county of England.

We tried to go to Lands End on day trip while on a holiday once, but we couldn’t afford the entrance fee (I have no idea how much it costs now). So we ended up going down into Sennen cove slightly North of it. That was lovely, we found a great gift shop that was seriously tempting.

I think we were stopping at St Ives for a week, and visited the Tate gallery there. We also drove round to Penzance which was on the southern coast. I wish I could remember more about it. That’s the trouble when you only go somewhere once, long ago, memory fades.

View from Cheddleton

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Watercolour I did several years ago at the end of Cheddleton Station platform looking towards (eventually) Froghall wharf.

In the other direction the train line extends half a mile or so before ending abruptly neat the Cheddleton to Leek main road. The train line itself used to continue to Leek before travelling on to Stoke-on-Trent.

The line is starting to be rebuilt towards Leek! It’s exciting news that has been long awaited.

To find out more look up the Churnet Valley railway on the Internet.

Found texture again

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I went back to an app I like because I had used it to texturise images in the past. I’d stopped using it (photodirector) because a lot of the options had changed and I couldn’t find the one that did this (adding wavy patterns to my original artwork). But I had another look and found what I wanted under “art style” I think. You then have varied options to alter the texture and colour. This was my favourite stye. The other thing is you can go back and put it through the same or another texturiser again. So pleased I found it.

Panto painting

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Before covid (bc) I painted a series of pictures of places the cast of the pantomime I was in travelled through to get to Gretna green in Scotland (they had no sense of direction). This was one of the destinations.

This popped up on my Facebook memories. Imagine 8 or 10 people walking along and each painting being moved across the stage behind them. It was fun.

Momento Mori

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A small painting I did about 7 years ago. My friend bought it from me at a craft fair. I don’t remember why I painted this subject, it might have been Halloween. I don’t know where the idea came from, but it feels likely that I was thinking of spooky stories. Its one of my small canvases from when I was doing more craft fairs. Just found in my memories on Facebook.

Sunset

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While I was at the group art exhibition yesterday I did some painting. One of them was this small oblong painting of an apple tree at sunset. This is a little work in progress. I’m trying not to muddy the colours. The sky needed to be light and fresh. More to do? More leaves, maybe a little better blending of the blues. Acrylic on canvas.

Autumn Puddle

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Autumn puddle, a rather strange painting I finished today. Acrylic on canvas.

I started by picking up some leaves and tried to paint them and get the colours right. It then got left while I was not feeling well so I decided to try and do more work on it. I think I’ve not done too badly. The leaves are now floating in a puddle reflecting a blue and white sky. Should I do more to it?