New paintings and regular art updates.
One of our local museums, the Brampton, in Newcastle under Lyme, is letting the Orme Art Group exhibit work in their entrance window from the end of January for two months. It’s a chance to sell work or at least get our work in front of a new audience. We each can show one work plus some smaller pieces. Plus it gets a painting out of the house for a while. I hope the display does well.
Time blurs everything. Thirty years ago I was doing a course at college and for a while I rented a small studio with two other artists. But it didnt work out. One of them was collecting egg boxes to try and insulate the walls as the place was freezing in the winter but also to try and deaden the noise of rock music one of the artists used to like playing. The windows had arched wooden frames that were quite architectural but they were single glazed. I only painted a few things but when I was there and the music was on it would drive me mad. Unfortunately I could only use the place in the evenings and that coincided with the rock sessions. So I gave it up in the end. Now I’m looking at leaving my current studio. It’s too expensive to carry on renting. If it is the choice between paying rent for it or paying the fuel bills I have to make the sensible choice.
What colleges have you attended?
Most of my studies were arts based. But I genuinely think that having an art degree helped me with understanding the imaging techniques of Radiography. I only just passed that course though because I wasn’t very good at Physics.
Life might have been different if I had persued a career as a radiographer. I was very good at positioning patients and producing accurate images. But I got into trouble once because I took an xray of someone and the lecturer said it would be impossible to take it without moving the patient. BUT I had used a very mobile xray machine that you could position at any angle or height. I got the supervising Radiographer to confirm I had done it correctly. Even so I was marked down and given a minimum pass mark for the film. That’s when I fell out of love with that particular course.
Safe place
Staying home
Don’t want to go out
Into the world
This is my cocoon
Wrapped round me
His presence
His garden
My solace
Seeking salvation
My sanctuary.
Who are the biggest influences in your life?
Of all the influences on my life various artists stand out as the main contenders. These include in no particular order:
Michaelangelo, Leonardo Davinci, Berthe Morissette,the French Impressionists a lot of the surrealist movement, David Hockney, Maggie Hambling, and so many more.
I don’t paint in any of their manners, some of their techniques are totally beyond me. But I do feel excited by their work.
Colours, patterns, shapes, the way they deal with light and shade. Perception, composition, knowledge, understanding. Looking and learning. Painting is a wonderful skill, I wish more people practiced it.
I cannot say that
I used coloured overlays and an added image of the previous collaged photo on top of this. I like the complexity and that the Christmas tree looks a bit like an insects head.
When I get fed up I like to play with images, creating something new, learning, and keeping myself occupied.
I used the incollage app and photodirector to create this.
Over several months a friend has been collecting some of my smaller paintings. She sent me this photo of them yesterday and it struck me how varied they are!
The galleon painting has gold paint on it to give a feeling of the sunlight reflecting back up onto the reverse of the sails.
The small painting of the woman in the woods was taken from a photo from a friend, I loved the atmospheric feeling of it and tried to evoke the colours of autumn.
The dragon is based on an image that I had created for my college piece on the mythology of dragons. I had drawn and designed a children’s book and this was one of the ideas I used for it.
I’m so pleased my art is being appreciated, I love being creative and it keeps me going. X
Somewhere between here and there.
You’ve gone.
Lost in the space between dreams.
Departed, like the ghost of Christmas present.
Full of fun and grumpy too.
Never a dull moment with you.
Life will be so lonely.
Do you know how many hearts you have touched?
If I could hold your hand one more time.
Kiss your lips, say goodbye.
My one and only man.
My green man…..
What is one thing you would change about yourself?
My eyes are going fuzzy round the edges… My central vision is OK. I’m allowed to drive but I’m wearing sunglasses at night when I drive because it limits the glare from other cars headlights. My optician is monitoring them as eventually I should be able to have an operation to remove them. It’s making fine details difficult to see and it’s getting very frustrating.
Just finished a small selection of paintings. Trying to tire myself out before bed. I know I need to sleep, but can I?
Mallaband-Brown