Category: Fine Art

Painting

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What is your favorite hobby or pastime?

This was a painting I did a few years ago, it’s of the upper story of Cheddleton Station, in Staffordshire, England.

I still love painting, but my health is affecting what I can do at the moment, I really want to do more. And somehow the anxiety over it is making me struggle to start. Because I’m worried whether I will be able to do a good enough job. I know I’ve been doing a lot of digital art, but it doesn’t have the same quality to me as actually painting.

I’ve spent years being an artist and I don’t want to stop. I admit some of my work isn’t as good as I’d like, I paint fast and rely on my skill to pull things into shape. I’ve certainly put in the hours to get to a good standard. But I wish I could go back in time and make better decisions about my art.

I haven’t stopped, but I might not do as much as I used to, I’m just hoping the physiotherapy I’m due to start will help.

Artist, illustrator, singer

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List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.

Basically I would work for free if money wasn’t an object. I’m not bothered about sales, it’s the joy of getting my hands on paint, paper, canvas or pen and ink.

If I wasn’t creating art I would join a choir that travelled round and just did spontaneous performances of cool songs. Simply to make people feel better. I would do it without pay, just for the pleasure of entertaining people.

All I would need is enough money for food and shelter. Certainly I would try and share with other artists if money were no object. I would set up a small gallery near the coast and talk to people who visited it, but not as a salesperson, but to discuss art and creativity. I don’t enjoy selling, I’m an artist, not a seller. X

Clematis and Canal roses

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Clematis and canal roses with bottle oven

Every so often I paint one of the iconic bottle ovens from Stoke-on-Trent. These were where pottery was originally fired with coal fires. The city would be covered by a pall of thick smoke, morning noon and night.

They sometimes had metal bands wrapped round them to strengthen them, and the old bricks can shine like gold when there is a lovely sunrise or set. Arthur Berry, famous artist of Stoke-on-Trent used to speak about the beauty of the potteries towns. He painted and drew abstracted views of the six towns. He’s known as the potteries Lowry.

This painting is of a derelict oven, I’ve painted clematis growing up it, rewinding the ancient landscape. The blue area represents the local canals, it’s shape mirrors the bottle oven. The flowers in it represent the abstract canal roses that are found adorning canal barges throughout Britain.

Robin Hoods Bay

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A painting I did in situ in a house in Robin Hoods Bay in Yorkshire about 7 years ago. We were away on holiday and we’re impressed by the house which had it’s living room at the top of the building to give views of the cottage rooves and the sparkling sea in the distance. Sometimes I want to visit there again. .

Yin yang cats

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My attempt at wax resist printing that I did with the brilliant Belinda Latimer a few years ago. I enjoyed trying to do Batik in her workshop, creating layers of colour. I also did a print of a couple of fish that I called Pisces had framed in a deep wooden frame. Another example of my experimental art practice.

Art

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What could you do more of?

Old digital mouse drawing

I have been ill and down for a while and I need to start feeling better and reclaim doing some real art. Yes I can work on my small phone screen and create small pieces of digital art, and yes, over the years I have done a lot. But I begin to need to paint again. It must be a good sign? I’ve got to stop being frightened of creating, fear of failure is holding me back. Will I ever get through being blocked? At least now I can admit I want to.

Overcast seaside

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Another painting of the Devon coastline. This is an old photo and I don’t know if I painted it in dark tones or if it was taken in a dark area. The headland in the distance gives you an idea of Devons rolling hills. It’s similar in Cornwall, hills that are rounded, climbing up to the moors. Dartmoor and Exmoor being two of them. Also in the foreground you can see golden sands surrounded by the dark jagged rocks that you see at many of the coves in the two counties. I hope I can visit again soon.

Making fused glass

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Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.

A few years ago I met a fused glass artist who showed me how to work with glass to create jewellery, bowls and other hand made craft pieces. A friend of mine helped mount the glass with wire weaving.

I wish I had learnt more about it so I could experiment more with glass. This piece was made with dichroic glass which gives it a metallic sheen. I made it into a pendant.

The trouble is that I can’t afford my own kiln so I’m limited in making things at workshops. The original glass artist moved away and it took a while to find another one, I’ve been to a couple of workshops with her and really enjoyed it.

I’m interested in doing other crafts too, like ceramics, but again there is a lot of cost involved. But I am a bit of a jack of all trades (master of none?)

I could have chosen a much more important subject to show how I have learnt from experience, but I’m not in the mood to consider a serious subject today.