New paintings and regular art updates.
Images of a painting I did of the Willow pattern ceramic design a couple of years ago. The pattern is based on a few images that I saw online and copied, so it’s sort of a generic design. Many pottery companies had their own specific design. There are variations in the positioning of figures, placement of temples and types of vegetation. This was the British attempt to copy Chinese designs.
Apologies to Google for using their map? This is a new Art Centre with local artists work being displayed and for sale. I’m really pleased that I’ve got some of my paintings there.
Its Serendiparty Arts and Craft Centre in Campbell Place, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. Open 10am Wednesday to Sunday. The owner Phil, is very welcoming.
If you look for http://www.serendiparty.com you should be able to find it.
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I’ve got this four foot by five foot oil painting that I did in 1993 on the living room wall. It’s just behind where I sit, and sometimes I knock onto it, so I’m occasionally worried that the string it’s on will break and it will come crashing down!
Anyway, you can tell I love cats. The big one was on the front of a magazine if I remember. The small one in the corner, playing with the wool, was ours. We had her for about nineteen years. I just found the photos on my Facebook memories page. The figure is me and I’ve painted a baggy jumper I had. I love patterns and painted the wallpaper pattern. This was my studio before we moved to out current home.
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The exposure is not good on this, but this is one of my paintings from when I was at college
Painted in oils on wood, this has a poster about his band stuck to it and overpainted. Painted in 1981.
I can’t remember much about it, but I saw it today, it’s 39 years old!
One of the many slides I found last year of my art in the 1980s. I like playing with perspective and I used to do many more portraits than I get to do these days. Maybe selfies have taken over. But wouldn’t you want a special portrait with things that are significant to you included in it? I’m also good at amalgamating photos, so if there are three people each on a different photo who want to be together in an image I can do it – and I don’t need photo shop!
Get in touch, commissions welcomed.
Usually I don’t include artists statements because I think my art should be self explanatory. However as I was exhibiting a painting about what Spode means to me, I said that it was about how Spode is now, that I have only been there for a few years. I also said that I wanted to include the history of the buildings and what was going on outside the building and how exciting I had found the experience of painting it.
I think it made sense, it’s difficult to know how long to make it and how much information it required.
Sometimes a painting can need work. After a couple of months, and after already exhibiting “my green man” I decided to do more work on it. The canvas was a bit rough, so when you put paint on it, it didn’t spread evenly and it caught on the surface, leaving tiny little dots where the paint hadn’t stuck. That meant that it looked thin in places and the colour wasn’t strong enough so I have tried to improve the pattern of the leaves and the shading on the face. I’ve used some iridescent turquoise to give it the gleam of dampness. If I do another one I might try and paint frost and ice on it.
My latest exhibition is coming up next week. The opening is on 13.9.19 at 6.30pm. There will be wine and snacks (thats what you do at openings).
The Waiting room gallery is at Longport in Stoke-on-Trent. It’s a new gallery and art centre who are also working on Longport railway station and who are trying to restore the historic buildings there. You couldn’t meet a nicer group of people.
I’m very pleased to invite anyone who can come along to see the exhibition.
If you can’t make it I’ve also got paintings exhibited at the Brampton museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme from this weekend to the 10th of November and a painting at Acava Open Studios at Spode Site this weekend. The opening of the Spode show is on Saturday evening. So it’s busy busy busy!
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Sometimes it’s hard to see whether something looks right in a painting. Then I try turning it upside down. It really does give you a different perspective. In the case of the painting I’m doing it also allows me to get closer to the top of the picture as I’ve got it propped up on a chair.
Eyesight is another problem. If I’m staring at my phone looking at the image it’s hard for my eyes to accommodate (called presbyopia) where the lenses in your eyes get stiffer as you get older, so they don’t focus as well.
I’m now starting to paint the cracks in the window frame paint. I may come back to the clouds (thanks Martha, a bit of finger painting helped).
I’ve rotated the photo back to the vertical on my camera so I can look at it without moving the canvas. Eventually I will turn it back the right way so I can paint the bottom half. It’s going to take a while…..
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More work in progress photos. I’m struggling to get the clouds right. I need to try and get the detail and shading correct. Also when it’s finished the paintwork on the frames will be all crackled and flakey.
Looking closer, the greys are dark but not too dark, I may also bring a tiny bit of brown in and thin it down for the wood in the windows. Mostly it’s blending and shading to get a realistic effect.
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