Blurry Summer Dream

My hubby in about 1982/83, sorry the photos blurry the cat is the same one as in the other painting. It’s propped against the wall and the computer is in the way. The title is Summer Dream. It’s oil on canvas. There are standing stones at the top and a female figure with long hair blowing in the wind, (meant to be me). It’s supposed to be set in the west country.

Another narrative painting.

Old oil painting

1980s large canvas. Painted in oils, it was only a few years later that I started using acrylics instead. It’s about 5 ft by 4 ft or something like that. It depicts our old front room, in the house we used to live in. The cellar underneath the front room was starting to collapse, its vaulted ceiling held up with an acroprop. Why was I painting a giant cat? Because I love them, and patterns (wallpaper, clothes etc). The small cat in the corner is playing with a roll of wool. The box says Walsall Art supplies, where I came from. I’d call this a narrative painting.

Cat finds warm place

It’s warm on top of the armchair, now my radiator is fixed. And the new chair has a flat area at the top so the cat can happily fit. In the background is part of a large painting I did in our old house. It’s oil on a huge canvas. Like a lot of my art I forget it’s there sometimes. The little cat in the corner was one of the first we had when I moved there.

Through the round window

Round window at Spode painted a couple of years, ago, the glass was held in a circular metal frame. I enjoyed trying to get a feeling of depth using deep shade, and perspective with the rows of bricks. I think they might be a bit exaggerated. I liked the way the concentric circles sink inwards and the shadows bend around the edges.

Umbrella mural

Umbrella mural I painted for the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in about 2006/7. Based on a design by Clarice Cliffe the Potter. The white line on the top left was a white ribbon hanging down that had been used to decorate the Arnold Bennett suite in the back room of the Leopard. About 3 x4 foot. Emulsion paint on lining paper which was glued directly on the wall. Sadly the hotel burnt down a couple of years ago and all my murals were lost.

Train time

Watercolour painting of the top half of Cheddleton Station near Leek in Staffordshire. I have travelled on the steam train from there several times with my hubby. Something I will really miss. He was a bit of a steam train fanatic and always had masses of information in his mind. He recognised the make and types of trains (and tractors and cars) he could tell the make of tractors by the colours they were painted. Old Fergus on tractors were grey ‘old grey Fergie’ he would say.

Here’s a link to their website:

https://www.churnetvalleyrailway.co.uk/

Old cat

Twelve years ago, another cat we took in as a stray. He wasn’t microchipped. He was going in a local shop and climbing on their shelves, they didn’t like it so we took him in…. He used to sit in the middle of the road waiting for me to come home. Sadly he was injured by a car and had to have an operation to save his leg. He recovered but a year later he was knocked over again. I was so sad to lose him. I think he was the silliest cat I ever met. I even used to draw cartoons of him having adventures. Climbing trees, balancing on fences, stealing steaks!