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.

Storm Isha

90 mile an hour winds, storm surges, trees uprooted. Storm Isha, the eighth named storm this winter, bought disruptive winds and rains across much of the UK yesterday and today. Planes that were going from England to Northern Ireland were diverted to France after being unable to land in Ireland. Only to be refuelled and travelling back to Ireland again. One flight due to take 45 minutes took 9 hours including delays. Sea ferries, trains and cars have been delayed.

A few people have died. Trees have been blown over 48,000 homes lost power in Northern Ireland. Farmers fields continue to be flooded and winter wheat is dying in the sodden landscape.

And yet the British weather intrigues us. We are used to wild and wooly weather, just not this much of it!

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.