New paintings and regular art updates.
Arthur was one of my tutors at college. He went to Burslem School of Art to train in painting. I did this portrait mural of him and one of his paintings at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem in the back room. I think that was over ten years ago now. Unfortunately it was lost in the fire in 2022.
It’s emulsion paint, painted directly onto the wall, so when people ask me if the paintings were rescued I have to tell them no.
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.
It’s Easter and my sister just asked me if I have had an easter egg as a treat. I haven’t, I had a rice crispy easter cake with a couple of mini eggs on it. I’m trying to lose weight and improve my diet.
But high percentage chocolate is supposed to be good for you so I sometimes buy 85 % dark chocolate. I recently found out that it’s good for your magnesium levels. I will only eat one square a day so I don’t increase my sugar levels.
I try and buy fair trade chocolate to make sure the cocoa farmers get a fair price for their crops, but I really ought to research it more to check this is correct.
Writing is hard sometimes
Thinking of things to say
When I’m exhausted
Thoughts stray
Are unkempt like my hair
Struggling to make sense
Of my course through life.
I’m writing in a book too
Fighting with prompts
Trying to decide
What to say and do.
Traditional hot cross buns, soft sweet fruited buns marked with a cross. Eaten generally at Easter to commemorate Jesus dying on the cross. I like the normal ones but they have started coming up with chocolate ones, or even ones with a creme egg in the middle. I’ve also heard of ones with cheddar cheese! Might as well have a cheese scone.
I don’t remember taking this photo. I think it might be from a free photo library. It’s in my media files. Anyway I just want to start planting up my pots with lovely flowers like this. Ideally I’d like a friend to be here to keep an eye on me and perhaps help with heavier pots. I love creating a colourful garden in the yard for the summer. Fingers crossed I can still do it.
From 2017. Quite eccentric ideas for cards and Stoke-on-Trent that I was playing with. We are known as the potteries because that’s what is mainly manufactured here. I had a bit of a play with scale. Sorry they are not good photos. My odd humour.
Sketch of the Leopard Hotel in Burslem that was destroyed by fire in 2022. I just found this on my phone. I’d done several murals in the back room and was devastated when this happened. The pub was empty and it had been broken into. The wiring was tampered with.
There are some ideas to rebuild part of it using the historic frontage to keep it’s architectural authenticity. I hope it happens. #bandofsketchers drawing in felt pens.
I was sitting in the library and looked out the window. I noticed the trees were still bare. Then I saw the shape of the canopy over the front door. It suddenly looked like a rabbits head. The letter Y at the end of library looks like a rabbits ears. I thought back to making shadow puppets on the wall, it’s so strange, a bit of Pareidolia?
What place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?
I know it’s an awful thing to say, because as with all countries there are good and bad people in all of them. It’s not so much the population as the behaviour of some of them that I find so frightening. Just writing this on social media could see me detained and deported because it could be read as criticism.
But I am afraid of flying, and there have been too many crashes lately. My health is poor, and I could not afford the exorbitant costs of the treatment I might need.
I also would not be comfortable in a country that is so happy to allow it’s population to freely carry guns. When I read of the school shootings that happen on an almost weekly basis I cry inside for the loss of the children.
More fears grip me, the lack of safety because vaccination is not encouraged. The levels of measles and bird flu are increasing, but you cannot find out what is happening because many government websites have been deleted or distorted to remove useful information. How can this continue?
No, I don’t think I would dare to visit. It’s strange and threatening to outsiders. It’s not for me, sorry.
Lighting detail on the ceiling of Hanley Library, Stoke-on-Trent. I love the design. We were singing “this little light of mine” at a monthly choir practice and it really chimed that the image went so well with the music. It’s as if the sun is encouraging people to read and to use the library to enjoy all sorts of experiences.
Mallaband-Brown