New paintings and regular art updates.
Painted in 1991? that was when I flirted with getting my first studio, but one of the three people sharing it enjoyed playing loud music too much. Eventually it drove me out. I just wanted to paint in quiet and peace.
The cat was one of the first cats I had when I came to live in Stoke on Trent. She was extremely intelligent and followed me everywhere or rode on my shoulder. I was in my early thirties when I painted this. It was acrylic on canvas. Called familiar friends.
Leaves Fall in Autumn
Flowers spring up in Spring
Summer sums the year up
Winter does what? Wint?
Seasons they are all….
Never know what words mean
They are only sounds,
What is the word Autumn
Two syllables round.
It’s more interesting to say
Than a bland word like fall.
A remnant of history
That our ancient world recalls.
My friend Eve let me used a black and white photo of a horse as the basis of this acrylic on canvas titled “Red Horse”. I had thought of doing a blue or green version too, but I think this works best. He’s certainly a character. On display at the Etruria Industrial museum in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. I think he could be one of the horses that used to haul barges along the Trent and Mersey canal.
Molly, a portrait of a woman called Molly Leigh who may have been a witch, she lived in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. It’s the second painting I’m putting in the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme. It’s another acrylic on canvas. Included in the front window of the museum with the Orme Art Group Exhibition.
It will be for sale. I need to let my paintings go to new homes. I want them to go where they are appreciated and will be seen. I realise that as I get older I am holding on to a lot of things that could be better elsewhere. I don’t want an empty space but I’m running out of wall space.
A strange little window at Spode Works. It’s the only one I’ve seen on the site. I love the way the bricks are built in a circle. A little porthole in the side of an old factory in Stoke on Trent. I love quirky things.
This is an acrylic on canvas. Our Orme Art Group is having a small exhibition in front window of the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire. This is one of two paintings I’m exhibiting. It’s on from next week I think. I might not be able to get along to it as I’m having another cataract operation in a few weeks.
Bad photo of my old cat jumping before we moved house. It’s blurry with my camera shaking Parkinsons hands.
I used to walk around with her purring, draped round my shoulders. She would follow me everywhere. Once when I walked into a friend’s bungalow via the back door she sat by the door for ages, I’d come out of the front door and my friend had found her waiting for me!
She would jump across from one gatepost to the other when I tapped the wall. I got several photos of her doing this and used them as the reference for the painting. I actually won a small prize in a local exhibition for this painting.
Us together. portrait of hubby 2017, me self portrait 2020. The small portrait is also him a few years ago. Acrylic on canvas. I always intended them to hang together, just decided it was time.
Top painting by Theodore Gericault of a French peasant woman. I used it to base my picture on. The bottom painting is my portrait of Molly Leigh. I know mine is a bit rough round the edges, but I wanted her to look wise with a glint in her eye. I hope now I’m getting my sight sorted out things will improve. I will try and keep posting here but I may have to be careful how much I do.
My portrait of Molly Leigh the Burslem Witch. Painted after my mural of her at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem burnt down a couple of years ago. Acrylic on canvas.
It was used as a prop in the Who is Molly Leigh? opera that was on last week. I was so proud and excited to be able to display it in public. I like creating narrative pieces of art as well as portrait so of people which I would say is my speciality. I’d like to poss create further portraits of Stoke-on-Trent famous people… Just a thought.
It looks like its been baked in a bread loaf tin. This is a copy of one of those paintings that they did in olden times to emphasise how much wool the sheep could grow I think. There are definite exaggerations in its size. And a small head and legs. It was fun to try and paint. As it is for a set in an opera it didn’t need to be totally accurate. Took about an hour to paint.
Mallaband-Brown