Retrospective

I’m holding a retrospective of my art at Spode studios next week. It’s because I am leaving the studios after 7 years this April. I have enjoyed my time there but circumstances mean that I cannot continue there.

The retrospective will run from Monday 4th March 2024 to Friday 8th March. There will be a closing viewing of the exhibition on Friday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Most of the works will be for sale. Please join me if you can at Spode Studios, Spode Site, Elanora street, Stoke upon Trent.

Bench painting wip

Started this acrylic on canvas today. It’s from a photo of Westport Lake I took at the weekend, it’s about 9 inches by 6. Or maybe a bit bigger? I want to do more to the trees and undergrowth. I’ve got some metallic bronze to give a watery reflective effect. I like the empty bench, it feels lonely and reflective.

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.

6 years ago, teapot

I painted this teapot six years ago when I first moved into my studio at Spode. This is a medium sized acrylic on canvas. It’s from my imagination, and the flower design is based on the pattern ‘calico’ by the Burleigh pottery. I think its based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. I made the wooden panels up from my memory. I still have this painting at my studio at Spode.

What? Willow pattern platter.

A few years ago I painted a picture of the willow pattern on an imaginary platter. I used two seperate images of a willow pattern plate and amalgamated them into one. The willow pattern has several iconic aspects. A pine tree, willow tree, three people crossing a bridge, temples, boats, love birds. I’m sure they will have explanations of what they stand for. I really enjoyed creating this. X

Opportunity

One of our local museums, the Brampton, in Newcastle under Lyme, is letting the Orme Art Group exhibit work in their entrance window from the end of January for two months. It’s a chance to sell work or at least get our work in front of a new audience. We each can show one work plus some smaller pieces. Plus it gets a painting out of the house for a while. I hope the display does well.

Paintings for a friend

Over several months a friend has been collecting some of my smaller paintings. She sent me this photo of them yesterday and it struck me how varied they are!

The galleon painting has gold paint on it to give a feeling of the sunlight reflecting back up onto the reverse of the sails.

The small painting of the woman in the woods was taken from a photo from a friend, I loved the atmospheric feeling of it and tried to evoke the colours of autumn.

The dragon is based on an image that I had created for my college piece on the mythology of dragons. I had drawn and designed a children’s book and this was one of the ideas I used for it.

I’m so pleased my art is being appreciated, I love being creative and it keeps me going. X

Quick fox

Work in progress

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog…..

A statement that contains all the letters of the alphabet and also was used to improve typing skills I think?

This is a tiny miniature, it needs more detail, less splodges. I will try and get more of a furry look to it. I might add a bit of blue to the snowy background so that it looks more realistic. Only 6 more to paint!