An art and book shop

Posted on March 12, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Art supplies, Biography, Books, Canvas, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1872, Drawing, Life, Paints, Sci fi, Science, shopping spree, SketchingLeave a comment

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

Down to the Arts and Book shop. I’d buy lots of acrylic paints, some watercolours, gouache, oil paints, felt pens, pastels, charcoal, conte crayons, pencils. Then I’d get canvases, large and small in white and black. Cartridge paper, watercolour paper, sketch pads. Glitter, metallic paper, ink, lino to cut for printing.

Science and technology books, sci-fi books, novels, biographies, autobiographical books, historic books, books about galleries, about the renaissance, about astronomy.

Then I would donate half of it to a local school or college, because I would not have space for it all, or time to use it.

Where have I been?

Posted on May 6, 2022May 8, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Exhibition, Fine Art, hanging, life Whitfield Centre, Painting, sale, Work2 Comments

Getting ready for the exhibition tomorrow. Painting, adding wires to the back of the paintings. Retouching edges of canvases where I missed bits of paint (painting edges is called ‘gallery wrapping’).

The exhibition and sale is only for one day so I want to make it as good as I can. I have other small paintings to take plus cards and jewellery. I hope I actually sell something.

Exhibition time

Posted on May 2, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Crafts, Drawings, Exhibition, Fine Art, Jewellery, Landscape, Painting, Portrait, Watercolours5 Comments

This Saturday, around eight artists will be exhibiting at the Whitfield Community Centre, Whitfield Avenue, Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire. Eleven till Four.

It should be good. Crafts and jewellery as well as paintings and drawings will be for sale. It will be interesting to see how many people come out. Hope the weather is fine. I will be wearing a mask, hope no one minds!

Willow pattern painting

Posted on January 30, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Acrylics, Art, Ceramics, Design, Fine Art, Painting, platter, Spode, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

I painted this a few years ago. It’s an octagonal platter shape. I used a few images of willow pattern plates and amalgamated them. It’s mostly based on a Spode style of pattern. The edge design was made up by myself. The painting is meant to look like the platter is leant up against a background. That’s why I added shadows and played with adding a reflection below it. I can’t remember what else I added to it. I did a series of paintings of ceramic objects, there was also a jug and a teapot and a large vase painting. It was good to imagine pottery from my adopted home of Stoke-on-Trent.

Who’s it going to be?

Posted on May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic sketch, Acrylics, Art, female favce, Fun, Mystery Plays, who is it?, Work in progress2 Comments

I’m doing a painting on line, live, next week. I offered to do it for our mystery plays virtual performance next week. Its only going to have a small audience because we can’t have a big group on zoom. I’ve been watching Bob Ross programmes and I’ve always done paintings quickly but I think I’ve bit off more than I can chew!

Anyway I’m going to have just over an hour to get this finished, and better still they want me to start from scratch and if it’s OK they will raffle it off… Wish me luck!

Empty paint mug

Posted on October 20, 2020October 20, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Begin again, Learning, New start, Paint, Paint mug, Thinking, Water, Water mug, WatercolourLeave a comment

I use the same glass mug as a water container when I’m painting acrylics or watercolour and I just decided to empty and clean it. Not before time by the look of it! I don’t know when I will be using it again, hope it won’t be too long. I need to shake off my down feelings, try and realise I can do things, get past some of my worries. I don’t have to do everything, just make a start….

Painting scenery

Posted on September 3, 2020September 3, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Bottle ovens, Emulsion, Flat scenery, Hardboard, Life, Penkhull, Penkhull mystery play, Picture, Random, Scenery, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-TrentLeave a comment

I just chose a random photo from my gallery. It’s a scenery flat for the mystery plays a few years ago. When you are painting on a board eight foot by four foot you don’t need a lot of detail. But I love these iconic bottle ovens, so of course I decided to paint every brick. Plus it means I can give a bit of perspective rather than leaving it flat looking. I also hate when I see scenery and the perspective is wrong. I have seen some that are really weird. It’s distracting (for me anyway). I can spend more time on looking at scenery than at a performance.

A lot of scenery I’ve done for the Mystery plays was painted very quickly. When we have prepared and rehearsed for them the time we can have to use the hall we work in is limited so that we don’t have to spend too much money.

I don’t know what will happen next year? Will there be another one? I don’t know. For me by next summer it could be a real boost to have it on again.

Brushes (new)

Posted on March 14, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Brushes, Glazes, Nylon, Oils, Painting, Paints, Tempera, WatercolourLeave a comment

_20200314_231746

Just got some new brushes, they usually cost a lot, but these were not expensive. They are value brushes, £3.99 each pack. I bought one lot of smallish round headed brushes and one pack of flat ones. That’s eight brushes (nylon) at about £1 each.

Apart from these I must have about twenty or thirty old brushes. I must go through them, maybe throw a few away. But they are like old friends, I use them till all of the bristles have worn away!

Using different shapes gives you different mark making. Round, pointed ones can describe the shapes of petals or leaves. Flat, chisel shaped ones can be used for painting things like bricks, or to fill in larger areas.

These brushes are ‘golden taklon’ by Royal Langnickel. I like them because they are nylon so the bristles last longer and don’t tend to snap or fall out. Also they have rubber grips so they are non slip and easier to handle. They can be used for acrylics, watercolours, oils, temperas and glazes.

I got these from a craft shop in a local garden centre.

Child’s mural

Posted on February 13, 2020February 13, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on walls, Acrylics, Art, Blogging, Cartoon characters, Fun, Life, Murals, VarnishLeave a comment

FB_IMG_1581620688148

I did this mural of Mr Incredible about nine or ten years ago for someone’s son. The paint is acrylic because it’s easy to apply and dries within hours. I think it’s also quite stable. I used clear matt varnish over it and left about a centimeter margin of varnish all around the figure so the paint would not lift off. I’ve recently done a new mural for the family in their new house. I found out recently that my original murals (there were three others, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman) were painted over. Sad I know, but at least I gave some fun to the family while they were there.

Muraling along

Posted on December 6, 2019December 6, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Geese, Mural, Painting, Reeds, Walls2 Comments

Six hours painting today, including about four standing on a set of steps. As a short and a bit wobbly person I have to be careful not to step backwards and fall over.

I am really tired now, I’ve got to go back and finish it off and varnish it next week. I might get a rest tomorrow, I’ll see how I feel.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Acrylics