Previous spirals

Just found an old digital drawing I turned into a pattern.

I can’t remember when I did this but it’s certainly a few years ago. I do love spirals….

Fireworks, galaxies, water spinning in a plughole, staircases, tornadoes, cloud formations, patterns in art. Its a, recurring theme in my art and I also love celtic patterns and art nouveau designs….

What is this?

Acrylic on canvas I painted today. I wanted to paint a bold abstract which doesn’t have a name and I spoke to a fellow artist to ask what she thought. I almost called it Migraine!

She put her art therapy head on and felt it could represent emotions wanting to escape, perhaps bottled up anger. Certainly it looks a bit like a Catherine wheel. I think the outer part looks like flames. It’s not calm. It’s expressive, but also chaotic. Felt good to paint it. X

Carving?

This is a stone carving I think? It’s on a building in Newcastle under Lyme. The building, a shop, has closed and other buildings around it are partially demolished. I hope this carving will be recovered and reused, maybe it will go to a reclamation yard? I think it’s probably an art nouveau design.  I hope the business that was there is successful in its new home (there wee signs saying it had moved elsewhere.

An Artist

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Celtic Cat

I must have been about five when I realised I wanted to do art. I would make patterns on graph paper, draw and doodle and sketch. I know my mother started to collect some of my drawings. As I got older I put them on my walls. I even strung them across my bedroom held on by pegs because I didn’t have enough wall space.

When I was in my teens one of my paintings was sent to our twin town in Germany to be exhibited. My headmistress was given a drawing I did of my fellow pupils as a leaving present and I knew I wanted to be an artist as I told my careers teacher, not a nurse as she tried to persuade me. On to Art school to do a degree, and even 40 years later an MA in illustration. Now. I’m struggling. But iooking at different methods and skills. I’m not giving up!

Can you see the wire cat?

It’s a wire cat my friend made, she’s done fairys and birds and squirrels. But now she’s gone onto making cats. I really like this, it’s about 12 inches tall and 9 inches wide. I’ve got it on my windowsill along with a collection of ornaments and a couple of plants (which I keep forgetting to water). I think its well modelled and quite cute. She certainly put a lot of work into it.

Finished planting pocket

This is the planting pocket I made at BArts pottery project a few weeks ago. It was made with rolled out terracotta clay and coloured with bright slip. I used plants to impress patterns into it’s surface. It looked OK, but the colours intensified during firing. I think they are almost too bright. I hope when it has soil and a plant in it, it will  look nicer. X

Sketch time

Reading out

Writing group today, I sat and sketched a couple of the group. Most of the stories and poems are autobiographical, I want to be more fictional. The woman writer was very atmospheric, giving a feeling of ‘place’. Using unusual descriptions to evoke childhood and adult memories of being drawn  back to the sea. My poem about love was well received. I’ll keep going.