New paintings and regular art updates.
this was a papier mache hat that I painted with a willow pattern design for our Pantomime ‘Aladdin’ . It was used as part of widow twanky’s costume a few years ago. I have forgotten a lot of things I did. I guess there is more somewhere. This picture is from Facebook memories.
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this is the scenery I painted last year. Two eight by four boards attached together to make an eight foot square panel.
In some ways painting on calico is more difficult because of the way the paint sits on it. However at least I’m not struggling to line up the two sections. I do love doing this. It makes my year.
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My friend took these on Friday. I was busy painting a willow pattern background for the penkhull mystery play.
I’m hopefully finishing it next week. I’m about half way through so it should be done on time. It’s a painting on calico that had been primed with white emulsion so the paint does not go on easily and it’s a bit wrinkled where the emulsion has dried. Anyway I will persevere. Then I’m hopefully getting some new paintings done for a craft fair and an exhibition in September. It’s all go!
I like this word, kaleidoscopic, I can’t always spell it but it’s something I remember as a child’s toy. A tube you rotate and glass or plastic pieces fall in an enclosed end of the tube so that when you look through the eyepiece they change patterns. The inside of the rest of the tube has mirrors along the length of it so the image is split into sections like a sliced up pie.
It’s difficult to try and explain exactly how it works without taking one apart but you get beautiful patterns similar to the image above (this is just some patterned cloth).
I took these photos a couple of days ago outside the studios at Spode. Su Hurrell is an artist there and she works with urban garden planting. She works with other artists and uses objects like washing machines, old chairs, a chest of drawers and other objects.
Other places are being greened in the town centre. There is Spode Rise garden by the China Halls in Kingsway, Stoke, and then some wild planting along London Road and Hartshill and in Lonsdale Street.
I enjoy seeing these plants, it’s great to see people using planting in exciting new ways.
The Staffordshire, or Stafford knot, the symbol of the county. It was painted on a wall in the Beehive pub in Honeywall, Stoke-on-Trent. I had a look at Wikipedia and there is a lot of information there about it. It seems to have a celtic derivation and can be seen in celtic patterns. A noble family in the country town of Stafford used it as their symbol in medieval times. The design is also linked to the Saxon Staffordshire hoard of gold artifacts that was found a few years ago.
It is the simplest knot and this can be multiplied to create various patterns. There is an old stone cross in a churchyard in Stoke-on-Trent which has the symbol carved on it. Incidentally it was used as a surgical knot but was found to be dangerous and would slip if not used correctly.
It was also said to have been used as a knot to hang three men because the hangman could not decide who to hang first. This is not believed to be true and is probably an urban myth.
Here are some of my older tiny paintings. I have a bag of about twenty matchbox sized canvases to paint in time for a makers market at Spode on 28 July. I’m still in rehearsals for “one night only” on Friday night and the Penkhull Mystery play on the 13th. Busy busy busy…
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I went to a glass workshop with my friend Angela Ashton at Spode today. I’ve previously made square or oblong pieces but today I had a go at curving the edges to make round glass cabochons. I was allowed to use a glass grinding machine to create the curves. Then you place coloured glass on top in strips and small pieces. I used some glass with a special shiny sheen, dichromic I think it was called. As you tip it in the light it changes colour.
At the end of the workshop I decided to create a long coloured strip that could be hung up in a window. I’m hoping this will be an interesting piece. I used clear and opaque glass in horizontal layers over the top of a long transparent oblong. Once the coloured pieces were laid on and tacked in place with glue I placed clear glass in vertical strips on top. Each of these will prevent air getting to the glass. When the glass is exposed to high temperatures it can change colour due to chemical reactions including oxidisation. The heat fuses the glass together.
I should get the resulting pieces in a few days. Then I will go back and may make holes in them using a diamond bit drill so they can hang up or be turned into necklaces.
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A few years ago we did a mystery play which had to include the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This horse was made by my friend Kate and I painted it and another one in a Picasso style to give it an angular and aggressive look.
As time goes on and we get older we are doing less complicated making, basically because we are spending less time doing it. For myself I would like to do more. Anyway I’m off in a bit. Lots to do…
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Playing with duplicated images, me and my hubby. I want to visualizer us without the clarity of a painted portrait.
Most faces are lopsided, by duplicating and flipping them you can get an interesting mirror image. I used the layout app on my phone to do this.
Anyone who has seem mirrored images of Edgar Allen Poe will see what I mean. He has a very lopsided face, one side stretched and the other side slightly shrunken. When you see his face mirrored on the right then left side it looks like you are looking at two seperate people.
In my case I changed my selfie to black and white, then I drew over it. The second picture had the exposure altered as well. Then I flipped the right hand side top to bottom but not left to right.
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