Portrait with portrait

Posted on May 31, 2019May 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylics, Art, Blogging, Commission, Design, Life, Painting, Pastels, Portrait, Watercolour11 Comments

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The exhibition is going well and I had my photo taken with my portrait of my husband as a green man. It’s called my green man. I’m pleased with the composition.

What next? Once this is over I’ve booked to put a show up in another local gallery called the waiting room, in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. That will be in September, not got the dates yet. I’m also going to do a couple of craft fairs in the next couple of months. It would be good to be commissioned to paint for people but I’m not sure how to break into that sort of work. I am happy to paint for people. Just contact me.

Cucumber plant

Posted on May 30, 2019May 30, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Cast iron cat, Cucumber plant, Humour, Life, Photo, Plant, Possible painting, View, WindowledgeLeave a comment

this baby cucumber plant I’ve got growing on the kitchen windowsill seems to be tickling the cast iron cats ear! It’s been inside because it’s been too cold to plant it out. It’s barely had any water and yet it’s putting out flowers. The courgette plants that I had outside have been ravaged by slugs, but thus little beauty will have to go out before the kitchen resembles the little shop of horrors.

I like this image, the shadow of the wind-chime in the window is cast on the wall on the right hand side, and the slightly angry cat balances it up. Yes.. I’m thinking of painting it. All the other plants contrast with it. Taken at 2.30am so the dark windows and reflections would be a challenge. I have just the right long thin canvas for it……

I hope it survives – I had to use washing up liquid on the Pepper plant just a bit further along the windowledge today as it was covered in aphids and I won’t use pesticides. Right enough writing x

Opening night!

Posted on May 29, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Artist, Blog, Centre space, Eleanora st, Exhibition, Fine Art, Life, Painting, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent9 Comments

Thank you to everyone who came to the exhibition. I think people enjoyed it. I will be putting up more photos if I get some. These are quick snaps but I’ve included all the paintings. The people at Centre Space gallery, Darren and Sarah, could not be more helpful. If there was a trip advisor for galleries (maybe there is) I would recommend them.

If you would like to see it it’s on till Sunday from 10.30am to 4.00pm at the Centre Space gallery, at Spode Site, Eleanora street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 1QQ.

Awake

Posted on May 29, 2019May 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Chill, Life, Nerves, Sleep, Time, Today, WorryLeave a comment

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Like a napping cat staring bleary eyed into the dawn, I’m awake. I don’t want to be. There is a slight chill in the living room and I’m thinking of snuggling back in bed. To sleep, to not worry about today, who will come to my show? Are enough people interested?

Nerves, that’s what it is. The anxiety in the pit of your stomach. Collywobbles, butterflies, slight palpatations.

Nothing to worry about, I tell myself. Worrying never got anything done, I think. Life’s too short, I mutter under my breath.

So decisions, another decaff coffee or sleep, I know what I will do…..

It’s up!

Posted on May 28, 2019May 28, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Centre space, Eleanora street, Exhibition, Fun, Life, Painting, Spode, Spode Heritage visitors centre, Stoke, Stoke-on trent5 Comments

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I’m so pleased with my exhibition which opens tomorrow. Darren and Sarah who run the Centre Space couldn’t have been more helpful.

I will post some photos of the paintings tomorrow when they are on show. I was pleased with the way the exhibition looks and the careful way that it was put up. I hope I get a few commissions out of it.

Will people understand my passion for painting green men? Or my love if planets and astronomy? My quirky ideas about earth, air, fire and water and a series of national and international animals and birds?

I hope whatever people like there will be something that will pique their interest. Like a victorian collector of curiosities I enjoy the odd, interesting, and fun.

Morning Glory

Posted on May 26, 2019May 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Green man, Life, Morning glory, Painting, PlantsLeave a comment

Just a little painting of a green man with morning glory flowers. I thought it would be nice to add some bright colour to this. I chose morning glory because its a climbing plant that scrambles up and opens it’s flowers for a day. The flowers then wither to be replaced by new ones the next day.

Mirror plates

Posted on May 26, 2019May 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Exhibition, Mirror plates, Paintings, Phillips posi drive screws, Preparations4 Comments

Ouch… I’ve just finished putting mirror plates on the back of my paintings. You have to make holes in the back of canvas’s wooden supports and then screw them in place with two screws so they can be attached to gallery walls.

The problem is that the screws I have are small and have Phillips cross headed heads on them. The screws are made of harder metal than the screw driver and consequently the head of the screw driver had worn away. You can’t see this clearly on the photos though.

The the screw driver does not sit properly in the head of the screw, this means that they are really difficult to drive into the back of the canvas. I had to do this on 14 canvases, so 28 mirror plates and 56 screws. The wooden frames on canvases are not uniform, some are made with harder wood than others. In a couple of cases I had to use shorter screws because they would not screw all the way into the wood.

Now I have to list all the paintings so that I can take them down to the gallery on the morning.

Finished Hare

Posted on May 25, 2019May 25, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Animals, Art, Finished, Hare, Harebells, LifeLeave a comment

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I’ve finally finished the Hare painting. I’ve added the Harebells. I’m not sure about the background. I may play with it tomorrow, but enough for one day’s work. I’m also not sure about the proportions of its head…. I’m too tired to think.

Hare minus bells

Posted on May 25, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Animal portrait, Animals, Art, Countryside, Environment, Hare, Harebell, Life, Nature, Painting, Photo from a magazine, WildlifeLeave a comment

I went out this morning to go to the Orme Art group. We were supposed to do limited pallette paintings, white, red, yellow ochre and black. I cheated and used some cerulean blue in the background. I want to add harebells, a beautiful bell shaped flower found in the countryside. The image is an amalgum of a photo from a magazine that I’d taken a photo of and a photo off the Internet. I’m not sure if I will finish this or any of the other paintings at the moment. Every time I feel better I do stuff, then I feel ill again. I guess I’m trying too hard. But I wanted some really strong paintings for the exhibition. I hope they look good. Anyway I’m having a rest for half an hour.

Winkhill Mill Co

Posted on May 24, 2019May 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Cliff Vale, Drawing, Hartshill, Industrial archaeology, Industrial history, Life, Machinery, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, Swan Street, Urban Sketchers, Urban sketching, Winkhill Mill CoLeave a comment

I needed a break today from painting, so I went out with Stoke Urban Sketchers for a couple of hours this afternoon. I’m still a bit in and croaky so I couldn’t manage more than that. Thanks to Danny, Andy (hope I’ve got his name right) and Richard from Winkhill Mill for letting us have access to the building. If you wonder what the machine is I think it’s a dust press for making tiles.

I went to the Mill a few weeks ago to see an exhibition there and I drew one of the tiles, the Fox and the Crow.

Stoke has lots of hidden museums. It’s open on a Friday and I think Saturdays?

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Art