New paintings and regular art updates.
Two years ago I painted the mona lisa on zoom for a charity event, I did it over just a few hours. Other people did performances, I did this! Madness! Thank you Facebook for the memory.
It was actually sold off to raise money at the end of the event. It’s acrylic on canvas, and was a real challenge!
My legacy is my art. I have painted for years. I hope that someone wants them when I’ve gone.
I was involved in painting several murals over my time as an artist, but sadly most of them have been destroyed in one way or another. I painted a mural in the stairwell of the Unemployment action centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent just after I finished college. Then we found the building was going to be demolished. So myself and a friend got permission to go in and take photos. Unfortunately the photographs came back blank. The film had not been attached to the spool and was not exposed!
Then I painted some murals with a council art group. Over a few weeks we worked on a school canteen (alien/ sci-fi landscape) a ward at a hospital (images of Stoke-on-Trent to aid elderly patients memories), and a memorial for the 1914 to 18 war. All of these were demolished.
Finally I did twelve murals at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. This took me the good part of two years on and off. The painting above was a mural I did of the Burslem riot of 1842? I researched it and a lot of the characters were based on local Burlem residents and people who worked at or frequented the Leopard. All of the murals were destroyed in a fire that burnt down the hotel.
I have also painted scenery for the local pantomime and Mystery plays, but I don’t know what has happened to them.
What is the legacy you want to leave behind?
So if this isn’t my legacy what is? All the paintings and artwork I have created over the years since I was a child. Not all of them still exist. Art turns out to be quite ephemeral in some ways. But I’ve sold enough that, if no one wants the ones I still have, the rest have gone to new owners. Even if they were to appear in charity shops, I hope that some do find good homes.
I’m doing a craft fair soon but I haven’t replaced the paintings I have sold with new ones. I need to get my act together and paint. I just feel a bit down. This has been going on for weeks. I think its artists block? I know why, lots of thoughts on my mind and anxieties, so I prevaricate because I don’t want to get things wrong. I’m fine when things are going OK, but sometimes I let things get on top of me. I will try and sort my mind out this week! Then hopefully I will have new work to show you…..
Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was slope. I drew a cat sloping off the page, with a sloped back walking down a slope. Three digital variations…
About 11 years ago I drew this self portrait. I was with a group of other people who went to a pencil drawing workshop. What strikes me the most about this is how chubby I was, it reminds me how I’ve changed.
The sketch was done using a small makeup mirror and it was impossible to see my whole face at once, but I did my best. In one section of the drawing I almost rubbed through the paper trying to remove some of the graphite. That’s why there is a dark smudge on one of the cheeks.
We were told the drawings would be used for the London Road festival in Stoke. Imagine my surprise when I was driving home one day and this was attached as a 6ft square banner on the front of an empty shop. I now have it at my studio at spode.
An old painting, Autumn and Spring…. Acrylic on canvas. A mixture of styles ideas. I’m not sure whether I will ever do another one like this. I am happy I did it, but it feels like a one off.
Collage of three versions of my drawing of midday. By flipping the central image it created interesting effects where the edges join. One side seems to travel along a dark tunnel, the other into some sort of tree temple? I used photodirector for the textures and incollage for joining the images together.
Midday was the #bandofsketchers prompt for Thursday. We were at Rode Hall bluebell walk a couple of weeks ago. The overhead sun shining directly down onto the ground threw quite dark shadows. It wasn’t perfectly sunny though so the contrast wasn’t too strong. Felt pen drawing.
Drawn with dots at a now defunct site called sketchfu. The site had a colour picker, about six round brush sizes. An opacity/transparency setting, zoom option and a pallette. Not many tools, but simple to use and it attracted a lot of traffic (thousands of users). In the end the owners abandoned it, they ghosted us moderators (I was one) I think they sold the site off.
Bit late with this prompt of flow. It was posted on Tuesday but I missed it. I drew two lines in curves by holding a blue and a green felt pen together to give me a meandering river shape with vertical banks, the used blue, green and turquoise colours to give an idea of flowing water.
Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt flow.
Mallaband-Brown