Mill

Small ‘Mill’ painting sold.

It was very good to hear that my small painting of Etruria Flint Mill had sold to a friend yesterday. It was another in a new style I am experimenting with. I’m using more lines and textures to emphasise  the patterns in the bricks and sky and trees. The image is based on a photo of the Mill and Industrial Museum, but I added more white to give a feeling of when it was in use, and the site was dusted with the crushed bones and flints that went into Stoke-on-Trents bone China, their attempt to replicate Porcelain. The canal is brown with rusty water. If you visit Kidsgrove which is to the North of Stoke you can see the canal there is often very orange. The Trent and Mersey canal runs through the Harecastle Tunnel which is another interesting part of our industrial heritage.

I have other work for sale at Arts and Minds Gallery at Harper Street in Middleport opposite Middleport Pottery, Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Leaves leave…

Drawing of Etruria Industrial Museum chimney from late last winter. Soon the leaves will be gone again. The museum will hunker down in the rain or possible snow. The industrial archaeology is more visible when the surrounding trees are stripped bare. Life is a cycle, one day its bitterly cold, the next warm and comfortable. I hope to visit the museum again soon. Its run by volunteers who work hard to keep it going.

Pumpkin cat

I carved this pumpkin cat last year for Halloween at Etruria Industrial Museum. It is meant to be a black cat if it was lit at night. I think they used battery tea lights for safety. I think I carved three or four with different designs. Memories of a more cheerful time. I should say be careful carving out pumpkins. I thing I cut a finger slightly while I was doing this x

Govenor

I need to get some paintings done by Friday for a new art venue. I should have gone to choir practice tonight but I’d started painting this and I didn’t want to stop. It’s based on a photo I took at Etruria Industrial Museum yesterday and shows a governor spinning. The two round weights govern the speed of the engines rotation. The faster it goes, the more the weights are pushed outwards, but they are pulled down and inwards by gravity which regulates its speed. I will try and get movement into it.

Classic cars

We visited Etruria Industrial Museum today where they were holding a classic car fair outside on the field near the museum. They had many different cars, from this Riley to Ford Fiestas. Old Minis to a touring bus/coach. I took quite a few photos and this was a favourite. The sun was shining and it was quite warm and the sky was reflected in the car bonnet. Had a lovely afternoon.

For sale, Heron

I just took my Heron painting to the cafe at Etruria Industrial Museum to swap it for the one of the waterfall that I have sold. I will try and deliver that to my friend soon who bought it from me. I need to do some more work because I have the opportunity of showing some small paintings at a new venue that is opening up in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, near the Middleport pottery. I’m trying to grab opportunity where I can.

Feed me!

Teasle

I posted this photo on Facebook last week and someone wrote ‘Feed me Seymour!’

I guess it does look a bit like the plant in the film ‘Little Shop of Horrors’! It’s strange how life imitates art, or vice versa. Photo of teasel, taken outside the forge at Etruria Industrial Museum on the Trent and Mersey canal in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

Cat plant support

I bought this beautiful cat plant support today from my friend that runs #Sculptedsteel (on Instagram). I already have a larger cat sculpture from her but I think this is really elegant especially with the curl at the end of its tail. It’s about a meter tall and ideal for a climbing plant to support it as it grows. I will find something to train up it.