New paintings and regular art updates.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who is the sweetest of them all?
This is a mirror and surround made by Sculpted Steel at the Forge at Etruria Industrial museum. The actual mirror is a quarter of this but I was playing with duplicating photos again.
The blacksmith, Charis is very talented and has had work exhibited at Tatton Park, I think at one of the garden shows.
Just a few, sketched while at the Etruria festival. There was a giant chess board which I drew with a black sharpie, a few people were playing the game, but it seemed mainly young children walking across the board.
I was trying to draw the trees round the back of the museum. The trouble was there were too many leaves. One of the drawings is of the flint mill chimney and part of my husbands head. The other is of a couple sitting and drinking tea. I didn’t want them to know so I kept having to look away when they looked towards me.
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One red bar of cloud
reflected in the canal,
Blue grey and pale peach
silhouette leaves and trees
mobile mast and cables.
Industrial Stoke,
Etruria on Trent
Old canal
Built by James Brindley
You are serene
No longer busy with horse and butty boats.
Tranquil sunset
Blazing sky.
Etruria Artists logo by Robert Cochrane.
Etruria Artists is on tonight. Starting an hour early at 6pm. If you want to come and have a go at painting, drawing or pottery come to the warehouse by lock 40 (summit lock ) of the trent and mersey canal.
Most art materials are provided or you can bring your own.
I’ve had some good times there creating art. It is an old building though and we do close over the winter as it’s only heated when we are in the building so the water has to be turned off in case it freezes and bursts the pipes. I’ve also helped people with advice for using different paints like Acrylics, Watercolours and Gouache…. I’m not trained as an art teacher but I do have some knowledge.
This group I’m in is starting up again this week. At the moment I haven’t the time to get involved. But in a couple of weeks I might be able to join in again. I’m the meantime if you live in Stoke you might want to give it a look this weekend. Just up the canal from Etruria industrial museum by Summit lock on the trent and merdy canal. I think there is an exhibition on. There will also be the chance to do some hands on clay art work.
Charis Jones is a blacksmith and sculptor who runs Sculpted Steel at the Etruria Forge in Etruria Stoke-on-Trent. She is based in the Forge and can be contacted to commission sculptural work. She created a large cat sculpture for our garden.
This weekend she was demonstrating her skills during a steaming weekend at The Etruria Industrial Museum. Home of Jessie Shirley’s bone and flint mill.
The beam engine that powers the flint grinding pans is steamed about once a month.
As with other places in the potteries this is one of those hidden gems that people don’t know about but which are fascinating to visit
Photos courtesy my friend Lorraine.
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This is what I have been stopping up and doing for the last few nights. Painting lots of pictures for this exhibition.
I am a member of a group called Etruria Artists and we meet on Thursday night’s to do hands on Art sessions. I really would encourage anyone to have a go at doing art whether its painting, sculpture, pottery, printmaking, photography.
Life is sometimes a drudge, getting to the end of the week. No break from the weekly grind of work. That is where art comes in. Whether its colouring books, or contemporary painting, and everything in between, art gives your creativity the release it needs. You can come to us on a Thursday night and have a go.
We are based in the warehouse by lock number 40 (summit lock) of the Trent and Mersy Canal. Just up the canal from the Etruria Industrial Museum, past the forge where Sculpted Steel creates wonderful metallic sculptures.
Anyway we are there on Saturday and Sunday. There are also static steam engines on Saturday and Classic cars on Sunday. Fun for all the family .
I think this is finished now, although I might change the blues…. added cat for scale 😀.
I’m go I to start doing some more paintings as I want some new work for an exhibition I’m in this weekend at Etruria Industrial museum.
My green man/woman pictures are built around the idea of tiles which were made in Stoke-on-Trent at factories like Mintons.
I also want to do some small paintings based on classic cars because the exhibition is at the same time as a classic car rally and a static steam engine event. That’s this weekend at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent.
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It’s that time of year when I have a small exhibition of work at Etruria. An area of Stoke on Trent in the Staffordshire. This year it came round fast. I didn’t really know it was going to happen till a couple of days ago. I think I was feeling a bit down and so I hadn’t organised things very well.
The building it is in is an old warehouse next to the Trent and Mersey, and Cauldon canals. It’s a very old building, with an old canoe up in the rafters, and half a model canal boat up high at one end I the room. It also has some of the largest long legged spiders I have ever seen….but thankfully once I had set up they went into hiding.
Anyway its happened, its up. I’m selling cards and necklaces as well as paintings. I am not really good at doing that. I can be polite, helpful, and enjoy explaining the work I have done, but I don’t like selling, putting a price on things.
I’ve spoken to a few artists recently and they feel the same way. They want to be creative, because they are creative, not because they want to run a business. …
Anyway I think people enjoyed what they saw at the exhibition, I had some good feedback.
What want to do now is start working on new art!
One thing about Britain, and in this case specifically England is that we have our fair share of eccentrics, collectors, restorer’s and skilled artisans.
Today was a case in point. I met some lovely people who restore and make their own organs and are known as organ grinders because they turn a handle at the back of the machine to work a set of bellows to play music.
Apparently you can get various sorts of organs. A lady showed me how hers worked, with a roll of paper, held on a tube (a bit like a toilet roll). As she turned the handle to pump the bellows the paper roll passed over a series of holes attached to pipes at the top of the machine. the paper was slightly waxy or plasticised, it had small holes cut in it and as each set of holes lined up with the organ pipes it played a note, pipes that were covered with the paper did not play. The lady told me the organ was made in Germany by a famous maker. Sadly I forgot to get a note of his name.
Other organs music was on flat peices of card joined together like a jacquard pattern for weaving. One even had a sim card in it and all the player (grinder) had to do was turn the bellows handle.
The owners of the machines were all dressed in Victorian costume and were dotted around the Etruria Industrial museum. They were there for there national meeting and had come from all around the country. They are staying for a week and will be here until next Sunday.
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Mallaband-Brown