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.

Exhibition

Posted on May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Centre space, Exhibition, opening night, Painting, Preview, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Stoke-upon-TrentLeave a comment

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Next week!

My exhibition. At centre space, the Spode Heritage visitors centre, Eleanora street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent

Preview night is on the Wednesday between 7 and 9pm. If you are around come along.

Hard work

Posted on May 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Exhibition, Green, Hard work, Hubby, Keep painting, Life, Monochrome, Painting, Portrait2 Comments

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Progress… Just a quick update.

Using various greens, it’s going to be monochromatic, no other colours but white, greens and some paynes grey.

May be finished by the weekend.

Spode site

Posted on May 20, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Eleanora Street entrance, Exhibition, Hard work, Landscape, Painting, Spode, Spode site, Stoke-on trent, Stoke-upon-Trent4 Comments

I’ve started work on this painting after a gap of a few months. I think it just over faced me, it was too big, to difficult (I’m working on it by looking at my phone).

And this last few days I haven’t felt well enough, but I started work on it this morning and did a good few hours on it.

So, where am I painting? In the house, not my studio. That’s the other thing, physically I feel awful. Mentally, I’m OK but don’t feel like I want to go out. We went for lunch with a friend today, but came straight home afterwards because I was exhausted, literally shaking. I don’t think I’m getting worse, but it’s taking time to recover and I know I’m pushing myself. But I have an exhibition next week and I haven’t got everything done. It’s very last minute……

This morning I realised it will be forty years in September since I started my degree in fine art painting…and I have never stopped….

Time to collect

Posted on May 12, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blue, Centre space, Exhibition, Jupiter, Jupiter Blue, Painting, Planet, Spode heritage visitor centre, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

Time to collect my painting blue Jupiter tomorrow. Its been up for a month at an open exhibition in Newcastle under Lyme and I’m hoping people liked it. I think it will be up in my exhibition at centre space at spode visitor centre in a couple of weeks.

If you look at my art you can see I’m not painting to a theme. I just love images. I love experimenting and trying new things. I like challenging myself.

That’s exactly what I’m doing now.

Etruria Artists

Posted on April 20, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Easter Sunday fun, Etruria, Etruria Artists, Etruria Industrial museum, Exhibition, Hands on clay, Life, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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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.

Icy

Posted on February 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged An exhibition of blue, Art, Design, Exhibition, Glass, Installation, Life, Painting, Sculpture, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

You know it’s cold when the ice that was put in the sink on Friday night is still frozen in the sink on Sunday.

This is what had happened at the “an, exhibition of Blue”, which I was helping invigilate yesterday.

The exhibition space is in part of the old Spode Factory which has been converted into artists studios. The building used to be full of pottery machinery and pottery kilns. I imagine they did not need much insulation in those days. Now, however, thin walls and single glazed windows together with thick concrete ceilings high up which allow all the heat to rise make for icebox conditions in the winter.

We also did not know where the switch was for the space heater that sits next to the lift. So guests and artists alike stood next to or inside the kitchen where a small electric fan heater was trying to defrost the ice in the sink! People tried to sit on the couches to keep their feet off the freezing concrete floors. I’d been there three hours before one of the other artists at Spode found the heater switch in a cupboard! I did feel foolish for not looking.

Even though it was cold we got a good turn out. The exhibition will be coming down soon but it may be possible to get one of the exhibitors to show you round if you are interested.

An Exhibition of Blue

Posted on February 1, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, An exhibition of blue, Art, Blue, Exhibition, Jupiter, Jupiter Blue, Painting, Spode, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, WinterLeave a comment

The Exhibition of Blue opened tonight at Spode Site at Eleanora Street in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent..

As you can see from the photos there was a great variety of work on the breif Blue. Everyone had to produce art in Blue with only the addition of white, black and grey.

There were glass and resin pieces, acrylic pours and paintings. Drawings and photos, installations with blue lighting and wall painting and fabrics. We were also entertained by an artist with a beautiful voice who sang the blues.

There were also blue cocktails for people who attended the exhibition. The only real downside was the temperature. The Spode studios are inside an old pottery building. The place was once filled with pottery kilns so it was not built with much insulation. It can sometimes be colder inside than it is outside. The exhibition continues till at least Sunday. It may continue next week but it has yet to be decided.

Talk time

Posted on August 5, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Etruria, Exhibition, Jewellery, Life, Painting, Pictures, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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I miss talking to people sometimes. I have a tenancy to isolate myself as I have said in the past. But today was a good day, I saw an old artist friend who has an idea for a travelling exhibition, and my work fits with it. It’s great to get some positive vibes. Also, a painting that I did a couple of years ago was bought at my exhibition. Someone really admired it and decided to buy it. I feel like a parent seeing a child move into the world. It’s amazing how attached you can get to things, and to see something you love go to a good home gives me a glad feeling inside.

In fact what started out as a quiet weekend has turned out very well. People were interested in my exhibition and some of the new things I have went down really well. I have to thank a friend for creating necklaces for me from some fused glass I made in a workshop earlier in the year. Also a photographer who turned some of my paintings into cards. Again they sold well.

I have not made a fortune, but it has boosted my confidence. Even the chap that came in and said my art was not his cup of tea was not rude, just honest.

The only bad thing is that I seem to have caught a cold! Maybe talking to all those people meant I picked up a bug. We will see….

Exhibition time

Posted on August 4, 2018 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Artist, Etruria Industrial museum, Exhibition, Landscapes, Painting, Portraits, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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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!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Exhibition