New paintings and regular art updates.
Painted in 1991? that was when I flirted with getting my first studio, but one of the three people sharing it enjoyed playing loud music too much. Eventually it drove me out. I just wanted to paint in quiet and peace.
The cat was one of the first cats I had when I came to live in Stoke on Trent. She was extremely intelligent and followed me everywhere or rode on my shoulder. I was in my early thirties when I painted this. It was acrylic on canvas. Called familiar friends.
It’s almost a couple of years since I left the Acava art studios at the Spode factory site in Stoke on Trent. I had some good times there painting and getting to know some lovely people.
I won’t miss the freezing cold corridors in winter. I was cosy in my studio, but open the door and the temperature dropped. If you went and made a coffee in the kitchen it would be tepid by the time you got back to your room!
The building had a large mass, which didn’t matter when the kilns were lit, it would hold heat really well, but as a result of the pottery closing and being emptied the building no longer stays warm.
I miss being there. I’m sad I had to leave. But I could no longer afford it. At least I got some good photos while I was there.
Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
Arthur Berry was an artist, author, poet and playwright from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
Arthur was also one of my tutors at college and I was really happy when he said my paintings had a bit of something about them. He always seemed to wear a flat cap and tweed jacket. He was a well built man but had a withered arm. His voice sometimes boomed with emotion and joy.
His art is distinctive, charcoal and pastels, oils, mixed media. Often called the Potteries Lowry, he depicted local people and the interior and exterior landscape of the industrial north Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent.
The works are semi abstract and strongly atmospheric. The portraits show emotions and feelings, aging couples kissing. The titles are often amusing.
Arthur wrote a series of intriguing plays, darkly comic. Set in old libraries or local pubs. They depict everyday life in the 6 towns of potteries, Grit, Grime and Clay. I saw several of them in the Victoria Theatre in Hartshill. This was replaced by the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme.
Arthur’s poems were funny and about his life and surroundings. His “ode to the oatcake” celebrating a local food delicacy which he once described as the potteries papadum
He really was someone worth knowing.
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?
Random photo of a jumper I knitted in my 20’s!
I did my fine art course.
I met my boyfriend.
I cycled everywhere.
I made good friends that I still know.
I created lots of art, including murals.
Basically, despite bad things happening in the world I was very lucky to have a great time. Plus there was punk rock, TV shows like ‘the young ones’. I also bought a bicycle and cycled many miles around the north West of England. My boyfriend and I went cycle camping up to the lake district and cycled round Devon and North Wales on holiday. It’s surprising how far you can go on trains and bikes.
I have so many memories that I still recall. Life was simpler then, I am glad I have them. Plus I knitted the jumper (I never made one before). I remember adding patterns that I completely made up including the red arrows on the sleeve, and space invaders on the bottom of the jumper!
Life I had that I’ll never go back to. I wish I could!
My first drawing after my cateract operation. It was just a quick sketch, a drawing of a friend. I was really scared I wouldn’t be able to sketch, but there I was shading in with a pencil. I had forgotten the pleasure I get from being creative. Now I need to keep doing more!
Leaves Fall in Autumn
Flowers spring up in Spring
Summer sums the year up
Winter does what? Wint?
Seasons they are all….
Never know what words mean
They are only sounds,
What is the word Autumn
Two syllables round.
It’s more interesting to say
Than a bland word like fall.
A remnant of history
That our ancient world recalls.
My friend Eve let me used a black and white photo of a horse as the basis of this acrylic on canvas titled “Red Horse”. I had thought of doing a blue or green version too, but I think this works best. He’s certainly a character. On display at the Etruria Industrial museum in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. I think he could be one of the horses that used to haul barges along the Trent and Mersey canal.
It would have been our anniversary today. We lived together for years before we married. I painted him when I was about 20 and he still sits in this painting looking out at me. I did a lot of drawings and portraits of him over the years, I am glad there are visible memories of him.
What will happen when I go? Who knows what my relatives will want to do with all my art? Will a local museum take them, or will they just get skipped? I don’t know, I won’t be here but I would like to have some recognition. The trouble is I’m very eclectic, I paint for my self in these images. Ah well, more questions…
Found an old photo of my mural of Walter a regular at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, the other picture is my reimagined portrait of Molly Leigh, based on the mural I did of her. Both murals were destroyed when the pub burnt down a couple of years ago. I might try and recreate the Walter one too. The final photo is of my Molly Leigh painting and my Spode circular window painting in the Orme Art Group Exhibition at the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme. It’s on at the moment.
Recently found on my phone, photo taken a few years ago.
One of my murals from the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, it burnt down a couple of years ago. Portrait of Walter a regular there.. Mural, emulsion on lining paper. I had to paint it a few feet up the wall, the paintings were painted within a frame attached directly to the wall. I just noticed his hands are too small!
Mallaband-Brown