New paintings and regular art updates.
Commissioned acrylic on canvas. A surreal abstracted spirit : Green woman. With antlers adoring her head. It’s taken months to finish because I shake even though it’s only about A4 size. I imagine her standing in a grotto of trees, hidden from mortal view. She is nature, watching carefully as the land changes through time. She fights for the natural world and environment.
I’ve been trying to paint a galaxy over a few weeks, dots and smudges, dots and smudges…. Then I got a bit bored so I looked up images of the sci-fi classic Dr Who and decided to add his tardis with a bit of a sparkle to make it a bit more dramatic. X
Describe your ideal week.
My ideal week would be to go out to a studio, paint for a few hours, make good progress on a painting. Go to choir practice. Cook tea for me and my hubby. Sit and chat about our days.
My ideal week would include going for a walk with him, he might go for a cycle ride to see a friend. He goes to bed early, I stay up late to read or watch TV.
In my ideal week I would sleep well, wake refreshed. Go for a drive somewhere with my hubby. Visit a national trust property.
In my ideal week I would try and paint some more, take some photos, go on the Internet.
In my ideal week I would still have my hubby, I would still have my studio, I would still be doing art or at least more than I am now. I’m just struggling to get back to something like an ideal week.
Painting from a few years ago. I sometimes come up with ideas I like, but I don’t keep doing the same things over and over again. I’m not sure if I could keep repeating an image with just little changes. Once you start doing that you might as well be creating Christmas or birthday cards.
I like being experimental. I might not always get it right but if I continue I learn with each effort. This acrylic on canvas is quite surreal, but why not?
Why do you blog?
I like to share my art and ideas. I’m quite eclectic, a Jack of all trades. When I was little I was always getting bored, wanting to do interesting things. I was the one who held the snake and the tarantula when they were brought into school to show us what they were like. I used to climb up ropes and hang upside down from the top bar of the swings. I was very competitive and enjoyed running, then eventually cycling. Art was my main interest, and I’ve done many paintings and murals, but I also love science. I guess I should have been a teacher as I’m enthusiastic about explaining things. I guess that’s what my blog is about. Looking into nooks and crannies, finding things out. I’m possibly not as interesting as I think I am! But I hope people enjoy it.
I enjoyed painting this a few years ago, I used a phone app to change the texture of a photo then worked off that. This is acrylic on canvas. I keep meaning to do a few more pictures like this. It’s just deciding what images to work from. I’ve hit a bit of a block recently so I’m hoping if I do something like this it might encourage me to do more.
College piece of printing from about 1979? When I was learning to do engraving I think. I remember using a powder to give a texture, and having to paint it with a varnish to resist the acid bath but it would take a refresher course to remember how to do it now.
This is my mural that I painted to commemorate the Burslem Riot in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem.
On 16th August 1842 Chartists from Stoke on Trent and Leek met to fight for their rights to form unions in Burslem town. The police and army were called out and were based at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem with rioters gathered in the street outside in front of Josiah Wedgwoods Big House. The riot act was read in front of up to 4 to 5 thousand rioters. Josiah Heapy, one of the protestor was shot in the head and died instantly. Many of the rioters were also beaten and injured.
You can read a lengthy article in Wikipedia entitled the Potteries riots of 1842 which is very interesting. I really enjoyed painting this in about 2007. Just sad the hotel burnt down in 2022 .
This would have been 17 years old if the Leopard Hotel in Burslem hadn’t burnt down two and a half years ago. I don’t seem to have had much luck with murals. At least three were in buildings that were later knocked down. The risk of being a mural artist I guess is that if they are painted in old buildings they might not outlast you!
If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?
I’ve accumulated a lot of physical and digital art over a lifetime of being an artist. A lot of it is still in my house. I would set up a shop to clear some of it so it could go to good homes. I’m sure friends would do the same.
I realise people like to be clutter free, and now AI is creeping in they could press a few buttons and make something. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a creation made by a human that suits your taste and is created with love and attention? Go on, give an artist a try.
Mallaband-Brown