New paintings and regular art updates.
Self portrait reflected in a stained glass window at Little Moreton Hall in Staffordshire. The idea was to create a ghostly image in keeping with the age of the property. I could have gone all out and added an Elizabethan headdress but I didn’t want to over complicate the idea. The painting is set at sunset when things get a bit more spooky. I do like creating narrative images.
What topics do you like to discuss?
That’s why I like trying to paint astronomical pictures, like this tryptic of Jupiters pole based on the photos by NASAs Juno probe.
I’ve always been interested in both subjects, I wouldn’t say I was an expert, I will always check my facts if I write about science, but I enjoy thinking things through. And having a visual mind helps me imagine how things work.
Art is my first love, I worry that I will find it increasingly difficult to create since my diagnosis with Parkinsons disease. I would be bereft if I could not continue. I hope that better treatment becomes available, another reason for being interested in science
Blurry photo of my painting Air, part of four images including Earth, Water and Fire. I imagined the spirit of Air, rather like the faces of cherubs with puffed out cheeks blowing storms across ancient mariners maps the yellow and orange at the top is the sun being hidden behind clouds. I like the cheeky and mischievous face that stares out of the painting. It’s probably a little anachronistic, almost Victorian in style, but it’s a semi abstract acrylic on canvas. I just wish I’d taken a better photo. It is for sale.
Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.
I gave up work to mainly look after my hubby whose mental health was deteriorating. I could have carried on, but circumstances were also changing in my job. The way we worked was reverting back to old fashioned ways which I felt was detrimental to our clients. I’d fought hard to help them more and it felt like their needs were being forgotten while money was saved. Services were being slashed. I had to go, and I never regretted it, I just felt sorry for my fellow workers who I left behind. Covid and other problems meant that I didn’t make a go of my small business, but at least I tried.
When the Orme Art Group Exhibition finished this weekend the gallery at the Brampton museum asked if they could use my willow pattern painting in their next display of bird paintings and images. I was pleased to leave it up. It’s there till the end of May!
The painting is done in acrylic on canvas. It’s based on a few willow pattern pots, I took different aspects from different images so it is unique.
A friend now has this painting of Koi carp swimming at a pool in a garden centre I did a few years ago. Perhaps I will have to do more wobbly paintings now I have Parkinsons disease. I hate the thought I might not be able to paint. Someone asked me today what I was going to do if I don’t paint. I don’t know. It’s always been part of me. I know my manual dexterity is deminishing. I hope something can be done about it. At the moment I’m mentally staring at the ocean not sure if I can dip my toes in anymore?
All that’s left is a small bag of rubbish. My studio was a small space but I fitted a lot in it. Now my living room looks like one of those TV programmes about hoarders! I didn’t realise how much space it would take up and a lot of my paintings have gone to a friend’s studio for a while. I’m going to have to learn to throw things away. It’s not an exciting photo but it means a lot to me. Maybe one day I’ll be able to afford to go back. I’ve got to have some hopes!
Portrait of my friend.
Today was a sad day, leaving my studio at Spode is a real wrench. I have had to gather up my belongings including paints, canvases, an easle. Even the mirrors on the walls and the nails that supported my paintings over the years I’ve been there.
How do you remove hexagonal mirrors that are glued to a wall? With a claw hammer and very carefully is the answer. Now some paintings are at a friends studio and others are here in my living room. Hopefully I will soon get sorted out.
Back in the eighties hubby brought a whole load of cadmium colours back from the company where he was doing chemical analysis. I had about eight coffee jars full of cadmium ranging from pale yellow to red to deep maroon. But I didn’t know how to mix them, it was before Google and I had them on a shelf for a year. I also knew Cadmium is a heavy metal although these colours were pigments so hopefully they were safe.
Then a fellow art student asked about them. I agreed to give them to her. I know she used them in many paintings! I often wonder if she used them all, I haven’t seen her for forty years.
I painted this ginger cat a few years ago. He’s based on a stray that moved in with us for a while. He would sit on a windowsill and stare out at the garden. I decided to make his view a bit more floral, and almost Mediterranean.
Unfortunately we had to rehome him because he would fight with our other cats and ended up with an abscess in his paw. I spoke to the vets and they agreed to find him a good home. I hope he was happy and it was sad to say goodbye to him.
Mallaband-Brown