Tag: Fine Art

Old oil painting

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1980s large canvas. Painted in oils, it was only a few years later that I started using acrylics instead. It’s about 5 ft by 4 ft or something like that. It depicts our old front room, in the house we used to live in. The cellar underneath the front room was starting to collapse, its vaulted ceiling held up with an acroprop. Why was I painting a giant cat? Because I love them, and patterns (wallpaper, clothes etc). The small cat in the corner is playing with a roll of wool. The box says Walsall Art supplies, where I came from. I’d call this a narrative painting.

Cat finds warm place

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It’s warm on top of the armchair, now my radiator is fixed. And the new chair has a flat area at the top so the cat can happily fit. In the background is part of a large painting I did in our old house. It’s oil on a huge canvas. Like a lot of my art I forget it’s there sometimes. The little cat in the corner was one of the first we had when I moved there.

Through the round window

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Round window at Spode painted a couple of years, ago, the glass was held in a circular metal frame. I enjoyed trying to get a feeling of depth using deep shade, and perspective with the rows of bricks. I think they might be a bit exaggerated. I liked the way the concentric circles sink inwards and the shadows bend around the edges.

Umbrella mural

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Umbrella mural I painted for the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in about 2006/7. Based on a design by Clarice Cliffe the Potter. The white line on the top left was a white ribbon hanging down that had been used to decorate the Arnold Bennett suite in the back room of the Leopard. About 3 x4 foot. Emulsion paint on lining paper which was glued directly on the wall. Sadly the hotel burnt down a couple of years ago and all my murals were lost.

Needs glass

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View from Cheddleton Station

I might have somewhere to show my art again soon. I have been in touch with a cafe that might display some of my paintings. I’m considering including this but the glass broke and the card mount has cockled a bit. It’s a view along the platform of Cheddleton Station which is near Leek in Staffordshire. I painted it from a photo I’d taken during a visit a few years ago. It partner to a painting of the upper floor of Cheddleton Station that I did at the same time. Both are in watercolours.

What? Willow pattern platter.

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A few years ago I painted a picture of the willow pattern on an imaginary platter. I used two seperate images of a willow pattern plate and amalgamated them into one. The willow pattern has several iconic aspects. A pine tree, willow tree, three people crossing a bridge, temples, boats, love birds. I’m sure they will have explanations of what they stand for. I really enjoyed creating this. X

A few tiny paintings

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I have a few new paintings. Mostly matchbox sized. I’m putting them in the exhibition of Orme Art Group work at the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme. It runs from February to the end of March. We will be having the display in the entrance window. Wish me luck, I hope to sell a few pieces.

Blurred

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Time blurs everything. Thirty years ago I was doing a course at college and for a while I rented a small studio with two other artists. But it didnt work out. One of them was collecting egg boxes to try and insulate the walls as the place was freezing in the winter but also to try and deaden the noise of rock music one of the artists used to like playing. The windows had arched wooden frames that were quite architectural but they were single glazed. I only painted a few things but when I was there and the music was on it would drive me mad. Unfortunately I could only use the place in the evenings and that coincided with the rock sessions. So I gave it up in the end. Now I’m looking at leaving my current studio. It’s too expensive to carry on renting. If it is the choice between paying rent for it or paying the fuel bills I have to make the sensible choice.

Artists

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Who are the biggest influences in your life?

Of all the influences on my life various artists stand out as the main contenders. These include in no particular order:

Michaelangelo, Leonardo Davinci, Berthe Morissette,the French Impressionists a lot of the surrealist movement, David Hockney, Maggie Hambling, and so many more.

I don’t paint in any of their manners, some of their techniques are totally beyond me. But I do feel excited by their work.

Colours, patterns, shapes, the way they deal with light and shade. Perception, composition, knowledge, understanding. Looking and learning. Painting is a wonderful skill, I wish more people practiced it.

I cannot say that