How the Leopard looked

Posted on February 9, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Burslem, Emulsion on lining paper, Fine Art, Leopard Hotel, Memory, Murals, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

This was the function room, the Arnold Bennett suite, in the back of the Leopard Hotel with my murals visible on the walls. They were quite high up and I’m only short, so I spent a lot of time climbing up and down ladders! If I had realised it was likely to take me almost two years to paint them (there were eleven? ) seven on one side and four on the other if I remember?

Titles were :

The Leopardess

Umbrellas by Clarice Cliff

Arthur Berry, artist

Walter, the regular

Pot banks and woman worker

Murdered woman

The Leopard coat of arms

The Burslem Riot 1842

Wedgwood and Brindley

Molly Leigh, Burslem witch

Burslem Angel

I cannot remember if there was another one. I’m hoping to collect a full set of images of them. I hope that local people will be able to help me.

Willow pattern painting

Posted on January 30, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Acrylics, Art, Ceramics, Design, Fine Art, Painting, platter, Spode, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

I painted this a few years ago. It’s an octagonal platter shape. I used a few images of willow pattern plates and amalgamated them. It’s mostly based on a Spode style of pattern. The edge design was made up by myself. The painting is meant to look like the platter is leant up against a background. That’s why I added shadows and played with adding a reflection below it. I can’t remember what else I added to it. I did a series of paintings of ceramic objects, there was also a jug and a teapot and a large vase painting. It was good to imagine pottery from my adopted home of Stoke-on-Trent.

On the walls

Posted on January 28, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Burslem, courtesy of, Fine Art, Life, Murals, painted onto walls, Photo, Stoke-on trent, The Leopard Hotel2 Comments

I got a couple of photos from my friend of the Arnold Bennett suite in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. These were taken before the fire that destroyed most of the building although some walls are still standing.

People have asked if the paintings were removed when the pub closed two years ago. But they were murals. The room originally had flock wallpaper inside framed areas on the walls. When the new owners took over the pub they decided to have murals painted in there. They contacted Burslem School of Art and I was asked if I was interested. I’d painted murals and scenery before so I said yes.

The owners lined each space with lining paper and I got coloured emulsion paints to create each mural.

I think this photo in particular gives an idea of the size of the murals and how they were laid out. I hope to get more images of them so I can have an archive of them for my records.

Earth painting

Posted on January 25, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Astronomy, Earth, Fine Art, Galaxies, Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Nebulae, PaintingLeave a comment

And then I paint planets too!

Acrylic on canvas, I’m interested in astronomy and this view of the Earth was taken from a photo. It shows parts of Africa, Greenland, Europe and the Americas. I think you can see the wind directions indicated by the clouds.

I’ve also painted views of the Moon, Jupiter and Mars, together with nebulae and galaxies. It may be something I do again.

Etruria Flint Mill

Posted on January 21, 2022January 21, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Canvas, Engine, Etruria, Fine Art, Landscape, Life, Painting, Steam engine, Stoke-on trent, TimeLeave a comment

I added my easle yesterday. Today I’m showing you my easle two years ago, I did a painting of Etruria Flint Mill. It’s also called Jessie Shirley’s Bone and Flint mill I think? It’s the only working Steam driven Flint mill in the country and the flints and bone were crushed and ground using the power of the steam driven beam engine there.

The buildings are part of Etruria Industrial Museum, a complex of cafe, the museum displays, and the Flint mill on the Trent and Mersey and Cauldon Canals at Etruria, Stoke on Trent. I’m not sure of its opening times. But once a month it used to be fired up and you could watch the fly wheel rotating round and the pans where the flints were ground rumbling as the engine turns them. Its amazing to see the industrial archeology of the potteries in action.

Loving Vincent

Posted on January 18, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged 1890, animation, Film, Fine Art, History, Illustration, Painting, Style, technique, Texture, Vincent, Vincent Van Gogh2 Comments

I saw this film late last night and was enthralled by it. Each individual frame is hand painted in Van Gogh’s style. The son of the postmaster where Van Gogh used to live goes off to try and deliver a letter from Vincent to his brother Theo, after his death. When he finds the brother is also dead he decides to take the letter to the Doctor who was treating Van Gogh before his apparent suicide.

The film covers the year after Van Gogh’s death and shows in black and white flash backs incidents that might have happened between Vincent and the people around him. This is told through a series of conversations between the postmaster son and various characters.

This is a visually sumptuous film in Van Gogh’s style. The Polish/British co-production is stunning and intriguing. The gradual understanding of what happened makes for a satisfying investigation of the circumstances surrounding his death.

Release date: 2017 (United Kingdom)Directors: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh WelchmanMusic by: Clint MansellBox office: 42.1 million USDAwards: European Film Award for Best Animated Feature Film,

From the 80’s

Posted on January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged amalgamation, Art, Breath, Fine Art, Horse, Mythical, Mythological, Oil painting, Painting, Pegasus, UnicornLeave a comment

An oil painting on board I did sometime in the 1980’s. It’s a sort of combination of a Pegasus/Unicorn which also breathes the wind. It’s semi abstract with a feeling of being stained glass. I would have liked to have actually made it, if it was possible. It’s quite small, about 12″ by 16″, the colours are quite muted. I love the fun of experimenting with painting. I like the idea of making an amalgamation of creatures.

Painting from college

Posted on December 31, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, boyfriend, College, Fine Art, Hubby, Life, Memory, Oil on canvas, Painting, Portrait, SnowLeave a comment

This is a painting I did when I was about twenty. I was at college doing my fine art degree and I had recently met my then boyfriend (now hubby). This was in my small studio at college. The painting has been on the wall for several years. I painted him sitting on a chair with his feet up. He hasn’t changed too much.

Outside there was snow lying on the hills above the city. You could just see the roofs of the college across the road. The rooms we worked in were reasonably light. I remember the studios upstairs had parquet flooring. It was a different world from what I came from. I’m glad I went.

Nine pictures…

Posted on December 31, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Abstract, Art, Fine Art, Life, nine images, Painting, retrospective, Tiny paintingLeave a comment

Artists on Instagram are posting nine favourite images from 2021.

So here are nine favourite images I created over several years. I realised I haven’t done many paintings this year because of doing my Illustration course. These images include a couple of murals and a tiny painting. They show me as an eclectic artist who loves colour, the environment and also abstraction.

Super realism?

Posted on December 29, 2021December 29, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged 2013, Acrylic on canvas, Art, Critic, Fine Art, photo realism, Portrait, Realism, Review, super realism10 Comments

This is NOT meant to be super realistic.

I do try and be accurate with my paintings, hopefully getting good realism. I was once criticised in a newspaper review about an exhibition I was part of, they said if I wanted to be a super realist I should have tried harder. The thing was, I wasn’t trying for super realism! If the journalist had actually spoken to me I would have told him that. I do work from photos sometimes, particularly if it’s a commissioned portrait or painting of a landscape. If I do a painting of a steam train it’s got to look right, you can make it up. I love painting, which to me is the accurate manipulation of liquids on a surface. I do try. X

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Fine Art