New paintings and regular art updates.
I can’t find the photo of a finished painting. It had more detail on the wooden supports between the panes of glass. The paint was peeling off and chipped and that’s what attracted me to the image. I’m the final version you can see me and my phone reflected in the surface. It’s an image of the Spode factory site. Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.
I love pattern so when I painted this I thought I was happy with it. THEN I decided to put it through a filter and add texture. Now I think I will paint over it and emphasise the curves and patterns. Making the most of the Holly and Ivy leaves and concentrating on the various greens. I could see it as a card or a notelet. I do love green men.
A self portrait I did aged forty but filtered to obscure it. It’s twenty years old and I can’t remember why I did it. I think I was experimenting with photoshop at the time. It’s me wearing a reuse, recycle, repair tee shirt (which I still have somewhere). My hair was in a short bob and I painted the book covers on the bookcase with the titles of all my favourite books. Maybe I will use a different filter and see how that affects the painting. I seem to do a self portrait every ten years, so a while to go till the next one. X
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was destruction. The Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, was destroyed by fire just a few weeks ago. This is a sketch from a photo by Stokie Bloke (I can’t face visiting the Leopard Hotel). Not very accurate. You can see the roof has gone. There were more photos including the room where my murals were. The walls are still standing, but there are just blank ashy grey spaces. So sad.
Before my arm started shaking I was doing paintings like this. (for the last year and a half or so my left arm has been gradually getting worse with increased shaking ) Then I had to see the doctor and mentioned the problem. He said it was above his pay grade! I am waiting for tests. The thing is that art and particularly painting mean everything to me. I don’t know if lockdowns have knocked my confidence? Plus illness gets to you. Making it more difficult to complete work. I’ve got myself into a situation where I will do quick pictures and sketches, but I feel nervous of doing anything more substantial. I don’t usually talk about how I feel mentally, but I’m feeling down today. I will probably be OK tomorrow?
A few paintings and cards at the Waiting Room gallery. I was thinking of doing a craft fair stall soon, but it’s too far away if I have to drive on my own. Since my arm started shaking I won’t drive far without my hubby. Not because I can’t but because I get very tense and my shoulders ache. I might try and get involved with something closer to home. In the meantime I need to work towards the end of my MA and also an exhibition I should be having in the spring or summer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mallaband-Brown