I still love this meme

Posted on September 27, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colour, Design, Education, Fine Art, Fun, Learning, Meme, Pattern, Thinking, Time2 Comments

1 in 5 teenagers experiment with art….I don’t know who created it, but I love it!

I shared this meme three years ago on Facebook because it spoke to me. Art is so important to the world. You need art to design things, to have an idea of what clothes, cars, white goods, trains, homes, workplaces will look like. Cutting funding for the arts hits theatre, performing arts, music, computer aided design, surface pattern, and so many other services that bring income into countries. It’s not just painting and sculpture, printmaking and textiles, ceramics and surface pattern. Artists and designers help support the world. Next time you use a plate to eat off, cutlery to eat with, use a table to sit at, wear clothes that fit you and are not grey tubes of rough cloth, then remember art helps to design out world.

I need to go back…

Posted on September 11, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Colour, Covid, delta variant, Fine Art, Life, Painting, Prevarication, Time, worried nervous2 Comments

My studio, I’m still nervous because of the delta variant of covid to go back into it. I need to paint but I’ve got that feeling that I’m on a knife edge, I don’t know what to do? It’s strange, I’m spending the money but for almost two years now I have felt very worried. Maybe I need some talking therapy, everything is getting too much….

Will the Leopard reopen?

Posted on August 14, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Burslem, Emulsion on lining paper, Fine Art, Memories, Mural, Painting, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, The Leopard HotelLeave a comment

In about 2006 and 2007 I painted several murals in the Arnold Bennett suite of the Leopard Hotel. It has appeared on Britain’s most Haunted on TV and until a couple of years ago was still open. Now no one seems to know what is happening with it. I’m sure it still needs a lot of work doing on it. No doubt my murals will get painted over if it is refurbished. It’s sad, because for a few years the place thrived. But there was also bad luck there. I wish things coukd be better for it. X

Dog, work in progress

Posted on July 23, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Animal portrait, Art, Colours, Dog, Fine Art, fur, Painting, Texture, Work in progress4 Comments

Acrylic on canvas, a few more layers. The rough edges of his coat, where they touch the grass, need sorting out. The dig has got a silver coat and a collar and lead on which I’ve left out so I’m trying to decide where the shadows should fall and his fur. I think I’ve made some of it too yellow, I need daylight to check.

WIP dog continued

Posted on July 15, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Colours, Dog, Fine Art, Grass, Green, Painting, Pet, Wip, Work in progress4 Comments

Grass painted and coat underpainted, need to work on the colour and details now. His coat is a bit greyer and I want to get more of the fine fur details.

Poppies

Posted on July 3, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, art page, emblem, Fine Art, Painting, Poppy, Red, VarietiesLeave a comment

I found some poppy seed heads yesterday, orange ones, maybe a type of Welsh poppy? I have always loved the varieties, from big oriental ones to small delicate flowers, and amazing blue himalayan ones that apparently like shade and dam ground.

This was a painting I did back in 2013, acrylic on canvas. I had it as my emblem for my art page for a few years.

Forgot to enter..

Posted on June 26, 2021June 26, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Annoyed, Art, Fine Art, Forgot, Mistake, Painting, Red, self portrait2 Comments

I was going to enter a couple of paintings to the three counties open this year. I thought the closing date was 30th June, but it turns out I had misread the email. The closing date has gone, it was the 20th. The work will be on display from the 30th of July 2021. I am a little annoyed with myself. I knew it was soon but I’ve been busy. I’m very disappointed. I could try next year. But that’s a year away! Grrrr!

Vision Exhibition

Posted on June 21, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Exhibition, Fine Art, Mixed media, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Painting, Print, resin art, soft sculpture, the Rigger Venue, VisionLeave a comment

Vision was a collectively curated exhibition by local artists exploring themes of aesthetics, sight, self-image, re-authoring and mythology, showcasing a variety of work including traditional painting, collage, resin and soft sculpture. Working outside the typical white cube gallery space at The Rigger Venue allowed for a unique and exciting exhibition experience. You could book a time slot to enjoy this Covid-safe art space with a table to sit, discuss and enjoy the art works after seeing the show.

Curation and artworks by Liz Ankers, Megan Kettle, Lorna Lakin, Christine Mallaband-Brown, Deborah Travis and Eve Travis.

Self portrait as a green woman

Posted on June 17, 2021June 18, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Exhibition, Female art, Fine Art, Green woman, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Painting, Portrait, self portrait, the Rigger Venue, vision exhibition8 Comments

One of my paintings from a couple of years ago. I’ve decided to put it in the Vision Exhibition this Saturday and Sunday at the Rigger Venue in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I have been working on it to give it a more three dimensional feel. That’s why I’m posting this at 2.21am…I just finished it. It’s acrylic on canvas and about 12 inches square. Now I need mirror plates and screws. That will be a task for tomorrow.

This is up now at the Rigger. Hope things go well. X

Druid painting finished

Posted on June 12, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Fine Art, four elements, Green man, Local artists, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Painting, the Rigger Venue, vision exhibition3 Comments

I started this in 2018, but it was sitting in my studio so last year before the pandemic happened I tried to finish it off, but I only went in a couple of times. So today I finally finished it, I tidied up some untidy lines, added various dark greens and black. Then I added some magenta, white and iridescent silver and gold to brighten it and add contrast.

I’m happier than I was with it. I think it’s going in the exhibition I’m part of next weekend at the Rigger Venue, Newcastle-under-Lyme. The works I have chosen are all mythical, based on the four ancient elements or the green man idea. Some have been exhibited before. Some haven’t been seen before. X