She stands in front of her cottage. Molly Leigh, the Burslem witch. Notorious and buried in the local churchyard at 90° to the other burials. The painting is based on a peasant woman painting by Theodore Gericault.
This was one of my murals in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem. The pub burnt down at the weekend. I am bereft. I am trying to pass on my memories to keep a feeling of what it was. I painted these on the walls. Emulsion on lining paper directly onto the wall. I’ve had a few comments that they could have been taken down. I don’t think people understand what a mural is.
In 2006 to 2007 I painted a series of twelve murals at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Recently the pub has been closed down after the previous owner left.
I was asked by the owners Neil Crisp and Neil Cox to do a series of Murals based on the history of Burslem. I painted the Burslem riot scene whose characters included local residents and pub staff, a murder scene of a woman said to have been killed there, a pottery worker at the end or start of her shift. I also painted ‘the Leopardess’ one of the original owners, a picture of Molly Leigh, the Burslem witch, pottery owner Josiah Wedgwood, and three of his friends discussing the building of the Trent and Mersey canal. Also Arthur Berry, famous artist and my tutor at college. Walter a pub regular who had drunk there since his youth. A Clarice Cliff design called Umbrellas, and a painting of the Burslem Angel that stands in top of the old town Hall. I also designed and painted a design for a coat of arms for the hotel.
I always wanted some decent photos of the murals but only have a few pictures. The lighting was not very good in the Arnold Bennett suite. They at least are some memories I have.
The pub was renowned for being haunted and regular ghost tours of the empty hotel rooms attracted a lot of attention. It was even featured in ‘Britains most haunted’ a TV show.
It was a couple of years ago that it closed. Covid didn’t help. I was sad to see it shut but it sounded like they had someone interested in getting it going again.
Over the last few days a report came out that it had been broken into and someone had been arrested ror growing cannabis in there.
Now? Who knows. Apparently three people have been arrested for setting fire to it? Whatever happens its so sad. I guess it will be unrecoverable, destroyed. Part of my life has gone with it.
I can’t remember the story behind this or whether there was a prompt. I drew it last year. I had to draw something with four panels for my college course. It starts with someone by a campfire. The fire goes out so they go to get more wood, But instead of it all being sticks, a snake, which had been asleep wakes up. I like the simple style I drew it in and the minimal images in it. But now I look back at it I worry that the snake would have been burned or might have woken up before being put on the embers. Even with a simple story you have to be aware of consequences!
What does a dragon need to stay safe? If you read The Hobbit, Smaug the dragon was killed by an arrow that pierced a soft area in his skin under his arm. Dragons have to have a strong skin..
So what would it look like? I’ve been experimenting with how big the scales would be. I guess they would have to be like an alligator or crocodile skin, rather than a lizard or snake whose scales seem smaller or softer. The dragon would need fire retardant scales to prevent charring or burning either around its mouth when it is fire breathing or on the rest of its body. Maybe male dragons duel in short fights, if they were to attack each others wings they would need to be strong. Dragons wings always look vulnerable. The skin is stretched between bony fingers. Surely that could easily be holed if it were not well maintained. Lots to consider.
It was a quiet evening, we’d been for a walk and I was washing up and washing the shopping. Hubby went outside to plant a rose and put some seeds in. Suddenly he ran through the kitchen with a bucket of water?!
I shouted what’s going on and as he came back for the washing up bowl filled with water. He said the pine trees on fire! What pine tree? He shot in and out again so I filled up the bucket again and then the washing up bowl.
It turns out he had set light to some rubbish in the chimnea in the garden, and it had set light to a leylandi tree!
The neighbours car was parked by our garden, it had burning embers falling in it so we are responsible for damaging its paint finish. They called out the fire brigade who arrived about twenty minutes later. They checked the fire was out with a heat sensor. The telephone cables above the hedge the tree was in might be damaged, so the firemen said they would call the telephone company as its not just us that has a land-line. Finally we exchanged insurance details with the neighbour. Hubby is mortified! If I don’t post much more I think I’m in shock!
When I came to Stoke as a student our first year was in student flats but then we had to find our own accommodation. Six of us (three couples) shared a terraced house. Two bedrooms upstairs and me and my boyfriend now hubby shared the front living room. No hot water, just a cold tap in the kitchen and a broken electric water heater tap thing over the sink. No bathroom, loo at the end of the yard (freezing cold, you took a torch with you at night). No central heating. Just an open hearth with a grate in the back living room. We used to burn old wood and bits of cheap coal. No TV, just a radio…. I remember one winter it was so cold we slept on the floor in front of the fire. My hubbies crank on his bike snapped when he tried to ride off in the snow because he kept it outside and it was well below freezing. Oh and single pane glass in the windows. Had to go to the Polytechnic every day for a shower…
It was tough but it was fun. When I saw the young ones TV programme a few years later it reminded me of that house!
This popped up in my memories on Facebook and I remember doing four of these, Earth, Fire, Water, Air in ArtRage oils, but I can’t find the other three. I did them as companion pieces to four acrylic on canvas paintings of the same subjects that are in my studio down at spode which I really need to start going back to now things are a little more normal.
I’d like like to do some illustrations for a child’s book using ideas like this. Anyone interested?
I’ve been watching the news about the bush fires in Australia an it is awful and devastating. Not only are there hundreds of fires, but they have spread over a huge area. The started around Sidney which has been smothered in smoke for weeks. But then more have started in the West and South of the continent. The Southern hemisphere is moving into summer and the temperatures are rising. They have measured the highest ever temperature there in the last couple of days. Over 40°C and rising. The fires are being fanned by 40 mile an hour winds. They are burning out of control in some places, and the drought affected land is so parched there isn’t the water to put them out. I have friends out there and I worry for them. Meanwhile their prime minister went away on holiday to Hawaii and is only coming home because of the outcry from its population.
One thing that did happen was that there were great clouds of smoke drifting across the road just up from the waiting room gallery. I went to look what was happening, fire was burning in a big pile of rubbish and palettes just across the canal from me. This was at the rear of the Price and Kensington pottery factory in Longport next to the bottle kiln there.
The fire was burning rapidly so I rang the fire brigade. They said they had already had a call and were on the way…
A funny thing, I posted this to Facebook and had a strange response, apparently there are fires there all the time, they are just burning rubbish. Why had I bothered to call? My answer. The fire was quite big, the smoke drifting across the road was as thick as gig. I drive up there quite a lot now at weekends and I’ve never seen this. Finally it was burning next to a caravan and a car.. It needed reporting.
Mallaband-Brown 