New paintings and regular art updates.
Grey man,
Carved stone
Oak leaves
And acorns
Sculpted from granite
A Robin
Might peck at you
Ivy entwine you
Algae wrap you in green
Lichen inhabit you
Stone you are
Soil you may become
With age and ice
Weather and water
Till ground into a powder
You are amalgamated
And your stone face
Is incorporated
Transformed and metamorphosised
Into a real tree.
Hubby went for a walk yesterday and his friend Ivan who runs Ivans UK Tours (@ivans_uk_tours) took this photo. Ivan had arranged a walk round Rudyard Lake in North Staffordshire. It’s a canal reservoir near Leek. I pinched this photo off his Facebook page because it is so lovely and I love the Green man design. They walked all the way round the lake starting off at the Rudyard Lake Hotel around the east side of the lake along the lanes because you can’t walk along the shoreline. Then up into the woods to the north end of the lake up steep pathways and along muddy tracks. They came back along the path of the old railway line that runs from the lake up towards Rushton Spencer. However they were walking South to the dam at the south end of the lake. From there you can walk back across to the hotel car park. Approximately 7miles.
I think Rudyard Kipling was named after Rudyard Lake I think…..?
I’ve not been well enough to go and when my hubby described the route I don’t think I could have managed it even if I was well!
We are rehearsing A Christmas Carol and hubby has got the part of Christmas Present. He’s a bit anxious so he will have a scroll to use with the script on to get through it.
It’s a bit strange to be doing this after three years of Covid, especially being among people who have got bad colds! We sort of sat across the room as much as possible to keep out of range of a cough. I’ve managed to avoid Covid since it emerged in 2019, I hope to carry on in safety.
I have a couple of small parts but my problem isn’t learning the lines as much as following the cues from the line before. But only two weeks to go. I’d better practice more!
I’m going to go to Spode Open Day on Saturday. It’s part of being a studio member at the old Spode Factory in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. I might be selling small paintings, but it’s been so long since I’ve been there that I have really got out of going in. With the pandemic and then illness and then a recent bereavement it’s been hard to pluck up courage to go in. My mind just got stuck in park (if that’s the phrase) and its been hard to get out of that feeling, but I think I’m slowly making progress. Anyway the painting is called Green Man, it’s a favourite subject of mine. Something serene and mystical about this mythical character (maybe not this particular one though).
Three years ago I painted my hubby ‘my green man’. It came up on my Facebook memories today. He is a green man, gardening does him good, helps him to try and relax. He is a bunging in gardener, there’s no rhyme or reasoning to his planting, and he just plants things where he likes, but he must have green fingers. That’s why I painted him as a green man. Acrylic on canvas.
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.
Just back from the last day of the BCB (British Ceramic biannual). I would have gone before but my leg restricted my movement. The exhibition was over three floors but luckily there was a lift. Of the numerous ceramics my favourites were a series of mosaics by a ceramic artist called Cleo Mussi. I will post other photos but I wanted to share these.
Can you see me?
Man or lion…
Staring angrily
Out at you.
… I’m hidden
Camouflaged…
Lost in your mind
Dream or nightmare?
One day I will catch you
And bite you
Twist and turn you
Revelation
.. While listening to a TV ad.
Abstract based on a green man jardinaire seen in Yorkshire and done using my old phone texture software (crude but it made interesting patterns). I actually miss it, I haven’t found anything that does it anymore.
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
Mallaband-Brown