New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m trying to collate all my dragon images for my college project. I keep finding them in different files and places. I need too take good photos of my art so that I can produce good quality images for it. I was trying to create a middle ages design. More snake like than the more modern style of dragon you can find. Even though they are mythical they seem to evolve! Now I need to do more research into the history of dragons and their symbolic meanings.
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was Station. Very quick sketch of Cheddleton Station from a photo. I used a picture as its probably not open to the public till Easter but we’ve been there and on the train several times.
Half past five in the evening and the clouds scud by. There’s still light in the sky but the rain showers keep pounding the windows. I love the newly washed look of the air. Almost sparkling. When I came here forty years ago there was far more heavy industry in the area. Smoke and dust polluted the air. A smog sometimes settled over the city and you could smell the fumes from the tyre factory or enamel being fired onto pottery if the wind was in the right direction. Now the wind is more a carrier of sound. The local A road and the motorway. The occasional sound of pile drivers when new buildings are erected, which is not very often. Sometimes smoke travels on the forlorn breeze as an old building accidentally burns down. So sad. So much bustle gone. We are a warehouse city of poorly paid jobs. No real chances. No ambition if the naysayers are believed. I think we can do better. Think creative, be creative. Let a bit of light shine on us. X
Can you see my face?
Looking in to your space?
A ghost in the window
Trapped in the glass
An image of when
I came here last!
Little Moreton Hall
Tudor house
I was here a while ago
And I saw your face.
I was startled
Not my reflection
But an old woman
Dressed in silk
The colour of lemon.
So strange to think
You may see me
I see you too
Bizarre
I shout Boo!
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 need to start working on my college project. I’ve given myself time to recover from a bad cold, but I can’t ignore it. I need to produce a portfolio of images and a report to go alongside it. I’ve decided to write about the history of dragons in illustrations. Their images in world history, moving forward in time to medieval art and then the present day including their appearances in literature and film. My portfolio will be illustrations and text for a children’s book exploring colour and pattern alongside an adventure. I hoe it works out.
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,
This large papier mache hat was made for out pantomime a few years ago, it was about a meter wide. Painted to look like an old Spode pottery design. With roman or grecian patterns round the cup. I wish we could be certain that the pantomime we are rehearsing at the moment. This is a photo I found on my phone because I’m trying to clear off some of them to make more space, but I’m keeping this one.
I just saw a photo of this painting and thought of simpler times. When people could meet in groups, no one wore face coverings, and there was less fear in the world.
The conversation flows, there is gentle banter, there are smiles and laughter. People drink and eat and share food, a mouthful or two of delicious fruit or a compote. Wine and beer, fruit juice and water. The voices murmur, no need to shout through a mask and at a distance. I hope we can go back to more carefree times, but we will have to see. Stay safe. X
An Egyptian statue at the the Liverpool museum of the World. I saw this on the trip we went on to see the terracotta warriors that had been on tour from China. I took the photo because of the contrast between the two. Terracotta warriors are in uniforms and armour. This figure is lightly clothed in a sort of kilt and with a stylised stance that echos the figures of Egyptians depicted on temple and pyramid walls. Even so the face looks real, staring out after centuries of history. I wish I could remember the story behind it. I think this is carved stone as opposed to the fired clay of the warriors. You can deduce some things from how a depiction of a person looks. This man looks strong and fit, but the head seems slightly too big for the body. Perhaps the body is a generic stylised figure and the head is a portrait? I wonder if they had many stone masons making these images or were they one off commissions. Maybe I should try and find out.
Mallaband-Brown