New paintings and regular art updates.
I finished this painting of the old Methodist Chapel in Penkhull. I added some details including cobblestones reflecting the sky colours. The Chapel was built in 1836 about six years before the church was built on the top of the hill. Then of course I started something new.
This is a large image of a willow pattern platter. I’m a bit further on with it than this. I think I won’t be able to finish it till next week.
After this I went to sing at the church for the One night only show.
I moved away from home 40 years ago. I was going to college and I got in to the polytechnic I attended. I completed my qualification and met my partner who became my hubby. We stayed here and although I went “home” for visits I never went back to the town I was born in properly, I mean permanently.
That was OK, but then my parent died and my sister who had lived there all her life decided to move away to another town. Now when I feel homesick I can’t drive there. It would be too odd to park outside. Would the new owners be aware I was there? Would it seem like stalking? I dont think I could do it. But what I do sometimes do is look on Google maps. I used to use the figure Icon and look at the house as if I was in the street. Obviously it’s not photographed every year but I noted changes in the drive and trees that have been removed. Now Google maps only shows me a view from the air. I used to use the roadside version so I could pretend to drive home. At least I have good memories but I do miss my old Home. X
I took these photos a couple of days ago outside the studios at Spode. Su Hurrell is an artist there and she works with urban garden planting. She works with other artists and uses objects like washing machines, old chairs, a chest of drawers and other objects.
Other places are being greened in the town centre. There is Spode Rise garden by the China Halls in Kingsway, Stoke, and then some wild planting along London Road and Hartshill and in Lonsdale Street.
I enjoy seeing these plants, it’s great to see people using planting in exciting new ways.
Tonight is the dress rehearsal for “one night only” which we are performing on Friday. It’s come round too quickly. I’m very nervous. It’s a long session, with climbing up and down on wooden blocks, standing in formation and ‘trying’ to sing in four part harmony.
The church needs a lot of work it was built on the church yard in the 1840’s. It was designed by Pugin and the floor tiles are by Minton. The collection will go towards the restoration. It won’t go far towards the cost but it’s worth doing.
I say argh because I am really tired. I was helping cut back our hedge earlier and my arms ache.
I also have a costume change. My top is drying outside on the washing line, I’m hoping it will be dry in time.
X
A few years ago we did a mystery play which had to include the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This horse was made by my friend Kate and I painted it and another one in a Picasso style to give it an angular and aggressive look.
As time goes on and we get older we are doing less complicated making, basically because we are spending less time doing it. For myself I would like to do more. Anyway I’m off in a bit. Lots to do…
X
Playing with duplicated images, me and my hubby. I want to visualizer us without the clarity of a painted portrait.
Most faces are lopsided, by duplicating and flipping them you can get an interesting mirror image. I used the layout app on my phone to do this.
Anyone who has seem mirrored images of Edgar Allen Poe will see what I mean. He has a very lopsided face, one side stretched and the other side slightly shrunken. When you see his face mirrored on the right then left side it looks like you are looking at two seperate people.
In my case I changed my selfie to black and white, then I drew over it. The second picture had the exposure altered as well. Then I flipped the right hand side top to bottom but not left to right.
X
Today I got some photos of Minton tiles in St Thomas’s Church penkhull. I’ve got to paint some for the Mystery play so I needed to see the genuine article. I’m hoping I can get a realistic look to them. They are in a scene where they have to be sold to raise money.
What I like are the simple colours, browns, pale ochres, blues and white. The interesting geometric patterns and curves. I may struggle to replicate them. But you have to try!
X
On a bright sunny day Spode can be fascinating. The huge chimney with its Spode sign and the skeletal remains of the factory show a stark yet beautiful side of the manufacturing world.
Spode Site is in the town of Stoke-upon-Trent and is situated in an area bounded by Glebe Street, Church Street and Eleanora Street.
The site is mostly off limits to the public, but studio holders and visitors are able to access parts of it to use and to produce arts and crafts and enjoy workshops.
The hotel at the site seems to be doing well and they have expanded the area outside for seating.
Then in September the BCB (British ceramic biannual) arrives in town. There should be plenty to see and do.
I’m doing some backdrops for the Penkhull mystery play. I have calico to paint on, rather than static flat paintings that I usually do. This years backdrops are going to be rolled up and dropped down for the appropriate scenes.
Today apart from painting two willow pattern birds on papier mache I painted an eight foot by four foot backdrop of the church.
The problem was seeing the church through the trees. These mature lime trees have grown tall in the intervening years since the Church was built in the 1840’s. The backdrop is minus the trees. There was apparently a quarry and marl pit at the top of the hill which eventually filled with water and was a duck pond before it was filled in. There was a school on the land before the church was built and it was rebuilt at the top of Trent Valley Road (now the village hall). At the alter end of the church on the outside there were pigsties. I think these must predate the church.
More information about the village of penkhull can be found in books by the local author Richard Talbot.
More painting news will follow when I paint more.
X
Dear Agony Aunt,
My sleep patterns have stayed the same for twenty years. Staying up late was to do with being awake when my husband got in from work around 1am. I would then have to get up for work in the morning so was always tired. He could sleep in later as he was on a permanent “noon” shift. Now however he goes to bed a lot earlier than me. If I go to bed early I have to read to relax and then I can nod off. He, on the other hand, must be in a different time zone to me. He goes to bed if I have to go out in the evening. The last two nights when I got in he was in bed by 9.30pm.
Great you say. But then he woke up at 2am as I was coming to bed and we ended up chatting till 4am. It was getting light.
So Dear Agony Aunt, what do I do? Eschew grown up bedtimes and go to bed early. This would have the effect of trying to get us back in sync, but I would have to miss late night TV and news. Or should I just go to bed when I want, which would at least prevent me lying in bed trying to get to sleep for hours. I’m hoping this is a phase. My hubby is getting older but he lives on nervous energy, he’s always moving and talking in the day, and it’s like his batteries have drained in the evening. Maybe I should make him strong coffee….
Mallaband-Brown