New paintings and regular art updates.
Wall in Burslem painted with the Burleigh ware pattern that is available on pottery from Middleport pottery just down the road. There was a board below it which explained more but I was in a rush so just took a photo and then had to go. This is visible outside Burslem School of Art on the wall to the right of the front doors. As you probably know I love pattern so this is right up my street. Also this colour of blue is fabulous although the pieces I own are dark red and white.
Sitting in the Waiting room gallery, looking out on a blustery day. The road in front runs down past the gallery on the left of where I was seated then on behind me to the Longport station building where trains regularly stop. That is why the gallery is called :the Waiting room’. The gallery is linked with the station and is a community space that is run by the volunteers who have worked on maintaining the station building. I don’t know the full details but it’s good the station is still in use. Its just a short walk from there to the Trent and Mersey canal and along it to the Middleport pottery. It was a bleak, wet and windy day, but we were warm and snug at the gallery with a cup of coffee and a scone too!
Used a photodirector filter to give this photo a bit of a twist. The building is semi derelict like many others in Stoke-on-Trent. They sit huddled in the landscape, settling gently into decay. Some owners of the old pot banks just leave them. Maybe one day to be renovated. At one stage there were plans to turn some of them in museums. But money doesn’t come this way very often. We are lucky to have places like the Gladstone pottery museum and Middleport pottery open for visitors, but so many more are falling down. A sad situation.
It’s a lovely little cat with yellow and black decoration. It’s only small, about 7 inches tall. He’s smart and adds to my ornaments on the mantlepiece. Emma does larger cats and lots of other objects. The ceramics have designs that are reminiscent of Clarice Cliff pottery from the 1930’s.
Emma Bailey ceramics is based at Middleport pottery in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Check opening times as the pottery is open at the moment.
This is one of the mugs I bought from Emma Bailey Ceramics. She’s done a run of them to celebrate Penkhull Winning the #WorldSeriesOfFlags from the #theflaginstitute. Great fun. Bonus, if you live in Penkhull you get a discount!
So pleased with them. Its also good because we won the #FACupOfFlags. I helped design the flag as part of a competition a couple of years ago. That’s some Christmas presents sorted out.
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I like to try and sketch things when I’m visiting places, and this is my attempt at a steam engine when we were visiting. Middleport pottery in August 2018.i don’t know why I thought it was bad, it doesn’t look too awful now in hindsight. I can be too critical of myself sometimes. It’s a bit wonky but when you are trying to draw a moving bit of machinery it’s not easy. Anyway I’m publishing it, so I’ve forgiven myself for my mistakes.
Black ink pen on cartridge paper, it’s probably in one of my numerous sketchbooks, somewhere in the pile of drawings and sketches I have built up over the years.
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Photo of Middleport pottery. The walls are stained with pottery clay. These buildings are now artisan studios. Make do and mend. Reusing old buildings rather than knocking them down. But it costs money to do that. Historical buildings are getting demolished, history is being destroyed. Old buildings that could be refurbished are sometimes left to rot. There is a place in Dudley, in the West Midlands, called the black Country museum. They have demolished old buildings, then rebuilt them on the site. Maybe my city should do the same. X
Two paintings I did for a leaflet a couple of years ago. The first was of Middleport pottery, a split image of two areas of the pottery, done to fit the images onto the page. The second, a view of the Trent and Mersey canal showing a lock that barges travel through where the water level changes. Opening the gates allows water to flow through and boats to go up and down the canal.
Acrylic paint on watercolour paper. Used by the canal and river trust on their leaflet.
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Help! After a day painting I called in at the waiting room gallery to set up my craft stall for the weekend. I didn’t remember to take a photo, so this is from the previous weekends stall. I’ve added more Christmassy pictures to it.
So if you happen to be in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent, this weekend you might like to come along. You could also visit a Middleport pottery show and Cherished Chimneys in Longport.
If you can’t read the writing it says (bit truncated) weeping window, 31. 8.18, middleport pottery.
The drawing is of thousands of ceramic poppies which were displayed on the bottle oven at Middleport pottery, middleport, Stoke-on-Trent in August last year. These poppies had travelled round the country to commemorate the men who had fallen in the first World War.
At one stage the poppies were not going to come to Stoke-on-Trent despite thousands of them being made here. I for one am glad they came.
Mallaband-Brown