Tag: Old House

Carpet

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Section of a painting I did about 1993. It’s interesting to look at how I painted the pattern on the carpet. It was actually a large rug on a terracotta and black tiled floor. This was in our old rented house which was quite delapidated. The cellar underneath this room was very wet and the mortar was rotting. It was held up by an acroprop and you could see the floor was bowing downward so we didn’t use the room much and I used it as a studio. When you changed a light bulb you needed to take insulation tape with you. The wire was cloth covered and would fall off when you changed the bulb. There’s a lot I could say about that old house, but that’s it for now. It is funny how a painting can evoke so many memories.

Old oil painting

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1980s large canvas. Painted in oils, it was only a few years later that I started using acrylics instead. It’s about 5 ft by 4 ft or something like that. It depicts our old front room, in the house we used to live in. The cellar underneath the front room was starting to collapse, its vaulted ceiling held up with an acroprop. Why was I painting a giant cat? Because I love them, and patterns (wallpaper, clothes etc). The small cat in the corner is playing with a roll of wool. The box says Walsall Art supplies, where I came from. I’d call this a narrative painting.

Cat finds warm place

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It’s warm on top of the armchair, now my radiator is fixed. And the new chair has a flat area at the top so the cat can happily fit. In the background is part of a large painting I did in our old house. It’s oil on a huge canvas. Like a lot of my art I forget it’s there sometimes. The little cat in the corner was one of the first we had when I moved there.

Knocking on?

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Man knocking on the front door of an old, derelict house out in the countryside. Knocking is also a phrase in England that means getting older hence “the old man who was ‘knocking on’ in age, knocked on the door of the derelict house”. Perhaps knocking means that the person is either becoming elderly, or even approaching death. There are so many strange phrases in the English language. ‘Knocking on’ can be changed to ‘getting on’ or even ‘clocking on’ which can also mean getting your clock card punched by a machine at the start of a factory shift. The more you learn the more there is to find out!

Overgrown

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A thicket, overgrown, a hedge tall and wide hiding the house behind it. Who lives there? No sign of movement. The gate locked shut. Curtains and boards up at the windows. Abandoned? Hidden, a haven for birds and wildlife. The smell and calls of foxes. But a house in need of care.

He looked through the hedge and wondered. Where had his family gone? Inheritance had finally happened and he was the only person found. He would start by cutting back the trees and hedges, but gently. He wanted to keep the wildness, but with some flowers and vegetables. It would take time.

He looked for a long time. Yes he could do it. Nature and garden would be in harmony. Life would be preserved and given its chance.

Memories of a painting

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Old painting I did a long time ago. It was painted in the living room of our old house. The floor was collapsing into the cellar and was held up by a large steel bar with two scaffolding poles holding each end. The cellar was also wet, it used to drip condensation onto the floor. I remember the wiring was bad. The flex to the lights was twisted and cloth covered. If you touched it bits would drop off. If I wanted to change a light bulb I used to put insulation tape around the wire. The bathroom was an old coal shed that had been knocked through. Our neighbour complained about a bulge on our wall so the dangerous buildings inspector came out. The bulge was OK it had been built like that. But we had to move because he warned our landlord that the property was not safe. We bought the painting with us to the new house.

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Student memories

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Forty years ago, here are two of my friends who I shared a student house with. Unlike the accommodation today things were different then. It’s like something out of ‘the young ones’ TV series. There was no hot water, just a broken water heater. I hate to say this but there was no bathroom and we used the showers at the college. The washing machine was an old twin tub. Our cooker was gas, but there was no gas fire. Instead we just had a coal fire to warm the whole house. And the toilet was down the yard in an outhouse.

We moved on into a slightly less tumble down house, finished college, and ended up in our own house. But I actually enjoyed life in that house. X

1993 painting

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I’ve got this four foot by five foot oil painting that I did in 1993 on the living room wall. It’s just behind where I sit, and sometimes I knock onto it, so I’m occasionally worried that the string it’s on will break and it will come crashing down!

Anyway, you can tell I love cats. The big one was on the front of a magazine if I remember. The small one in the corner, playing with the wool, was ours. We had her for about nineteen years. I just found the photos on my Facebook memories page. The figure is me and I’ve painted a baggy jumper I had. I love patterns and painted the wallpaper pattern. This was my studio before we moved to out current home.

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