Etruria Flint Mill

Posted on January 21, 2022January 21, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Canvas, Engine, Etruria, Fine Art, Landscape, Life, Painting, Steam engine, Stoke-on trent, TimeLeave a comment

I added my easle yesterday. Today I’m showing you my easle two years ago, I did a painting of Etruria Flint Mill. It’s also called Jessie Shirley’s Bone and Flint mill I think? It’s the only working Steam driven Flint mill in the country and the flints and bone were crushed and ground using the power of the steam driven beam engine there.

The buildings are part of Etruria Industrial Museum, a complex of cafe, the museum displays, and the Flint mill on the Trent and Mersey and Cauldon Canals at Etruria, Stoke on Trent. I’m not sure of its opening times. But once a month it used to be fired up and you could watch the fly wheel rotating round and the pans where the flints were ground rumbling as the engine turns them. Its amazing to see the industrial archeology of the potteries in action.

Faces

Posted on January 21, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Painting, Design, Michelangelo, School, Renaissance, Pop art, Warhol, Lichtenstein, playful, MarilynLeave a comment

I watched a programme about Andy Warhol last night. Even though its a while since he died it stated his Warholian influence is still widespread. It made me think about when I first found out about him. It was when I was at school. The paintings and screen prints of Campbells soup cans and portraits of Marilyn Monroe were the images I first saw. I was learning about Pop Art at the time. When you have just been learning about renaissance artists such as Michelagelo or Botticelli it’s a bit of a shock to see something different. Like the Roy Lichtenstein paintings such as ‘Whaam!’ using bright colours and screen print effects. I think Warhol and these other artists were what got me interested in being playful with art.

What’s on the easle?

Posted on January 20, 2022 Posted in Uncategorized, Fine ArtTagged Art, Design, Dragon, Drawing, Easle, Fun, mojo, Painting, Poem, Poetry, Rhyme, ThinkingLeave a comment

They ask

‘what’s on the easle?’.

I say

‘a lot of stuff’

Tissues and a coffee cup

And other sorts of muck

A drawing of a dragon

A pallette and a brush

A green painted canvas

If you really want to look….

I ought to be painting

But there’s been a delay

My minds gone off the boil now

It’s not coming out to play…

One day I’ll get my mojo back

I’ll start to paint again

But till that day my easle

Is a place to rest my brain!

Loving Vincent

Posted on January 18, 2022 Posted in Uncategorized, Fine ArtTagged Painting, Fine Art, Illustration, Film, History, Texture, Style, technique, Vincent, Vincent Van Gogh, 1890, animation2 Comments

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,

Little Earth painting

Posted on January 13, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Astronomy, Clouds, Earth, Land, Painting, Sea, Space, Time, WeatherLeave a comment

A couple of years ago I painted this picture of Earth. I was trying to get the shading right so the clouds sit above the surface was difficult. This is North America, Canada and part of Mexico and the Caribbean.

I hope the cloud shapes work and you can see the weather patterns. I wonder if anyone would be interested in paintings of worlds. It’s something I’m interested in. I’ve painted pictures of Jupiter and other astronomical images. I don’t use an airbrush for painting so it’s quite hard to get the granularity and softness of space and planets.

Drawing Van Gogh?

Posted on January 10, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, BBC, Documentary, Drawing, Oil painting, Painting, Sketch, Study, the potato eaters, Van Gogh1 Comment

When I look at this I see my mistakes..

I’m watching a drama documentary about Van Gogh. I decided to try and do a quick study of one of the women from ‘the potato eaters’.

The documentary is about Vincent Van Gogh. It is by Alan Yentob and stars Benedict Cumberbatch. It is about Van Gogh’s life and creativity. His mental health and the art he created. It’s a BBC documentary and might be available to see. I’m enjoying it.

Oops!

Posted on January 9, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Accident, buying, Nodding off, online auction, Painting, Sleep, Social media, TiredLeave a comment

One minute I’m looking at various art online because I wanted to research a particulate artist. The next I’m falling asleep because of being very tired. The trouble is I was still holding my phone and my finger was poised over the keypad. Oops! The next thing I knew my finger was close to an ‘add to basket’ button. I’d almost bought a £200 painting! It was very nice, but I have several bills to pay this month….

Note to self, put the phone down if you are going to fall asleep!

From the 80’s

Posted on January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged amalgamation, Art, Breath, Fine Art, Horse, Mythical, Mythological, Oil painting, Painting, Pegasus, UnicornLeave a comment

An oil painting on board I did sometime in the 1980’s. It’s a sort of combination of a Pegasus/Unicorn which also breathes the wind. It’s semi abstract with a feeling of being stained glass. I would have liked to have actually made it, if it was possible. It’s quite small, about 12″ by 16″, the colours are quite muted. I love the fun of experimenting with painting. I like the idea of making an amalgamation of creatures.

Willow pattern

Posted on January 4, 2022January 4, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artists, City, Clay, Close up, Creative, Painting, Poetry, potters poem, Pottery, Stoke-on trent, Willow patternLeave a comment

A bad, fuzzy close up

Of a painting I did

A willow pattern plate

That Spode pottery made

Based on patterns

That came from the east

So many variations

That you find all around.

Blue and white pottery

Glazed and painted

By skilled, creative artists

Paid by piecework,

(the number they did) .

Stoke on Trent city

A fading of clay,

But once so many people

Gave their art to the day.

Painting from college

Posted on December 31, 2021 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, boyfriend, College, Fine Art, Hubby, Life, Memory, Oil on canvas, Painting, Portrait, SnowLeave a comment

This is a painting I did when I was about twenty. I was at college doing my fine art degree and I had recently met my then boyfriend (now hubby). This was in my small studio at college. The painting has been on the wall for several years. I painted him sitting on a chair with his feet up. He hasn’t changed too much.

Outside there was snow lying on the hills above the city. You could just see the roofs of the college across the road. The rooms we worked in were reasonably light. I remember the studios upstairs had parquet flooring. It was a different world from what I came from. I’m glad I went.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Painting