New paintings and regular art updates.
I might have somewhere to show my art again soon. I have been in touch with a cafe that might display some of my paintings. I’m considering including this but the glass broke and the card mount has cockled a bit. It’s a view along the platform of Cheddleton Station which is near Leek in Staffordshire. I painted it from a photo I’d taken during a visit a few years ago. It partner to a painting of the upper floor of Cheddleton Station that I did at the same time. Both are in watercolours.
I painted this teapot six years ago when I first moved into my studio at Spode. This is a medium sized acrylic on canvas. It’s from my imagination, and the flower design is based on the pattern ‘calico’ by the Burleigh pottery. I think its based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. I made the wooden panels up from my memory. I still have this painting at my studio at Spode.
A few years ago I painted a picture of the willow pattern on an imaginary platter. I used two seperate images of a willow pattern plate and amalgamated them into one. The willow pattern has several iconic aspects. A pine tree, willow tree, three people crossing a bridge, temples, boats, love birds. I’m sure they will have explanations of what they stand for. I really enjoyed creating this. X
I have a few new paintings. Mostly matchbox sized. I’m putting them in the exhibition of Orme Art Group work at the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme. It runs from February to the end of March. We will be having the display in the entrance window. Wish me luck, I hope to sell a few pieces.
One of our local museums, the Brampton, in Newcastle under Lyme, is letting the Orme Art Group exhibit work in their entrance window from the end of January for two months. It’s a chance to sell work or at least get our work in front of a new audience. We each can show one work plus some smaller pieces. Plus it gets a painting out of the house for a while. I hope the display does well.
Time blurs everything. Thirty years ago I was doing a course at college and for a while I rented a small studio with two other artists. But it didnt work out. One of them was collecting egg boxes to try and insulate the walls as the place was freezing in the winter but also to try and deaden the noise of rock music one of the artists used to like playing. The windows had arched wooden frames that were quite architectural but they were single glazed. I only painted a few things but when I was there and the music was on it would drive me mad. Unfortunately I could only use the place in the evenings and that coincided with the rock sessions. So I gave it up in the end. Now I’m looking at leaving my current studio. It’s too expensive to carry on renting. If it is the choice between paying rent for it or paying the fuel bills I have to make the sensible choice.
Safe place
Staying home
Don’t want to go out
Into the world
This is my cocoon
Wrapped round me
His presence
His garden
My solace
Seeking salvation
My sanctuary.
Who are the biggest influences in your life?
Of all the influences on my life various artists stand out as the main contenders. These include in no particular order:
Michaelangelo, Leonardo Davinci, Berthe Morissette,the French Impressionists a lot of the surrealist movement, David Hockney, Maggie Hambling, and so many more.
I don’t paint in any of their manners, some of their techniques are totally beyond me. But I do feel excited by their work.
Colours, patterns, shapes, the way they deal with light and shade. Perception, composition, knowledge, understanding. Looking and learning. Painting is a wonderful skill, I wish more people practiced it.
I cannot say that
Over several months a friend has been collecting some of my smaller paintings. She sent me this photo of them yesterday and it struck me how varied they are!
The galleon painting has gold paint on it to give a feeling of the sunlight reflecting back up onto the reverse of the sails.
The small painting of the woman in the woods was taken from a photo from a friend, I loved the atmospheric feeling of it and tried to evoke the colours of autumn.
The dragon is based on an image that I had created for my college piece on the mythology of dragons. I had drawn and designed a children’s book and this was one of the ideas I used for it.
I’m so pleased my art is being appreciated, I love being creative and it keeps me going. X
#bandofsketchers prompt was making. I’m making paintings by gluing little canvas boards in frames and painting different ideas for a craft fair on Sunday. This is an abstract, it could represent a stone or mineral.
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