New paintings and regular art updates.
Is a chair!
I have a real studio
Down at spode
Was going today
But I hurt my foot!
Going to paint
Going to draw,
But I turned my foot
On the floor.
To get to Spode
Means climbing stairs…
A really short walk
Not too far,
But my foot is sore..
So I’ll stare at my chair…
Feet up..
Before it burnt down, the Leopard Hotel was a great place to visit, the owners asked me to paint a series of murals in the Arnold Bennett suite at the back of the hotel.
Here is one of a few photos a visitor to it took of my paintings. It doesn’t show them clearly, but it does give an idea of the sizes and the distances between them.
I’ve painted murals at other places but the buildings they were in have mostly been demolished! I’m not complaining but I think its sad that all the effort that was put in to paint them has been lost. Some of them were joint projects with artists from Stoke-on-Trent city council. I was just helping on those and wasn’t the main artist so I don’t feel as attached to them as I did with the Leopard. Such a sad loss to the town of Burslem. It was a historic building that had a lot of influence on the lives of its residents.
Another old painting from 2015, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking and it’s probably best forgotten!
Things I would change? The colours possibly. I would try and work from a horse photo because this isn’t very anatomically correct, I know it doesn’t actually have wings either! I guess I’ve made it delicate to be light enough to be held up by wings… Strange what you create as an artist.
My friend Apple has a restaurant and also a coffee shop. The shop has been closed for a while because of the pandemic, but now things are calming down she’s trying to reopen it. After three years she’s putting a lot of work into creating a social and friendly space for people to meet up. She’s given herself a month to get things sorted out. I was talking to her and found this photo of an old painting I did based on the painting Proserpine by one of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. I can’t remember the actual artist.
What I did was to try and copy the painting and add an apple instead of a pomegranate to relate to my friends name. You can’t see but I also painted Apples coffee house at the top right on a sign. Sorry the photos a bit blurry!
Don’t dip your brush in your tea!
It might make it taste foul..
You’ll see!
Oil and water doesn’t mix
And you’ll be in a fix!
Cos your tea isn’t water
Remember you ought’a
Put your mug somewhere else
Linseed oil, or turps taste
Vile, what a mistake…
Take it from me!
The falcon works in Stoke has an emblem on the wall of the old derelict pottery, it is a Goss hawk. I took a photo of it and painted it onto this wooden planter from Project 2000?in Stoke on Trent. I painted on all the individual bricks too. It’s been outside for a couple of years and it’s still looking good because I put a thick layer of yatch varnish all over it to protect it.
Today was the last day of the Fine Art BA (honours) degree shows, and art foundation show at Staffordshire University. It’s an annual event and I have tried to get there most years since I graduated from there myself.
I think this year the body of work was excellent. There seemed to be a resurgence of painting and there was some beautiful art. There was quirky, humourous and poignant art too. Dotted throughout the show were “Mushroom Creatures” for a piece called “the oddity of connection”. They were small felted wool figures with mushroom heads or hairstyles. Very unusual. A bit like mythological creatures, I think they had won first place in the degree show.
I’m so glad I was reminded to go to see the shows. And lovely to see such a variety of styles, it takes me right back to when I was there all those years ago.
The cogs are a bit messy on the hat. I might change the shading, but I’m painting under electric light now so it’s got a different cast or hue to how it was painting in daylight. But it’s almost done…. Tiring and hard to see details…. I’ve added a few gold highlights, I might add some silvers. I will have it done by tomorrow I think….
My pallette wrapped in cling film. I did a bit more on my painting today but my arms are aching and I want a rest. If you wrap your acrylic paint up to keep the moisture in it will stay soft and you can carry on using it. It saves wasting it. This is a trick I didn’t really know about until a while ago, I’ve always let my paints dry on the pallette so I’m glad I learnt about this x
Adding some swirliness to mimic a digital style I like. Why shouldn’t digital and analogue ideas merge? I’m not channelling Van Gogh, just having a bit of fun with texture. I’m going to calm down the Green glasses and add some silver or gold to them… I need to work out how the sky will look. But now… A rest!
Mallaband-Brown