New paintings and regular art updates.
Our Orme group continues to meet and create new art.
We are holding our annual exhibition, with paintings, sculpture, jewellery and other art and crafts available. There will be festive refreshments available.
We have new artists who have joined this year so there will be different work amongst the art on display. If you are in the area of Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, on 23rd November 2025 why not come along?
Found an old photo of my mural of Walter a regular at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, the other picture is my reimagined portrait of Molly Leigh, based on the mural I did of her. Both murals were destroyed when the pub burnt down a couple of years ago. I might try and recreate the Walter one too. The final photo is of my Molly Leigh painting and my Spode circular window painting in the Orme Art Group Exhibition at the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme. It’s on at the moment.
There is a new community project nearby and I went up yesterday to have a chat and try and feel a bit more engaged with people. Various things are happening including knitting and crochet, crafts, painting, and writing. It got me out of the house and helped save money on heating. While I was there I did a sketch of a couple of the attendees.
They called me their resident artist which I thought was rather sweet, although there are lots of other people creating artwork there, so it’d not really an accolade I should accept. But it is giving me the opportunity to maintain my skills. I don’t shake as much when I concentrate.
Today was different, I went to my group meeting for my mental health, it’s another craft group, but after I’d had a bit of breakfast I felt really icky, I ended up coming home early, mostly feeling overwhelmed and tired now. But I must try and continue with art, it’s really the only thing that keeps me going.
I had just gone through an artists block. Sometimes I can’t paint, I come to a standstill. I don’t think what I was painting was that good, but I’m sure I felt better being able to pick up a paintbrush.
Since then my painting work has been up and down. I don’t always feel up to painting, and various stuff makes it more difficult. Painting isn’t just a physical ability, it’s a mental one as well. Both of those things are affecting me. Life sometimes gets in the way of intention. But I don’t give up. I will probably carry on somehow till the day I die. Art is my imperative in life.
Portrait of my friend.
Today was a sad day, leaving my studio at Spode is a real wrench. I have had to gather up my belongings including paints, canvases, an easle. Even the mirrors on the walls and the nails that supported my paintings over the years I’ve been there.
How do you remove hexagonal mirrors that are glued to a wall? With a claw hammer and very carefully is the answer. Now some paintings are at a friends studio and others are here in my living room. Hopefully I will soon get sorted out.
I had these two paintings together and I realised they both represent waves. Water waves in my copy of Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa, and the waves in the atmosphere of Jupiter with it’s Great Red spot (and they are both ‘Great’ too). If I don’t sell them I am going to hang them together if I can find the space. The Hokusai on the left flowing into Jupiter on the right. X
What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
Books, ornaments glass, clothes, paintings… Clutter.
In some ways to lose all my possessions would make life simpler as long as I had somewhere to go? Our house has got crowded with ‘stuff’, we have collected things over years and years, and we are trying to get rid of some of it.
But it’s easy to become attached, an object can encompass memories, look at it and you look back in time. Does losing your possessions give you freedom? Or is it oppressive? What if you only have the clothes you stand up in, no credit or debit card…. Knowledge of where you live would be important. Knowing how to light a fire, keep warm, find food and clean drinking water. The inhumanity of men to the homeless is a fear if I went through with disposing of my possessions.
An artist did do it. He crushed all of his belongings I think. It was a very powerful art ‘happening’, but what happened to him? Was he paid to do it, has he replaced things, did he survive? The problem is that in a world of thousands or millions of wonders each day, does anyone even notice.
It would be good to dispose of my belongings, to free up myself, but I’m getting too old to survive such a thing. I will have to keep at least some of my things..
Pictures behind pictures, a wall full of images. The chimney brest is concrete so it took an effort to get the nails in!
It also has a mantlepiece with lots of ornaments, mainly cats. I’m not proud of my clutter, but I’m attached to it. I took a monochrome photo because the colours are a bit riotous!
Are you a clutter nutter? Do you ‘collect’ or ‘hoard’? I’m on the verge, I might slip into hoarding soon, but recently I have been trying to declutter. It’s not a rapid process. But I’m trying.
Today I went to a breathing workshop, I’d been invited by a friend. It was good, I was with other people who had different health problems to me, but I felt welcomed. We eventually sang some songs and the participants and although they were not a choir as such they were really good!
My friend had asked me to bring my small paintings so we could raise some money for the organisation she volunteers with. I was only selling tiny paintings, so I donated £1 per painting (between 20% and 50% of the prices). But it didn’t matter because they were wanted and liked. It was a good morning.
My little table was packed with paintings and a few glass necklaces today. I sold a few things, including one of the necklaces.
There wasn’t a lot of footfall and people were looking but not really buying. I guess they don’t have their shopping heads on at a health gym. They want to sit down in the cafe after doing their workouts!
The company was pleasant though. I had a lovely chat with the young woman who had the stall next to me. She was really friendly and we chatted about craft and art fairs and whether to try and get cards made from some of my paintings. She certainly had a lot of work, and was selling greetings cards, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pompoms, and other lovely creations. It helped the time pass to chat with such a friendly person.
My stall was dwarfed by the other people’s. It’s only three or four feet across, and with everything lying flat my stall didn’t have as much ‘oomph’ as some of the others. I might try and get some stands for the paintings. I had some metal ones I’ve used before but they are too heavy and sharp.
Mallaband-Brown