New paintings and regular art updates.
Thursdays #bandofsketchers prompt was socks. I don’t know if these exist, so if they don’t this idea is my copyright ©. Canal and bottle oven socks. The ideal present for someone who loves industrial archaeology, is interested in the Trent and Mersey canal and needs to keep their feet warm!
I just watched a programme about pottery on the TV. It’s set at the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. I like it because people have to do challenges, tonight’s was to create three low relief birds, in a small medium and large sizes. Each one had to represent a real bird. One person did three macaws, another kingfishers, a third falcons. Each contestant made really interesting birds, the standard was very high. One person got Potter of the week, one got eliminated. Its good to see an art based programme with real skills.
The drawing above is a digital finger painting I dis in ArtRage oils a few years ago. It’s meant to be a multicoloured pigeon.
In a display case, trapped like a tiger in a cage. Black and brown tabby sculpture. Little legs, massive tail. Iove this piece of cat sculpture at Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire. I think the technique is scraffito? Where you have a thin layer of slip pover a different colour. When it’s dry you can carve through it to reveal the underlying colour. A purrfect decoration for this wild tabby!
Jug I decorated at a Stoke on Trent pottery for a Christmas present I did a few years ago. I think that this was done at Stafford Pottery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. It’s about half the price of the Emma Bridgwater pottery in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. I tend to paint flowers and cats on things like this. I decorated it as a tortoiseshell cat, black tabby and white. These tend to be female cats if I remember rightly. Something to do with their genetics.
I did this a few years ago. Living in the city of Stoke-on-Trent means there are places where you can pay to paint pottery with glazes and then collect the finished piece a week or so later. I found a place in Burslem which was about half the price of other potteries and the vase was double the size. I think it was called Stafford Pottery, its on the opposite side of the road to Burslem Town Hall. I gave the resulting jug as a Christmas gift. I usually paint cats but have been known to paint horses too… I know it’s mainly a kids thing, but it is fun.
Wall in Burslem painted with the Burleigh ware pattern that is available on pottery from Middleport pottery just down the road. There was a board below it which explained more but I was in a rush so just took a photo and then had to go. This is visible outside Burslem School of Art on the wall to the right of the front doors. As you probably know I love pattern so this is right up my street. Also this colour of blue is fabulous although the pieces I own are dark red and white.
I don’t know what happened but there was a fire last week on the old Falcon Works pottery site near us. We saw a column of smoke rising from behind the Portmeirion pottery that is across the road from us. Then we heard a fire engine heading towards the pottery. The smell was very strange, like burnt rubber. My hubby went for a walk round the back of the works when we got back from Cornwall, he said it just looked the same as normal?
It turns out that the land has recently been sold to developers. Could this be a coincidence? A lot of old derelict industrial sites in the area seem to be hit by suspected arson recently. It is worrying to think of the damage being done to our heritage.
A coffee pot decorated with a dragon. My parents got this tea and coffee set for their wedding in the 1950’s. It was rarely used and was mostly stored in a glass fronted cabinet in the parlour or ‘best room’. Considering we were a large family the room wasn’t used except for Christmas and sometimes birthdays. That is why the coffee and tea set survived I think! I guess the set wasn’t that old because some of the decorations are done with what looks like an air brush, the colours look sprayed on, not painted on parts of the body of the pot.
I’m trying to find a gentle way of explaining how I am feeling today. My stomach is growling like a dragon in a bowl!
I don’t know what caused it, but I did put some slightly ‘off’ milk on my porridge a couple of days ago because I thought it tasted OK. One of the problems of losing my sense of smell several years ago means my taste perception is not very good. For instance I can’t smell burnt toast. And I wish I could smell the scent of night scented stock. Its so long since I really smelt flowers properly….
Anyway, I’m babbling on, ignore me! Stomach cramps make me feel fed up (pun intended). Hope the dragon calms down soon, I think I will have a nap.
I haven’t been back to Winkhill Mill in Stoke for a few years. When I did it was a thriving pottery making artistic tiles or other ceramics. I went to an exhibition about Minton tiles there. I do wonder if it’s still working after the pandemic. I was pleased with this photo that I took as the sun was starting to set.
Mallaband-Brown