Spode

Posted on March 6, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Acava Studios, Acrylic on canvas, Batik, Exhibition, Fine Art, Life, oil on wood, retrospective, Spode site, WatercoloursLeave a comment

Have I mentioned that I have an exhibition at Spode, it can be viewed this Friday between 6.30 and 8.30. It’s at Acava Studios, up the yellow stairs, at Spode Works, Elanora street, Stoke upon Trent, ST4 1QD (I think).

If you are in the area and would like to come along you are very welcome.

It’s eclectic and interesting, with one work from 1982 that is an oil painting on an old cupboard door because I couldn’t afford a canvas. There are several portraits of my hubby from over our life together.

I’ve also included landscapes and portraits, abstract paintings, views of Spode works, and views of a nebula and Jupiter and Mars. There are also watercolours and batik prints. I’m interested in a lot of things and I hope this exhibition will show my explorative fine art practice.

Decay

Posted on February 29, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Building, Crumbling, deterioration, History, Industrial archeology, Life, Planning, Spode site, TimeLeave a comment

Some of the buildings on the old Spode works site continue to deteriorate while others next to them are being restored and reused.

My fear is that some, like this one, could literally crumble before they get any work on them.

Time moves on, plans have been made and then stopped because they did not fit in well with both the historical significance of Spode works and the surrounding town. The traffic management needs considering too. Meanwhile the buildings need protection and rebuilding.

Too many historical and unique buildings in the city of Stoke-on-Trent have disappeared recently. Destroyed because of disrepair or fire or vandalism. The industrial archeology of the city needs saving. Otherwise we will end up with warehouses or generic apartment buildings and lose our history.

Where Manchester used old Mills to create loft spaces and apartments, we seem hell bent on hollowing out our citys history.

Retrospective

Posted on February 28, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, batiik, Elanora Street, Fine Art, Painting, Prints, retrospective, Spode site, Stoke-upon-Trent, Studios, WatercoloursLeave a comment

I’m holding a retrospective of my art at Spode studios next week. It’s because I am leaving the studios after 7 years this April. I have enjoyed my time there but circumstances mean that I cannot continue there.

The retrospective will run from Monday 4th March 2024 to Friday 8th March. There will be a closing viewing of the exhibition on Friday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Most of the works will be for sale. Please join me if you can at Spode Studios, Spode Site, Elanora street, Stoke upon Trent.

Floor paint

Posted on February 23, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Acava Studios, Art, Ceiling, chipped, Cold, concrete, Memories, Scratched, shiny floor, Spode siteLeave a comment

Seeing the floor in the Spode Factory is a memory of what went before. Industry and creativity joined. Scratched and chipped, the surface is damaged. Most of it is hidden by studios on either side of a central corridor. When you go into the studios some have metal, single glazed windows that let in the cold of winter. And once the cold gets in it doesn’t seem to get warm again till March!

The building is solid concrete and brick, with arched, barrel shaped ceilings high above. I think any heat rises up there and is lost to us on the shiny, scratched floor.

But here people worked hard to create beautiful ceramics, magical pottery, a hive of hot activity that didn’t need heating because of the kilns and machinery, now long gone.

Succulent

Posted on September 7, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged crinkled glass, Indoor plants, Life, Photo, Plant, Spode site, succulent plants, Window4 Comments

Plant in a teapot, on an old flaky paint windowledge in the restroom at Spode studios. The plant looks like it’s trying to escape, and is exploding like a firework from the pot. I like the crinkly window glass behind it, it looks so old, with rust building up on the metal window frames.

Weighed

Posted on July 8, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Balance, Ceramic, cloakroom, Life, Photograph, pots, Scales, Spode site, Weight4 Comments

In the washroom at Spode studios site. A series of plants and objects are clinging to life on the old brick windowsills. I like this in particular. The two ceramic pots just look right sitting on top of the weighing scales. The frosted glass sets it off. It’s OK in the summer but in the winter it’s freezing. The plants still survive though.

View

Posted on January 21, 2023January 22, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Eleanora street, Life, Photo, pot bank cafe, Reflections, Spode site, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, the QuarterLeave a comment

A combination of objects and their reflections inside and seating and buildings outside. This was three years ago when the place we were visiting was called the Potbank cafe. Now its owned by someone else and called the Quarter. Its based at Eleanora Street on the Spode pottery site in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.

Some of the buildings on the Spode site are due to be demolished and apartments are to possibly be built there instead. If it happens it will be sad to see our industrial heritage destroyed in order to build as many ‘units’ as the developers can cram on the site. The view out of this doorway may change, quickly or slowly, no necessarily for the better.

Spode planning application

Posted on November 30, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged History, Industrial archaeology, Planning permission, proposal, Spode factory, Spode site, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

The old Spode factory site in Stoke-upon- Trent, the town the city of Stoke-on-Trent is named after, is due to be developed. However the intended development has changed since it was suggested several years ago. The place was due to be an Artisan quarter. With places to eat and buy art, and making an area in the town that would bring tourism in. I think it was even suggested that a supermarket could be built on part of the site. Then a hiatus, one half of the site nearest Stoke Station was sold off and knocked down. All the historical buildings were seen as useless and a great swathe of land was sold off to developers, then, nothing. I think they probably bought it so they would have an asset they could develop later or sell off for more money? In the meantime studios were developing on the side nearest Spode museum. The council has already disposed of a great number of ceramic moulds that had been stored at the factory. A hotel called the potbank opened up and shops were refurbished in Stoke along the frontage of the building. There is also a restaurant called the quarter. But times are hard and the development didn’t really go far. Now there is an application to convert some of the old buildings into 113 apartments a gym and a cafe among other things. I would say great, but there is already a lot of traffic in the area and no doubt this will cause more. The river Trent runs nearby also has caused flooding in the past. There was an article in private eye magazine questioning the company who intends to do the work. Anyone who wants to object needs to contact Stoke City councils planning department by 18th December 2022.

Planning application

Posted on July 15, 2022 Posted in UncategorizedTagged apartments, Art, Building, creative industries, historic, History, Life, Planning, Spode site, Stoke, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

I’ve just written a comment on our local council website to oppose planning approval for development of the historic Spode Factory site in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.

Planning application in for Spode Site. Search on Stoke.gov.uk for details. Planning application 67906/FUL comments need to be in by 20.07.22.
I wrote :
Elanora Street and the surrounding area in Stoke Town are subject to a lot of heavy traffic. I think this proposal will have a negative effect, particularly around peak traffic flow times.
In addition, as a Studio holder based at the Acava Art Studios on the Spode site I am concerned about how my business will be affected. I need vehicular access to my studio when collecting or delivering artworks and art materials. I would want to be reassured that artists in the studios will not have there businesses restricted or inconvenienced.
Spode Site is a heritage site. It should be developed with an understanding of its historical value to the town, city, and world. But instead the city council seem to be taking the low brow option of cramming ‘apartments’ onto the site.
Like the Goodsyard proposal currently in the process of being considered, it is another uninspired use of land.
In a decade of austerity it is also a question as to whether anyone would want to buy an apartment on a brownfield site where the history has been removed!
Security on the site has been reduced due to council cuts. There have been incidents of intruders entering the site in the evening and nights. Has consideration been given to the security when the work goes ahead?
Finally I want to say I believe this proposal is ill-conceived and destructive of a historical site. The development will be detrimental to Stoke’s standing as a heritage centre. So much of our local history is being allowed into crumble into dust. The council has a short sighted bias which does not seem to want to take responsibility for Stoke-on-Trents culture

Reflected sky

Posted on March 2, 2022 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, England, Fine Art, Landscape, Painting, Sky, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

I can’t find the photo of a finished painting. It had more detail on the wooden supports between the panes of glass. The paint was peeling off and chipped and that’s what attracted me to the image. I’m the final version you can see me and my phone reflected in the surface. It’s an image of the Spode factory site. Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Spode site