New paintings and regular art updates.
Spode factory site is being considered for development by a company called Nimrod. There is a public meeting about it at the Potbank Hotel this Thursday at 4.30pm. If you live in Stoke and want to have your say please consider coming along.
Note the image is not mine.
I found this in my studio last week. I thought I had sold it. I used two seperated photos of different plates and amalgamated them. I also found a painting of a jug and a teapot. I might try and find them a new home….
Seen at Spode in a new friends studio. I love it, I used to have an old one which was from an office and was coloured grey. This looks antique. When keyboards and computers came out typewriters became defunct, but there is something charming and evocative about this. A bygone day. Even seeing it makes me think of flowery language. Spindley letters. Gothic script. I’m going over the top now. A great tranklement! ❤️
Ow! I was getting some paintings out of the car boot today and I pulled the door down and hit my nose. It really hurt so I rubbed it as you do and everything seemed OK. I hadn’t hit the bridge of my nose. So nothing broken. I went into Spode and priced up my work. Hubby didn’t tell me I had a cut on my nose. I spoke to several people, no mention! Either I looked so rough that they didn’t want to say anything, or it didn’t look that bad, or they were just very polite. Anyway, I only noticed it because it’s started to hurt and it felt rough under my finger, so yes, ouch!
I will be at studio 21 at Spode tomorrow for our annual Open Day. Come and see me painting in the studio or visit the makers market where I will have minature paintings for sale. Then during the day I will try to complete a new painting of a bottle oven (a pottery kiln).
It’s been two years since I’ve been there properly. My fear of Covid, then illness and bereavement have kept me out. But everyone was so nice today. I’ve entered some of my minature paintings for the craft Market. I thought people might use them as Christmas stocking fillers. There’s everything from a tiny giraffe with an abstract background to a small Jupiter with great red storm and a moon passing by. Maybe I will sell a few.
I’m going to go to Spode Open Day on Saturday. It’s part of being a studio member at the old Spode Factory in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. I might be selling small paintings, but it’s been so long since I’ve been there that I have really got out of going in. With the pandemic and then illness and then a recent bereavement it’s been hard to pluck up courage to go in. My mind just got stuck in park (if that’s the phrase) and its been hard to get out of that feeling, but I think I’m slowly making progress. Anyway the painting is called Green Man, it’s a favourite subject of mine. Something serene and mystical about this mythical character (maybe not this particular one though).
Spode studios are having an open day this Saturday so I hope to be there to show off some of my newest ideas and paintings. It’s sometimes quite cold though so I will have to dress warmly. This horse painting has a pot for the potteries hidden in it. I’m not sure if I will stay in my studio or set up a little market stall so I can try and sell a few things. I will have to decide.
Sadly the two craft fairs I signed up for have been postponed because they fall too close to Christmas, there are other similar fairs on at the same time and the cost of living makes them less likely to be profitable because no one will have any money.
I would like to participate in ones next year but how can I be certain that things will be any better then? People are going to suffer financially and luxuries like arts and crafts may not be saleable. The whole idea of being an artist and trying to sell work seems less and less feasible.
Meanwhile, I’m seriously thinking about leaving my studio at Spode. I didn’t use it very often since Covid happened because I’m still avoiding people. I don’t know if I can afford it any more. Life isn’t terrible but sometimes you need to be sensible.
Today, for the first time in two years I went back to Spode. I have a lot of paintings that I have done over the years. I’ve avoided going because of Covid and it felt so strange being there. Like the time hasn’t passed, and yet there are new people there. If I want to carry on being an artist I need to get my act together again. I called myself an explorative fine artist and I want to be one again.
I painted this a few years ago. It’s an octagonal platter shape. I used a few images of willow pattern plates and amalgamated them. It’s mostly based on a Spode style of pattern. The edge design was made up by myself. The painting is meant to look like the platter is leant up against a background. That’s why I added shadows and played with adding a reflection below it. I can’t remember what else I added to it. I did a series of paintings of ceramic objects, there was also a jug and a teapot and a large vase painting. It was good to imagine pottery from my adopted home of Stoke-on-Trent.
Mallaband-Brown