Glass cabochons with wire weave surrounds. These will be for sale at the Spring Makers Market at the potbank Hotel, Spode site, Eleanora st, Stoke-on-Trent. I will also be selling small and medium size paintings..
Tag: Spode
Peeling paint
I’m thinking of painting something like this. It’s a window in one of the buildings at spode. Goodness knows what the paint is made of. It is just so old. The wood looks dry and decaying. The putty holding the glass in is probably made with lead. Surprisingly the window looks quite clean and the building opposite is reflected in it. Capturing the detail will be a challenge.
Today at Spode site
Flowers and old wood
Blocked up windows and peeling paint.
Dasies and dianthus.
A history in brick and slate.
Clay and pottery.
Caged in but released,
Renewed and Revivified.
Pansies and wallflowers shining,
their sunlit faces turned to a bright, chilled sky.
Crumbling with asbestos innards,
But able to be proud again.
Bottle oven / pizza oven….
A replica bottle oven is growing on the grounds of Spode at the moment. It’s going to be a pizza oven at the hotel on the Spode site.
Around the other side of Spode near the Church Street side is the base of an original bottle oven which had been demolished years ago. There are very few real ovens still standing in the city. Many were knocked down or fell into disrepair over the years. Where hundreds once stood and smoke stained the city sky less than fifty are still standing and many of these are in danger of being lost to the history of the city, county, and country.
Even now buddleia and other shrubs are growing in between their bricks, pulling the ovens down in continued dereliction. Hopefully some can be conserved.
For those who don’t know bottle ovens are bottle shaped buildings containing a central kiln which the oven surrounds. Pottery was stacked inside the kiln and fired by stoking fires under the ovens with coal.
Nothing
Couldn’t resist posting this photo.
On this site sept. 5, 1782 Nothing happened.
The day before had been busy, barges were loaded with pottery to take away on the canal, horses pulling the barges to distant towns along the trent and mersey canal…. . Seven days earlier a load of clay and ground flint had arrived. The pottery has been thrown on wheels or cast in slip. Then into the kilns so that they could be fired biscuit hard. The paintresses had decorated each pot with beautiful designs. These were the pots that were spreading out over the land now.
But today nothing happened.
Mable smiled at Jeremiah, he smiled back, but nothing happened. Mabels father was not approving of Jeremiah, he was only a lowly saggar makers bottom knocker, making the bases for saggars. These were the pottery cases that fine pottery and china was fired in to protect it from the smoke from the coal. Jeremiah had no prospects. He was younger than Mable. She was the owners daughter.
All she could do was smile. All she could do was hope things would change. But today …
Nothing happened.
Maybe one day it would ..
Spode pots
Spode heritage Centre is closed at the moment because they are choosing photos for the 3 counties open photography exhibition. I had a quick glance as I was meeting the man in charge of the space to make arrangements for a show I’m holding there in May/June this year.
I have some paintings ready, but I might use photos from the Spode shop as inspirations for new paintings. I’ve been doing a lot of Blue and white work and the ceramics there are very striking. I also like looking through cabinets or windows to the view beyond. Using them to frame the subject.
Anyway my suggestion for today for you is “stay curious!”.
Icy
You know it’s cold when the ice that was put in the sink on Friday night is still frozen in the sink on Sunday.
This is what had happened at the “an, exhibition of Blue”, which I was helping invigilate yesterday.
The exhibition space is in part of the old Spode Factory which has been converted into artists studios. The building used to be full of pottery machinery and pottery kilns. I imagine they did not need much insulation in those days. Now, however, thin walls and single glazed windows together with thick concrete ceilings high up which allow all the heat to rise make for icebox conditions in the winter.
We also did not know where the switch was for the space heater that sits next to the lift. So guests and artists alike stood next to or inside the kitchen where a small electric fan heater was trying to defrost the ice in the sink! People tried to sit on the couches to keep their feet off the freezing concrete floors. I’d been there three hours before one of the other artists at Spode found the heater switch in a cupboard! I did feel foolish for not looking.
Even though it was cold we got a good turn out. The exhibition will be coming down soon but it may be possible to get one of the exhibitors to show you round if you are interested.
An Exhibition of Blue
The Exhibition of Blue opened tonight at Spode Site at Eleanora Street in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent..
As you can see from the photos there was a great variety of work on the breif Blue. Everyone had to produce art in Blue with only the addition of white, black and grey.
There were glass and resin pieces, acrylic pours and paintings. Drawings and photos, installations with blue lighting and wall painting and fabrics. We were also entertained by an artist with a beautiful voice who sang the blues.
There were also blue cocktails for people who attended the exhibition. The only real downside was the temperature. The Spode studios are inside an old pottery building. The place was once filled with pottery kilns so it was not built with much insulation. It can sometimes be colder inside than it is outside. The exhibition continues till at least Sunday. It may continue next week but it has yet to be decided.
Finished at last..
Finished Jupiter Blue. This painting of one of the poles of Jupiter is what I have done for an Exhibition based on the colour blue. It looks more blue than the original photo because of this. The picture brush strokes are not as soft as I wanted, in fact it seems to have taken on a Van Gogh feeling. Come and see the result in the flesh at “an Exhibition of Blue” at Spode Site, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent, at the artists studios. Starting 6pm on Friday 1st February 2019. There are over 20 artists exhibiting.
Another window
Another inspiration. I may do a painting of this. The fresh colours of a winter sky against the dark silhouette of the room.
A low sun makes for startling shadows and highlights. Sometimes overwhelming brilliance can burn out even the darkest tones.
I should try and take more pictures!
Mallaband-Brown 