Solo exhibition

Posted on September 5, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Longport, Newcastle-under-Lyme, opening night, Painting, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Waiting room galleryLeave a comment

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My latest exhibition is coming up next week. The opening is on 13.9.19 at 6.30pm. There will be wine and snacks (thats what you do at openings).

The Waiting room gallery is at Longport in Stoke-on-Trent. It’s a new gallery and art centre who are also working on Longport railway station and who are trying to restore the historic buildings there. You couldn’t meet a nicer group of people.

I’m very pleased to invite anyone who can come along to see the exhibition.

If you can’t make it I’ve also got paintings exhibited at the Brampton museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme from this weekend to the 10th of November and a painting at Acava Open Studios at Spode Site this weekend. The opening of the Spode show is on Saturday evening. So it’s busy busy busy!

Orme Art group and Spode studios Open Days.

Posted on August 28, 2019August 28, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Exhibitions, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Orme Art group, Painting, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, The BramptonLeave a comment

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This is what I’m working towards at the moment. I’m really looking forward to it. We will have some space on a wall in the Brampton museum and art gallery. I’ve got a tryptich of Jupiter ready and I’m doing a painting of Mars. Then on the 7th and 8th of September I’ve got a painting at Spode during our Open Studios weekend.

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I will also be exhibiting art at The Orme Group Christmas Exhibition, dates and details to follow. Today I’ve also had confirmation that I can put more paintings in an exhibition at the Brampton in November to December for Christmas. I’m just waiting for a poster for that. All I need now is to see if people like them and get some commissions.

Gloves

Posted on August 22, 2019August 22, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Gloves, Photo, Pink, Red, Spode, Spode site, Work glovesLeave a comment

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Workman’s gloves, these have been tucked behind this pipe for over a year. Like a pink octopus hiding in a crevice in the rock. I imagine the workman or woman who was using them. Did their contract end and they just pushed them behind the pipe thinking they woukd be back in the morning. I can see them being put there then gradually getting soaked over the years. Spiders and slugs colonising them. Each month the sun bleaches them more. Did they start out as red? Were they comfortable or too big or small? I don’t know. They are an enigma.

Indoor plants at spode

Posted on August 21, 2019August 21, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Indoor gardening, Interesting lighting, Photo, Plants, Silhouette, SpodeLeave a comment

Someone’s put plants in the washroom at Spode. Great to see life inside the factory.

Finished

Posted on August 18, 2019August 18, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Black, Blue, Eleanora st, Landscape, Painting, Spode, Spode exhibition, Spode Reflected, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, What Spode means to me, White2 Comments

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Took all day but I finally finished this. Spent a lot of time painting the old, flaking window frame. I’m not sure the sky colour is right. I might get up early and tone it down. I’m handing it in in the morning….

It’s called Spode Reflected.

Who is he?

Posted on August 17, 2019August 17, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Eleanora street, lithograph?, Plate, Pottery, Print, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, What is it?Leave a comment

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There are some windows in Spode covered in various circular prints. This one looks like a photographic negative and appears to be someone famous although I don’t know who.

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There are other patterns overlaid. This must have been a particular place for some sort of work within the factory but I’m not sure what?

Painting upside down.

Posted on August 16, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Blogging, Computer, Design, Landscape, Life, Painting, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, Work in progress5 Comments

Sometimes it’s hard to see whether something looks right in a painting. Then I try turning it upside down. It really does give you a different perspective. In the case of the painting I’m doing it also allows me to get closer to the top of the picture as I’ve got it propped up on a chair.

Eyesight is another problem. If I’m staring at my phone looking at the image it’s hard for my eyes to accommodate (called presbyopia) where the lenses in your eyes get stiffer as you get older, so they don’t focus as well.

I’m now starting to paint the cracks in the window frame paint. I may come back to the clouds (thanks Martha, a bit of finger painting helped).

I’ve rotated the photo back to the vertical on my camera so I can look at it without moving the canvas. Eventually I will turn it back the right way so I can paint the bottom half. It’s going to take a while…..

Spode patterns

Posted on August 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Film, Layout app, Pattern, Photos, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, TarkovskyLeave a comment

I’m working towards the exhibition at Spode and I’ve been experimenting with the photos I took a few days ago. Using the Layout app on my phone.

The thing is, I know I can’t reproduce these as paintings, so it’s good to use photographs to experiment with the images I took. There was a film by Andrei Tarkovsky I saw years ago. I think it was called Stalker, the industrial archeology of Spode reminds me of that. Almost post apocalyptic….

Clouds are a pain!

Posted on August 15, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Blending, Clouds, Design, Landscape, more work in progress, Painting, Shading, Sky, Spode, Stoke-on trent6 Comments

More work in progress photos. I’m struggling to get the clouds right. I need to try and get the detail and shading correct. Also when it’s finished the paintwork on the frames will be all crackled and flakey.

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Looking closer, the greys are dark but not too dark, I may also bring a tiny bit of brown in and thin it down for the wood in the windows. Mostly it’s blending and shading to get a realistic effect.

Progress?

Posted on August 14, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Limited pallette, Painting, Spode, Stoke-on trent, Work in progressLeave a comment

I’m having a rest and trying to decide whether I’m happy with this. I think the width of the frames of the windows need widening….. Also I’ve been using quite a thin white paint which does not have enough pigment in it. I think I will need to strengthen it. At the moment I’m just using cobalt blue, titanium white and a black. I don’t know whether to add a bit of yellow into the sky and window frames, or some violet. But that will happen as I build it up. The image is slightly stretched horizontally. I’m wondering whether to strengthen the blue.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Spode