New paintings and regular art updates.
When you see this leaf shape with beads of water on it you can pretty much identify it as a perennial plant, ladies mantel. I think the name is based on the fact that the edge of it looks like an old fashioned ladies collar. It’s used as a border plant because of its unusual shape and bright green colour. One of the plants at the Dorothy Clive Garden.
Stag and hind sculpture at Trentham Gardens today. I walked about four miles, not a great distance but it was warm and humid. I think they are casr bronze, they are hollow. There is a small herd of deer at the Gardens, or there were a few years ago. They are up higher on the hill, or they were. There is a path round the lake and a longer one, so I wonder if they are up there. We will explore further.
Back at Trentham after a walk round the lake. I took this looking towards the low sun. It was hard to see the phone screen so it was a bit hit and miss what I would get.
I like the way the trees and clouds are silhouetted. There is a walkway with metal hoops to the right of the tree, various climbers cover parts of it including wisteria and roses. At the far end is a statue, but we came out one of the side entrances and walked down a grassy slope to look back at this.
Carved into the base of a tree trunk. This giant beetle sculpture was on the lakeside walk around Trentham Lake last weekend. It’s good to see sculpture in the landscape. I remember visiting Grizedale Forest sculpture Park in the Lake District around thirty years ago. It had world renound sculptors who created art works all through the forest. There is also something called the Merz barn? in the Lake District, but I can’t remember the name of the artist maybe Jeff Koons? (German?). I hope someone knows what I’m talking about. Must visit again before it’s too late. X
A tryptich I did a couple of years ago. It’s for sale at the Waiting room gallery in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. Based on one of the photos from the Juno mission to Jupiter a few years ago. It shows the bands of Jupiter viewed from above one of the poles of the planet. I also did a large blue painting of one of Jupiter’s poles too. It was very difficult to capture the swirls and vortices that make up it’s atmosphere. These are acrylic on canvas.
I’m excited to be part of the Vision exhibition coming up this weekend… 19th and 20th June 2021. Its being held at the Rigger Venue in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, UK.
The link is: https://fb.me/e/29rJakDCB if you are in the area and are interested in coming along? There is also a Facebook page with more details.
We visited the Fine Art and Cartoon degree shows at Staffordshire University today, and I have to say that I was very impressed. I think they were probably the best I’ve seen in years. I haven’t included any images because of copyright. In the Fine Art section there was a lot more figurative work and portraiture than I’ve seen in years. There was also a lot of diversity which was great. In the Cartoon section there were a lot of fun ideas and comic strips. I chatted to some of the students there and they were very helpful explaining what they do.
I realised as I went round that the work is relevant to my illustration course. I really enjoyed the day.
When we were out yesterday we saw this lovely horse in a field. There wasn’t much grass so we pulled some up from our side of the fence and the horse came over and tugged it out of my hand… It soon wandered off in search of some more. I think the colour was Bay, its coat was very shiny and well groomed. It was good to see a different living creature. We usually only see cats, dogs and people.
If we go back we might take an apple, although I’m not sure if you can get in trouble for feeding it?
Four sketches I did at the Dorothy Clive Garden. The view from the hill it’s on over to Shropshire and Cheshire. The Quarry garden with the waterfall. Sculpted woodpecker in the bark of a tree stump and my hubby sitting in the cafe garden.
The one thing that did disappoint me today was the pool, usually there are mounds and shapes of lots of different plants, but with the cold wet May we had things haven’t grown yet. Hopefully on our next visit it will be burgeoning with flowers and foliage.
Still we think we saw a couple of newts in the pond, together with goldfish and dark carp. The waterlilies are growing up and starting to spread. All in all it was a lovely early Summer day out.
Blue sky
warm water
goldfish swim lazily
mayfly dart across the surface
waterlilies open pale petals slowly
the world is calm
clouds float in an azure sky
contemplate
and relax.
Mallaband-Brown