New paintings and regular art updates.
Leap up and fly
In the sky
Searching round
About the grounds
Of ancient house
Or garden, green
Faries fly.
They’re rarely seen…
They find the flowers,
Chase the wasps
Feed the bees
Have fairie tasks
Grooming beetles
Catching frogs
To ride around
The lake and ponds.
Never seen by mortal men.
They live in a fairie glen.
Enough of whimsy
My tale is done
The story, flimsy
But lots of fun.
(sculpture of a Fairy at Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent)
So what is a pantomime. Its a crazy comedy with characters that have been portrayed on stage for years. Some panto(mime) characters include :
Aladdin, The Genie of the lamp and the genie of the ring, Princess Jasmine, Abanazar, widow Twankey and the Sultan and Sultana in our panto.
Jack in Jack and the beanstalk, the giant, Jack’s mother and the panto cow, usually called Daisy.
Robin Hood and his merry men with Robin, Marion, the sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Guy, King John, little John, friar tuck, Will Scarlet.
Sleeping beauty and Cinderella are also pantomimes. So basically they are fairy stories or children’s stories that have been adapted for the stage. Various other characters are added. Like the principle boy, who plays the hero but is often played by a girl, or the ugly sisters and widow Twankey who are played by men. A lot of cross dressing in the panto is traditional.
Pantos are played for laughs, modern ones can be quite commercial and include product placement. In our case we are amateur and just have fun.
If you live nearby to Stoke and want to come along let me know.
A cold sunny day until the breeze blew clouds across the landscape. Ducks, geese, pigeons, moorhens and swans looking out for food, so we got two bags full to grain to feed them. I thought we would just go round the small lake which is a quarter of a mile, but instead we did the mile walk round the large lake. We’ll it was more of a slow dawdle. My hip is not right yet after pulling a muscle, but we did extend the walk into the maze that Staffordshire wildlife Trust have made on the area of hedging at the far end of the lake. The paths were muddy and difficult to get out of when we tried to regain the main path.
When the sun went behind the clouds it made a fantastic and dramatic picture. I took numerous pictures of the birds and trees and landscape around the lake. I feel much better for the walk, though I was very chilly when we finished. I need to be able to walk much further than this, but it’s a start.
At Etruria Artists today we painted mugs, they were blank white mugs and we used on glaze paints that stay the same colour when they are heated. The most exciting thing is that they can be heated in an ordinary domestic oven. They have to be dried for twenty four hours, then heated at 150°C or gas mark 2 for 35 minutes to bake the colours in.
The outside photo is lock 40 on the Trent and Mersey canal. It was a beautiful morning, bright and sunny. I really do prefer coming to Etruria Artists ‘hands on Art’ at the Warehouse next to the lock in the morning rather than the evening. It is on from 10am to 12 noon if anyone wants to come along.
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What better on a crisp winters day than to take photos of a Swan and a couple of ducks. Interesting how the sky is reflected in the first one and not so much in the second. They were taken last year out at a place called the plume of feathers, at Barlaston, Staffordshire. The pub sits alongside the Trent and Mersey canal. Much more picturesque than where it runs through the city, the canal offers an opportunity to glide along in narrow boats on self catering holidays. The boats are beautiful to look at, but they can be quite expensive to rent for a week, so I prefer to walk for free by the water and allow the Swans and Ducks to do the gliding….
Grey and depressing, icy cold, big droplets of rain. Disappointing as well, I keep trying to get the car mended (someone broke my wing mirror, the glass is cracked, and someone must have reversed into my nearside wing, it’s all scraped and dented. But I rang up, and the mechanic, who is trying to find the right mirror rang in sick this morning. I will have to try again tomorrow. Then I collected some paintings from my studio to try and get into a local craft centre. But the owner has been inundated with local artists. He is interested in more work but needs to sell some art first. He has had people in but one comment he got was “is it really That much?” for one if the pieces in there. It’s the usual thing in this area, people don’t have money, or if they do they don’t want to spend it. It’s depressing (oh I’ve already said that)……
I didn’t take many photos at Stoke Sings because I wasn’t sure people would approve, but I did take some photos of the inside of the hall. It’s surprising because externally it’s all modern glass and metal and neat brickwork. But inside the old fittings and fixtures remain. BUT… That’s good because the acoustics are fantastic. The composer Edward Elgar even said it had some of the best acoustics in the country. Clearly the people of Stoke-on-Trent loved their music very much.
Sixteen Choirs, including the Deaf links Choir and the Intertheatre choir got together in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent today at the Victoria Hall. The reason? It was a splendid Choir festival for choirs around Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and Cheshire.
Workshops on sea shanties, music from the shows. Gospel singing and African music were some of the wonderful things we learnt. The teachers were so enthusiastic and so we’re we as pupils. Then later we learnt a new song to sing at the Finale.
There was a concert in the evening when all the choirs performed. An eclectic mix of Bond themes, a song from sister act, old songs by Robbie Burns because it is Burns night tonight. Lots of beautiful melodies and friendly people. Finally we sang auld land syne and said farewells to new friends. A grand day out.
A new arts and craft centre offering a place to sell your work and also art workshops has opened in Campbell Place in Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent.
I had the pleasure to meet Phil today, who is running the Centre. He took some of my paintings to display. There are some interesting art works in there includung work by Phil himself. I think it’s great that something like this has opened in Stoke. It makes Campbell place a bit more interesting. Good luck to him and congratulations for having the spirit and enthusiasm to open up. Open Wednesdays to Sundays, it’s initially opening for two years. It’s got a Facebook page under Serendiparty arts and crafts centre. There are events and workshops listed there.
One of my favourites. The centres of these are a multitude of flowers with petals round the edges (think of sunflower hearts). There are oxeye daisies and osteospermums, cone flowers, asters, all sorts of types and colours. Life in all its variations can be wonderful. This photo is of Rudbeckia I think, taken at Trentham Gardens in the autumn. What I like about daisies is the length of time throughout the year that they flower. They cheer me up.
Have you ever made daisy chains? We used to when we were kids. Pick a daisy and make a hole in the stalk with your fingernail parallel with the stalk, then thread another daisy through till the flower head is in contact with the stem. Then do again till you have a chain. (I’m not suggesting you do this, just how we did it, you shouldn’t pick wildflowers).
Mallaband-Brown