Waiting for tomorrow night

Posted on January 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged An exhibition of blue, Art, Blue, Colour, Design, Excited, Fun, Installation, Painting, Spod, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

An Exhibition of Blue opens at 6pm tomorrow night. I know what I have painted but I can’t wait to see what others have done. I could have sneaked in to take a peek but I want to enjoy the suspense like waiting till Christmas afternoon before you open your presents or looking through an assorted box of chocolates looking for my favourite piece.

There are a lot of exhibitors ranging from glass and light installations to possibly found objects. I know someone has based their art on an old blue and white plate design (with a modern twist), I don’t know how my work will compare but it was a pleasure to work with the organiser to enter a painting to the exhibition.

The excitement is increased because I want to see how different people have interpreted the colour blue.

Feed the birds

Posted on January 30, 2019January 30, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Barlaston, Birds, Bread, Duck food, Ducks, Food, Moorhens, Staffordshire, SwansLeave a comment

We went out for lunch today at Barlaston in Staffordshire. We stopped at a lovely pub next to the canal. There were lots of hungry ducks on it as we pulled up. I decided to have a meal that would include bread so I could feed them when we came out. I got a crusty bread roll with my starter and put it in a napkin for use later on. After a delicious lunch we came out and went back to the canal. Now a couple of Swans had joined the ducks and moorhens.

Out came the bread roll. I broke it into tiny bits and tried to share it between all the birds. My hubby went off to buy a loaf of bread (by now the gaggle of birds had grown to around 20). When he came back we started feeding them. There were birds flapping and chasing each other everywhere. We kept breaking the bread up into small pieces so that it would get wet and not swell up when they swallowed it. Some of the moorhens skidded across the frozen ice on the canal when they tried to catch the bread. We finally managed to get rid of a whole loaf!

Recently signs were put up telling people not to feed birds with bread to stop them choking… Now there is news that birds are starving to death…..

I’m glad we fed the birds, even if it wasn’t the correct stuff. It was at least brown bread and they seemed healthy.

Finished at last..

Posted on January 28, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, An exhibition of blue, Art, Artist, Blue, Fine artist, Finished, Jupiter, Jupiter Blue, Painter, Painting with acrylics, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent2 Comments

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.

Illustrations

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on watercolour paper, Acrylics, Art, Illustrations, Kidsgrove, Leek, StaffordshireLeave a comment

One thing I really enjoyed doing a while ago were illustrations for a leaflet for the canal and rivers Trust. I’ve probably already mentioned. My friend provided the images to work from and I painted with Acrylics on watercolour paper. I did that to get the depth of colours without having to paint thin layers and I could paint over any mistakes I made.

I was really pleased with the results. I only remembered them because they popped up on my Facebook memories. I wonder what else will appear there?

The top picture was an amalgamation of the two harecastle tunnels at Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, a work in progress. And the second was a mill at Leek in Staffordshire.

Work in progress… Painting Jupiter is hard!

Posted on January 23, 2019January 23, 2019 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Juno probe, Jupiter, Jupiter pole, Painting, Spode site, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trent, Work in progress2 Comments

I’ve been doing some more work on this painting. I want to get it finished this week. It’s a painting of one of the poles of Jupiter. In the photo it has a bluish tinge but I’m trying to make it bluer as the exhibition title is “an Exhibition of Blue” on in Spode exhibition space at Acava Studios, Spode Site, Eleanor Street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent. From 2nd February 2019.

Panto rehearsal

Posted on January 20, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acting, Fun, Humour, Maid Marion, Panto, Panto in February, Pantomime, Penkhull, Robin Hood, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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Help! The pantomime is getting closer “oh no its not!” it’s on in a month “oh yes it is!” and we are supposed to be word perfect and know the songs and dances… “oh no we don’t!”

Well last Fridays rehearsal was cancelled due to snow and this week a couple of the main cast were away or had injured themselves so some parts had to be read in. There are lots of things to remember for the whole cast. Like when to come back on stage for a crucial part of a song which we all missed! I don’t know how long 16 bars is! It’s a case if standing around muttering rhubarb rhubarb (to pretend we are talking) while the main characters act out the story.

It is funny (honest) but it’s hard to describe. It’s good that one of the cast has actually written and I’d directing it. She’s so clever to do it. Plus organising over 20 children. I don’t know where she gets the energy.

I won’t tell you all the story, but Robin falls for Marion, some Goons cause mayhem on behalf of the Sheriff of Penkhull who is cleverer than Prince John. Marion is Scottish and the panto has her travelling to her home land. However all ends well. …

Moorhen or Coot.?

Posted on January 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bird, Cold, Photo, Staffordshire, Swimming, Water, Westport lake7 Comments

I can never remember, it has large, pale blue feet paddling below the surface. It’s smart black body is decorated bu a white crest and beak. Swimming through the cold grey blue water of the lake. Luckily they sell duck food but all the birds are hungry at this time of year.

Paddling along, looking for food, trying to survive the winter.

Penkhull Wassail

Posted on January 19, 2019January 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Clay Chorus, Dancing, Fun, Life, Penkhull, Staffordshire, Stoke, Village, Walk4 Comments

There’s not many places in Britain where you can wander round with flaming torches (but no pitchforks). But today we did just that round Penkhull Village. From Penkhull village hall we walked down the road to a garden with an ancient apple tree. The Domesday Morris danced and poured cider over its roots, Wassailing (shouting Wassail) to bless it and get it to flourish in the coming year. Domesday Morris danced, the Clay choir, which I sing with, sang Wassailing songs such as ” The old Cornish Wassail” and “the Penkhull Wassail” ( written by Duncan Bourne). Penkhull village brass band and the Penkhull Ukelele band also played.

Once we had drunk warm cider down at the garden we walked back up the hill and on to the local pubs, the Marquis of Granby, the White Lion, which was closed for some reason. We then went to The Beehive pub on Honeywall which had laid on some sandwiches. Then back across the hill to the Terrace pub and up to the Greyhound pub and Manor Court ale House where we finished singing and dancing. The Morris group were brilliant with their decorated hats, bells and boots. When they start dancing their sticks fly and swirl and clash together in time with the music So exciting to watch.

We went over to the village hall for hot soup. Some people stayed for a barndance, but as we were tired out we came home to get warm and have a hot coffee.

No monsters or zombies were affected by this Wassail.

Looking at backstamps

Posted on January 18, 2019January 18, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Antique, Art, Back stamps, Industrial heritage, Life, Potteries, Pottery, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent9 Comments

What are back stamps??

They are the trademark or manufacturers mark that you find on the bottom of cups, plates and dishes that shows who made them.

This can be useful in identifying the manufacturer, whether they are antique and if they are worth anything. Sometimes they even get forged! People have added things like the Clarice Cliff signature onto modern pots to try and fool people into buying them as originals.

Some pots have simple marks on their base to identify them. Others have complicated patterns and writing.

The people who live in the potteries (Stoke-on-Trent). Have a habit of looking underneath pots to see if they have recognised which pottery made them. I think it’s called the “turn over club” but I may be wrong…..

Windows…

Posted on January 17, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Clay, Dust, Industry, Pottery, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Windows4 Comments

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No not the trade marked version. But old windows at Spode. Dusty and dirty and empty of footsteps, no faces staring out of them, no lights behind them, no shapes of pottery stacked. Life is quiet for the factory, silent. The place is shunned, surplus to requirements. How can it still exist?

Time passes, new movement as people take up spaces. Shift of light, shift of direction. Art and theater, people sleep on site now in the hotel. The chance to regenerate like a time lord. The site has age and power behind it. The ghosts look on, seeing the lights, wondering what will happen next. Will they be evicted from the deep soft clay dust that coats their footprints and hides their breath.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Staffordshire