New paintings and regular art updates.
I might do a painting based on this photo that I have added texture to in the Photodirector app. The wildflowers were all in bloom at Westport Lake today. I could not identify many of them but they did make a lovely show. I managed to get a few thousand steps in for a change, I haven’t been doing enough walking recently. It is the season for bees and butterflies. We actually saw a few today.
On our walk we came across a green metal table. There were fish and chip wrappers discarded on it at one end, but also these pottery shards, like an archaeological dig. I didn’t want to disturb them but I took a photo. If you live in Stoke-on-Trent you might look at the backstamps on the back of pottery. I just zoomed in on the mug base it has a green lion printed on it, a scroll or banner shape under that and then just about decipherable ‘Maddocks and Sons Ltd’ there were other words below I couldn’t read. People who look at the bottom of pots sometimes say they are part of the ‘turnover club’. I haven’t looked at the image much yet but I can see a dark band that would encircle a plate with a white interlinked chain on it. Perhaps these came from the waters edge? The small lake at Westport, next to the table, looks to have a lower water level than normal so they might have been scavenged from there.
I just wrote this reply to a local Councillor who has explained that a court case against the owner of a listed building in the city has been postponed again. The sections in brackets have been added later to explain the situation.
“Having seen the report on Midlands today (a local TV programme) about zero tolerance to owners that are letting the cities heritage deteriorate (including buildings being set on fire) I find this very disappointing. I’m also concerned about the councils proposal for Spode. (to partly demolish it and build a large amount of apartments on the site). I’ve put in an objection. The idea that places should be partly demolished goes against the cities heritage. Surely there could be sympathetic restoration like along the canal between Shelton and Etruria (two bottle ovens have been restored and incorporated into a housing scheme) or let places be rebuilt like at the black country museum? (a large industrial heritage museum in Dudley, West Midlands) Instead we get the headline of a twelve million pounds black hole in the city finances and the prospect of more cuts. Is this levelling up or just levelling the city? (levelling up is a bidding system where cities try and get funding for specific work granted by central government). I came here over forty years ago and the place just gets worse!”
It seems that industrial heritage is not wanted in thus country. We should use funds to restore buildings, but making sure they are carbon neutral, instead we seem obsessed with ‘growth’ despite the damage that can do in a world of dwindling resources.
I cooled down enough today to do some work on the waterfall painting based on the Dorothy Clive Garden. I’m trying to get movement and texture into it. I’ve been busy today, painting the sides of the Coast painting which I need to take to the three counties open exhibition in Burslem tomorrow. I have still got to add mirror plates onto the back of it so it can be hung. I need to add more colours to this painting to reflect the wonderful view we saw back in May. I’m enjoying learning more about how to use this style. Someone’s said it looked a bit like a Van Gogh but I hope it has a bit of uniqueness to it.
I’m very pleased to say I have had my painting ‘coast’ accepted in the three counties open exhibition in Burslem School of art later this year.
Burslem School of Art is famous for teaching artists their skills in the early twentieth century. I think Clarice Cliff was one of their students. I know the artist Arthur Berry studied there before becoming famous as the potteries ‘Lowry’.
It’s great that a physical exhibition will actually be held this year. I hope many people will be able to come and see it.
View of the organ and some of the exposed brickwork where the plasterwork has either fallen off or has been removed. In places brickwork is missing. The main doors at the front of the building are barred on the inside with planks of wood, to prevent unauthorised access to the old Chapel. It looks tired and dilapidated but when I think back to how it was a few years ago there has been considerable improvement, slowly but surely it is coming back to life. It was a privilege and pleasure to hear the organ being played yesterday and to perform there in such amazing surroundings.
Sadly I didn’t sell any of my paintings at Stone (exhibition ends today). I did get some feedback from a customer who said it was a shame they didn’t display them on another wall. They were in the corridor on the way to the toilets and she said she would not have seen them if she hadn’t gone to the loo! I guess it just shows that whatever you do if your work is not visible enough it won’t get any interest.
Long day, a walk, a yoga class, singing. I feel exhausted. The walk was just round Westport Lake on a windy day. There were more geese than I’d seen for a long time. Mostly Canada Geese. But we are not allowed to feed them, because of bird flu. The Westport Lake Tearoom does not sell bird food anymore to try and restrict the spread of the disease. We just walked past the birds and felt sorry for them. Clearly they are used to being fed so they congregate together, so the disease can spread.
Later I went to yoga class, I’m limited in what I can do, so I try and do the movements sitting on a chair. I modify the positions to fit in as well as I can with the rest of the group.
Then later we practiced songs at choir. Some of them are joining the performance at Bethesda Chapel in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent on Sunday. The show is called Animal Apocalypse. It is about the extinction and loss of animals in the world. It was quite a good practice. All in all a very busy day!
A fern in the corner of this photo from the Dorothy Clive Garden. The shapes really stand out against the darker background leaves. This is the sort of photo that I might duplicate and mirror. I look out for images that can be made into patterns. The deep maroon/purple is a good contrasting colour. I need to look through all my pictures to see if there are any more like this. I do take too many!
This was meant to say: fledgling artists? at factory event at B’arts.
Basically it was a meeting of local artists and creative to talk about how the pandemic and other events was effecting the local creative community. It was good because they had a comedy quiz set up so we merrily brainstormed ideas of what we could do to improve things.
Eventually four teams came up with varying ideas, and the ‘factory’ team from the local chamber of commerce agreed to act on our ideas! Some of that will hopefully be about art administration, accounting, mentoring and other practical help. I hope it does.
Talking about creativity it comes in a week when our local city council held a creative conference about our city, but declined to invite local historic and architectural experts. Instead they held it by invitation only and bought in people from other cities. Thanks for the non inclusion!
Mallaband-Brown