New paintings and regular art updates.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who is the sweetest of them all?
This is a mirror and surround made by Sculpted Steel at the Forge at Etruria Industrial museum. The actual mirror is a quarter of this but I was playing with duplicating photos again.
The blacksmith, Charis is very talented and has had work exhibited at Tatton Park, I think at one of the garden shows.
My friend Su (ladybirdsu) has a op up garden at the Etruria festival. Blue boxes are laced in a geometric grid which is based on Islamic tiles. The whole effect is calming with a small solar powered fountain at the centre. Set on slightly sloping ground the whole piece sits on an unused part of the grounds between the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Cauldon canal. It is by lock 39 of the Trent and Mersey if you are looking for a specific location. It’s good to see art and history coming together in an effort to integrate the two.
Other projects in the area include greening Stoke, where areas of the town have had wild flowers planted and Spode Rose garden which has been more formally planted. In an age if climate crisis I think we need more of this work.
I would post other photos but I appear to have reached a limit on WordPress. I will see what I can do.
The sunset reflected on penkhull Church. I’ve altered the exposure on these, increasing the red or changing the background clouds. The top two are closer to the original pictures, but not as bright as I saw. This is because your eyes accommodate to the light levels, letting more light in by opening your iris in your eye, making the pupil wider. The trouble was as I increased the brightness the sky just disappeared into white, so I tried changing the colours in the curves section of my photo editor.
Thank you to everyone who came to the exhibition. I think people enjoyed it. I will be putting up more photos if I get some. These are quick snaps but I’ve included all the paintings. The people at Centre Space gallery, Darren and Sarah, could not be more helpful. If there was a trip advisor for galleries (maybe there is) I would recommend them.
If you would like to see it it’s on till Sunday from 10.30am to 4.00pm at the Centre Space gallery, at Spode Site, Eleanora street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 1QQ.
I’m so pleased with my exhibition which opens tomorrow. Darren and Sarah who run the Centre Space couldn’t have been more helpful.
I will post some photos of the paintings tomorrow when they are on show. I was pleased with the way the exhibition looks and the careful way that it was put up. I hope I get a few commissions out of it.
Will people understand my passion for painting green men? Or my love if planets and astronomy? My quirky ideas about earth, air, fire and water and a series of national and international animals and birds?
I hope whatever people like there will be something that will pique their interest. Like a victorian collector of curiosities I enjoy the odd, interesting, and fun.
I needed a break today from painting, so I went out with Stoke Urban Sketchers for a couple of hours this afternoon. I’m still a bit in and croaky so I couldn’t manage more than that. Thanks to Danny, Andy (hope I’ve got his name right) and Richard from Winkhill Mill for letting us have access to the building. If you wonder what the machine is I think it’s a dust press for making tiles.
I went to the Mill a few weeks ago to see an exhibition there and I drew one of the tiles, the Fox and the Crow.
Stoke has lots of hidden museums. It’s open on a Friday and I think Saturdays?
Painting bricks is hard. Especially when the image is tiny. I’m trying to get this finished, but so many bricks, I don’t like drawing them out with straight lines, so each one is a bit wobbly. We shall see….
Also it’s hard to work off a phone. I need to get photos I’m working on printed off.
Plus, I need to leave bits of the painting out. I don’t want metal fencing on the picture, or the striped barrier. But I will add the hanging baskets and flower tubs.
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Next week!
My exhibition. At centre space, the Spode Heritage visitors centre, Eleanora street, Stoke, Stoke-on-Trent
Preview night is on the Wednesday between 7 and 9pm. If you are around come along.
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A year ago I was outside Chatterley and Whitfield colliery drawing with the Stoke Urban Sketchers.
This year Stoke-on-Trent is hosting the United Kingdom Urban Sketchers annual festival from 7th to 9th June 2019! There may be a lot if sketchers descending on the city.
There is a lot of industrial archaeology and architecture here so I think people will enjoy it. Hopefully I will be able to get involved in it.
There are lots of places in Stoke-on-Trent and in the surrounding countryside which are worth drawing. I would love people to come here and fall in love with this city.
I’ve started work on this painting after a gap of a few months. I think it just over faced me, it was too big, to difficult (I’m working on it by looking at my phone).
And this last few days I haven’t felt well enough, but I started work on it this morning and did a good few hours on it.
So, where am I painting? In the house, not my studio. That’s the other thing, physically I feel awful. Mentally, I’m OK but don’t feel like I want to go out. We went for lunch with a friend today, but came straight home afterwards because I was exhausted, literally shaking. I don’t think I’m getting worse, but it’s taking time to recover and I know I’m pushing myself. But I have an exhibition next week and I haven’t got everything done. It’s very last minute……
This morning I realised it will be forty years in September since I started my degree in fine art painting…and I have never stopped….
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Mallaband-Brown