Names?

Posted on June 7, 2018June 7, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Memories, Mind, Name, Stoke-on trent, Thought, WritingLeave a comment

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A name just came spiralling out if nowhere into my head…Archibald Cotton…

I dont think I have ever met anyone by that name, but it sounds friendly. I imagine him as a Victorian pottery worker. Stuck in a hot bottle kiln, walking up and down ladders with boards balanced on his head. The boards would have saggars filled with pots on them. Men would carry heavy boards up into the kiln to load it. The saggers were pottery boxes that had ware (pottery) put into them, to protect the pottery from the intense heat and smoke from the firing.

I imagine Archibald working as a child or older youth as a sagger makers bottom knocker. If I remember rightly they put the bottoms on the saggars, one of the lowest paid jobs in the pottery industry.

Archibald would have progressed to one of the other jobs in the potbank as he got older. Maybe a fettler, a sponger, lithographer, warehouse man. Maybe he left the potteries and became a miner, or worked on the railways or in the shelton steel works

When I remember the Stoke-on-Trent I came to live in a few decades ago, I think of the old empty pot banks, warehouses, derelict buildings. An industrial archeologists dream. Archibald might have done archaeology…a fitting name for that profession. He might have investigated the ruins of the 13 th century Hulton Abbey, in Abbey Hulton.

Perhaps this name conjured from my imagination really existed. I wonder if I would have liked to have met him?

Canal art

Posted on June 3, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Barge, Canal, Canal roses, Castles, Drawing, Painting, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

The main art on canal boats or barges consists of old fashioned lettering, this then has shadows cast to make it appear 3 dimensional. See the photos above.

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I tried to draw this canal rose pot to keep me occupied while I was at the canal festival.

What you regularly see is this castle and roses pattern on barges and canal boats. It consists of a landscape painted with a stylised castle, often next to a river, and roses and leaves will appear either around the castle or on a different part of the bucket, jug, pot, table, stool or whatever peice of equipment carried on the barge. These historical paintings are also often painted on the inside of the doors so that when they are opened against the side of the hull they are on view.

I think this style of art is lovely. It may be old fashioned, but its interesting.

To paint the roses you start with a filled in circle of paint, then the leaves are painted in, then the petals are added. These seem to be created using the brush shape and are simple but neatly done. Finally details like highlights and stamens are added.

When these barges were in use, the main part of them were used for hauling coal or pottery. Whole families might live in a space not much bigger than about 10 foot by 6 foot…., is it any wonder that the barges were decorated with these patterns to make them more like home?

Mural

Posted on May 31, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Colliery, Florence Colliery, History, Miners, Murals, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

A few years ago I painted this mural for the Florence Colliery working men’s club. It’s 24 ft long and 6 ft high.

The Colliery had a pit wheel with the frame in a shape like an italic f. The painting includes a miner and a Davy lamp. The buildings were based on drawings of the old colliery. There is a huge oak tree that still survived and the who lot is surrounded by Staffordshire country side.

It took me several weeks to paint the panel’s, 6ft by 4ft. I had to place them next to each other so that the picture would line up. They were painted in emulsion paint if I remember correctly . Then varnished with yatch varnish.

They were initially erected outside the club on the main road, and covered with perspex to protect them. The mural was moved down into the grounds of the club a few years later.

I have done a few murals in my time. Two dissapeared when the buildings they were in were demolished. I have photos of another one I helped paint. Somewhere…..

Yesterday’s drawings

Posted on May 20, 2018 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Architecture, Art, Chatterley and whitfield, Drawing, Mining, Pastels, Sketching, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Urban SketchersLeave a comment

It’s been too hectic to post much over the last couple of days, I was getting ready for out makers market at Spode. …I only sold a couple of things, ah well there is always next time.

But yesterday morning I went out with Stoke Urban sketchers to draw the old colliery buildings at Chatterly and Whitfield enterprise zone. A former colliery closed in the 1980’s, I remember visiting when there was a mining museum there. You could walk through some of the old mine workings and he a feeling of what it was like to work underground.

Sadly the museum closed down due to lack of visitors, but I have heard that volunteers are trying to bring something back to the site.

We were outside the perimeter fence, somewhere on the path in the nature reserve that now surrounds the site.

The buildings are very big, there are many stories to them, with arches and windows in the side of the buildings. Huge winding wheels look miniscule where they sit at the top of the building, and guard rails are placed on either side if them. The main building is starting to get covered in foliage, eventually it could end up looking like an ancient relic or monument.

Metal frames and wheels also dotted the horizon, I did a pen drawing, a couple of pencil sketches, and a pastel and ink picture.

Being surrounded by other skilled artists really encouraged me to try and capture the architecture of the landscape. Drawing in a group can help your confidence. Even my partner had a go!

Little Devil

Posted on May 17, 2018 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Earth, Hilton Art pottery, Pottery, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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I saw Adam from Hulton Art pottery today, which is based at the Spode pottery site. I bought a wall mounted bracket (which is still wrapped in bubble wrap) but along with it he gave me a terracotta tile of what looks like a cheeky little devil..

I can’t help liking his wide smile, the twinkle in his eyes, his spikey, possibly flaming coat, (the tile, not Adam!).

I asked if it was OK to paint this little guy, because he made me chuckle with laughter. It looks like something mediaeval that could have been a gargoyle on an old building. Adam told me it was made in about 1997, soon after he had completed his training in pottery, so it seems really special. I feel privileged to have something that has age and character. This cheeky little devil is probably going to find a home on a window ledge somewhere.

I feel like he is related to the green men I have been painting over the last few years. Maybe they all have a feeling of spirit of the Earth in them. An old hidden life that we have lost as the world becomes ever more urban around us. I like the idea of faeries and little people getting up to mischief.

I remember one if my favourite paintings when I was a teenager was Richard Dadds’ the Faeiry Fellers masterstroke. He was put into a mental asylum because of ‘madness’ but I don’t know his history apart from that. Dadds’ painting has amazing tiny details. If you can try looking it up on the net.

Anyway I might post a follow up picture of the little devil if I ever finish it.

Drawing with Stoke Urban Sketchers

Posted on May 7, 2018 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Burslem, Drawing, Landscape, Sketching, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Urban SketchersLeave a comment

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There are apparently lots of Urban sketchers groups around the world. I am a member of Stoke Urban Sketchers (USK). We meet every few weekends to draw interesting places in the Towns and Cities around us.

Today we had a stall at Burslem, and members sat and drew the view and also were scattered around the town trying to draw some of the old buildings and crowds. There was also a classic car rally so these became the subject of drawings too!

I made the mistake of just taking a sketchpad and a HB pencil and a broad black marker pen. I had to borrow some coloured pencil but I think my initial sketch was not that good.

I did get into trying to draw the crowds of people, including a man with a cup of tea or coffee who kindly stood still while I drew him. I finished by drawing the old roofs across the square. I could have done more..but I was too hot and bothered. I think it got to about 28 degrees Celsius. ..thats about 10 degrees hotter than normal. Phew!

Yesterdays Art

Posted on May 4, 2018 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Earth, Leaves, Painting, Potteries, Pottery, Spode, Stoke-on trent, Water5 Comments

Some paintings I have worked on and a Mini Mona Lisa. ..

The first four are recent paintings that I have worked on because I was not happy with them. Water and Earth are both part of a series (including Air and Fire) I also want to improve them.

Leaves was originally a single leaf but it was very simple and I wanted to add more to it. The leaves are from my imagination. I sometimes use art as a way of helping my memory. If I can remember what something looks like I can use the memory for other paintings and not necessarily use reference photos. I dont have a photographic memory but I sometimes describe an image to myself, like the way a gutter and drainpipe are attached to a house. If I can describe it I can draw or paint it.

Autumn pottery is based on a “pot bank” the kilns that were used for firing pottery in the past. Now they use gas tunnel kilns. The plants are roses and cotoneaster. They are to represent vegetation growing around old, derelict pot banks. The blue background could be sky, or the water from local canals.

The final painting was a quick copy of the Mona Lisa, taken from a very old book on anatomy for student artists. I know it is wrong, the face is too thin, the smile is wrong. But for half an hour’s work its not bad. It’s on a tiny canvas about 1 inch by 2 inches.

So there you are, more paintings, its something I do.

Pottery

Posted on April 25, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Digital art, Poetry, Potteries, Pottery, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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It’s a dry subject is pottery,

The clay, once wetted and shaped, is dryed to leather hard,

Then punished in heat, it burns to biscuit ware.

So called because it takes on the dry biscuit colour,

and Matt, flat, creamy white shaded non-sheen.

Waiting on a shelf, waiting to be gently dipped in liquid,

The glaze or slip is slurped up with thirst.

Then fired again in gas till shiny new and almost molten,

It is released from the volcanic kiln.

How is it not broken with the immolation of its body

No, just shrunken, the moisture burned away.

Ready to be decorated in variously gorgeous ways……

Drawing is of a jug, I think by Clarice Cliff. I drew it years ago on sketchfu…

Cards

Posted on April 23, 2018 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, Design, Green man, Greeting cards, Industrial art, Painting, Spode, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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I have had some cards and prints done!

The top painting is of a light at Spode. I was pleased with the prints that came out. The tones are good, and the image is clear. I’m glad I used a local fine art printing company.

The second card is of a painting similar to the green man above. It was a second version I had done, without the curves at the bottom of the painting. (I don’t have a photo of it).

The green man is on a gardinere in salts mill, saltaire, Yorkshire. It was an example of Victorian pottery. I took a photo with my phone and used it to work from.

I will be trying to sell them at a few craft fairs over the spring and summer. It’s hard to judge if people will buy them, but you have got to try !

How do I accept messages on WordPress?

Posted on April 13, 2018April 13, 2018 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Contact, Messages, Photos, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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Someone tried to send me a message on WordPress but unfortunately I could not open it, and now I seem to have lost it? How do I pick them up if I want to speak to someone?

It is probably quite simple but I only have a basic tablet and sometimes it is quite glitchy. The broadband is tempremental too and that means that sometimes it takes ages for a page to load. …

Think I need to clear some of my files to give me a bit more memory. But when I think of the old computers I had, with dial up modem, which made a strange bring boing noise when it connected to the internet, I know this is a lot better ….

If you tried to contact me…

Hi, and I’m sorry

I didn’t

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Stoke-on trent