New paintings and regular art updates.
Tiny painting for the craft fair. I’m experimenting again. I’m doing normalise things but also things to catch the eye. Tiny paintings need tiny brushes, and my eyesight is not as good as it was. Shaky hands, holding my breath. Sometimes it’s hard to get the effect you want.
X
I made these glass pieces in my friend Angela’s glass workshop. Now I’ve bought them to another friend who is going to wire weave round them and turn them into necklaces. Glass is fascinating. I now want to find out about stained glass and glass blowing. I’m only dabbling my toes into this craft but it’s great. I’m going to maybe get an enamel kiln but that’s another story…..
This is the glass drop piece that I mad in Angela Ashtons glass workshop thy I put together last week. I think it’s turned out really well. I am going to put something on about some glass marbles and my smaller glass pieces later on, but I’ve been out since 10am and it’s almost 6pm and to be honest I’ve sat down and don’t want to move!
I love working with glass. I’m so glad I’ve started exploring it. Thank you Angela x
Queen scallops on lettuce with glass noodles, and Seabass in a rich sauce.
We also had pork and pak choi with noodles and spicy sauce. When you are too tired to cook after a long day this is heaven. My hubby was so tired he almost fell asleep after the food, but we had a brisk walk home as there was quite a chilly breeze. For once it was great to sit down and watch some TV.
Now its three hours later and I’m off to bed for a rest. Goodnight.
X
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?
A replica bottle oven is growing on the grounds of Spode at the moment. It’s going to be a pizza oven at the hotel on the Spode site.
Around the other side of Spode near the Church Street side is the base of an original bottle oven which had been demolished years ago. There are very few real ovens still standing in the city. Many were knocked down or fell into disrepair over the years. Where hundreds once stood and smoke stained the city sky less than fifty are still standing and many of these are in danger of being lost to the history of the city, county, and country.
Even now buddleia and other shrubs are growing in between their bricks, pulling the ovens down in continued dereliction. Hopefully some can be conserved.
For those who don’t know bottle ovens are bottle shaped buildings containing a central kiln which the oven surrounds. Pottery was stacked inside the kiln and fired by stoking fires under the ovens with coal.
it’s not often that you walk down the road in your local town and see a duck and a drake walking down the road in front of us. Crossing by a taxi rank. There is a river called the Trent that runs through the town, but it is in a culvert until it comes out near our local football ground.
When people say hello to each other in Stoke they say “hello duck” where in other places it might be “hello chick, or hello dearie”.
So we hope the ducks found the river or flew off to a park. I didn’t know who to contact and neither of them were injured. Just taking a walk….
Spode heritage Centre is closed at the moment because they are choosing photos for the 3 counties open photography exhibition. I had a quick glance as I was meeting the man in charge of the space to make arrangements for a show I’m holding there in May/June this year.
I have some paintings ready, but I might use photos from the Spode shop as inspirations for new paintings. I’ve been doing a lot of Blue and white work and the ceramics there are very striking. I also like looking through cabinets or windows to the view beyond. Using them to frame the subject.
Anyway my suggestion for today for you is “stay curious!”.
Mallaband-Brown