New paintings and regular art updates.
Recently found on my phone, photo taken a few years ago.
One of my murals from the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, it burnt down a couple of years ago. Portrait of Walter a regular there.. Mural, emulsion on lining paper. I had to paint it a few feet up the wall, the paintings were painted within a frame attached directly to the wall. I just noticed his hands are too small!
In its prime a few years before it burnt down. Sadly one of the landlords passed away following an infection from a scratch. It sounds bizarre but it is sad that it eventually closed down after his death. The atmosphere was fantastic, with ghost tours and belly dancing groups, the hotel became a great place to meet friends while keeping a spooky edge to its historic building. In fact historical groups met there to discuss the Burslem riot of 1842. The troops were called in to quell it by reading the riot act. One man, Josiah Heapy was killed during it. Many more were wounded.
Old wooden floors and staircases, panelled rooms, hotel rooms at the back each with it’s own Victorian sink. How it must have impressed people who stopped there in the past. I miss the old place.
Sketch of the Leopard Hotel in Burslem that was destroyed by fire in 2022. I just found this on my phone. I’d done several murals in the back room and was devastated when this happened. The pub was empty and it had been broken into. The wiring was tampered with.
There are some ideas to rebuild part of it using the historic frontage to keep it’s architectural authenticity. I hope it happens. #bandofsketchers drawing in felt pens.
This would have been 17 years old if the Leopard Hotel in Burslem hadn’t burnt down two and a half years ago. I don’t seem to have had much luck with murals. At least three were in buildings that were later knocked down. The risk of being a mural artist I guess is that if they are painted in old buildings they might not outlast you!
A local author and friend, called Fred Hughes, wrote an article on Facebook and in our local paper talking about how, as he has grown older, he has found himself crying more. One example he gives is when the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, burnt down two years ago. He lives nearby and found himself bought to rears because of all his memories of what had happened in that place, meeting people, enjoying good company and hospitality. He said that apparently hormonal changes can affect men because they are bought up to be stoic and strong. It must be a real shock to the system to allow grief and sadness out.
I think crying is good for you. Women do seem to be able to cry more often? I have wailed and cried and felt deep grief recently, not least because of the Leopard fire. The last two years have affected me a lot with various events. I’m not a stoic person although I try, when you have worked with people you have to try and stay professional. But without crying I would have exploded!
Facebook Memory from 2017.
‘Just back from the Leopard Hotel in Burslem. Met Sharon Crisp the landlady and her lovely staff…it’s 10 year since I painted the murals in the back room there, she is very kindly taking some photos of them for me! This is the Clarice Cliffe Umbrellas mural that I painted way back then …2007?’
Even now I miss my murals, the Leopard Hotel in Burslem was left empty and people got in and vandalised it, started growing cannabis. The building caught fire and only a shell of it remains
This was the back room of the Leopard Hotel in Burslem (the Arnold Bennett suite). The hotel burned down last year taking my murals with it. They were painted in emulsion paint directly onto the walls so it would have been impossible to remove them before the hotel caught fire (apparently the empty hotel had someone growing cannabis in it and the fire was from an electrical fault. It had been bought for redevelopment and the local community wanted to take it over to make it work again. Now its gone. You can see the relative sizes of them to the size of the room. I painted them between 2006 and 2007. I miss them.
The Leopardess at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem. She was supposed to be a mixed race woman that married the owner of the hotel and came to England to run it. I was told several tales by the landlords of the Leopard while I was painting murals there and I really wish I had written them down. But you know what it’s like. You are standing on top of a set of stepladders and chatting while you paint. You have ideas for each mural and have to fit in with what the owners want you to paint. Sometimes I was in the Arnold Bennett suite on my own for hours (I’d go up after work), listening to old creaking timbers and odd noises. It could be spooky in there. My memory isn’t what it was.
Thank you Sharon Crisp for sending me a photo of my Burslem Angel mural (lost in the fire in the Leopard Hotel in Burslem). It was painted in emulsion directly into a framed area on the wall that had originally been filled with flock wallpaper. I had asked if anyone had images of my murals a few months ago. This one was missing as was on of a woman standing outside a pottery with a row of bottle kilns. I’m really pleased to see this again.
I think it’s interesting how the clouds in the background look like smoke or flames.
Here is a better photo of my mural that was destroyed in a fire at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem earlier in the year. The landlady was said to have come over from the Caribbean and married an English man. She then ran the hotel. The trouble is I painted this in 2006? I honestly can’t remember the story I was told and now the hotel is gone.
Mallaband-Brown