New paintings and regular art updates.
And foliage. At Trentham Gardens, I love the colour combinations, yellows and purples, reds, oranges and greens. Really rusty beautiful sculptures are inserted into the borders to add to the joyous jumble. Giant bees jostle metal flowers, knopthalia (red hot poker plants) and crimson and variegated Coleus add their foliage flames to the fire. Makes you feel warm on a dreary day.
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On a lighter note this statue of Persius and Medusa is at Trentham Gardens, Trentham, Staffordshire. The statue is inside the gardens next to the lake which means you have to pay to go in. I’m sure there is information about it but this is a photo from last year. I haven’t been in the gardens for months and probably with the heavy rain we’ve been having the plants there might be a bit battered but they are usually very beautiful.
I’m going to try and finish my painting of mars that I shared a couple of days ago to get in our Orme art exhibition at the Brampton in Newcastle-under-Lyme and try and go back to Trentham again on Friday.
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Two sketches. One yesterday at Astle Park traction engine rally, I drew this at the end of the day when all the vehicles has left the show ring except for this miniature traction engine. I could have just taken a photo but as it stayed still for quite a while I drew instead.
The second picture was drawn outside but then we went into the restaurant as we were being bothered by wasps. I took a photo of the drawing while we were inside. I didn’t realise it was so dark in there with a blue tone to the lighting. I adjusted it with a photo editor. It shows how long it took to get served, the place was really busy. The food was very nice though.
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This is a few years old but I painted it while I was up on top of the hill by Trentham monument. It’s looking back towards the potteries with Trentham lake in the middle ground, obscured to some extent by the trees on the hill. I’m not that good at landscapes (this is acrylic on canvas). I guess it’s in my own style but it’s a little bit splodgy.
Anyway the reason for posting this is to inspire myself to do a few more. Perhaps we can get out into the open air this week and take some photos to work from.
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Caught on camera, this fairie metallic us, seen flitting over the lake at Trentham Gardens. Like a dragonfly. Was she catching gnats for supper or taking a drink of water from the lake.
Fairies rarely stay still long enough to be photographed. Their magic powers mean that they can hide from view. I only caught this image by dodging out from between the trees and having my camera on zoom. That is why it suffers from camera shake.
Lol actually there are lots of wire weave fairies at Trentham but I just tried to write a small fiction about this one.
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I painted this out in the open air a couple of years ago. It took a couple of hours to paint. As you can see the day was very overcast. This is a small acrylic on canvas. I don’t actually know where it is. I have a feeling that I sold it?
I’ve painted from this position a few times, looking down the lake towards the Italian Gardens at Trentham. The end of the lake at this end is next to Trentham monkey forest where they have two troops of macaque monkeys.
I hope to go back soon and try and draw some of them. They are beautiful animals and they are so cute when they are babies.
In the meantime I’m feeling a bit better so over the next few weeks I will try and get some new paintings done.
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I’m at it again, can’t resist. Loving autumn colours, and autumn mist.
Spent the day shooting, not animals but flowers, its easy to play around in floral bowers.
The lakes a stunner, full of ducks and drakes, and the gardens cafe makes lovely cakes.
Swans are skulling slowly across the water, seeing them is awesome, they don’t falter.
So now it’s autumn, colds and chills await, winter is a coming, and the flowers fate.
Coming to the garden, death will take a ride, and the pretty flowers will have nowhere to hide.
So come and see the garden, come see the show. Before the autumn’s over, and it’s too cold to grow.
Yes then all will be compost, thrown away my dear, and we will have to wait again, at least till next year!
For years I have drawn a little cat in a hat, useful if you want to talk to someone and they have a fidgety child. I would ask if they would like me to draw them a cat, and then draw this motif, with a pointy hat, and a name tag on its collar so the child could choose the cats name.
I also like decorating pottery so took the opportunity to do so at Trentham Retail village. This is on the A34 near Trentham village, a couple of miles South of Stoke-on-Trent, near the Stoke South junction of the M6 motorway.
There is a shop there selling pottery called the Potters Barn. They have glazes and blank pottery so you can decorate pots yourself. I know it’s usually for children, but I don’t see why adults can’t do it too.
Anyway I painted two cats, so you will see one or the other depending on which hand you hold the mug in. There are various things to paint so I chose a large mug. It cost me £15, but when you think that’s including the firing of the mug, it’s no too bad.
The final result should be bright and cheerful. I added numerous flowers in the background and dots on the rim. I should get it back I a couple of weeks.
Mallaband-Brown