New paintings and regular art updates.
A nice idea. A piece of thick paper with wild flower seeds pressed into it. My friend ladybird Su had a workshop stall today at Etruria festival today. I used a black ink stamp of a tree and then I coloured it in with felt pens. The wildflowers will be wending their way by post to my sister. I hope she likes it. The card and envelope are so small that the stamp is almost too big for it.
I’ve previously exhibited these at Arts and Minds in Harper Street, Middleport and I’m having a swap round. So I’ve taken these to Etruria Industrial museum today. (I have more work up at Harper Street.) The lower two photos are my painting of the governor on the Princess beam engine at Etruria. The poppies and wildflowers represent the summer and poppies are hopefully going to grow there as the museum has initiated a wild flower garden to support bees and other pollenating insects. The idea is to stop mowing the grass lawns around the site and reintroduce more of a natural habitat.
One thing that upset me was seeing litter and rubbish in the grounds and in the canal which the museum volunteers deal with by litter picking. They have a long pole with a net and one of the volunteers fished a plastic cup and other litter out of the canal while we watched.
The museum is part of Stoke on Trents heritage and I’m pleased to have my art displayed there. X
I might do a painting based on this photo that I have added texture to in the Photodirector app. The wildflowers were all in bloom at Westport Lake today. I could not identify many of them but they did make a lovely show. I managed to get a few thousand steps in for a change, I haven’t been doing enough walking recently. It is the season for bees and butterflies. We actually saw a few today.
Not all photos have to be brightly coloured or black and white. These plants are all very similar in tone, but the shapes of the leaves, flower and seed heads bring it to life. I think I took the photo at the back of Trentham Gardens at the south of Stoke-on-Trent. We need more wildflowers to help the bees.
There are plants growing out of tyres in the town centre, next to a car wash. They are part of an arts project started last year to green the town, I think by Art Stop Stoke? Other plants that are growing up include tomatoes and a courgette outside a Chinese takeaway. I’m interested in the fact they are clearly being looked after even after this length of time.
We tried putting a few plants in infront of an advertising hoarding. But the plants that were growing were killed off by weedkiller. Now the area is covered by persistent weeds. We may sprinkle some poppy seeds on it or nasturtium seeds. Long may the project continue.
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Mallaband-Brown