Steve CrowtherStudio Life
It's been quite a quiet week in the studio but the visitors have been coming in s steady stream. The new clicker has been busy as the numbers ramped up. Art wise I have continued my Postbox series by completing two more studies. One is black and white as when I painted it the colours didn't quite work out well, however converting it to monochrome makes it work much better and at least proves that the tones were right even if the colours weren't!
My series of ipad paintings of the locality at night continued this week with my sketch of the excellent Albion pub in Clayton-le-Moors. I was happy with this one and luckily so was the landlady of the pub. These are all painted on the Procreate App, the go to app for professional ipad artists.
I have managed to do a couple of sketches out and about this week. A trip to Blackburn allowed me to sit for literally ten minutes to capture the first scene. The second sketch was done in the village of Worsthorne in Burnley. I currently have two paintings in an exhibition there and after visiting them we sat outside for a while whilst I sketched the second view.
In an earlier edition of this blog I posted about a face I saw on my brush cleaning cloth and another face in a discarded piece of paper which had got caught in the sink plughole. Well this has happened again in a another spooky way. I decided this week to flush out my fountain pens and I used a glass of water to assist in this. On cleaning the ink reservoir into the water I noticed a lovely pattern and took a couple of photos a few seconds apart. However on closer inspection I could see two faces looking back at me. Can you also see them? Wonder if these are William and Anne Haworth?
What Else Has Been Happening......
As I mentioned it has been quiet around here but I have been accompanied by Catherine Lansdale and Leo Crabtree for some of the time. I knew Catherine was in as the familiar smell of varnish greeted me as she continues her sign project. This is now nearing completion and it has turned into a behemoth of a sign. I'm looking forward to this going up a tree in the car park once it has been completed. It does look amazing.
It's also been great to see Leo as well. He has been on Grandad duty of late which is a common thing during the holidays, I have been doing the same every Wednesday of the school holidays. Leo has completed his latest painting and he spent today completing the framing. This lovely piece will probably be going in the Haworth Open Exhibition which starts next month. It's a great new piece and compliments the other artworks in his studio painted in the same colour palette.
And Finally
Many people visit the studios to look at the conversion of the building as they knew it of old when it was mainly used for storage after it's life as a Motor House and Stables for the Haworth's horses and Rolls Royce Silver Ghost car. A photo of which can be found in the Petrol Store in the courtyard of the studios. Personally I never saw the building before it was converted but a local historian asked me if I'd like some old photos of the inside and outside just before the work began. I jumped at the chance and took the equivalent photo as it is now, a bit of a before and after. I'm sure you will agree it has been an amazing transformation. If you want to see this for yourself, please feel free to pop over, we always welcome visitors.