Inspiration

Painting at last but not much progress!! the only thing I have liked so far is the paint collecting on my palette.

62@50

Over the summer I went to see the 50th Anniversary exhibition of the 62 Embroidery group, which was held in the Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University. Established in 1962 the 62 group was formed by a group of diverse textile artists with the aim of challenging the boundaries of textile practise.

There were a few stand out pieces for me, one of them was the work of Jan Miller her piece entitled Cloth Manual is a record of the worn textiles and clothing remaining in the once thriving Abbey Court Hotel. Each hand stitched layer of fabric fragments and thread retains something of the maker or wearer, the re-worked cloth documents forgotten details.

I also liked a piece of work by Jae Maries, A Day in the Life Of, is an observation on the earth's population which on the 31st October 2011 reached 7 billion. Jae used remnants from previous work to create 350 small figures each one representing 20 million people. Little Danika was declared the 7 billionth person to arrive on the planet she can be seen on one of the tags.

Finally the third artist that I thought had made some beautiful work was Jane McKeating. Her piece Cloth Envelopes began as drawings made on a visit to India. They capture how time distorts memory and how recalled images become amalgamations of the past and present. Drawings made in England are combined with the original Indian drawings, instead of depicting a linear approach to time it becomes a blend of the real, the remembered and the imagined.

I thought all three of these artists made thought provoking pieces, all three had a very layered approach to their work and their thinking. This was a really good exhibition and I was glad that I actually made the effort to go and see it. I have quite a few more photographs from the exhibition, but will leave this for another post.

More Days Out and a Gentle Summer Walk.

Continuing my days out, our third day was spent in Liverpool mainly to see the Turner Monet and Twombly exhibition at the Tate. The weather was absolutely beautiful which added to the brilliant atmosphere at the Albert Dock.

My photographs unfortunately were not that good, it was just too sunny!! The exhibition however was amazing and is well worth a visit if you are in the Liverpool area, it finishes on the 28th October.

After three days of going out we decided to have a day at home, I went for a walk with my youngest daughter Phoebe.

It was a beautiful gentle summers day, we found some lovely grasses.

And some pretty seed heads.

Surprise in the Post

Last week I received a little surprise in the post from the Beside The Wave Gallery in Cornwall, it was a catalogue of their most recent exhibition by Emma Dunbar "down at the allotments". I must be on their mailing list, and I had no idea this exhibition was on, it finishes on the 29th August so not much time left to see it.

Not great images it's quite hard to photograph a catalogue and keep the colours looking correct. There is also a fun competition to enter on the gallery website or at the gallery itself to win a framed print.

Days Out.

As we are not going away this year a few days out were called for, a week was allocated and regardless of the weather we were going out. Our first visit was to the Grizedale Forest in the Lake District, the weather was mixed but we did manage to fit in a 4 mile walk without getting wet and as usual it took us twice as long because I kept stopping every few yards to take a photo!

All those amazing views and most of my photographs are close-ups of plant life.

I did manage to get the odd shot of some trees but I was a little disappointed with the results, I really do need a zoom lens for my camera.

There were so many beautiful wild flowers and some lovely grasses.

The following day we set off for Wales, we had a brief stop for coffee in Conwy then headed for Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesey.

I was feeling a little tired of taking photographs unfortunately, and my daughter kept pinching the camera because she has started her own blog, so now there will be two of us stopping to photograph!! We went into the castle which had dark passageways to explore.

The pretty town had lots of lovely bunting, and the old court house had some interesting doors with peeling paint and rusty bits.

There was a lovely flower shop I wanted to buy lots of plants but we decided it probably wasn't practical.

And some pretty houses, we liked the bright pink one!

We went for a short drive from Beaumaris to Red Wharf bay and  could not believe the change in the weather we went from bright blue skies and brilliant sunshine to grey, misty and damp in just a few miles, but it was quite atmospheric.

Will have to stop there I am blogged out, part two of days out later in the week. I hope everyone is enjoying there summer and hopefully soaking up some inspiration somewhere.

Evolution of a Painting

I can't believe it's a month since my last post, I really am finding blogging hard to do at the moment and I don't think it is due to lack of time, it is more to do with lack of motivation. Therefore I thought I would try and ease myself back in slowly with a mainly visual post on one of the paintings that I started on the Bloom True e course.

This was the first of many layers, the paint was applied freely trying to let the paint find it's own way.

Adding glazes with fluid acrylics, which I have never used before.

At this point I decided to put this painting to one side it doesn't feel finished yet but I just feel a bit stuck.
There is quite a lot of etching in this painting so I took a few close up shots.

I am working on three paintings at the moment they are all 90cm x 90cm which is quite large for me, however I feel I would like to paint even larger.