Christmas

My blog has taken rather a back seat since the arrival of the festive season, I haven't had time to do any exhibition visits, no painting and not much time browsing the internet unless it was for shopping purposes. However whilst browsing the Selvedge website I came across these beautiful decorations by German designer Orike Muth. I would like them all but at £15 each maybe I will just treat myself to one.

Romantic Subtractions

Browsing the internet one day I came across the work Elana Herzog an American artist who works with found textiles, mostly bedspreads and carpets, which she then staples to the wall using thousands of metal staples. But it was her smaller work on books that initially attracted me. I am particularly interested in poetry in Art at the moment and this collective with poet Jerome Rothenberg and published by Gervais Jassaud called Romantic Dadas really intrigued me. The work reminds me a little of Cy Twombly, the paint splashes and threads that look like drips of paint. I really love the use of stitch and paint together along with the staples and the printed word.

Photoshop

A little bit of Photoshop manipulation with one of my Blackpool images.

Anthropologie

My last post was far to wordy so here are some photographs from the Anthropologie shop on Regent Street in London. Beautiful shop and I just love these chandeliers made from re-cycled plastic bottles.

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair

At the weekend I visited the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair in Manchester. Now in it's third year, this is the leading selling event for contemporary craft in the north. Each year the fair has got bigger, and this year saw the addition of an extra pavillion, which accommodated a new feature for 2010, the Great Northern Graduates section. This featured 14 of the best new designers from the North's craft and design courses. My favourites of the graduates were Jess Edwards who makes embroidered textile works that cross the boundaries between textiles and photography, and Catherine Carr who makes crocheted glass vessels inspired by the role, memories and skills that women have of working in the textile industry.

On the whole I felt the fair was very good, I was there on the Sunday and it seemed to be well attended. For me though there were to many jewellers working in a to similar way. The stand out makers for me were ceramacist Adam Frew, who makes pots made from porcelain decorated with inky cobalt drawings. The imagery is simple and narrative and has a great spontaneity. Judith Davies's porcelain vessels which have a delicate ethereal quality which to me looked like abstract paintings in ceramic form, together with the work of Elspeth Edmondson exhibiting side by side the work complemented each others really well. Elspeth's work investigates the structure of paper in combination with the letterpress print process.




Adam Frew

Judith Davies

Elspeth Edmondson









Nice Things

One of my favourite online shops is Dee Puddy Garden and Interiors. Dee has a range of beautiful items to decorate home and garden. Handmade collectables, storage solutions and lighting, bringing together colour and texture as well as practical and functional elements. I especially like her range of christmas decorations and gifts.

Inspirational ideas

This is the current picture that I have on my desktop, I came across it whilst browsing some blogs. I love the bright colours and the patterns, it just makes me smile. It is by an artist called Ginette Lapalme and was intended as a T shirt design it is called stix.