Another Bit of Silliness

I shared my 'frame project' a month or two ago, in which I filled a section of an old screen I have with bottle tops. Well, my mind kept mulling over what to do next, and has a whole host of ideas stored away! It's a nice, easy thing to do with a child around, because I can pick it up and put it down easily, and once begun, it doesn't need a huge amount of brainpower. Feets has been quite happy with me sat next to her, as she chews on a bottle and I roll tubes of coloured paper. I liked this idea for it's spontaneous 3d effect, though it hasn't ended up as 3D as I'd hoped. Next stop, CDs ...

Urban Art Fair

I stumbled across the Urban Art Fair a couple of years ago, completely by accident, when I was gobsmacked to discover a quality art fair on a quiet residential street just around the corner from my house!  So of course I took the baby and made my way back there this year.  It's a little late, but these were my highlights ...

Lucy Storrs - As someone who dabbles in feltmaking, I could spend multiple blog entries displaying the beauty of this work.  I have NEVER seen felt used in such a fine, delicate, painterly manor.  I've been inspired by feltmaking many a time, and I'm not even sure that this is the approach I would take, but I could spend all day looking at this work, how each fibre seems to have been laid individually, to complete the perfect painting ...

Harriet Riddell - Appealed enormously to my participative, community art mind, though she was 'doing' the art herself.  She sat in a tent and drew portraits of the punters on her sewing machine.  I think it resonated too thanks to the 'single line' nature of the drawing.  I shall have to improve my machine embroidery skills!

Staffan Gnosspelius - Is a fantastic, inspiring, mesmerising illustrator, who took part in our residency project I Digress a few years ago.  I'm just appealed by the quality and beauty of his work.  Though this observation reminds me of my entry on beautiful books for children ...

Julia McKenzie - Beautiful work drawing in all my favourite themes - maps, nature, papercuts, birds...

Tessa Horrocks - I remembered these prints from my previous visit, so something about them must have stuck in my mind across the months.  I love their elegance, simplicity, and the bridging of the gap between abstract and figurative, as always ...

Collage Friday Returns

Collage Friday, and indeed, Fabric Wednesday, have been continuing since they began in May, some with more and some with less success, but rarely with a chance for me to document it, in the midst of trying to console Feets about the greater mobility of the bigger babies. But the last session was a quieter one, and Conni and Lydia put their minds to making their own mobiles, like the one I made for Feets ...

Artist Discoveries

A recent holiday in Porlock, Somerset, and I took a relaxed moment to explore the lovely Churchgate Gallery.  These were my favourite discoveries ...

Flora McLachlan - a printer and illustrator with an exquisite array of fanciful woodland prints.  The majority of her work are etchings, but my love of collograph was brought back in full force by her collage prints.  I shall have to get cutting and sticking again!

Peggy Lock - I was blown away by a series of screenprints and woodcuts taken from still lifes of blue china.  What a brilliant, and beautiful idea!  I love the sense of collage, and the need to slowly piece together this picture of so many layers.

Sue Onley - On a completely different note, the deep, rich colours of Sue Onley's paintings reminded me a little bit of the early, figurative works of Kandinsky, which are among my favourite paintings in history.  No surprises then, that I liked these.  They give such a wonderful glow of the countryside around where we were staying.