From sketch, through process, to finished product, and finally exhibition!

Well it's taken us a year or two, (or even three), but finally KAIROS, the small group of artists I belong to are having our Bird Exhibition, Gokotta, from the 6th-22nd March at DC1, 67-69 Seaside Road in Eastbourne, BN21 3PD East Sussex UK.

It feels like quite a journey, because we decided to set ourselves a project inspired by bird song at least three or maybe even four years ago. Gokotta, the title of our exhibition is Swedish for 'getting up early to hear the birds singing'! We are a mixed age group of six women, and inevitably life and work gets in the way. Babies are born, we move house, poor health happens, and family events all give us obstacles to overcome, but thankfully, we do seem to have held on to our dreams. 

I hope this post will be self explanatory, I thought I would whet your appetites by showing some of the processes I go through before actually arriving at the finished piece. I know that I have posted about some of this work before, but I'm hoping that they may be a reminder of what to expect from me if you manage to get to our exhibition.

Above shows how I gradually layer up fabrics, adding paint as I go along, and finally adding the free motion machine stitch.

I really enjoyed building up the textures in the sky, and hopefully you can see more detail in the close up shots below.

Finally, we have something here in Eastbourne called 'Secret Stones', which involves collecting stones from the beach to paint images or patterns on, and then hiding them around the area for children to find. It's a way of encouraging families and children to get out into the fresh air on a regular basis, and seems very popular. I was really thrilled when I discovered that there is a similar thing happening in Whangarei New Zealand, while staying with my daughter, and they call it 'Whangarei Rocks'.

I painted three stones giving details of our exhibition, and we are offering a small prize for anyone who finds them and brings them along to our art show.

We are also running bird related workshops during the show, including chicken drawing, clay work, card making and felt book wraps.

Now I do realise that there are followers of this blog who live in many far corners of this world, but if any one of you does happen to be in the Eastbourne are of Southern England during March, we would be extremely pleased to see you. I hope that the very cold snap we are expecting this coming week may have passed by the 6th, but if not, just make sure to wrap up warm. What I have shown here is just a tiny drop in the ocean of what you can expect to see, because the other five artists will be showing some beautiful pieces of bird related art, photography, 3d art and lots of  greetings cards. Bring your Mum along on Mothering Sunday, and there will be free cake to enjoy, so that MUST be worth a visit.