I've just returned from a gloriously hot and sunny few days in Dorset. As I walked along the pebbly beaches, I couldn't help feeling I was being watched!!!
It's compulsory isn't it, to collect pebbles as you meander along. However, to save weighing my pockets down too much, I decided to sketch these wonderfully 'gurning' faces I could see looking up at me.
I feel a 'funny faces' textile coming into being in the very near future!!
It was lovely to sketch boats in West Bay harbour while enjoying a coffee.
Fishing nets at Lyme Regis, I love the combinations of colour and texture.
Rusty chains, again at Lyme Regis and below, two of their gorgeous shell inspired street lamps.
I loved all the strips of corrugated iron cladding this barn, some of them beginning to rust.
This photo of a telegraph pole may well be the inspiration for October's journal quilt. You'll see why further down the page.
Colmers Hill in Dorset, it seems to have inspired a number of artists in the area, and I can understand why.
While I was away, I heard that both the above quilts have been accepted for exhibitions abroad. The top one is going to Prague, after being exhibited in a Richmond gallery, and the bottom one, Reflected Sunlight, is going to be exhibited at the Ailsa Craig exhibition in Canada next year.
Back to Dorset, and above and below are photos of one of the most breath taking sunsets I've ever witnessed. The colours were so intense, it really was an awe inspiring experience.
Staying on a sunset theme, above is my September Journal Quilt, which was inspired by a photo I took in Dungeness. I loved the pattern that the poles and wires made across the landscape. Below is another piece that I made for my cousin. His partner had taken a photo of a sunset on their farm, and asked me to translate it into a textile.
The evenings are really beginning to draw in here in the northern hemisphere, but hopefully we've still got a few warm days left in which to enjoy our beautiful countryside and coasts. Wherever you are, I hope you can find inspiration and joy from your surroundings too.
I do hope that you include your pebble faces at some stage, they are so characterful. Congratulations on both quilts that are going travelling, I never believed that they would leave out your Horizons entry and I love Reflected Sunlight.
ReplyDeleteThanks Maggi, Like you, I just wish I had the opportunity to travel with them! I have every intention of making a pebble face piece, and I'm wondering what the theme for next year's JQ's will be. I could do a series of twelve pebble faces!!!
DeleteInteresting post Cath and congratulations on your 2 lovely works travelling abroad.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tessa, just wish I could travel with them!!
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