Sketchbook Development Classes

 Before you get too far into this post, a warning! I've included more photos than usual, so will attempt to keep the written part as brief as possible. 

One of the art classes I'm enjoying at the moment is about sketchbook development. Lucy Dean, our tutor, has called the theme for this term 'Repetition and Time'. The image below, a photocopy of some seaweed that Lucy floated onto a canvas was our starting point for the first session.

We made a small frame so that we could isolate an area from the seaweed image, and draw it out. From each successive drawing, we isolated another part of the previous drawing,until we had just a few interesting lines to play around with.

I don't know why, but as I reduced my drawings, I thought they were beginning to resemble tonsils!!

Above is my final reduced image which I traced off,  allowing me to play around with four identical images. I arranged them into what you can see below. The middle section reminded me of two fish, and as this seemed to fit in with the seaweed theme, I drew two fun fish surrounded by some watery shapes.

I took a photo of this large flock of Gulls, and cropped it to get a closer view of the birds in flight.

Using the same frame, I reduced the images as before, until I was left with the fourth one below.

I repeated the drawings into two folded concertina books, one in a portrait orientation, and the second in landscape. The abstracted shapes of the birds I have left white, but decided to experiment with the backgrounds using line in various ways.

I also quite liked the two gull heads from the bottom right of the cropped photo, so had a play around with that too.

During our second lesson, Lucy gave us each a razor shell to sketch. We were also given an A4 sheet of paper that had been folded into four, giving us four elongated surfaces to draw the shell. Lucy then suggested that when we had completed all four sketches/paintings, we were to cut the paper through the middle, joining the two pieces, making a concertina book.

I decided to experiment with different media for each drawing, so used ink and wash, watercolour, collage and a textured background for another.

If you've managed to stay with this post to the end, well done, and I hope you have enjoyed it.

Still not much stitching going on, but the whole point of these classes is to give me a new perspective, which will, I'm sure eventually inspire any future textile work.

Fingers crossed!

A Pembrokeshire Break.

I have just returned from a short break visiting family in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. We spent an afternoon in St. David's, and of course couldn't miss the opportunity to go into the Cathedral which makes St. David's  the smallest city in the UK! The original building, now a ruin, can be seen below, and stands just behind the more recent building, above.

Above is a photo that I took of the wonderful embroidery stitched by Amanda Wright, depicting the life of Saint Caradog, and below are a couple of  closer details.

The gate above took my eye one afternoon while we were walking along the seafront in Newport., and below I just loved the way that the stones and rocks had been placed to strengthen the shallow incline that was supporting the garden above.

So many Canadian Geese were milling and swimming around in the estuary of the river, I don't think I have ever seen so many in one place like that before. I took many photos of them, and am hoping to make some stitched pieces using them as inspiration.

We visited Picton Castle Gardens which are also beautiful, and where there are  a number of sculptures to be enjoyed, including a dragonfly with gorgeous bright blue wings. I thought the reflection in the water of the small lake made an interesting image.

Armed with plenty of inspiration, I'm hoping to get back into some stitched artwork very soon now. Many thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope your summer/winter breaks will also inspire your creativity. 

Lucy's Birdfest!

Lucy Dean, an ex colleague, and very good friend of mine, decided to put on a Bird Extravaganza in her garden last weekend. We were welcomed by the site of these amazing rainbow coloured birds dancing around her rotary drier, and gently swaying in the breeze. Lucy had created them by twisting willow into bird shapes, and then covering the frames with coloured tissue.

As we wandered through her and her husband Graham's lovely garden, there were lots of bird related works of art to discover, from the large printed sheet you see above, where the crows are soaring on a cloud of white cotton, to the amazing milk bottle Gulls below, being cleverly reflected in the round mirrors, where the Gulls could be seen against the reflected sky!

One of Lucy's many specialities are crows, and they were perched on fences, and trees, scarily peering at us from above. The old crow in the photo below, even has his specs perched on the end of his beak, (to see us more clearly no doubt)!!

Again, I think Lucy bends and manipulates willow into the desired shapes, which she has then covered with black plastic. The crow head below is a work in progress, and so far has blue strips of plastic tied around the frame. I will make sure that I give a progress report for this one, as I believe it is also going to be part of a future exhibition.

The ceramic tiles above were also designed and painted by Lucy, forming a very colourful peacock. I'm not sure about the parrot below, but I took his photo anyway, as I thought he was rather gorgeous.

Below is a rather wonderful fantasy mask, with two bluetits facing each other just above the eyes.

Now this Birdfest was also a collaboration of bird related arts and crafts by members of Lucy's family, and some of her friends. Graham, her hubby, is a talented potter and ceramicist, and he decided to craft the two birds below. They are still to be fired and glazed, but looked great just as they were in the photos below.

Above is bunting that Lucy made from painted felt, and below a glorious pink flamingo made by her niece Emily Webber. I love that his/her body was made from an old discarded light shade!

Karen Moser printed the black and white birds above and below from a lino cut, and then stitched them onto some hand dyed fabric, giving the background a lovely impression of a summer garden. She also made the nest below, filling it with some small eggs lying on a bed of soft feathers.

Jackie Harford constructed the bird boxes, decorating them in some delightfully witty ways. The box above had a peep hole, lovely to peer into, especially after dark when the light underneath shone into it. Below is 'Birdsong',  and below that the words to one of Paul McCartney's songs has been written on the front.

The box below has another world inside, filled with a whole family of birds.

My contribution was the hand stitched bird bunting below. I'm having work done on my house at the moment, so can't get to my sewing machine! Anyway, it has been fun to sit of an evening and use scraps to create the fantasy birds below, decorating them with plenty of hand stitching.

I was unable to stay until darkness fell, but Lucy had arranged for plenty of candles to be lit, and placed strategically, giving a magical twist to her exhibition of bird art. I hope you have enjoyed seeing these photos, and I hope that wherever you are in the world, you are enjoying some creative time too.