An Talla Solais Exhibition

Thursday evening sunset was quite dramatic we were walking along the shore and the light kept changing everytime we looked up a different set of colours appeared.

Friday evening soon came round and the opening evening of the exhibition that I had been working

for these  last few weeks got underway. What I was not expecting was the number of people that turned up - over seventy, and what enthusiasm!  Here is the artist Dick Lindsay in his 92nd year

 and still producing work of an amazing standard.

I was very uncomfortable showing and talking about my work to so many people so John took over whilst I wandered about with a glazed look on my face. Too many compliments to cope with at one time. the show runs for the next two weeks but for one of those weeks I am taking a five day course with Jan Kilpatrick - Experimental  Embroidery.

Sweet Peas and Xmas Decs.

I have never ever picked sweet peas in September, not in decades of gardening. I went out early this morning determined to consign them to the compost heap. I 'm having an early clean up this year so that when I come back from Scotland the garden doesn't look like a dead jungle. As I reached up to drag the first plants away from the trellis the perfume just hit me and for a moment it felt like an early summer's day. Sweet peas are usually over and done with by late July in my windy garden, they've earned a reprieve.

The bizarreness  of sitting in a garden that looks more like high summer rather than autumn was brought home to me as later I sat making Xmas baubles ( thank you Christine for your five minute tutorial).

It's lovely to be sewing something decorative and pretty after the more challenging stuff of the last few weeks.

I also managed to have an hour mindlessly finishing off a sketch from my last Ullapool visit. I remember the day I did it so well. I had been looking across the loch at a line of woodland, the water was inky blue and reflected the image like a mirror. The sky and the mountains merged into one and my doodle / sketch technique came up with this stylized  sketch just waiting to translate into stitch.

Playing Truant

Should be finishing all the backs of my work for Ullapool today, should be making sure all the annotation is ready, should be stretching some final pieces and making sure everything has a means of hanging.

Did anyone else see Carol Klien in the Millenium Garden at Pensthorpe on Gardeners World last night. Couldn't help myself just had to go and see it today.

Pensthorpe is the place that Springwatch used to be broadcast from. Acres of waterland set in conservation farmland in Norfolk. It also contains this wonderful piece of prarie style planting from the master designer Pie Oudolf. What a perfect day to see it - the autumn tints were just starting and the wind was blowing enough to make the grasses and tall plants undulate like huge waves.

I love this style of planting it makes you feel part of the garden instead of just an onlooker.  It's possible to totally immerse yourself in the plants,a wonderful and uplifting experience.

The bonus was the amazing diversity of birdlife in this place. After a good walk and lunch in a lovely restaurant on the site John and I decided to splurge on a guided tour. The guide was fantastic,so interesting and knowledgeable, pointing out many things we would have missed.   The highlight was watching a Marsh Harrier creating havoc in the skies above a forested area and a little Hobby whizzing past us ( a bird we'd never seen before).

The best value and most enjoyable day out for a long time.

I want to dig the garden up now and create a prarie. I want! I want!

Never mind  -  it will pass.



The nitty- gritty of producing new work

It seems quite a while since my last post but you know how it is - family life takes over sometimes and priorities have to be established. Amongst all the comings and goings I have kept my promise to myself and pushed on with my work for the Ullapool exhibition. Boy - has this been a difficult one. From a casual conjecture raised in a conversation a year ago to completion has been challenging  but as with all such things I'm quietly pleased with the out come. The first picture is a part of a finished piece that at times I thought I'd never achieve. As usual I got quite wrapped up with the process and almost tried to avoid an end result but that is the good part of exhibiting  - you have to come up with the goods!

I'll explain what the work is about after the exhibition. In the meantime I like my exploration sketchbooks enough to turn them into a journal to exhibit along side my finished pieces,so that's what I'm working on in the next week or so, by which time I will need a burst of colour to compensate for all this black and white.

John and I spent the Friday and Saturday in the depths of Norfolk to welcome a beautiful great nephew to the world. New babies fill up the senses and we were quite envious when we came away but Sunday spent with our wonderful, energetic grandsons reminded us of how much effort it takes to bring up children - best left to the young!   

The delicate hands of an embroiderer

I can't tell you how pleased I am to have finished this piece of work . I was never going to give up on it  but what a challenge I'd set myself. Never attempt to sew through canvas!

I also finished this little sample I made in June. I spent along time on bedding this piece into the canvas - I hate that 'plonked on' look so I moulded the edges flat with matte gel medium.  I use this product all the time - a brilliant invention. I finished the background off with a little metallic rub in a dark rose colour and that's when I looked at my fingers, the rub had highlighted all the little needle prick marks from embroidering that darn quilt!.

The delicate hands of an embroiderer - not!!

More Prevarication

On Monday whilst cleaning up from the grandsons weekend visit I got way laid by the papers we had been painting together. Given wax crayons, texture plates,stamps, punches and Koh-i-noor paints and a little bit of subtle direction  they  always produce wonderful papers for me to play with - which is what I've been doing in between other arty things ever since.

Children always make the most wonderful papers - they are not concerned with producing anything arty or limited by what they can or can't do. Paint is sploshed around by the gallon and when it all eventually dries some lovely effects are achieved quite accidentally.

Add a little bit of stitch and ideas happen.

I photographed every pleasing combination  and then bundle all the pieces into the box marked 'painted papers'.

Distraction

I really am pushing on with my work for the exhibition in Ullapool at the end of September - but at this stage it is not worthy of a photo - pretty it isn't! As per usual my mind is trawling round for distractions so I thought I would show you my 'Seed Box' I made earlier this year. The design on the the top was inspired by something I saw on a stall at the Textiles in Focus show at Cottenham this year. I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the lady that gave me a three minute tutorial but her stall was full of the most pretty embroideries. This is a kind of trapunto quilting i.e. stuffed from the back to raise the blobby areas. It has cured me of any desire to do french knots for quite a while. As the top reminded me of seeds I used some fine cotton that I had  recently dyed and printed using a wonderful Coloricious seed pod stamp to line the box. Fiddly but it looks great.

I thought this would make a lovely box to store my garden seeds in but then remembered that I keep my seeds in the fridge.

I'm using it as a 'jewel ' box.