above: "the abiding home"
Sunday Morning,I love Sunday mornings, I don't open the shop until twelve, so it's a short day. I managed to spend Friday in my art room this week finishing off some small pieces of art (ones i'd started about four months ago). I've sold most of what i had in the shop over the last few months with only six pieces left and I desperately needed to stock up.
Here are a few photos, sorry about the quality of some of them, i've accidently pressed a button on my camera that makes it do something i don't want it to do and i've no idea how to make it right......yet.
"yet so still"
"and the sun just now emerged from the hill"
"only in time"
"a fragment out of the old time"
"you are like such things"
"beautiful awareness"
"when for a second there is no movement"
"peaceful"
"timeless beauty"
"wider than the silence"
I'm really pleased with them and sold two in the shop yesterday...yaaay
Ongoing house renovations.....
...horrible kitchen sink removed, and base units cut back
(because new sink is bigger than the old one!)
New sink fitted (minus taps at present)
It's all been fitted in properly since i took these photos, all the doors have been removed from the awful ikea base units ready to fit a curtain around - just can't seem to find the right fabric at the moment though!!!
I went to the Quilt Festival at Birmingham NEC on Thursday. It was very busy, and the quilt exhibition was amazing. Here are a few of my favourites, i'm sorry that i don't have the artists names but there were far too many to note down, it would have taken me all day - apologies to all the artists.
(this was the main winner - it's a huge piece and completely hand stitched)
(this was the main winner - it's a huge piece and completely hand stitched)
HERO to ZERO
I was so inspired by everything i saw, i'm hopeless at sewing and could really appreciate all the work that goes into quilt making. There were some amazing artists there using paper and stitch, i discovered the work of Stephanie Redfern and was delighted to find Janet Bolton on her stall - I've seen her work in so many books and magazines and saw an exhibition of her work in Salts Mill, Bradford a few years ago. There was another artist there who had been a huge favourite of mine for years. This person (who's name i'm not going to mention here) is an international artist of great renown, i've seen her work in many magazines and she has a huge internet presence and following. I was so excited to find her there as a guest artist, she had quite a large covered area containing her work and i was in my element walking around, especially as she was there working too. I had my camera ready and would have loved a photo for my blog, and looked around for the inevitable "no photography" signs, of which there weren't any, but i still asked, very politely,if i could take a photo - and without even a smile and without looking at me she simply said i was welcome to "buy" a postcard of her work which was as good as a photograph! (hello!!!!). She then went on about how much it cost her to be there (which i did doubt as she was advertised as a "guest artist"). I was slightly taken aback at her incredible lack of people skill, and replied that i already had images of her work from magazines so didn't need a postcard (which were quite expensive anyway), and feeling disinclined to look further i left her to it!
I was so inspired by everything i saw, i'm hopeless at sewing and could really appreciate all the work that goes into quilt making. There were some amazing artists there using paper and stitch, i discovered the work of Stephanie Redfern and was delighted to find Janet Bolton on her stall - I've seen her work in so many books and magazines and saw an exhibition of her work in Salts Mill, Bradford a few years ago. There was another artist there who had been a huge favourite of mine for years. This person (who's name i'm not going to mention here) is an international artist of great renown, i've seen her work in many magazines and she has a huge internet presence and following. I was so excited to find her there as a guest artist, she had quite a large covered area containing her work and i was in my element walking around, especially as she was there working too. I had my camera ready and would have loved a photo for my blog, and looked around for the inevitable "no photography" signs, of which there weren't any, but i still asked, very politely,if i could take a photo - and without even a smile and without looking at me she simply said i was welcome to "buy" a postcard of her work which was as good as a photograph! (hello!!!!). She then went on about how much it cost her to be there (which i did doubt as she was advertised as a "guest artist"). I was slightly taken aback at her incredible lack of people skill, and replied that i already had images of her work from magazines so didn't need a postcard (which were quite expensive anyway), and feeling disinclined to look further i left her to it!
I do understand about copyright and have the greatest respect for all that people do to protect it, but If i was going to copy (which I wasn't by the way) i'd need only to put her name into google for any amount of images i wanted. She's an international, published artist for goodness sake with a huge internet presence. How do people become so precious about what they do and who they are? All i could think was (and this is a bit of a rant) that if being a renowned international artist places your head so far up your backside, then i'd rather do/be something else! So there :p
Anyway... here's what i started creating after being so inspired by Stephanie Redfern's gorgeous work.
I started with a piece of muslin which i gesso'd and then used acrylic paint to stamp on designs with wooden fabric stencils, i then added some random pieces of Liberty lawn fabric pieces i purchased at the show.
Then some more painting with acrylics
This is another design, same process
I have a lot more to add to these before they're finished, but i had fun playing about with them, and can't wait to run them through my little sewing machine to see what more i can achieve, they'll look lovely framed.
Now...this has been exciting over the past few weeks! Gav and i have been looking for another property for shop use and have looked at a few in surrounding areas. Commercial properties are very cheap at the moment especially with the demise of the high street, but that doesn't put us off. Here's one we looked at last Monday, it's an old victorian theatre with stage and balconys still in tact and has it's own clock tower! It needs a lot of work, but it's an amazing place.
This is the outside
Lovely big window, this floor would make a fab apartment
The theatre stage from the top balcony
in front of the stage (four huge windows and all stained glass)
Victorian stairs
I could do so much with this building, shop, huge art studio, storage space, living space, and gav could have his own filming studio inviting bands to play to be filmed, we could provide accommodation to keep costs down, i could run workshops.........dreaming......
ah well.....forever onward and upward
"Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick that made his ears burn Whatever happened to dear old Lenin?
The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes?
They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
No more heroes any more
No more heroes any more
- The Stranglers
ah well.....forever onward and upward
"Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick that made his ears burn Whatever happened to dear old Lenin?
The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes?
They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
No more heroes any more
No more heroes any more
- The Stranglers
