HUE exhibition opens in Bishop's Stortford

Yesterday we installed HUE's 4th exhibition at  the Rhodes Gallery in Bishop's Stortford. There are 40 textile pieces exhibited, 5 of which are mine.  

Three of these pieces are the first of my Atacama series to be exhibited, with the one on the right only being completed late on Friday evening. Tight? Definitely! It took longer to install the exhibition than I anticipated, perhaps they always do, and had planned to take a couple of close-ups when my pieces were hung but at the end of a busy day, I completely forgot. 

I have previously posted about the 'Hidden Pathways' piece is here and I will post about the other two pieces just as soon as I have some more detailed photos to show you. If you are able to why not visit the exhibition? It's free to enter and there is a lovely variety of work on display.

Colour Explorations - Take Two

I'm feeling a lot more positive about my yellow piece since I posted about it here. I am going to top and tail it with some dark green fabric and add some stitching to horizontal strip - I think that'll work. I have now started another piece on a similar theme, partly because I want to work in a series and partly because I think I can improve on the first one, so why not?

I have done some initial dyeing on the background cloth, just to get rid of the white but have concentrated more on creating the horizontal strip of fabric. I wanted to keep to the original colour scheme and decided after a lot of deliberation that I would use my landscape theme to suggest the shapes and patterns. 

My plan is not to use them in a run but to cut and fold then so that the patterns are broken up. This time I'm going to work the horizontal strip separately as I think it will be less risky that way and also easier to handle.

I've had family staying with us for a week, which has been very nice but not left much time for creativity, except in the kitchen! I did manage to take the girls to see the Wedding Dress Exhibition at the V&A though, which I enjoyed but not quite as much as I thought I would. I suspect that this was partly because I'm spoilt by the number of great exhibitions I get to see. The exhibitions I get most excited about seem to be those where I go more out of curiosity than expectation and the Heatherwick Exhibition and the Kwang Young Chun exhibition fall into this category - I loved them. 

The wedding dress exhibition is worth seeing and I expect I will go back and have another look at some point. My favourite dress was Kate Moss', which had some beautiful embroidery on it. Not that it was one I could ever wear. The pictures on the web don't do it justice, so you'll just have to go and see it!

Kwang Young Chun Exhibition

Funny how things happen sometimes. At the last 'Taking Textiles Further' weekend we were looking at colour and the Korean artist Kwang Young Chun was discussed as an artist working in neutrals. His work looked interesting and so I looked him up and coincidentally he was about to have an exhibition in London. I finally, I got to see the exhibition today and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

Each piece is made up of triangles of polystyrene wrapped in mulberry paper and tied with string. The picture below is a detail of the piece above. Most of the triangles are laid flat but there are also triangles jutting out and interspersed in the rows.

The pieces are made up of different  sized triangles with some creating flat areas and others creating highly textured areas. 

Here is a flat area next to a textured area and his clever use of shading makes them look like there are huge craters in the pieces.

Perhaps looking at this brightly coloured piece, you'll probably be wondering why he came up in discussions about neutrals but he has done some beautiful neutral pieces too.

I've been training myself to be more restrained about buying catalogues and artist books because even putting the cost aside, where do you put them all and how often do you go back to read them? But I had to get this one and I'm sure I'll be picking this book up again and again.

The exhibition is at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London and depending on which information you read the exhibition ends on the 17th or the 19th April, so only a few days to get and see it, unfortunately. One of the staff did suggest that if you visited on Tuesday, some of the exhibition would still be up but best to check first.  The photographs don't do it justice, so do visit it if you can. Mind you if you can't get to see the exhibition, I'm told that the V&A has recently purchased one of his pieces, so there could be another opportunity to see his work in London.

Exhibitions and Good Company

I've been really busy at work this week but what a lovely finish to the week I've had. Firstly there was the HUE exhibition private view, which I really enjoyed. I did a lot of chatting....so much so I suspect that I missed seeing a few pieces!

Here's me in front of my two of the pieces with Viv and Kevin (Art Van Go) and my friend Laura. In fact I first met Laura on a workshop at Art Van Go and shortly after she gave me my first dyeing lesson! If you have been following my blog you will have seen these two pieces as they were developing. 

On Friday we went to London with friends and we couldn't have packed any more in if we tried! We went to see the Glamour of Italian Fashion exhibition at the V&A and the curators talk. This was very enjoyable, with some lovely things and some very bling things. It's well worth seeing but it didn't have the same wow factor as some of their more recent exhibitions or maybe the recent exhibitions have set unrealistic expectations?

We also had a guided tour of parliament with an excellent guide. What a lovely building.

We also saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers and the National Gallery. The first time in 65 years that the National Gallery's Sunflower has been seen together with the one owned by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

We then had a very nice meal to round the day off.

Saturday was the  Embrioderers' Guild AGM.....the AGM and so much more! There were talks, classes, exhibitions, traders, good food and good company. What's not to like?  I came away with a few additional metres of fabric, some expensive (but lovely) silk threads and some additional inches on my waist. Well done to everyone who was involved in organising it. It was a great day and I came away with even more appreciation for the value of the Guild.

I hope to sneak in a little textile work later and then back to work and back down to earth tomorrow.

HUE Exhibition - Letchworth Arts Centre - 2nd - 29th April

On Wednesday 2nd April our exhibition opens at the Letchworth Arts Centre, with the private view being held on Thursday 3rd April, all welcome.

There will be over 50 pieces of textile art on display and it will be well worth a visit. I have 4 pieces in the exhibition and there will be lots of variety of wall hung art as well as 3D pieces. Hope to see you there!

Klee and Artist Textiles Exhibitions

I have enjoyed two exhibitions recently, firstly the Klee Exhibition at the Tate Modern.

 

The Klee exhibition could inspire a whole series of textiles work. I always think of his work  as a patchwork (!) of colour but I really liked his use of colour in a lot of his other work too, for example the backgrounds that he mono printed onto. Some of his paintings were created onto burlap - surely that makes him a textile artist too

He meticulously catalogued his work and I thought this might be a useful thing for me to do too. Not that I'm putting myself up there with Klee but in a few years time it could be helpful to look back and know when a piece of work was created, perhaps it's inspiration, any exhibitions it had been in etc.

The other exhibition I enjoyed was the Artist Textile exhibition at Fashion and Textile Museum.

It was good to see how well known artists had their designs printed on fabric and also made into clothing. I have made one blouse from my digital design and made one blouse from fabric I had printed but I came away from this exhibition wanting to do more. The problem is I have more ideas than I have time at the moment, so first things first, I need to concentrate on finishing things for the Hue exhibition in April.

Maybe I could aim smaller and create some scarves? This one used a sketch by Henry Moore:

This one created from an image created by Salvador Dali:

 

The artist's work is easily recognisable in the scarves. I think both these exhibitions are worth a visit and if you go with a friend to London by train, remember to pick up a 2 for 1 leaflet at your station or visit the days out website, then you can both get into these exhibitions for the price of 1. Can't be bad. The Klee exhibition ends on 9th March, so you'll have to be quick to see that one.

 

Take a View

Last week I enjoyed visiting the Take a View exhibition, which exhibits photographs from the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. As always there were some stunning photographs often of beautiful landscapes but there were two abstract photographs that made me think of different approaches I should consider in my own work. 

The first one was 'Icy Abstract' is by Robert Birkby and is a photograph of a frozen puddle.

 

The second one was 'Blue Sky Reflection' by Charlotte Burton,  which shows the reflection of the sky in an office building.

I think these would translate well into textiles, not that I would use these, but close-ups of landscapes could provide some new  ideas. if you would like to see the exhibition it's on at the National Theatre until 9th February and entry is free.

Another thing I have done recently is read Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon. It has given me some food for thought and as it's the time when we set goals and objectives, I thought I'd share this image from the book:

Although It made me smile, it did make me think. Maybe this is the year that I get a shed/workshop set up at home?



Making our Mark: exhibition photos

Happy new year! In December I enjoyed visiting the 'Making our Mark' textile exhibition, where there was lots of lovely work on display.

If you would like to see photographs from the exhibition, then they can be seen here and artists profiles can be seen here. I hope you enjoy it.

Me & my Dad

On Thursday, my Dad passed away. He had bravely fought illness without complaint and was cheerful until the end. He always encouraged me to be creative and if ever I had any tools, equipment or materials on my Christmas/birthday list you could bet he would buy it for me. I am very proud of him and will miss him very much.


Me & Dad on Father's Day earlier this year 

I know he would have enjoyed being at the opening of our TTF exhibition today and had seen all bar one of my pieces in the exhibition.

The exhibition runs until the end of November at Art Van Go and includes around 50 pieces of textile art. Why not visit if you are in the area?

TTF Exhibition - Nearly there!

I have finished the last two pieces for the TTF exhibition at Art Van Go in November. Hurrah! Here is my cotton reels in the landscape piece, which I hope will be the first in a series of pieces depicting cotton reels in the landscape. I'm really quite excited about developing this theme. 

  

From the first in a series to the last in my gridy series. This piece has been on the stocks for some time, partly because of it's size which makes it less portable. It can be too easy to have your head (or fingers?) turned by your latest ideas and to leave older pieces in a corner but this exhibition has encouraged me to finish it. And I'm glad I have, The more I have stitched it, the fonder I have grown of it. 

 

Not everything is finished, I still have to add hanging devices and to write my personal statement and a few other bits & pieces.  Not to mention bake a cake for the 'Meet the Artists' event which is on 2nd November (2-4pm) and I hope to see some of you there. And never before as anyone needed to sort her threads and put them back to their rightful place as I do at the moment!

Knitting & Stitch Show 2013

Another year on and another enjoyable trip to the Knitting & Stitch show. As usual I visited on the Sunday, mainly because I think it's going to be quieter than on any other day. The trains in my area were disrupted due to engineering works and the weather was horrible so I was hoping for a particularly quiet day but it wasn't to be. It seemed very busy to me and more so around the traders than the exhibitions. 

My impression was that there were less galleries this year but maybe there were just less that 'wowed' me?  There was another thing there seemed to be less of and that was the 'No Photography' signs, so that was pleasing. Now I can show my pics to my friend who wasn't able to go and of course I can show some here.  In no particular order, here is some of the work I photographed. 

As always  Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn gallery was full of inspiring work. I would have loved to take Jan's 'A Magical evening' home.

I also really liked the simplicity of this piece, also by Jan. This is what I would like to achieve more of in my dyeing, a 'complex' build up of colour and texture within a simple structure.

I really liked the way the jar emerges in Jean's 'Ginger Jar' piece.....

 

....and here's a detail of the work. Again lots of interesting layers and detail to look at when you get up close.

 

This work is by Bobby Britnell. I really liked the bark cloth and the colours she used but then knowing it had an African theme is a winner with me to start with.

 

 

 

It was nice to be able to get the opportunity to see Dorothy Caldwell's work displayed in a gallery of it's own, with both small and large pieces side by side.

 

 

 

James Hunting told me that he never has a vision of his finished piece when he starts but rather he starts with an idea of the mood he wants to create. I never think of the mood of the piece I'm creating but I'm going to try and think about that for my next piece even if I couple that with a vision of the end piece I want to create.

 

 

I enjoyed talking to Susan Syddall in the Graduate Showcase and would have loved to find out more about how she developed her landscape work during her course. I'll be watching her blog to see how her work progresses in the next year.

 

It was great to see and get close to Margaret Nicholson's work in the exhibition stage by her daughter Anthea Godfrey and to see Art of Embroidery Exhibition. Although I had seen some of these pieces previously in magazines and books it is so much better to see the real things and to the marvel at the detail rarely visible in photographs.

 

Purchases? Not too many really. I bought this Rectangular embroidery frame, this Book by Jean Draper a few threads for dyeing and some dress fabric. I was just about to say that I was quite restrained really but actually apart from the some textile art there wasn't anything else I really wanted...and I think that is largely down to the fact I have so much already!

 

 

 

The Queen's Coronation Exhibition

Last week I went to the Queen's Coronation exhibition at Buckingham Palace and it was fabulous! I really recommend that you go, if you possibly can. It's lovely to see the State Rooms, the exhibition is very well done with some lovely film footage but for anyone even remotely interested in stitching I'm sure you will love seeing the Queen's Coronation robes and all the other outfits that are on display. The photographs just don't do it justice, you have to see them for yourself.

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Part 2

As promised in my last post, here are a few more of photographs from the Festival of Quilts. This one was called 'Japanese Inspiration' and was made by Anna Christensen and I love the limited colour palette and the simplicity of the design.

Keeping with the spotty theme, this one was was made by Dianne Firth. The backing cloth is made of net and the shadows created by the 'red stones' become part of the work. 

 

This quilt by Jill Butterfield also caught my eye. Again I liked the colours, the simplicity of the design and that the left hand side of the piece was longer than the right side.

 

It's interesting to see which quilts your remember several days after the show and I can still see Annabel Rainbows quilts clearly in my mind. These were exhibited in the Through our Hands exhibition. When you got close to the quilt, there is lots of detail and interesting elements to discover.

 

The miniature quilt section usually has me shaking my head in disbelief and this year was no exception - how do these artists manage to work so small? Bear in mind that these quilts can be no more than 30cm on there longest side. This was the winning quilt and was made by Kumiko Frydl.

 

If you were unable to attend the show this year then hopefully this has given you a taster of what you have missed but remember that the photographs don't do justice to the work and that they are even better in real life. There was so many to see, I wonder how many I missed? Here's to next year's show being just as good!

 

 

 

Festival of Quilts 2013 - Part 1

I had a lovely day at the Festival of Quilts, yesterday. It seemed to be a particularly good year, with lots of very impressive quilts to see. If you were unable to go yourself, then I hope that you will enjoy seeing a selection of the photographs I took.  Firstly though, allow me a bit of self indulgence. I was thrilled when I found my Lago Maggiore  in the exhibition and that it had been selected by Pat Archibald.

 

 

Even with Pat selecting it, I couldn't help thinking that my quilt may have fit better in the Art Quilt category, rather than the Contemporary Quilt Category. Perhaps next time I'll phone up to seek advice beforehand, not that it would make too much difference as the winning quilts are in another league altogether.  

 

This piece by Jill Exell won the Art Quilt Category and it was easy to see why this was a winner. I loved the subtle colouring and the detail when you got up close.

 

 

 

I enjoyed the SAQA exhibition: Metaphors on Ageing. This fun quilt was made by Bodil Gardner.

 

I was very impressed by how Mary Pal created such detail with 'just' black fabric and loose weave muslin...and a lot of skill obviously! 

 

I also enjoyed the Beneath the Southern Sky exhibition, especially as I have a soft spot for Australia. This one was made by Sandy Corry.  

 

This Quilt by Stephanie Crawford won the Pictorial Quilt category and the detail was amazing. I can only imagine the amount of drawing and planning required for this piece before  even a single stitch was sewn. 

 

 

These next 3 quilts were part of a Group Quilt Entry, called the Streets of London and was by Kreativt Sanatorium. I particularly liked the different perspectives of these quilts.

 

 

 

 

 I think that's all I have got time to post today but I hope to post a few more photographs in a few days time. Hope you come back to see those too.