Exhibitions

My 'Taplow Vase Reconstruction' made in response to a Roman vase in Slough Museum is having another outing - currently at Gallery @49 in Bracknell as part of 'Whatever Floats Your Boat' exhibition. Hope to get there on 17 December to sit and stitch and chat to anyone who might pop in.

On Thursday , went to a presentation to staff by David Nash about the  exhibition of his work next year at Kew Gardens.  The lecture theatre was packed and due to technical difficulties with slide projector (everyone uses Powerpoint these days) there was the opportunity to catch up with colleagues . Talk was mainly about how the strike had gone  but also found that the Hardy Orchid book I've been working on for 6 years will be published on 16 December!

He was such an engaging speaker, particularly recounting the construction of the Ash Dome and travels of the Wooden Boulder . Existing outdoor works will be situated throughout the gardens and these will be supplemented with new works created on-site at  a  'wood quarry'. There will indoor works in the temperate house, Shirley Sherwood Gallery and Nash Conservatory. It sounds fantastic!!

On a different scale , tomorrow afternoon I'm going to the gallery talk by Lesley Millar at Japan House on current textile exhibition 'Bite Size' which so many people have raved about. I'll be reporting back in my next blog post.

RA Summer Exhibition 2009

After over 2 weeks off on sick leave with 'Presumed Swine Flu' it was relief to get back to work on Thursday and talk to someone else apart from Ian! I felt I deserved a bit of culture and personal space so went this morning to the Royal Academy for the Summer Exhibition. As it's in it's last week the Bryan Kneale sculpture in the courtyard had already been taken away but there was plenty to see. I bought the illustrated catalogue this year as (unusually) it had quite a few images of artwork I'd liked. And as my scanner is now working ( having gone back to Windows XP instead of Vista) I can show you a few pictures of things that caught my eye. I've had an interesting afternoon looking up websites of artists that I'd made notes on - hope you find something worth following up too. 210 'Stack' Joby Williamson
As in previous years, I think some of the most interesting selection of work were the prints in the Large Weston Room. Old favourites Barbara Rae, Chris Orr and Norman Ackroyd had varied prints on display - the book by Norman Ackroyd and Douglas Dunn 'A Line in the Water' is definately on my wishlist. Idris Khan was a new discovery - his 'Blossfeldt...After Blossfeldt-Art forms' was dream-like with a very subtle build-up of multiple layers, a quality shared by 'Avatar 1 and 2' by Rhys Himsworth. I loved the transparent overlays of coloured buckets in 'Stack' by Joby Williamson (above). It gave me ideas of what I might do in Chunghi Lee masterclass in a couple of weeks with layers of organza!

971'Japanese landscape' Morgan Doyle

Prints were't confined to the 'Large Weston' - this woundrous woodcut by Morgan Doyle was hung among a varied selection of paintings in room VII. I like what is on his website too.

647 'Joints Joining' Richard Wilson

Among the academicians, I was struck by this piece by Richard Wilson with a wire 'drawing' superimposed over a print - I could see this working in stitch. Besides admiring new work by Jennifer Durrant and Gillian Ayres, I really liked the heavily textured paintings by Sonia Lawson with their quality of cave paintings or weathered frescoes.

616'Downstrean Thaw' Anthony Whishaw

My favourite piece of the exhibition however was this painting by Anthony Whishaw- I love the patterns in this. I thought his work was new to me but when I checked out his website realised I'd made notes on his work in previous years - they just hadn't grabbed me in quite the same way as this piece does.

When I was in the shop buying the catalogue, I couldn't resist buying this sculptural silk scarf ( which I'm now analysing to see how it was done!)

There were a few pieces involving textiles (other than canvas!)'Nomad' by Nurdan Iskender was a vigorous drawing of a tribal figure swathed in flowery textiles - with pieces of these fabrics incorporated, while 'Wedding Dress' by Julia Hamilton was a collograph -of a wedding dress( and had picked up the varying textures of lace and silk really well).

In the Large Weston rooms there was a sampler stitched in silks on linen 'I can change' by Miranda Argyle. Investigations on the web led to further interesting stitched pictures and some fascinating links to the sampler by Elizabeth Parker in the V&A which as I'm not an embroiderer, I knew nothing about.

That's what I love about the Summer Exhibition and why I was keen not to miss it - the variety of work and the unexpected directions it can take you.

Rothko at Tate Modern: Seagram Series

I'm still thinking about the exhibition we went to yesterday at Tate Modern of the late paintings of Mark Rothko. The highlight was the Seagram Murals, 14 of them from several museum shown together for the first time as a series. Since the 1980's I've visited them regularly when they were at what is now Tate Britain and in their newer (darker) room at Tate Modern. In their apparent simplicity, they are pieces for contemplation and meditation. The displays of sketches and explanations on the techniques used to construct them , as revealed by 2 years painstaking work by conservators, added rather than detracted from their mystery.

I bought a catalogue but was a bit frustrated that they didn't have some detailed photos in close-up besides those of the whole canvases ( which are huge) For instance this one pictured above ( Untitled 1958) has the most amazing brush work, feathered edges floating on the background maroon surface. For once , quick drawings in my sketchbook were useless, I had to describe in words the different textures and colour shifts: variations in transparency;hard and soft edges. In 'Red on Maroon Section 2' (above) the colour differences are very subdued, a shift between matt and gloss (more obvious viewed at an angle)

I was rather taken with the sketches executed on paper for this series. You can see the texture of the watercolour paper in the red paint of this study 'Untitled,(study for Seagram Mural) 1958-9', less visible under the thicker grey-red gouache.

These tiny studies are charming-exploring the qualities of transparency in watercolour instead of oils. What is so special about the huge canvases is that some of that immediacy is captured.

I wasn't so grabbed by the 'Black-form', 'brown and grey' and 'Black and grey' series ( although I enjoyed the vigorous brushwork exhibited in the latter). I love my colour too much and those reds and maroons speak to me ( we realised when we got home that the living room walls and sofa are shades of 'Rothko Red'!) Having said that, I was interested in the studies for 'Black-form' pieces carried out in graphite on black paper - another example of the variation in matt v shiny rather than in hue. I don't think they photograph easily ( the example above looks like it was done with white ), so scribbling in my sketchbook and on the cover of the room guide gave a better idea.

This exhibition made me think once again of the work of Ian McKeever ( quoted in the 'Tateshot' videoclip on Rothko) whose paintings use different shapes but share some of the same qualities of translucency and layers.
A lot of food for thought. In the December issue of Artists and Illustrators there were some tips on having a go at painting colour fields: swapping primer for glue; keeping layers thin; building up areas of differing density; varying degrees of matt and gloss; mixing things up.

What colour shall I go for in my experiments? And will acrylics work or will I have to return at last to oil paints?

Back to Basics

Following my recent painting course at Malham Tarn FSC I realised that I needed more regular painting classes, to get 'back to basics' in the words of recent article by Robert Genn, looking at drawing, composition, colour control and other technical skills. In particular I want to become more proficient in using acrylic paints.
Most evening classes cater mainly for beginners ( which I'm not) but luckily there was a space on one of the workshop evenings run at Kew Studio, an artists co-operative. I'm getting to grips with still life for the first time since painting masses of them in oils for A Level art ( many years ago). It's proving an enjoyable challenge! Started off with doing several drawings in pencil and in my case watercolour to get a feel for composition
I then moved onto colour studies, using acrylic like oil paint on canvas papers. This was fun! I liked the vigorous nature of the brush strokes and the swoops of colour. I already found some of the limitations in my Liquitex acrylic paints - that some are transparent rather than opaque. This doesn't matter when using them like watercolours but it does when using them like oils! I'll need to construct some colour charts with my paints to get a feel for their properties.

I've been taking photos at different stages to identify what needs more attention and also to capture areas I'm pleased with. The trouble with having to work all over the picture is that you sometimes have to paint over areas that you like and of course they're never as good again. For instance I liked the folds in the fabric in the early stages above but lost the plot afterwards!
The tuition has been just what I want - mainly leaving me to get on but with helpful suggestions ( eg removing the sugar bowl from the painting) and when to leave alone ( I'm a terrible fiddler). We've had some interesting discussions about art and exhibitions eg Peter Doig at the Tate earlier in the year.

For the first attempt at still life in years I'm reasonably pleased ( especially with the fruit in both paintings even if the pear was switched for a lemon this week - can you tell?!) More attention is definately needed in drawing ( teapot handles in particular) and in painting folds in fabric. You'd think as a textile artist I should know better! Next week we're concentrating (at my request) on a restricted palette.

Fluorescent Paints

As a change from slaving over the sewing machine, working on quilts for FoQ, I've been doing some more exercises from the 'Studio- Journals' course, this time on colour. As I largely ignore colour wheels etc and use intuition, I decided not to do excercises associated with colour theory but to have a go at constructing palettes from 1 inch squares cut from magazines. I rifled through 3 old copies of Saturday Guardian magazine cutting out photos and then cutting selected ones into 1 inch strips and then squares. My eye was drawn by the pinks and reds in images of Desmond Tutu, football stadiums and an article on festivals in India illustrated by umbrellas ( along with various advertisements) I showed Ian what I'd done and he instantly saw what I had not, that my palette had been influenced by what we'd seen at the RA Summer exhibition. Besides what I've written about already, we were struck by the subtle use of fluorescent paints in several pieces which drew your eye across the room, particularly those of Frank Bowling and Barbara Rae but they were by no means the only ones.
I prepared this watercolour page with cling film scrunched in the wet paint and allowed to dry. I now need to search for fabrics and threads to match this palette and stick 'em down.

I'd first had a go with watercolours and cling film in my sketchbook (unfortunately buckling the page) as background for photos and drawings of Sheila's bean poles. Ian and I spent the weekend with his parents a few weeks ago, a pleasant time discussing gardening and picking gooseberries. Both Ian and I were brought up with our parents watching Gardeners World , and thought it rather boring. Now we're avid watchers ourselves and ring Ian's parents afterwards to discuss ideas. Scary how you turn into your parents or perhaps it's just the onset of middle age!

RA Summer Exhibition

Ian and I went last night on part 1 of our annual pilgrimage to the RA Summer Exhibition. There's always such a variety of work that's it's impossible to look at it all in one go , a second visit starting at the end and working backwards is required.

As photographs are not allowed and they never seem to have pictures in the catalogue of the items you like best (with a few exceptions) I've learnt the value of scribbling down quick sketches of what grabs my attention.

On this visit, as in recent years, I concentrated mainly on the prints in the Large Weston Room.

I particularly like the composition of the linocut by Jennifer Hall and the handpainted background to the etching by Katherine Watkins( both featured in the 'prints under £500') I admire Chris Orr's dynamic drawings and prints, often with a lot of humour to them. Among this year's offerings are the 'Improved Rhinocerous' ( with its wealth of detail) and sketches of London in 'The Tide Runs Strong Here' .

In the Small Weston Room, a corner was hung with textile related pieces. Those that appealed were a still life by Peter McNiven of a stash of fabric and basket of sewing things; an embroidered picture of red shoes by Jayne Ward and a subtle work by Bridget Jackson of unpicked and resown canvas (quite different to her bright paintings of clothing)

In room V there was a textile piece in cut and twisted felt by Anna Kyyro Quinn and in a slightly different line , several works in Uccelli series by Jennifer Durrant of painted canvas cut and applied to a background in patchwork-like patterns.

My favourites? I was rather taken by a painting of a red formica table by Jo Oakley, with its reduced colour palette and variety of textures and quality of surface (shiny table, matt textured 'wallpaper') but in the end its the luminous 'temple painting' by Ian McKeever that haunts both Ian and I