Buy a Plank!

 

I love African fabrics  and have bought a lot from Magie Relph  of the  African Fabric Shop over the years ( I was her first customer! ). I especially like the kola and indigo fabrics that Musa produces, using quite a lot of it in my 'Tunisian Door' made especially for 'Under African Skies' exhibition.  So I was sorry to have missed out on the opportunity of buying a piece of Helen Conway's quilt when she cut it up.   However the artists that  did obtain a 'plank' have produced a wonderfully diverse selection of quilts which are now up for auction on the 'buy a plank' auction website. I urge you to visit  and consider bidding  for a worthwhile cause. I know which one I'd like to own!

Thanks to Nina-Marie  for asking so nicely if she could use this as inspiration for her colour palette!

I also used  some of Musa's fabrics in my 'Fleet Mudflats' piece (below) for TVCT 'Halfway Between'  exhibition which opens at Spring Knit and Stitch show at Olympia, stand F60, tomorrow. I'll  be visiting on Saturday, stewarding on Sunday  so if you see me, do say hello - I love to meet people who read my blog!

Turner and the Sea at NMM and Contemporary Textiles Fair

John Sell Cotman A dismasted Brig

 

 On Saturday, after stocking up at the farmers market, Ian and I headed off to Greenwich to see 'Turner  and the Sea ' at the National Maritime Museum. It was fun to go on the DLR , a bit like a roller coaster at times, adding to the sensation of a having a day out!   It was an interesting exhibition showing the full range of Turners engagement with the sea and all things marine, with paintings by other artists (particularly Dutch)  that influenced  him or were the prevalent style around the same time. I was  struck by the watercolour by John Sell Cotman with its distinctive broad regular washes of colour -  reminding me of the large indigo piece I'm working on at the moment .

I've long admired Turners watercolours - I've misplaced my copy of  'Hockney on Turner Watercolours ' book  but I have a quote to hand which resonates for me:
 "They're fresh because you can see how he has made them. You can sense the trace of his arm, ......painting has to be about this sense of gesture and movement, the sheer physicality of making a picture"
Makes me want to  grab my watercolours and just play with stokes and washes of colour!



JMW Turner  A study of the sea 

JMW Turner Ship at Sea 

JMW Turner Sea Piece with figures in the foreground

 

Master of invention, once others had started to copy his style, he moved on, always experimenting, carrying a lot of  the energy in his sketches to his larger oils.  It  is this  later work I really admire, with added insight after sketching  at The National Gallery .  So I look forward  to the exhibition 'Painting Set Free'  at Tate Britain later in the year.  We kept thinking of the Turner ,Whistler, Monet exhibition -  sign of a good exhibition that we still remember it 9 years on! (pre-blog days)





JMW Turner Breaking Against The Wind (oil)

 

On Friday evening, I went after work to the Contemporary Textiles Fair At Landmark Arts Centre, always a diverse  selection of textile pieces.

My purchases were relatively modest - a pair of purple acrylic laser cut earrings from Mandy Nash , although seriously tempted by the silver and hand stitched silk thread jewellery of Liz Willis.  I  spent some time talking to Lucy Ann Harding about her quirky textile illustrations based on life as a milkman's daughter and  to Anna Obese-Acquaah. I loved her complex and vibrant marks on cloth.





Rydal Inspiration - NWCQ Retreat 2014

 Just back from 5 days retreat with NWCQ group in the  Lake District staying at Rydal Hall. Once again a time for  creative reflection  in good company in a beautiful setting. The staff  there are so helpful and  it's wonderful not to have to think  about cooking ( it's 4.30 and my tummy is wondering where the traybakes are....). I  struggled a bit on the train with all the stuff I'd taken' just in case'. In the end,apart from pinning and tacking a large indigo piece onto wadding, I didn't do much stitching, concentrating on sketching and painting from my surroundings  and making a little book of stitched monoprints and drawings based on these. Preparing an informal talk about my experiences from the  workshop  with Dorothy Caldwell,  it was a luxury to have time to consider my personal repertoire of marks and put them into practice. I got the  group doing blind stitching ( much to the amusement of other guests heading to the bar!) and several decided to make their own collections of 100 objects.

 

Retail therapy was not forgotten - a trip to Keswick to the pencil museum shop yielded  discounted ex display tins of XL graphite and charcoal with another tin of Grasmere gingerbread acquired on the way back. 

 Rydal Falls had considerable more water going over it compared to last year  but the colours of the bracken on the hills was just as beautiful.

Based on   my sketches , I pulled out bits from my scrap bag to make up a journal quilt and another from acrylic monoprints too precious to cut up for my book! Now when I stitch these, they will remind me of my break, it's good to return to making JQ's that have a story

 Some pages from my book based on the patterns on bark and fast flowing water.

Making Visible

 I've  long been an admirer of the work of Paul Klee, this stitched silk painting from the 1990's of 'Florentine Villas'  being an early example of textiles  influenced by his work  ( I saw this  painting in the Pompidou  in 1980's and for a long time had the poster on my wall ). So the current exhibition at Tate Modern was unmissable - I went last night after work ( late night opening on Fridays). I debated whether to buy the catalogue in advance - after all I have 6 books of his work  but guess what , I succumbed! The approach was very different from the Hayward exhibition in 2002  being chronological  which   gave an insight to how series developed. Also I've moved on in those  12 years and my tastes have changed a little although I've still a soft spot for the patterns of  'Pastorale' and Structural II 1924 126 (below)

While I was disappointed there weren't any of the Tunisian watercolours I love, there was a lot that was new to me, like the wonderful lively marks in 'looking out of a cave'  1929 281. And with using a lot of red in my own work recently , I was more aware of how he's used that colour as a focal point.

 What really grabbed my attention however was the luminosity of the works  from 1932 using a form of pointillism with form given with  watercolour washes laid partially over the top. I loved  'Lowlands'  1932 9' reminiscent of the subtlety of the mudflats I've  taken so many  photos of!

 The  emerging form of a bird in the next picture to it (below)  reminded me of the egrets at the Chesil Beach visitor centre

 I think it was partially the marks that attracted me. One of the highlights of the Australia exhibition at the RA was a linocut  by GW Bot ' Gethsemane' on tapa cloth, so much so I bought a lino printing press with the intention of replicating my stitch marks  in a similar way.

But in the meantime, as a form of more instant gratification, I've been using pens to make 'stitch' marks on an offcut of a quilt painted with  acrylics and gesso.

Journal Quilts from scraps - something out of nothing

Red Scraps 2014

 This years Journal Quilt challenge for Contemporary Quilt is for an 8 inch square with a line from side to side across it.This size is a bit small for my  usual practice of using journal quilts as samples for larger quilts and it could be a bit testing ensuring it doesn't end up  looking like a potholder or 'mug rug'! So I've been thinking a bit over the last few weeks about how to  get the most out of this years challenge.   

 

Last week I gave a talk ' A Journey in Journal quilts' to Guildford Quilters and as part of the process  enjoyed the process of picking through 1l years worth of JQ's to  identify themes, bringing back memories of  making them , like looking through a photo album or sketchbook.  

 

I talked about  telling stories through JQ's; trying out techniques such as Photoshop, monoprinting, acrylic painting, stitching by hand and machine, embellishment;themes and joining in with challenges; finishing techniques  and display options.  

What I found when I chose my examples were quite a few where I'd used scraps and leftovers  and  remembering how much I'd enjoyed making something out of nothing! Some of these are shown below. Rather than repeat the methods I used, I've linked the JQ's to the relevant blog post.

 

So that's my theme for the year  and my first example above is a sample testing stitches  for my Cwilt Cymru 'Connection' pieces. Well I did say I'd used almost every last  bit,but  the scrap basket never seem to deplete despite the number of bookwraps I made last year!  

 

 

 

 

'Take it Further Challenge' December 2008  

 

 

Tideline Scraps August 2008

 



 



Scrap Villages (machine and hand stitch) 2010

 



Anavriti II September 2010

 



Cyclopean Walls 2006

 



From the Land July 2007



Patched Door December 2009

 



Sea Scraps August 2013

Connection at Forge Mill Needle Museum

 'Red Remnants'  detail

 

 'Red Remnants'  24" x 48"

 

 'Red Ripples' 24" x 48"

 

 'Red Ripples' detail

 I'm thrilled to say that 2 pieces I made as guest artist  with Cwilt Cymru for an exhibition on the theme of 'Connection'  will be at  Forge Mill Needle Museum from 11 February to  9 March. I won't get a chance to see the exhibition there but will definitely be going to Llandidloes Minerva Gallery  when it opens there in the summer.  Both quilts were made from the same ragged red and cream strippy coverlet I use for 'Red Flotsam' and 'Nautical Dawn'  ( which is currently touring as part of the CQ Horizons exhibition).  'Red Remnants' literally used almost every last scrap from the previous 3 quilts!
I would love to have the opportunity to show all 4 pieces together  at some point.

 And the 'connection' to Wales?  My first job after I graduated was  doing  grassland surveys of Gwent in 1993/94  and I lived in Abergavenny, joining the local quilt group, helping with the quilting on their Castle  quilt which featured in the local paper. The start of both my botanical career and quilting journey.