May Boat Friday

It's a while since I walked along the river looking at the boats so I left work around 4.30, fed up of filling in COSHH forms. I had my teeny paint kit with me and my mobile phone - neither of which gave great images but useful tools for looking - the tide was really low giving a different perspective.  I was using cream coloured cartridge paper in a sketchbook and struggling to use a pentel waterbrush (hardly my travel sable mix!). It made me sympathise with all those put off watercolours by starting out with poor materials and a tiny brush - it does make a difference although at least my paints were artists quality. The results were pretty terrible,still,  it made me think about simplification and what the key elements were. The photos were pretty awful too but I used their low quality to my advantage - increasing saturation and applying 'underpainting' and 'palette knife' filters in Photoshop do the job nicely.

Talking of boats reminds me that the TVCQ exhibition 'Whatever Floats Your Boat' has now opened at Slough Museum - thanks to the hard work of Jane, Sandy and many others . There's various activities on this week  and I shall be going to the private view next Saturday on my return from Bulgaria ( short work trip with v. early start and the joys of Easyjet! )

Prism at Mall Galleries

I took the afternoon off from work today to go and see the textile work of 'Prism' group at the Mall Galleries and decided I should do this more often! The excellent  custard tart was a bonus as was buying book: 'Gerhard Richter 100 Pictures' - excuse my drooling!   I took copious notes - inspired by the notebooks of Bea Sewell with her dyeing samples and vignettes ( She even had tiny bundlesof fabric you could take. Who could resist? I didn't!)

 Inevitably I was drawn to the more'painterly' pieces of Janet Wain (above), Prinkie Roberts (below) , Amanda Hislop (who I did a workshop with at Art Van Go) and the atmospheric abstract landscapes of Liz Harding.

 But I also enjoyed some of the installation and sculptural work like these amazing structures made of basketry and cable ties by Julienne Long based on seedpods seen at Millennium Seedbank. I know just the ones - saw them last week at 'Bioscience Evening' at which I was lecturing/demonstrating techniques.

 With President Obama in the vicinity there was a very special atmosphere in the Mall and I don't just mean the massive police presence and the barricades. Those flags (alternating UK and US) are HUGE! There were so many tourists - but then I'm not often up in town.

Walked back via the Southbank to Waterloo to get the train direct to Brentford, there's lots on for anniversary of Festival of Britain. Have to save that and Tracey Emin at the Hayward for another skive day.

Watermans Sky

A double rainbow and a spectacular sunlit streaky sky Walking home from Watermans Art Centre after a Friends wine tasting (choosing wines to stock in the bar and restaurant) and an excellent lamb pasanda and vegetable dansak. There's far worse ways to spend a Monday night....

National Quilt Museum USA 2012

 I'm thrilled to say that 'Strindberg Shore' will be going into an exhibition highlighting UK contemporary quilts  at the National Quilt Museum, Paducah, USA next year! Appropriate as it was made for QGBI  'In the Spotlight' exhibition on behalf of Region 1 (London) at Festival of Quilts 2007.

 A turning point in many ways (it was made during the time I was moving house!) it was  my first large scale foray into painting with acrylics on quilted fabric. Working with African fabrics brought the challenge of how to mark for stitching (I used  more than one spool of 1/8 inch masking tape ) and then after months of stitching the sharp intake of breath knowing there was no going back once I applied the first brush stroke....

 You might find it difficult to believe that these  fabrics lie underneath the paint ( sample above and below,  before and after) but they make all the difference to the texture and vibrancy.

Compact and Bijou

Second attempt - last nights post disappeared into the ether with not a trace left ( and long deleted comments reappearing - what IS going on ?!!! ). On my travels, my watercolour kit is a Winsor and Newton 'bijou' - the one pictured is an updated version - a bargain £19.95 from Cass Arts complete with paints and proper metal strips to secure the pans rather then the lumps of blutack of my old model.  Having finished off my travel mints, I had the inspiration from seeing the watercolour exhibition at Tate Britain of making an even smaller box for when even the 'bijou 'is too cumbersome. Isn't it sweet?!(pun intended- sorry) . I did try it out with Pentel waterbrush but not so good if you want to mix colours. A spray of water and old Cotman field  brush did the trick in a dry run (sorry, another intentional pun)
I packed it in my handbag for work trip to Brussels but didn't get the chance to use it as came home a day early. The combination of  stifling 4th floor hotel room under the eaves and meeting room at European Commission so hot the projector overheated frazzled my brain. Save the city break for another (cooler) time.

Cretan Seascape Watercolours

Cretan Landscape watercolours