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beside the sea side

Have started a couple of oil paintings.  First I had to rescue my easel, which I had lugged up from the Drawing room 2 floors below. Then some swine knicked it.  Thus I had to in turn knick one from someone else and this time paint my initials on it.  So far, so good.
In an attempt to break out of my usual shtick I decided for some reason to sketch a cairn of stones on a beach. Tutor had suggested "Shrines" as a spin off from the man falling off bridge, and I claimed that people construct piles of stones to commemorate people they have lost.
Tutor [another one] disputed this, claiming cairns are on top of mountains to record the height or something.  Narrow lives these teachers lead.
Then while the paint was sticky I reverted to default condition and started a mature lady as Venus, riding in on the waves.
tutors were once again non plussed      

my wall

Had a tutorial, we each had one over two days, not quietly and privately, in front of the whole group.  That's something one has to get used to in ArtSkool, public humiliation.

Pretty Man wasn't very helpful, he has long ago burnt out his soul on the altar of teaching and now just floats, occasionally reconnecting briefly with his lost energies when he sees a young man creating something manly.

 Loud females like me rustle his feathers.

Grumpy Man is much more helpful as he is still interested in Art, if not the artist. Tells me to take down the 3 orange and blue, and concentrate on developing what's left.  Tough but true.

Feel like I have raced up a hill, and then screeched to a halt looking down a cliff.........what to do......who knows.

Have to take part in a group seminar on the Source of ideas, using Doug Aitken as a focus for thoughts. Who he, you may well ask.  Turns out he is a brash American (there are other kinds )who has recently had a Happening. Thought I had finished with those in 60s.  His took the form of a train chuffing across the States, stopping at stations to do Art/Performance/Music/collaborating with sundry and all. Very sparkley.. ......

Went to see Woody Allen's Jasmine film. As they say, repeatedly, Cate Blanchett does a tour de force. Not sure it was about anything very deep, but as Him Indoors says (who didn't see it) it was probably well observed.

sale

Spent yesterday and day before stewarding Chain Reaction group exhibition at Snape Maltings, I hate the driving, and dislike being pinned in the gallery all day, tho visitors are generally generous and positive in their comments. 

I took some stitching to keep me occupied but it isn't going very well so that added to gloom.

My two partnering stewards were a joy, just me sulking, so I didn't really deserve a reward.  

For most of the time all I sold were two cards, but half an hour before I left purgatory a lovely woman bought my piece of work.  And she was lovely, not just because she and her husband shelled out, she was someone I connected with and was happy to have met.

So I am tired but happy knowing this is going to a good home.

spot the difference

I think this is the final image.  I am attempting to show the strength and vulnerabity of women, when they lift the veil.

Teabags and glad rags

It seems to be the season of mellow fruitfulness, especially where textile exhibitions are concerned.  The trees are full of ripe fruit.

Jane organised this show in her local church, crafts people all down the North aisle, lots of different groups, mother enjoyed talking to the knitting lady about hats.

The kimono is made of tea bags, some from Red Bush and the rest dyed indigo. Majestic.

The church was the usual country church mixture of additions from the twelfth century, comforting feeling of continuity of the stitching community......

lifting the veil

Added more detail, not sure if it is a good idea, I am worried that I have reduced it to a  shallow image.

Out of the box

I was going to scrap my bloke falling from the bridge, but decided I should press on in an attempt to make him look a little less inept, if only it is so far outside my usual stuff.
I think it is looking a little better, but obviously the bum and hands need attention.  ArtSkool starts in a couple of weeks so he had better start cooperating, or will find himself going off the bridge in reality.

The lady is a development of my William Scott enthusiasm. 

Matisse "Dance" colours, she fits in my Boxed Women, but I wondered whether to have her holding up her veil, revealing the monstrous female fecundity that is presumably so frightening in case it escapes the male control. The burka may be an  method of Muslim male control of genes inheritance, but we are still obsessed with "who is then father of the child" in all our Soap Stories. Patriarchy in a nutshell.

Slack Space

We four SLAPPERS took a trip 
To Colchester to see some of my and L's work on display. The Gallery is a community project, receives no funding, volunteers organise events in council donated premises, in this case av bank, I think.  We saw an interesting Book Art exhibition there recently, but sadly there was not enough work in this Art Textiles exhibition, so it wasn't as impressive as it might have been.

However they presented the work well, and it was fun to see some of my "fat Ladies" ganging up.


After the viewing

 We had lunch in proper lady like style in the garden of a cafe, and went on to mooch round the ruins of St.Boltophs (12th century)

Also skipped to the loo in First site gallery (between shows) and had tea in the garden of the Minories gallery, so very delightful all round. Very hot day, temp. In high 20s thus all the sit downs.

Found an old blanket in Charity shop to use as backing or dyeing or stitching

back from holidays

I am having  a lot of trouble with gaining access to this blog. All I have been able to do is post pictures, words just produce an "error on the page" blockage. Everyone's a critic.   

It seems that writing on my iPad has been a work around........

Away on hols in N Yorkshire I stitched on these little scraps, very soothing but now we are home again I attacked it with the machine, and I think it might be part of a theme of Trapped .......stuck in the. Box....something like that

Finally got paid the couple of hundred I made at the last exhibition and invested some in a three year old ladies train ticket, just have to get round to using it.

fall

one small step

Had a piece selected by the jury of the Ipswich Art society [trumpets] it is their 136 annual exhibition, showing at the Waterside Gallery at the University.
Had to turn up yesterday with 2 pieces in my sweaty hands just like the Royal Academy! well similar, and await their decision today.
Thanks to Amanda for reminding me, we are on a crusade to get art textiles into art exhibitions.  Amanda got her piece accepted and so did I, well one of them.  Too much good news would be bad for me I suppose.
Actually didn't have to wait to open the envelope this morning [just like GCEs] as the Selected went up on their website.  Dunno why I have to keep challenging myself this way....
Today we had to go and collect the rejected and sneak a proud glance at my piece leaning against a pillar waiting for a decision as to what heights it should reach.
I have to remind myself  the job is not complete as someone has to hand over the cash to make it a complete success. I sold one at TAGS, but this one costs more I have decided, if I get complaints I am advised to say "well you should have bought it the first time round"
Back to hand stitching another rust piece today, may take me till next summer, which is comforting in a way, always need something to do.  Would love to be painting my Boxed Lady but can't stand up too long in this heat..............
PS something is amiss with Blogspot, I can't interact with this page properly.  Something to do with Internet Explorer it works OK thru Firefox.

trapped

Stupidly I pottered into my WorkRoom this morning confident that i could find the small piece of leather I was looking for.  Of course I couldn't and then I fell deeply into the Slough of Deep Despond when I realised what a mess the whole room was, how much stuff I ha piled up therein and how much I wasn't prepared to throw away.
Rotating and muttering I achieved very little, except remove some to my ladyShed, to pile up there, out of sight.
It is/was raining and quite chilly which is not welcome after all the moaning about weeks of heat.
Eventually all the shifting about got me to look quizzically[bad temperedly] at a canvas I had prepared with Gesso and I sketched out the above...........having painted it for an hour or so I feel much better, altho it will inevitably lead to the growing piles of stuff eventually.

other artists

 Went up to London yesterday to catch the last day of the 62 group exhibition, it was small but perfectly formed showing work by some of my favourite artists.

 The last picture is of a large scale piece [the 62 group's were all smallish really] by Roanna Wells, and was on show at the Jerwood [i always want to say Jedwood] at their Makers Open exhibition. She has developed her seed stitching mark making to the point where this taken from an aerial view of a religious festival at Allahabad.  It is held every 12 years and attracts over 100 million pilgrims.

She says of the fact that she was present when the image was taken "It has given it more meaning for me, ......it has given the piece a lot more gravitas.  It has made it more personal"  I wonder if that is what is missing from some textile work, the underlying meaning, rather than a main concern with texture and technique.

still dancing

Worked with the palette knife on a variation on Matisse's theme. Stopped me getting too fussy but don't know now whether to do any more.

too hot to paint indoors

more agony than ecstasy

I have been fiddling about with some stitchings;  once ArtSkool starts I won't have time and I have hit a bit of a wall with the painting work.
Too long till October! No sense of panic. 
By chopping and joining have constructed this seasidey thingummy but it will need a deal more stitching before it surrenders.  Colours are nice but everything is somewhat crude and lumpy.
certainly looks better reduced size on the screen. 

The Ascot people have possibly reached the end, but have sketchy false starts on the linen, so not sure what to do about them.

I am limping around having stood on a large needle yesterday.  I was working on my rust cloth when I was distracted, when I returned to pick it up from the floor, the needle must have been stood up vertically in a fold, threaded with black wool, and I stepped full weight on it.

It went into the ball of my foot, eye and thread first, and I got that lurchey feeling in my groin of anguish.  [reminiscent of when the kids were doing something dicey]

Nothing to be done but to pull it out scrape out the woolly bits left behind and apply TCP.

Hopefully my foot won't fall off in time, now just Lurching around feeling sorry for myself.

A fine day

Took down the exhibition today at Snape Maltings [nr Aldeburgh] after two weeks exposing our work to the populace pootling by.  Quite a lot of peeps were potentially around as it is Benni Britten's centenary, so concerts and stuff.  And the weather of course is amazing.
No excuses really.
Obviously people feel a little more wary of shelling out for Art, and I expect the concert tickets were a priority, but we definitely didn't sell as much as usual.

Fortunately the "shop" [where we sell smaller things, cards and inspiration packs etc.]took over two thousand pounds so we covered our expenses. Hire of the Gallery etc.
Double fortunately I was one of the two that sold from the exhibition, three pieces, the Queue, a Rust pic and Woman looking in Mirror so I now have a bit more space in my work room.
Also there is some interest in me showing some work in a Textile Art exhibition in Colchester.
I really should shove my work out more often, but the ego is a delicate flower and needs nurture not refusals.  I need an Agent, ...........and a Secretary, and a Psychiatrist, and a Cleaner, and a Cook and a Bottle washer, tho maybe I could do without the latter.
Could be thought that what I need is a Wife, but HimIndoors is really ace at most of the above. 
We had delicious fish and chips on the beach at Aldeburgh for lunch and a lovely long walk across the marshes at Snape, then home to strawberries from the garden.
All this good stuff definitely makes one uneasy. 

another painting

painting

When we were down in my lovely Hastings in June we went to the newish Art Gallery to see a retrospective of William Scott, British painter [1950/60s, St Ives etc] and I was really taken with his monumental and slightly threatening nudes,
so I have started one of my own.

I really like the abstraction of the figure, it's what I need to make a break for freedom...........the board was already mucked up with lots of sticky evidences of past errors so I gessoed over the top in white [texture!]then went for it with the palette knife.

putting on a show

TAGS exhibition starts tomorrow

Poster says the 4th but that is wrong!  Spent the 4th putting it up, looks OK. 
Twenty artists.  Took 3 solid hours for 4 of us to put up, staggered home exhausted but triumphant, only to get a call to say one of mine fell off the wall! 
Fingers crossed it stays up after first aid.

Turn that frown

Have been noodling for a while with the thought of messing with Matisse's "Dance" as a sculpture, plus stitching a figure is a relaxing occupation for some reason.

I tried to make this one bigger than previous other figures I have made, but realise now she is about the same size as usual.

 It is perhaps a "prototype" - maybe at ArtSkool I can make a group of very big and very angry? women stamping about, or just having fun - but that might not be Arty enough......but as I often am "angry" it may bleed thru whatever I intend. 

Fate is taking a bashing at the mo about my kids and their kid living so far away............But working with what I have got, a room of my own, a mind of my own etc.  I must motor on and enjoy the scenery while I can.

 Splashed a bit more on mother's portrait which make sit look a bit more inhabited, if not by my actual mother.  A friend of ours died this week so we have adopted that 1000 mile stare of persons reminded of their mortality perhaps.

 Playing with the Altered Books concept has been good therapy.  This page of Hints and Wrinkles is discussing the 1930s thoughts for Home Rule which led me to think about the compartments of a mind.....not in a chirpy way, obviously.  I had a little stick per letter printing set which helped echo the official style of instruction.

Tomorrow I Hope I will actually get to attend one of the Textile Art groups I belong to without ArtSkool intervening, so hopefully I will be cheered by the creativity and friendship, hopefully without dousing them in my current dour outlook.