Wednesday 28 September 2011

"Eatme Space" Micro gallery, Hanover Road, Scarborough

"Eatme Space"
Micro Gallery
I Just had to mention the new compact and bijou micro gallery that has opened on
 Hanover Road, Scarborough...
Its ran by the Chaps who own "Eat me" cafe opposite.....
 ...although the venue is small,  it shares the same colour pallet as their cafe, 
and has been wonderfully accessorised with a touch of retro!...
...there's even some of Martin's artwork on display too.




















I've been allowed to exhibit some of my assemblage boxes alongside...

 ..."A postcard from Scarborough"
 by Andrea Willis
lets hope people are interested in my work and you never know I might even sell some or get some commissions!  

Theres a new exhibition starting next weekend so keep watching "Eatme - space" on Hanover Road

Happy reading, bye

Sunday 25 September 2011

Time management...

...time management!....easier said than done!

However I must admit as I no longer work in a school I find I am sleeping very well but maybe thats because my days are so full of things I want to do and its for me to decide what  or when I want to do things!

I managed to decorate most of the front room while hubby was away, one thing almost ticked off my list of the many to do things!!!

I have to try and separate my days now: Family, Dissertation, studio, Self employed art! I have also found that I need time to network and oh if I'm well behaved a bit of me time too!

I'm gathering information for my dissertation and have been advised to put everything into lists of groups and look at the connections - post-it city! ...
...and this is just some of my studio work for this week...

An idea taken from  pebble marks, acrylic with
 OS Map of Scarborough highlighting main  surface mark
recycled tubes painted with acrylic influenced by pebble marks
OS map inserted of Yorkshire coastline...
I just need another 50'ish rings to get desired effect!
I've also finished an assemblage box that was influenced by my last exhibition.....the noise from the seagulls was constant, I hear them at home but not all the time, so I made a little something to remind me of them!...
Struggled with the reflection when photographing,
 but you get the general idea!
Inside of the box
Old map of Scarborough, seagull photos, card, sand, feathers
pebbles and shells
...and last of all, this little chap made me late for Uni on Friday....At first I wondered what the noise was, then eventually I found out ....meet the surrogate tree for our local woodpecker...sad times when they have to use telephone poles!


Anyway, happy reading, bye...

Sunday 18 September 2011

Art@41: ...and so it begins!

Art@41: ...and so it begins!: Morning! oh... for a dogs life....zzzzzzzz Another week has flown by and I still have so much to do!...unless you are like our pooch who...

...and so it begins!

Morning!
oh... for a dogs life....zzzzzzzz

Another week has flown by and I still have so much to do!...unless you are like our pooch who basically wanders, eats and sleeps...what a life!

Were back at Uni' new studio spaces but same room....It all looks very empty and clean, give it a few weeks and that will soon change!

Hubby's gone off to his Joe Cornish Photography workshop ....a birthday present from us, I can't believe how nervous he was, you'd have thought he was going to be tested not go there to learn!....

I've started on some of my pebble project, albeit just a tiny bit as I am going to concentrate on my dissertation mainly this semester...so If anyone has any tips or interesting stuff that I can research around "textiles within fine art" its acceptance or lack of let me know please.


My excuse for building these is I was  looking at shapes and colours....Andy Goldsworthy is a well known land artist who looks at  the environment for both inspiration and materials. Not as complex by far but it was just a lovely sunny day and we must have built about 10 different stacks of rough, smooth, one colour, gradients of colour, balancing tricks! we even dragged some massive rocks down to the shore line and built a spiral - akin to Stonehenge, and then waited for the tide to come in and knock it down!!!
So how to pass the time away on a sunny day with a pebble or two!

obviously I do realise that these are not all pebbles!
My "V&A" beach project
 if you want to find out more about this project...http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/w/world-beach-project/

How pebbles can leave there mark....
even fleetingly!
there's loads of rocks like this on the Northside
of Scarborough - not a pebble I know
But love the marks and map like affects!



...and my collection of pebbles just keeps on growing!
This larger grey one is still my favourite, the map-like, layered lines criss-crossing over the pebble....mmm!
Quick watercolour sketch
sample:  pebble photos machine embroidered onto calico
... and then torn off! highlighted with watercolour 
close up!
Anyway....thats it for the moment, happy reading....bye

Sunday 11 September 2011

Thats it the holidays are now over!


So ...thats it the summer holidays are over, the kids have all gone back to school or college, hubbies back at work and University begins in earnest on Tuesday!

I took this week off....supposedly!....to read and do some long overdue housework...I even remember - somewhere in my distant memory - saying that I would decorate the lounge too! ....oups! so what did I end up doing? I did do some housework and I have almost finished read Annette Messager's "The messengers" book and making notes. In it it states that "Articulation" is the key to Messager's praxis", I can see that especially through her hanging assemblages, snippets of faces and words all connected or joined somehow and artistically arranged and hung.

One quote I really value is...
"If you don't believe that art and magic go together, you don't believe in art" ....how true, an artist can make us even see and feel things that aren't even there!

...anyway after tidying my bombsite of a studio I've also started my project on pebbles....(images to follow) I've just started my research into the life of a pebble so to speak, it's size, structure, colour, shape, history etc its all actually very scientific and I am really only interested in the basics! I love the individual patterns....their DNA and maybe how they managed to washed up onto our shore....

....but....tragedy has happened! in offering to alter a friends curtains my sewing machine became well and truly jammed ...aaarrggghhhh eating the curtains and ripping a hole in them....the machine actually swallowed the curtains just where you can see the hem and I couldn't even hide the hole!!! so I had to buy a new pair of curtains to replace them and ....my machine is still poorly!!!
To be honest when I started to take the machine  carefully apart the amount of fibres and dirt that came out was a 'tad embarrassing, hessian and canvas by the hand full!
...Note to self....look after my equipment and clean on a regular basis!

We - that is me and my University colleagues had a day out at Whitby to catch up and "do lunch"It was a really lovely day, no stress and the weather was kind for once!....I just love the quirky shops and little alleyways...I never really took any photos so I've pinched some of Hubbies that he took of Whitby earlier this summer!...



I've also become a member of a new group of Artists based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Helen Birmingham of The Studio Gallery   http://www.thestudiogalleryscarborough.co.uk/ has been the brains behind organising it and the response seems to be going really well. Hopefully it will bring like-minded creative people together who can share good practice, support and possibly organise events together.  If you click on the link you'll find out about her and her work and of course the Scarborough Artists too!

Happy reading, bye




Sunday 4 September 2011

my how time flies!

.... another busy week... 

I managed to call into an exhibition at Fylingthorpe, Whitby on Tuesday to catch an exhibition I had been wanting to see at St Stephens Church. Sadly I never got a chance to meet the Artist Mandy Pattullo, but I am so happy I managed to see her work. The work was just hauntingly beautiful, the depiction of her research into the "Maidens Garlands" and her response to her findings was just  captivating. 





If you go on her blog she explains in alot more detail about the history of the garlands and how they were made.

I was also inspired by the garlands and they heavily influenced my work last term ....
 Sea garlands....
I used the names of lost fishing boats and for each life lost from that vessel, using mainly embroidery rings, similar to Mandy's I would create a garland as a mark of respect, the ribbons echoed the lost friendship akin to the maidens garlands but introduced the qualities of seaweed. The embroidery gave a feminine touch to all the mother, wives and children left behind. The use of sheer fabric evoked the feeling of distant thoughts and memories, glass and mirrors gave reflective qualities that could involve the audience within the construction. 
It was interesting to see how Mandy had built on her research and being able to view her sketchbooks was really great. 

I really admired the way she uses image transfer onto the gowns and gloves, such beautiful imagery on such delicate fabric, I'd really like to have asked her how she does it!







 The clever and ingenious way Mandy had embellished and developed the white gloves was really intriguing, I really loved the work and how she puts them into small wallets with notes, momento etc, might have to see if I can buy one of the pictures too!



....Just fantastic!
















Mandy even thought of the young men who'd also lost their lives
at a young age, many at sea.... and as she said -
maybe they would have married the maidens ....
Ephemeral and beautiful....
I'm off to tidy my studio for the start of a new term - 3rd year looms! 
If you would like to see more of her work or find out about maidens garlands take a look at her pages below...
http://threadandthrift.blogspot.com/2011/06/remeb.html
http://www.mandypattullo.blogspot.com/

happy reading, bye