Unexpected outings, part 1, Manchester

I am working intermittently in Manchester until September.  This week, I discovered that the Whitworth Gallery is 5 minutes walk from where I am working. What a lunchtime treat.  The curators may have known I was coming - steel sculpture, intricate drawing, two textile artists, tranquil space, wonderful gardens. As I did not expect to be taking photos, I had no camera, only my phone, hence some wonky horizontals and verticals.

Tranquil spaces, and amusingly, labels on the walls giving details of the Little and Green paint colours used on the gallery walls

Garden glimpses

Steel sculpture by Anya Gallacio

Fabulous drawing by Deanna Petherbridge

and then Lucien Day

Followed by huge lengths of the astonishing printed fabric by Barbara Brown

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Time after work, for a walk around Piccadilly Basin, along the canal. Great patterns in the ribs next to the lock gates to give grip while pushing

ribs of a different type.

Round the corner, some public murals - unexpected bluetit

and a calligram ( shape poem)  by the remarkable Lemn Sissay. ( Joyful things are found when looking up, rather than down at the phone or the map, when one is in an unfamiliar city)

sunset over the city rooftops

and so to bed.

Travels and stitches

I have been away in Venice to hear my son sing with his school choir in St Mark’s Cathedral.  The whole visit was incredible - music, canals, gilding, carving, painted ceilings, marble, madonnas, crowds, fans, masks, mosaics, reflections. churches, walking, heat, gondolas, glass, more walking, vaporettos, palazzos, the Biennale.   After 4 days, I had much sympathy with the protestant movement, and understood the need for simplicity and minimalism.  The modern art museum had much to be admired, and I particularly liked the works of Giorgio de Chirico.





So much inspiration, it will take months to digest.
As two of the days were very hot, I retired to the air-conditioned room for a siesta, and did some hand-stitching, comparing French and colonial knots.  The colonial were much more even, but perhaps that was because I had recovered from the heat by then.

Coming home to a wet day, got this bound and finished.  To be displayed next to the quilts at our exhibition in October, to give attendees something to touch, when they really want to touch the quilts.  Most signs about touching the quilts at quilt shows are so negative, I wanted to give a more positive message.

The arrow is whip stitched which was good fun to do.  Maybe inspired by those stripey gondola hitching-posts?

Another one, finished off during the tennis.

and finally, following this tutorial from Benta, a little pouch, as you can never have too many pouches for stuff.

PRISM textiles and Geffrye Museum

A visit today to the annual PRISM textiles exhibition, where the theme was "Lines of Communication".  A new venue, at Hoxton Arches, was much more straightforward to get to than I had anticipated, to Clapham Junction, and then overground to Hoxton.  A very good facet of this new venue is that the exhibition is on for two weeks, until 31st May.  The standard of work on display is as always superb, and in some cases very moving.  It seemed very monotone this year, with bright colours in evidence in only a few pieces, but particularly in those of Gina Ferrari, who has been inspired by the graffiti in the garden of the venue and in the work of  Ruth Issett, whose overlaid and stitched organzas are marvellous.

Many familiar names this year.  It was wonderful to see the devoré pieces by Peta Jacobs whose work I had admired at the Cloth and Memory 2 exhibition at Saltaire.  A very moving piece of 64 hand knitted lace gloves in memory of visits to the artist's mother who was suffering from dementia, apologies, I did not get the name here.  Intriguing stitching on ventilator mesh from Niki chandler, giving excellent shadows which were integral to the work.  Crunchy, vibrant map of a river by Amanda Bloom.  Fabulous work as ever from Bea Sewell with stitched memorabilia in a series of boxes.  Fantastic to have Amanda Hislop's  sketchbook available to view alongside the finished piece of work, so much inspiration and understanding of her artistic process from viewing the two together.

Photography is allowed at the exhibition this year, but images are for personal use only, so not shown here.  It is a bold move of the PRISM group to move from the Mall Galleries and I'm not sure it has been completely successful.  The gallery was very well lit and laid out, but it was very cold due to the unseasonal weather ( and there was no obvious source of heating anyway).  There are minimal toilet facilities and no cafe - although there are many good eating places in less than 1 minute's walk.  The exhibition was not busy on a Bank Holiday Monday, which was not a great sign.  Something for the organisers to think about I fear.

I had not realised how close the Geffrye Museum was to the venue, so I managed to ft in a visit to a place hat has been on my list for several years.  Not enough  time to see everything, but enough to get a flavour  and persuade me to visit again soon.  The flowers in the garden were spectacular as another bonus.  Good cafe as well.

Feathers again

I feel I am starting to get somewhere with the drawing.  

Today's efforts were to practise tonal values and different line quality to express different textures.  Discussion with the tutor about the 2B pencil and the degree of shading that it is possible to get with that led to a review of how hard I was pressing on the pencil, even when I am supposedly holding lightly.  We agreed that while he would never use an HB pencil, it might be a good idea for me to try that for lighter lines and shading.  After the exercises, we then proceeded to draw either a reflective bauble, a furry toy or a feather.  Not surprisingly, I chose a goose feather.  Unfinished, but I like this.

Unfortunate news today that the Quilt Museum in York is closing in October 2015 due to lack of funds to keep it going.

Drawing in the British Museum and birthday postcards

Our tutor is very keen on everyone getting over their nerves about drawing in public, so we all went to the British Museum today.  I'm still struggling with relative proportions as seen in these first two A4 pages from the Mexican gallery, supposedly of Huaxtec female deities .

I tried to enjoy the whole experience, including having a couple of Buddhist monks looking over my shoulder, and overhearing the following exchange: " Have you ever been to Mexico?"  No……….  " Do you want to go to Mexico?……………." ………..No.  If I was a decent painter I would be tempted to include these observations in my final works, as does Kurt Jackson.

After a coffee ( and a very good salted caramel and apple cookie),  I found a more straightforward subject, the sculpture of  "Mother Earth" by Mona Saudi.  After another painstaking attempt at clean lines and shading

I had a good talk with the tutor about my lack of patience and wanting to draw more quickly and spontaneously.  He was very understanding about  "finding my own style of drawing that fits with my personality and way of working" so suggested a more dynamic approach.  I'm happier with these.

4B pencil

Charcoal pencil

I haven't done many postcard swaps this year,but have kept up with the birthday swap.  Unfortunately the Yahoo group where the swap is posted seems to be losing its momentum, so I'm not sure ho much longer it will continue.  I think several epode have been put off by the difficulties with the Yahoo upgrades this year, particularly the difficulty of loading photographs. I wonder if there is also a reluctance to spend 62p  time on posting cards to up to 6 people at a time every month.  My birthday theme was feathers and fronds, and everyone has interpreted it differently.

The Narnia postcard is now edged and ready to send off

Drawing dried up buddleia - and Grayson Perry at the NPG

Today's task at Morley was drawing dried out buddleia flowers, using three different methods of drawing - outline with pencil, shape with small circular movements of the pencil, using ink and a brush.  I was Ok with the results of the pencil drawings, less happy with the ink and brush.

Pencil

Ink and brush

I restored my artistic sanity with a visit to the Grayson Perry exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  I thoroughly enjoyed this and the pieces seemed very familiar having watched the first two episodes of his current series on Channel 4.  I particularly liked the way the pieces are placed on a path through the existing collection in the National Portrait Gallery, rather than all placed together in one exhibition room. This made me look at some of the permanent collection in a different way, particularly the collection of black busts in room 21, the display of suffragette photographs and articles in room 31, and the portrait of the Bronte sisters.  As ever, I did ponder who does the embroidery on Grayson Perry's hand-embroidered pieces.  In this exhibition, the number of French knots on the piece about the Ulster loyalists, " Britain is Best" is mind-boggling, and I don't think these can be done by machine.    The Scottish pedant in me couldn't help but notice the mis-spelling of Hogmanay on the tapestry " Comfort Blanket", but perhaps this is deliberate.  On until 15th March 2015 and,  perhaps because the pieces are distributed throughout several galleries, not too crowded, and it is completely free.

London art day

No Morley today, so a chance to catch up on a few exhibitions that have been on the "must see" list for a while.  First up, "Threaded Stories" at the Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Painstakingly overpainted woven cloth - the camera focussed on the paint and not the cloth, hence the blurring.  Each of those dots is an individual dot of paint and the piece is about 100cm x 130cm.

This exhibition did nothing for me I'm afraid and having listened to Grayson Perry's lectures about not having to like it all, I'm happy to declare that here.

Next a swing in to the galleries on Cork Street.  Lovely paving outside Browse and Darby

and a wonderful mixed display inside of 19th and 20th century art.  If money was no object, I could have spent a lot in there, particularly on the painting of Euphemia Lamb by Augustus John

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Then on to The Redfern Gallery to see the superb series " The Thames Revisited" by Kurt Jackson.  I love the fact that his work done in the open air can includes bits of dust and feather that happen to land while he is painting.  Several of his paintings are like musings from his sketchbook, with descriptions of the sounds and smells added as annotations on the work.  He also doesn't ignore the more gritty, urbanised bits of the Thames, and there is a striking study of the M25 crossing the river.  Really worth seeing and on until 23rd January.  (There is a very good write-up about his published sketchbooks here.)

Next, to the Bernard Jacobson Gallery to see an exhibition by William Tillyer, " The Watering Place"  that seems to have been extended.  These are really fascinating pieces of art, but I'm not sure whether they  are paintings or mixed media pieces, as the paint is applied to a mesh  in various layers, the mesh is then mounted to the canvas, and on occasions, more paint is applied from the front.  Very interesting textures that cannot be conveyed in a photo, although there are some good images here that can be zoomed into.  The colours were wonderful on a grey day.

From colour to a lot of monotone, at the Herbert Zangs exhibition at the Mayor Gallery.  The cloth works here were a lot more interesting to me than those at the Friedman Gallery.

Up to the Royal Academy and some thought provoking bronze and marble sculpture by Kevin Francis Gray.  I loved these sculptures, and enjoyed seeing  that he works in bronze and in marble.  The heads are on an enormous scale, while the figures are life-sized.

Natural sculpture on the tables of the Royal Academy cafe.

Lots of amazing decorations around in London, with snow globes a bit of a theme.  The amount of snow in the ones at the bottom depends on the power being expended on the bicycles around them.

Three more squeezed in, Andrew Stock at the Mall Galleries and then at Somerset House, Stanley Spencer and Julian Stair, but they are for another post.  Whew!

24h of inspiration

A great London 24h again, starting off with a performance of Dracula in dance at Wilton's Music Hall, a very atmospheric venue for this production.  The focus on this photo was affected by the clouds of dry ice vapour.

b

The dancing was really inventive, and the experience was enhanced by sitting next to 2 young men who attended the performance dressed up as Dracula.

Next day, a tortuous journey up to Alexandra Palace, to the Knitting and Stitching Show.  

Blue moon in the sky?

Well worth the trip,especially to see: the quilted coracle; several of the  winners from Festival of Quilts; quietly embroideries from Tilleke Schwarz; the paintings, embroideries and quilt from the collaborative work of Nicola Jarvis and May Morris.  The 3D embroidered pieces of anatomy by Sally Hewett were intriguing and uncomfortable at the same time.

With my thread supplies replenished, finished off with an hour in the National Portrait Gallery to see the exhibition of portraits by Laura Knight, and wonderful contemporary portraits by Jonathan Yeo and Dean Marsh.