Spring into May
So, here’s a round up of what I’ve been doing during the last month. I read a really excellent book by Austin Kleon called ‘Show Your Work’ that I discovered whilst reading Clayhill Arts’ newsletter - it’s a great little book packed with helpful advice for creatives trying to get going and I highly recommend it. One of the best quotes in it was from John Coltrane talking about why he keeps playing (and it isn’t just for the money): ‘I have to feel that I’m after something…It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want’
A friend took us to Moretonhampstead to see the Open Exhibition (see ‘Events’ page) and to check out my print but stupidly we didn’t think it through and went on a day when it was closed - note to self, always check the opening times…however all was not lost as we enjoyed exploring the town and had a lovely Italian meal at Berto’s pizzeria. We’ve given our car to Son No.3 in an effort to be green and to live within our means so we went on the train to Exeter for the day, to the excellent RAMM museum and art gallery. When I was a child we visited our grandparents in Huddersfield during the holidays and spent a lot of time at the Greenhead Park Museum, looking at all the stuffed birds and animals in glass cases and I just thought how much museums have come on since those days (early ‘60’s). I loved the bird room with the shadow prints behind the blinds and the sound of birdsong. Looking around the rooms I noticed some beautiful lace made in Devon over a hundred years ago and just as fresh today. Ray Balkwill was showing some of his assemblages and paintings in the cafe which were lovely.
Continuing our exploration of Plymouth on foot, we’ve discovered two tiny parks very near us - Thorn Park and Mutley Park, tiny green oases in the middle of the city. I’m really delighted with how many parks there are in Plymouth and now that some of them have wild and un-mown areas, even nicer to see so many wild flowers and weeds (I love weeds) growing up. We have a very tiny courtyard garden and are in the process of planting up tubs and pots and putting up trellis so that we can sit outside when it gets warmer. I enrolled on an evening course at the City of Plymouth college in ‘Creative Arts Textiles’ and walk there and back through the parks and cemeteries, especially enjoyable after a shower of rain when all the birds are singing. For the first two weeks we covered eco dyeing and indigo dyeing; botanical dyeing was a lot of fun and easy to do if you get some leaves and petals, paper and iron water. I made my prints into a simple book then sewed some sashiko patterns over the top.
I’m still following the excellent Liz Hough online course from St Ives School of Painting; this month I’ve been turning my black and white drawings into 3D constructions and then trying to make collages from these. I haven’t found the collages very easy to do - I think I tried too hard and should just have relaxed and gone with the process - but I loved making the 3D constructions and some small paintings from these, and made some stamps from my motifs to make collage paper. Finally, one of the many excellent pieces of advice in Austin Kleon’s book was ‘share your reading list and point to helpful reference materials’ so in the spirit of collaboration here’s what I have been reading this month and some useful links.
Reading:
Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art - Phaidon
Eco Colour: India Flint - Murdoch Books
Drawing the Line: the early work of Agnes Martin - Christina Rosenberger, University of California Press
Landscape and Power, ed WJT Mitchell - University of Chicago Press
The Book of Boro: Susan Briscoe, David and Charles
Slow Stitch: Claire Wellesley Smith, Batsford
Making Books: London Centre for Book Arts, Pavilion
Textile website: https://www.textileartist.org/
Supplier: https://www.georgeweil.com/
