Flaming June and memories of the Lot Valley

A little over a week ago I was over in France in blazing sunshine delivering workshops for Studio Preniac. It all seem so far away now in both time and warmth.The Lot  Valley lying a little to the south of the Dordogne is an inviting landscape of rolling hills and valleys, picturesque villages and towns.

 Safely tucked away in my attic bedroom after a wonderful supper by our generous hosts Billy and Liz. I awoke early to the gradual change of the morning from dawn blue blush which I tried to capture in my first captured sketch between workshops. This set me for a week of exploration of Shadows, Layer and Line in Cloth beginning with a sketching session in the nearby  village of Montuq for the Sunday market. Carrying our sketchbooks to snatch studies as we walked and bought materials for use in the workshop.

Getting ready to draw.

Jenny in the Studio

Laurence at work

Within walking distance of the studio there was plenty of inspirational resource available for drawing

Judith Shadow Drawing

We also had a chance to see the hidden gardens of Cahors and visit the nearby town of Saint Antonin Noble Val before flying back last week

Sue and Laurence in the Moroccan Garden Cahors

Hidden courtyard in Noble Val 

It was hard to say goodbye to this lovely view from the workshop, great companionship and food and come back to the cold grey of England..I am sure it will get better.Thank to the workshop participants for their wonderful cards which contained little snippets of those memories.

France had not quite left me, in the same week, my advance copy of the 'Stitch Stories' arrived brightening up a grey morning and a little bit of this lovely place is recorded in the book in the work of Ros Woodhead (above)

Thankyou Bill from Studio Preniac for the additional images and to all the workshop participants for permission to use photographs

Finally, breaking news, I am to be one of eight artists featured in the next issue of the wonderful John Hopper's Inspirational Magazine..yippee.

Dreaming Blue, Spring Skies at the Prague Patchwork Meeting

April brought a change in the weather and with it blue skies.  I was recently invited to exhibit at the Prague Patchwork Meeting with Anne Kelly as part of ResonantTextiles. An opportunity to experience the world of stitch from another perspective.

There were representations by internationally recognized artists.The glorious colour work in the textiles of Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably were among the star attractions but equally,  the high standard textile work by the Czech contributors was to be greatly admired.  The quality of stitch was beautiful and I paused to reflect if this may be partly due to the fact that creating domestic items for the home and clothing for your family is still very much a part of Czech culture. 

The competitions, 'Grandmother's Garden', 'Czech Quilt' and 'Architecture' reflected this in stunning quilts of considered complexity.

View of Grandmothers Gardens with first prize (blue one on left in the recess) by Milena Kankrlíková and (third prize facing on right) by Marcela Bednářová

Architecture entry Jindřiška Katzerovan

První místo - Český quilt/ First place - Czech quilt
Jaroslava Grycová (Koruny stromů v podzimních barvách/ Treetops in autumn colours)

One of my favourite exhibitions, 'Blue is Good' project had contributions from all over the Czech Republic. It demonstrated the potential of simple theme to create a wall of colour which in clarity reflects the colours of the famous native blue glass. (The proceeds from an auction of the quilts later in the year will support PORTUS, a Czech charity seeking to sheltered housing for the mentally challenged.)

Jana Sterbova's stunning 'Red' exhibition equally exhibited the strength of one dominant colour in quilting

The international group exhibitions included 'Imagine' (first seen last year at the European Patchwork Meeting), 'International Threads' and 'Radiation' all reflected a response to themed work.There was also some lovely textile collages by French artist Martine Apaolaza.

Barbara Lange Right and Uta Lenk left International Threads

Imagine

Marie Curie by Gabi Fischer (two on Left) and Birgit Schrader, Radiation exhibition

A few shots of my gallery at the show.

Lace Windows

Stitching in my booth

Grass is Greener with a view across to Bridges collaboration with Anne Kelly (my piece is in the centre and Anne has one either side in this shot)

As part of the workshop programme  I offered a short taster session on the theme of 'Layers, Lines and Image' looking at shadows and patterns based on garden views through a window.The challenges I set were responded to warmly, with humour and a great deal of talent. Helena Geitel gives here own review of the course here  Thankyou also to Eva Brabcova for a fantastic job interpreting and her husband Vladimir for the wonderful images of the work below:

I had little opportunity to see Prague, however a special dinner event allowed me to observe the changing colours and shapes in the roofline as the sun went down over the city. 

 

 

Making your Mark

Making marks is a human instinct, we sign, doodle and even draw. This time-lapse film is of artist Catherine Bertola installing Unfurling Splendour (V) - making her marks to form a carpet made entirely of dust - in Bilston Craft Gallery in February 2015 as part of the two-week Acts of Making festival of craft and performance.
(Acts of Making is in Bilston until 28 February before going on to Gateshead from 7-21 March and Plymouth from 14-26 September 2015.)

Catherine Bertola installing a carpet of dust Image from Crafts Council

Over the last few weeks I have been working on a number of courses which look at different approaches to making your mark and developing sketchbooks. Creating texture and finding texture in the landscape as inspiration is equally stimulating. The collaborative mark making in this piece was made from just listening to simple directions.This first evening introduction on Personal Journals, Sourcing Inspiration for Textiles, (one of my West Dean courses) gave surprising landscape mapping textures.

The need to make a mark and use colour which starts to express an idea is very individual as this group of sketchbook explorations from the course demonstrates:

 Chrissie Hart, Marks relating to Birdsong

Flora Weller Feathers

  Issy Bean Folded drawings

Mary Klaber

Olly Douglas

Sandy Davies

Sarah Fenner

Lynn Weal

Nikki Barnes

Thankyou to the students on the course who kindly gave permission to show work in progress and development.
 Textural surfaces and lines in the landscape can equally stimulate the marks you can draw upon. Inspirational sources photographs and artwork Dutch Blue.