Happy New year

Wishing you all an artistically creative, happy and healthy 2011

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a wonderful day tomorrow.

We are celebrating the festivities with family and friends and I hope Santa brings us all lots of surprises and happiness in the gifts given and received .

Wonderful Christmas post

I am now the proud owner of this lovely piece of work created by Marlis Egger which arrived in the post, it now hangs in my new studio. Thank you so much Marlis.
I find it quite amazing that this beautiful piece of work can find its way across snow laden Europe, very quickly, yet stuff posted in England is subject to big delays because of the poor weather.

Really feel sorry for any travellers who have not been able to return home for the festivities because of transport problems. Hope the marginal improvement in weather conditions means you are successful in travelling home.

Festivities can start now!

The trees are up and decorated, one in the porch and one in the sitting room. Neighbours have also made a show again this year, and the street is looking very festive. It was truly magical yesterday evening as darkness fell and the lights were switched on. The reflective snow certainly helped to give a feeling of festive cheer.

I seem to be better prepared for the festivities than ever before. Which is wonderful, especially as the weather does not entice me to go out to go shopping or even to go out for that matter. I am happy never to shop, it is not one of my favourite activities and never has been.

This is the scene in the garden this morning, but do not be deceived by the charm of this photo it is bitterly cold -7C and a fairly strong and bitter wind. Time to hibernate perhaps.

White today

Have been working on some white fabric recently, its quite fun to do. So I thought I would start this post with some fabric work for a change. Not a lot has been happening in the studio this week, other than some tidying up after last weekend.

Christmas preparations are well under way and plans for today have stalled to a stop... the reason why... is in this photo.

Its been snowing consistently since 6am, on top of some heavy overnight ice and frost. Absolutely treacherous out there, whether you want to walk or drive. I put out a lot of bird food in the hedges last night before it got too cold and today the birds are feeding non stop.

Thought you would like the update photo on your thread intervention Sal.. it looks quite wonderful.

Right I have promised to get some Christmas decorations up today...... so better get to it. Nothing else to do ;0)

Time

Time is something we use up in huge quantities in our creative activities. Just as Margaret Charlton has in this piece of artwork, which she kindly gave me recently. I am not sure we always give "time" a philosophical or critical review in relation to what we do or allowing it to inform our artistic practice..

I have just returned from a weekend at Urchfont with masterclass mentor Helen Mastrandeas. "Time" was the theme of the weekend. We explored the theme of time through Art, particularly in relation to textile practice.

We discussed the way that static visual arts such as painting and sculpture have grappled with the problem of how to show a purely sensual and intangible phenomenon in visual terms.

Valerie Constantino suggested that "the greatest strength of art expression in fibre media may be the impermanent quality of textiles.

Turners' famous painting of 1844 depicts the passage of time with the latest interests of the era, whereas in medieval times the passage of time was often depicted by pictures of death and skulls.
Perhaps it could be said that today the emphasis has evolved through the viewers experiences of Action Painting as depicted in Pollocks work and Goldsworthy with his art pieces which uses a natural palette.
The modern understanding of Wabi Sabi has also influenced many modern artists in pursuit of time references. Matthew Harris credits wabi sabi as being central to his work.

We looked at this water butt which sits next to the greenhouse in the grounds of Urchfont Manor.... the recent icy then milder weather has reacted with the water..... the result is beautiful, but fleeting. We used this as a reference for drawing or photographing and our attempts to depict time.

We broke this piece away and took it into the warmth of the studio and watched and recorded the melt. the passage of time.

This is a piece of work left by a member of the Thread Interventionists at Urchfont Manor. It was created in the Summer of 2009, and has survived animal, human and weather interventions and has survived the ravages of time.

A very thought provoking weekend of work and critical thinking.

Its a bit cold!

When I woke up and peeked out the window this morning, I was quite surprised to see how busy Jack Frost had been last night. According to my daughter some light snow fell too.... I did not see it though.

I have been enjoying myself using the embellisher machine and then chain stitching on the W & G machine, meanwhile watching everyone slip and slide on the pavement outside my studio window.

The hedge outside the window looks likethis ........ really frosty and it is midday now. Its also quite foggy. The freezing sort.

I am staying home and stitching. I have no desire to go out in the freezing cold, especially as I seem to have picked up one of the virus's doing the rounds. Its not too bad, as I have had the flu jab, but enough to make me feel less than well.

Just once a year.

Think this proves that I like chocolate. Thanks children for making this a fabulous day for me.

Snow or stitching ?

Thought we would start this post with the weather.. very English! More snow overnight, and I am so annoyed with myself for not getting the fountain put away in time. Just hopes this weather is kind to it. I do love the icicles on the umbrella.

Have been doing little bits of stitching, they relate to my experiments with the colour circle.

This is not a repeat of a previous photo, the eagle eyed amongst you will notice no blades of grass are showing in this one. It has been snowing most of the morning.. but not heavily. We were not supposed to get any of this at all.... but the forecasters got it wrong.

I have been warm and cosy working in my studio most of the day and only ventured out to retrieve the dustbin after the refuse collectors had been. They did look very cold, but were whistling whilst they worked. Back to the weather -10C tonight apparently, but the wind seems to have dropped. The news report said it was exceptionally cold in Scotland last night -21C.