Sensory overload

Apologies for this but it's a grey day here and this just brightened it up and made me smile.

Weekend activity

I've just spent the weekend at a workshop given by Tilleke Schwarz. Organised as part of the Stroud International Textiles Festival I met up with friend and fellow blogger Cathy of Menopausal Musing and we joined 13 others in a design led programme of activities directed by Tilleke in her signature style. We collaged, drew and stitched and listened to Tilleke as she explained how she creates her textile art. It was fascinating to hear how her pieces are constructed and how they evolve from random thoughts, overheard conversations and unusual found images. My stitching did not please me and I unpicked it all this morning but I have a head full of ideas that I can use so watch this space.....

It seems ages since I posted anything but I have been very busy producing postcards for the Postmans Knock swap I am involved in. This week I had to do mine on the theme of tea but they were for Cathy so I hand delivered them. In the end I did four variations of a theme and could not stop making them! In Stroud, Cathy and I also met up with Chrissie of Niminy Fingers so I handed over the postcards of 'New York' that I was due to send next time. Now I am in front of myself and don't have to produce anything for a month but want to crack on with the next one. The next theme is 'overhead' and it is taxing me but I have a few ideas brewing.....

When I arrived home late last night I found the above postcard waiting for me from Jo. It is lovely and a perfect offering for my theme of 'Taking Flight'. Please take a look here at all the others. There is some great work being produced - clever ideas very skilfully developed and delivered.

The Ice Book

This is a miniature theatre show and pop up book experience combined. I would so love to see it. It tells the story of a mysterious princess who lures a young man into her magical word to warm her heart of ice. Paper cuts, miniature theatre and pop ups - three of my favourite things all in one place. How could I not post this?

The Ice Book (HD) from Davy and Kristin McGuire on Vimeo.

Oye Como va?

My Dad used to love good old fashioned comedy like Laurel and Hardy and I grew up watching many of their old films. Another of those chance comments yesterday led to finding this, one of many videos all synchronised with a modern tune. You can search and find L&H dancing to everything from the Gap Band to the Archies but I was a huge Santana fan in my youth so there was no contest. It made me laugh all over again. I really think I do need to get out more.....

A half mile from home

The UK has just enjoyed its warmest March on record and we are basking in wonderful Spring sunshine at present as well. When you hear records like this announced on the radio I always wonder who first started recording these things and why but there are many individuals who record the changing of the seasons in their gardens or a given territory year on year. It has made me think about the changes within my own vicinity , so when I went on my regular walk away from the house today (it is that little speck at the top of the road) I decided to take my camera and record the things I could see growing within half a mile from the house heading in one direction only. I have been noticing things in the past couple of weeks but having a camera in my hand made me really look.

There is lots of Arum maculatum around - commonly known as Lords and Ladies, Jack-in-the-Pulpit or Cuckoo Pint. I shall be waiting to see those familiar spathes in a few weeks time.

...but there were also a few marbled leaves of Arum italicum to be seen, more often found in gardens, as well as...... Wild Grape hyacinth

...and lots of garlic mustard. Also known as Jack-in-the-hedge this is the staple plant that the Orange Tip butterfly lays its eggs on so it was no surprise to see a few of them flying around, along with lots of bumble bees and a few honey bees too. If you pick the leaves of this before the flowers come it is a great addition to a salad - very peppery and fresh on the palette.

There was a host of emerging fern fronds to be seen. I love these Hart's Tongue ferns

Look at their fuzzy little shields coming into life and compare them to the tightly furled up crozier of this tough old bracken. Look at the mass of wood anemones surrounding the road either side. They are stunning en masse like this but instead of looking down, I looked up at all the hawthorn blossom that is around. When you see the flowers up close they look just like delicate cherry blossom to me - so beautiful! Within my half a mile walk I also saw the new spears of wild flag iris leaves, wood violets, emerging bluebells, hundreds of lesser celandines and dandelions, wild garlic and wild strawberries coming through, mare's tails, sweet woodruff, herb robert, ribbed plantain, cow parsley and giant hogweed getting ready to launch into that sudden growth spurt it does in early May. I heard the woodpecker drilling away in the distance and saw and heard a blackcap singing its beautiful heart out.

Sadly I also noticed lots of litter and will need to take a black bag out with me in the next few days. Tell me why car drivers have to throw their rubbish out of their cars as they drive up through country lanes? It is probably not just reserved for country lanes though. I think litter is a scourge anywhere these days but it won't dampen my mood. I am going to try and record my little half a mile strip every month this year and make my own record to revisit in 2012. It will be fascinating to keep my own local record of the changes of the seasons.

Regular followers will know this is something I have done for many years with regard to the return of the swallows to their nesting site in my garden. For the past four out of five years they've returned on the same calendar date and you've always come up trumps and let me know when returning swallows have been sighted around you. Well, we have nothing yet but our local paper has recorded sightings in a village about 3 miles away. I wonder if they will come earlier this year. I'd love to know what's happening in your patch too!

Colour choices... or no colour choices

This week I finished another module in my art course. Only one more module to go this year and a break for a month now although there is a list of preparatory work for the next one that's as long as your arm.... I'll now be moving from focussing on abstract work into abstracting the landscape, trying to build on techniques I've been using recently. In recent weeks I've probably painted more canvases that I ever have in my life and my tutor has pushed me into using colour and breaking out of my favoured monochromatic choice. In some masochistic way I've enjoyed the challenge yet choosing to paint is not truly me.

When left to my own devices the inclination is to layer up the paint using those beautiful sounding names like 'transparent red oxide' and 'quinacrodone burnt orange', throwing in a bit of 'phalo turquoise'.... and not forgetting black... deep, unctuous, glossy, carbon black.

I did lots of work for the course and made abstracted constructions accompanied by loads of sketchbook work. I really felt energised by the whole thing but need to channel that energy now into some print based activity for the next few weeks until the next part of the course resumes. My tutor is great. She's very supportive and I achieved my second First in succession so I must be doing something right, but you can't keep all the things you make so I've been trying to scale down the drawings etc today and throw away what just does not work for me. Trouble is I then start tearing them up, re-postioning them and thinking 'I could create a collage with that' or 'what if I stitched those pieces together and re-worked them.......'

The more I look at the pieces I like the more I see that they are very akin to prints and the depth of colour is so similar to what a print can give to you. I think Im going to follow the urge to make a few collagraph plates and get my hands covered in ink instead of paint for a few weeks.... watch this space.

Maiden Flight

I don't think I have mentioned here that I'm taking part in a postcard exchange with 11 other blog friends have I ? The basic premise is that we will each send a handmade postcard, every two weeks, to one of the others on the list in a given order. The postcard theme is determined by the recipient and it can take any format - paper, fabric, photo, collage etc. The only constant is the size of a standard postcard - 15cm x 10cm. At the end of the project we will then each have 11 postcards all detailing our chosen themes. This weekend sees the first posting and receiving of our handiwork. My theme is 'Taking Flight' and my first card has arrived, made by my friend Sue, who knows me better than most people. She has sent me a beautiful card, embellished with the most delicate tissue paper moths you could imagine. When I freed them from the envelope they flapped in the breeze. Magical, just magical. As we receive our cards over the next few months we are going to use another blog to keep us all in the loop and up to speed with what we receive. If you're interested please have a look and perhaps follow what we're getting up to. The blog is called 'Postman's Knock' and we already have 16 followers. Given that there are only 12 of us taking part who know about it, you have to marvel at the speed of the web and how people find out about things! Anyway, I've posted another couple of images over there and in the next few days the others will add their first postcards. Could be the start of a fascinating project I think.