Finding My Joy thanks to Louise Fletcher.

A week ago I came across an online course that was being run by Louise Fletcher, a very generous Yorkshire artist who, in a similar way to my Saori philosophy, paints from the heart.  Do have a look at her website which is a treasure trove of inspiring podcasts and videos.  Sadly the course finishes today so it's too late to join in this year but I suspect she will run it again so maybe sign up for emails.

I was late joining the course so I have been playing catch up but I thought I'd blog a bit about it here to remind me of what I did.  The first assignment involved sectioning off a paper and making marks.  Funnily enough I'd worked in this way 10 days before having seen something else online.

I worked randomly using acrylics, acrylic wax, charcoal, artgraf block, oil pastel, Posca pens and water.  For the assignment I did something similar:

We had a time limit and I included a few pieces of collage paper this time.  Some of them may get some more work on top and one or two work better turned on their side.  I find it really difficult to work on top of something I've already done in case I 'spoil' it so I hope that what I am learning from Louise and her inspirational words will help me past this reluctance.

Today I worked really hard without realising how the time was passing so that's already a plus.  

I chose colours I wouldn't usually use and a selection of utensils to get the paint onto the paper.  

I'd previously cleaned off my palette onto the paper hence the big black area.

The painting went through a few incarnations and while I was painting I was thinking about the sea and rock pools, no surprises there.    By the time I got to this point I should have painted it again in my more usual colours and I was tempted to work on top just for the heck of it but my usual fear stopped me doing it.

Instead I started on a fresh piece of paper but jumped to a later assignment to paint completely out of my comfort zone.

I wet the page randomly first and then daubed on black which I wouldn't usually use (there was some red picked up by 'mistake' too.

 While the first layer was still damp I slopped on colours taken at random from my palette using a roller again.

 More scraping on top,

and oil pastels were employed.  I scraped some parts through while the paint was wet with the wrong end of a paintbrush.  It was interesting seeing the effects of dragging the pastel through wet paint.

This is the final painting, if you can call it a painting.  Throughout I kept seeing areas that I really liked so I've photographed them before painting on top.  I just need to remember how I achieved them.  I had resisted doing this exercise but I did learn from it, not least that taking a chance and jumping in sometimes have a pleasing outcome.  I admire people who are brave enough to paint over whole areas of their painting to the point of obliteration and then sponge back or scrape back to reveal what lies beneath.  If you click on the photo above you should be able to see that I accidentally scored through the paper with my scraping and scratching. I'm definitely going to work with this exercise again and learn more about covering up and getting back to a lower layer.

The paper palettes were my all time favourites 😄😄 They'll probably end up as collage papers.  I have to thank Louise for pushing me outside my comfort zone and showing me some new ways of working that I am definitely going to keep on with.  I've definitely found my joy and excitement for future painting along with the classes I'm doing with Sarah Watson locally.

There's still 2 assignments to do so I'll come back in a few days with some photos.  In case you're wondering, I'm still enjoying my weaving but am loving getting back to painting again.  Hopefully between the two I will still be able to be creative despite the arthritis in my hands.  I wouldn't like the alternative, but senior years do have their grumpy and frustrating moments.

Easton Walled Garden

We are having the most unseasonal weather this February and today saw us visiting Easton Walled Garden for their annual Snowdrop week.  The day has been beautifully sunny and warm so much so that we barely needed coats on.  It has been wonderful watching the gardens change and grow over the years and this year the display was superb.  The air was full of birdsong and bees and butterflies flying around.  Clouds developed a little during the morning but they added to the beauty of the day.

The visit started with a blast from the past.  Anyone remember Hector's House?  I've been singing the tune ever since.

https://youtu.be/K7Co2tdaPjg

I don't think the young gardener had a clue what I was talking about!

Looking across the parkland I could see a host of escapees in a hollow.

If you look towards the top of this image you'll see the blur of a very busy Brimstone butterfly.

The skies were really beautiful today.

I loved the beautiful lichen on the branches and the sight of the snowdrops glimpsed on the floor.

This structures are waiting for sweet peas to be planted out when it warms up some more.

An extra treat was an art exhibition in the stables at Easton with paintings by Dawn Wright and by Val Littlewood.  Val's paintings were beautifully detailed studies of various species of bee and their preferred food plant.  You can read about her paintings and about bees on her blog. 

Easton Walled Garden snowdrop week continues till this Sunday 24 February so you still have time to visit and enjoy their lovely snowdrop bank.  They open for the season the following Sunday 3 March.  How can it be nearly March already?!

Anni Albers

Last week we went down to London to catch the retrospective exhibition of the work of Anni Albers, a 20th century weaver and textile designer who was one of the pioneers of 20th century modernism.  The exhibition was at Tate Modern which is housed in the old Bankside power station.

The part of the building to the left is the original power station and the extension to the right is the Blavatnik building named after Sir Leonard Blavatnik who donated much of the funds for the development.

This is the Turbine Hall which often houses large installations and site specific works.

This side view fronts onto the Thames (more of which later).

Thanks to my husband for this shot from the escalators cutting through two floors to reach the floor of the turbine hall.

Our first impression of the Tate was its size, it's huge and cavernous!  A note for future reference, they allow you to take in small flight size cases but they must be stowed at the cloakroom, which is free and secure but invites donations, currently £4.

I hadn't expected to enjoy the exhibition as much as I did, especially as I only weave on a simple floor loom and not a multi-shafted one but I was fired up by it all.

The exhibition was in the Eyer Ofal Galleries in the Natalie Bell building.  The first weaving was Black White Yellow which was rewoven in 1965 by Gunta Stölzl who was Bauhaus Master of Craft in the weaving workshop from 1927 to 1931.

This is a detail of Black White Yellow, woven in cotton and silk.  It is 207.6 x 121.4cms  I had a lovely chat with 2 ladies as we tried to work out how this was achieved.  They were complete novices at weaving and my small knowledge didn't help at all.  

Anni's loom was on display and surprisingly (to me) compact.  She also wove on much larger and smaller looms.

Anni was introduced to weaving at the Bauhaus which she joined in 1922.  Her influences there included Paul Klee and Kandinsky and can be readily seen in her weaving and in her works on paper as preparation and exploration for design.  Oops!  Didn't photograph any examples.

The Bauhaus was forced to close by the Nazis in 1931 and Anni moved to a teaching position at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina USA.

My greatest fascination in the exhibition was the way the warps were manipulated with the weft threads and which were probably woven on a small handloom.  I have tried something similar on my own looms.  I particularly like the way she has used the technique for parts of rows and not all the way across the width.  It makes for an interesting texture.

This weave and the one below spoke to me a bit of Mondrian's work, notably his Boogie-Woogie works.  Above is Open Letter, 1958, cotton, 57.8 x 60cms.  It has lots of excitement for me in the texture and I loved the little shots of colour.

 Above is titled "Pasture' from1958 measuring 35.6 x 39.4 cms

This image above was wonderfully rich in colour (much stronger than my flashless photograph shows) and is titled Sunny from 1965 in cotton and linen,12.7 x 43.2 cms.

South of the Border, above, cotton and wool, 10.5 X 38.7cms, has a landscape feel to my eye and is much more colour rich in reality.

Set in a space of its own, with a large bench in front to allow for contemplation, was the 6 panelled Six Prayers which was made for the Jewish Museum New York to memorialise the 6 million Jews who died in the holocaust.  Each panel is 186 x 50 centimetres from cotton and linen threads and highlighted by silver accents.

The detail is sadly out of focus due to the lack of light and no flash.  I did like the use she had made wandering threads that are carried along and up the weave.

Alternative materials had figured in some of Anni's early works too, including her diploma piece from the Bauhaus, woven to be soundproofing and to cover the walls in an auditorium.

This fabric looked a bit like a thermal ironing board cover that I used to have and was woven with cotton, chenille and cellophane.  It was backed with chenille (velvet in the accompanying description).

The huge space in the gallery was separated by partitions made from wood and sheer fabric that gave interesting veiled views of the visitors and weavings to be explored and also supported some of the more varied weavings.

 

The piece above is by Lenore Tawney titled Leckythos and woven in 1962 from linen, brass and acrylic.  Size 127 x 68cms.  A statement by Albers from her book 'On Weaving' suggests that she was aware of this artist's work and the way she was taking weaving forward.   With the sheer fabric behind it it looks almost ethereal.

The Anni Albers exhibition ends on Sunday 27th January and I for one wish I had gone much earlier so that I could have had a second visit.  There is just so much to see, but I can recommend the exhibition catalogue which is extensive with its illustrations and text.  It's a book both to dip into and to enjoy in depth.   

Our visit was rounded off with some wonderful views of the opposite bank of the Thames and of The globe Theatre which sadly we didn't have time to visit.  

 The Millennium Bridge crossing towards St Paul's Cathedral.

 

The Globe Theatre (thatched)

City of London School

It was a very grey day as you can see but the birch trees still looked beautiful.