Designer Crafts

This year - 2014 - my first exhibition will be at Designer Crafts.  This is the annual exhibition of the Society of Designer Craftsmen, to which I have belonged since the mid-eighties.  The Society itself is over 100 years old, and it was founded, among others, by William Morris.

The exhibition is at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1, just off Trafalgar Square. Walk under Admiralty Arch, towards Buckingham Palace, and it will be 30 metres ahead on your right, in one of the Nash terraces.

It includes a wide variety of beautiful studio crafts: ceramics, glass, jewellery, wood, paper, metal, contemporary furniture, textiles of all sorts, mixed media.  It will be open from 10th to 19th January, 10 to 5 pm every day, except for the last Sunday, when it closes at 4 pm.  I will be there at the private view on Friday 10th, 6 - 9 pm, and also stewarding on Sunday 12th January.

If you are in London during those dates, I do recommend a visit - and not only because I will have work there - the whole large show is wonderful to see - it has the WoW! factor I always look for.

Have a happy start to the new year!

Alicia

A walk - and swans - in the sun

Although the weather has not been good overall in the UK, with storms and high winds, flooding and all sorts of disruptions, here in Somerset we've had the odd nice sunny day in-between.

Sunday was one such day and we went for a walk around the town, taking in Wells Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace and moat.  The cathedral looked gorgeous in the sun.

There is a wrought-iron lamp by the cathedral, with sign-posting attached, telling visitors which way to go to see the various attractions.

The Bishop's Palace moat swans are famous for ringing a bell to ask for food.  But we have another, different swan in the moat now - it is a sculpture of a swan resting on a metal nest, by Ian Marlow, which was part of the artist-decorated swans which graced the streets of Wells to celebrate the Queen's 60th anniversary.  They were sold at auction, and the proceeds gone to charity. This swan was bought by a consortium of ordinary Wells people who wanted to keep it in the moat.  I contributed to the funds.

I love the patterns made by the ripples in the water, and the way they reflect the light, especially on a beautiful sunny day.

There were also some fascinating textures around - peeling chains, frosted leaves.

And after those observations, when I turned round to look at the swan again, he was off....

Good-bye swan!  I hope we will get some more sunny days to visit the moat this winter.

Happy New Year to everybody!

Alicia

A view from my street

From time to time I take photos of views from my street, often from just outside my front door.  I have taken images of the huge moon - with a tripod -, of wonderful rainbows; and interesting light effects.

Last night there were some of those - interesting light effects at the bottom of the street, soon after dusk.  I like the contrast between the dark trees, the light lower sky, and the yellow light of the lamp, illuminating some of the houses in the next street.  Here are a couple of the pictures I took.

Blue and orange are opposites in the colour wheel, so they complement each other very well. 

Alicia

Happy Solstice, Christmas and New Year!

I wish you all a warm and cosy Christmas and a creative and successful New Year!

Peace in the world and good weather!

Alicia

My gallery of map quilts at West Country Quilt Show 2013

Here are some photos of my gallery of map quilts at the West Country Quilt Show, at the end of November.

Two views of the same sky

Today there was one of those amazing sunset skies.  Here are two of the pictures I took, with my new small but powerful camera.

First there is a view of the whole sky from where I stood, taken with the widish angle of the camera lens.  The predominant colour, for me, is pink.

Then, I focused on the bottom right quadrant of the sky shown in the above photo, using the telephoto end of the lens.  This is what I got:

The predominant colour now is orange.  It all has to do with light levels and the way the camera perceives it.  It is a fascinating subject!  But for the moment, just enjoy the photos - it may rain tomorrow...

Alicia

Paul Klee, Collider and Water Water

Last weekend I went to London on an exhibition-visiting expedition. Plus meeting friends.

On Sunday I went to Tate Modern and saw the Paul Klee exhibition - "Making Visible".  Marvellous! There was a lot of work I wasn't familiar with.  His output was prodigious - he made thousands of paintings and drawings.  Mostly quite small.  The exhibition is arranged chronologically so you become aware that in the same year he was working on several series at the same time - for example, oil paintings in colour, and drawings in black and white, plus various mixed media pieces.

I also saw the exhibition by Mira Schendel, a little known artist whose work fascinates me.  Born in Germany, she lived most of her life in Brazil and that's where she produced her wonderful work.  She worked a lot with letters and messages.

(No photography allowed in the galleries...)

I bought some books by Klee, as well as the massive catalogue, and should be reading his thoughts for the next while...

On Monday I went to the Science Museum to see the "Collider" exhibition.  It is about CERN and the Large Hadron Collider, where recently the new particle, the Higgs Boson, was discovered.  Professor Higgs (who has just won the Nobel Prize for Physics), and Stephen Hawking, were at the Museum at the opening a few days previously.

It is a most fascinating exhibition.  I have to confess that I am a science addict, particularly loving exploring the two universes - the big one, of giant stars and galaxies, and the subatomic one of amazing particles.  Aversion to Mathematics stopped me from studying science - when I was 13 I wanted to be an astronomer...  These days I avidly watch many relevant TV programmes on those subjects ("Light and Dark" is the latest), and I bought at the museum, and have already read, a booklet on the Higgs Boson.

Science relates to art.  Albert Einstein used his imagination to visualise some of his theories. He said:  "After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in aesthetics, plasticity, and form.  The greatest scientists are artists as well."

More concretely, I have been invited to participate in an international quilt exhibition on the subject of "Radiation", which will open in Geneva (home of CERN) next June. Kate Findlay, who made the Large Hadron Collider the subject of a wonderful quilt series, is participating as well.

That leads me to the last exhibition I visited - on Tuesday - "Water Water" in Henley-on-Thames, organised by Kate.  It was a wonderful exhibition - now closed - with a huge variety of interpretations of the theme. Here are a couple of general photos of the work in the gallery.

The other two exhibitions are open until at least next March, so don't miss them!

Alicia

Water Water exhibition

Well, here I am, posting on two days running after an absence of two and a half months!

This is about the exhibition Water Water, organised by Kate Findlay in Henley-on-Thames.  It promises to be very good - I will have a couple of pieces in it.  Dates are 14 to 19 November.  Full details on the leaflets below.

I shall be visiting the exhibition on the last day.  Do call if you are near enough.

Alicia

A big quilt and a rainbow

I have not posted anything in this blog for two and a half months.  That is a long time!  It is in fact the time that it has taken me to finish my quilt for SAQA's Earth Stories project.  It is 72" square and I cannot post a photo of it - it is embargoed until the opening of the exhibition, which will be in early May 2014 at the University of Michigan Museum.

Earth Stories is a fascinating project.  First, because of the theme - positive stories about the Earth.  Second, because of the way it was organised - entry requirements were a portfolio of work, and a project proposal.  From those, 25 SAQA members were selected to carry out their projects.  There are many North American artists in the list, but also several from Europe, the Far East and the Middle East.  I am very proud of being one of the group.

The project has been fascinating to carry out, because of my own research into the subject, and because of observing the projects by the other group members - a wide variety of very interesting things.  There will be a catalog, so a much wider number of people will be able to see what it was done.

My project was about the protection of endangered species in the nature reserves of the Somerset Levels, in the UK.  The reserves convert old peat bogs and unused land into a variety of habitats suitable for species ranging from beetles to bats, from dragonflies to otters, and more.  They are managed by specialists but staffed mostly by committed volunteers.

As I cannot post photos of my quilt, I will entertain my visitors with other photos - today with images of a beautiful rainbow caught on the road on the way home a couple of weeks ago.

Till soon!

Alicia

Extraordinary August moon

It was a really strange moon - not quite a full one - but with a strange pink halo around it. I had to photograph it, from outside my front door - the second picture includes part of the porch. The different light in each of the photographs produces a pink moon and a blue moon... they have an eerie feeling.