Two Days Out

We've taken a couple of days out to visit friends in Derbyshire and we did things worth putting into my log.

Masson Mills Museum

This is a working textiles museum that offers demonstrations twice a day.  The mill was built in 1783 by Sir Richard Arkwright and is the best preserved example of an Arkwright cotton mill.  The mill was originally built to take imported bales of cotton and clean and card it ready for weaving elsewhere.  We saw a huge, evil looking machine nicknamed The Devil. The Devil was the first process the cotton went through to get out the bits of vegetation and generally clean it up. 

The Devil had massive "teeth" and was quite capable of taking off an arm or leg or even worse.  If someone was caught in the machine there was little hope of things turning out well as the machine took almost a minute to stop.

The machinery in the museum came from elsewhere in order to preserve it.  There is machinery to cover the whole range of processes and many are demonstrated.  Some of the looms were second hand in 1867 and are still running if rather noisily.

The loom in the foreground of this photo (with the yellow bar) is from the 1940's and is less reliable than the older machines.

An engineer would be fascinated by the complexity of the machines but all I could think about was the conditions the people worked in - the noise, the dust and the oily smells.  The idea of my six year old grandson crawling under the machines whilst they were still running makes my blood run cold.

I took several photos with an eye to some sort of future textile work; ironic really.

Old driving belts with mould

Spools

Pirns

Great Dome Art Fair

The Peak district Artisans is an association of artists based in Derbyshire.  There was some truly wonderful work on show at this art fair and it was a real struggle to keep my wallet in my bag.  I am becoming much more aware of the sort of work I like and I have selected just a few for my blog.  Al information and pictures are taken from the artists' own websites.

Keith Wright - Visual Artist
http://www.keith-wright.com/


Keith's work is created from his own collection of photographs and inspired by industrial landscape sand the built environment.  He crops and arranges the images into grids, removing all context, scale and location.  What he ends up with is something really abstract and almost always geometric.  It reminded me of the Matthew Harris work I saw last week and liked so much.

Peak

Louise Jannetta

http://www.louisejannetta.co.uk/

Amongst other things Louise was showing some collograph work and having tried this recently I was very interested.  She was very generous with her advice.  The image above seems to be a recurring one and because it is a plate the variations are incredible.

Steve Elliot
http://www.steveelliott.net/













Steve explained that his style is constantly evolving and recently it has become more abstract.  This was clear to see and I must say that while I love the more literal work I thought the more recent work was amazing.

Hills over Hathersage

Birchen Edge

Helen Meakin
http://www.helenmeakin.com/

Helen uses a variety of textile techniques but my favourites were the weaving using wire warp, multi material weft, sequins and beads to create her original and very attractive  work.  They are very textural and reflect the light.

Using a wire warp

 I finally succumbed and my friend and I organised a one day workshop with Helen in late August.  Can't wait.

Making and Drawing

Harley Gallery

The exhibition just opened is Making and Drawing curated by Kyra Cane to celebrate the publication of her book of the same name.  Kyra is a ceramicist based at the Welbeck Studios so it's a fitting place for the exhibition.  Both the book and the exhibition showcase the more private work of a variety of artists with both their sketch books and completed work on display.  As someone who has struggled with the concept of a sketchbook this came as sweet relief.

I was reassured that sketching can be almost anything that helps the creative process along; collage, photographs, technology as well a pencil and paper.

The exhibition was presented with the same chapter headings as the book and they are worth listing;

drawing as reference
drawing as planning and design
drawing as surface
drawing as making
drawing as thinking
drawing with technology.

This helps my thinking as I realise that all my preparation work is drawing although in the end the majority is rejected.  I also think that all the chapter headings necessarily apply to a piece of work.

Some of the artists were new to me; Simon Carroll was shown in an extraordinary video making huge images in the sand on a Cornish beach. The information said that he was a remarkably gifted "maverick potter"  who died too early.

Drawing in the sand - Simon Carroll

I liked the work of furniture maker Fred Baier.  His work seems to bridge the gap between engineering and art and his drawings show this very clearly.  His use of colour is very much like that of Ptolemy Mann.  In the section devoted to his work we are told

drawing can happen in many different forms, its purpose always being to nourish his work  (Cane 2012)

Staircase by Fred Baier from Drawing and Making by Kyra Cane

From the world of textiles I particularly liked the work of Debbie Smyth.  Her work looks almost like pen and ink drawing.  She uses strategically placed pins to place thread around.  It reminded me of the designs I drew as a child in geometry lessons.

Debbie Smyth from artboom.info

Best of all I was introduced to the work of Matthew Harris.  I loved the understated colours splashed with red and the way marks and patterns litter his work.  Cane's book tells me that sketches, notes and photographs form the basis of his work and he makes many versions of the same source material.  He then selects the best and assembles the parts into an order.

Matthew Harris raggedclothcafe.com 

Upstairs potter Adam Frew had an exhibition  called Drawing and Pots.  It showed Adam's pots alongside his drawings.  Adam has spent time on the Welbeck Estate and absorbed the landscape and woodland around.  His pots are heavily marked and have very rich glazes.  http://www.adamfrew.com/

Adam Frew ceramics

Not all of the artists in the book were on show but there was certainly enough to keep me absorbed for a long time.  And lots to think about afterwards.


Cane, Kyra  2012 , Making and Drawing.  Bloomsbury, London

Patchings Art Festival

I've made my annual pilgrimage to Patchings Art Festival and come back laden with goodies and some brilliant bargains.

Apart from anything else it's a wonderful place to find out about new art materials and to try before you buy.

Whilst the main focus is on painting there are a significant number of artists showing other crafts like silk painting, felting and ceramics.  I managed to find some lovely hand dyed yarns in small quantities.

The highlight of my day was watching Ann Blockley give a demonstration.  How she can manage to talk to an audience of over 300 and paint at the same time beats me. I looked at Ann's technique in Project 3 (Daring Colour) and marvelled at her loose flowing style.  It was quite remarkable to actually see it happen.  At first the paint seemed to go on the paper in an almost arbitrary fashion and it was quite alarming.  Ann waited for an image to emerge and then took steps to define it better.  Her sense of colour is wonderful and very courageous and her comment "it's not subtle" was quite an understatement.

Ann painted two pictures; one of a bluebell wood and the other of poppies.  I found these on her website of similar subject matter.

Poppy field

Bluebell Wood

I just like this one.

Woodland Cottage

Watching what can be done with mixed media makes me think that at some time I'd like to have a go and see what I can do.


In the artists tent there were many styles to see.  I particularly liked Carol Baker's work.  It has a similar loose style to that of Ann Blockley.  These are both oil on canvas.

True Brilliance

Dancing with Hues

I had a brilliant day.

More Open Studios Notts

We stayed very local this weekend; not straying further that 5 or 6 miles from home. And we saw more wonderful work.

Artempo are a group of eight local artists and they displayed their work in Bassetlaw Museum.   It included paintings, drawings, textiles and ceramics.  And details of another exhibition...

As a direct result of talking to exhibitors I've booked onto a collograph workshop and decided to go to the local Embroiderers Guild (not quite sure of it's real name) on Wednesday to hear Ingrid Karlsson-Kemp talk about her work.

There are Places - Ingrid Karlsson Kemp

Original stitched in fabric & fibres including found objects.

Stretched and framed in handmade whitewashed box frame.   http://ingrid-karlsson-kemp.co.uk/

My workshop is by Carole Eason whose family inspired, detailed prints I just loved.

A Touch of Autumn - Carol Eason

We also wandered up to the studio of Polly Warren is the lovely village of Askham.  Polly uses a converted garage as her place of work and she produces linocut prints.  She showed us the process and demonstrated her new press.

Polly's demo - getting used to the new press

Amazingly Polly told us she "couldn't draw".   I wish I "couldn't draw" like Polly.

We've had two great weekends that have helped me to understand my own work much better.  I'm starting to feel I'm a "can do" artist.

Open Studios Notts

Open Studios Notts

Each year at this time Nottinghamshire artists open their studios for visitors.  We earmarked last Saturday to visit Southwell as there was lots on including a craft fair in the Minster.  We had a lovely, and expensive, day.

Open Studios are county wide; this is just the Southwell flyer

We visited the studio of Tim Sprignall who is a photographer although we didn't see any of his work various other artists had work displayed.

My favourite was Stuart Ackroyd glass his colours are wonderful and very exciting.

One of many beautiful pieces of glass

Sharon Dickinson showed an eclectic selection of novel items one of which became my husband's birthday present.  She was such a trusting soul.  Her card machine wouldn't work so we gave her the cash we had and walked away with the goods on the promise I'd send a cheque.  Lovely.

We visited the Bull Yard Gallery where Jayne Hale was exhibiting.  Although we didn't meet her we were told that Jayne has only recently felt confident in her ability to paint.  Sounds familiar.  Her paintings are vibrant and fun.

Jayne Hale

At The Barn Gallery I saw the work of Peter Dworok.

Loch Eynort, Isle of Skye, Peter Dworok

His elemental work has given me an idea that I can't shake off.  I'm going to try an experiment in my next sample.

Susan Isaacs opened her studio along with Carl Gray (ceramics) and Mark Green ( woodcraft).

Susan paints in oil in a loose figurative style.  Her prints showed me that she uses local towns as her inspiration.  I particularly liked her colours.

Southwell Minster.  Susan Isaacs

That takes me nicely to the work we saw in the Minster.  There were loads of stalls but I've become very selective.

I love metal as art

Irene is completely self taught

Intriguing boxes

I loved these seascapes - they're really inventive

Our last port of call was very local to us and involved people we have known for ever.

Lee Sinclair makes the most wonderful furniture.

Lee's lovely furniture

And his daughter makes a good cup of tea.

It is very exciting to see so much quality work going on in the area I live.  I had a great day and got lots of ideas along the way.  Thanks to the artists who are all so friendly and generous with their experiences.

William Morris Gallery

"Don't copy any style but make your own"
  William Morris

William Morris as a young man
Self portrait
en.wikipedia.org

Morris the man

My visit to this Gallery was all I'd hoped it would be.  I found myself just as interested in the man as his work.  He seems to have been a gifted man in many ways, a workaholic who had high expectations of those who worked alongside him.

William was born into a very privileged lifestyle and was confidently expected to go into the Church.

There was a rebellious streak in William and to the dismay of his mother (his father had died when he was 13) he turned his attention to art in many forms.

All the minor arts were in a state of complete degradation, and with the conceited courage of a young man I set myself to reforming all that

Morris was a prodigious reader from an early age and wrote poetry and drew.  He knew the artists and writers of the day like Ruskin and Rossetti and was himself interested in medieval design.

In 1859 Morris married Jane Burden a local stableman's daughter.  He commissioned an architect friend, Philip Webb to

....build me a house very medieval in spirit. I lived in it four five years and set myself to decorating it.

He found that there were no furnishings available to suit his needs so he set about designing his own, wallpaper, textiles, furniture; he turned his hand to every aspect of the interior decoration.  To the Victorian eye the style was eccentric.

Red House
www.victorianweb.org 

This experience set the course for the rest of Morris life.  He taught himself the craft skills he needed and along with various friends who put up money in 1861 Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company was founded.  

The business prospered and eventually became Morris and Co.  At the outset Morris wanted to adopt an artisan approach and hand make everything. Eventually however he felt this made his designs available to only the rich so he created some off the peg merchandise that made his work affordable for the middle classes.

Morris was an active social campaigner on behalf of the working man - what we might call a champagne socialist I suppose.  He felt morally compromised by his wealth and attended demonstrations and held extreme views.  He was even arrested. Although he found public speaking difficult he addressed many meetings up and down the country.

Morris mastered all sorts of textile work.  After learning to embroider he taught his wife and her sister to complete designs to his specifications.  He was one of the first designers to be associated with the Royal School of Art Needlework whose aim was to elevate secular embroidery to the position it had once held.  His daughter May became influential in the embroidery side of the business.


Morris continued to idealise traditional ways of production and at a time when roller printing was becoming the norm he chose to use hand block printing for his wallpaper and  fabric printing. He found chemical dyes too coarse and set up a dye works to ensure a supply of natural dyes.  This involved reviving the production of many of the old dyes. Morris also produced tapestries at his works at Merton Abbey. He said

If a chap can't compose an epic poem while he's weaving a tapestry, he had better shut up, he'll never do any good at all.

OCA students beware!

Morris was only 62 when he died in 1896. His doctor said

the cause was simply being William Morris and having done more work than most ten men.

William Morris
ilovetypography.com

A question I often ask myself when I've been exposed to so intimate a view of an eminent person is

            "Would I have liked him?" 

I'm not really sure about the answer here.  I think he would have been a hard taskmaster and quite intolerant of not just the slow learner but the steady worker as well. Parry (1983) says

His interest in his fellow man transcended all class and social barriers.  He would be interested (in a person) if she had anything interesting to tell him and not for a moment longer.

Not a man to suffer fools gladly but oh so inspirational and idealistic.

The Gallery

William Morris Gallery
Walthamstow E17 4PP

The Gallery itself is the house the family moved to when his father died.  It was a strange feeling to know that Morris knew the rooms I was in.

I found the Gallery very accessible for a whole variety of people.  There were many interactive displays and plenty for children to enjoy.  The serious student and the more casual visitor alike were well catered for with a wealth of original and well labelled material.

David Bailey

The Gallery was also showing David Bailey's East End Faces.  These photographs were a powerful portrayal of the people of London's East End in the 1960's.  I knew Bailey as a fashion photographer but his heart was clearly with the people in this exhibition.




In this review I've used notes I took in the Gallery; all the quotes from Morris are from there too.

Parry L. 1983. William Morris Textiles. New Jersey.
www.wmgallery.org.uk

Mary Beale

Mary Beale self portrait
commons.wikimedia.org

To get the best from a long planned visit to the William Morris Gallery I needed somewhere to stay overnight.  Quite by chance I booked a night at West Park Lodge which is about 12 miles from the Gallery.  What a treat.  Friendly staff, comfortable room, delicious food and what amounts to a Mary Beale (1633-1699) Gallery.  I had never heard of Mary but she was Britain's first professional woman artist.

Mary was brought up in Suffolk the daughter of a Puritan rector, John Craddock, and his wife Dorothy. Her father was an amateur artist and Mary became used to mixing with the artists who were friends of her father.  Her mother died when she was only 10. 

At 18 Mary married a London cloth merchant named Charles Beale and had three sons.  Her marriage was unusual at the time because it was a love match.  As Mary became more successful Charles became what we might now call a "house husband" and looked after the children, the accounts and generally managed the studio so that Mary could paint.

Part of the Beale family by Mary
www.art-prints-on-demand.com

Mary painted portraits of many famous figures of the day including the Rt Hon Henry Coventry, Secretary of State, who was at the time the owner of West Lodge.  Mary's descendants have owned and run West Lodge Park as a fine country house hotel for three generations and have many paintings (some are copies) on display around the hotel.

Mary was a hard worker and at the height of her career produced 80 portraits a year.  Her basic fee was £5 for a head and shoulders.  For this the sitter would have a portrait in browns and ochres.  If more exotic colours were required the fee would be more.  Hence the wealth of the sitter might be judged by the colours used.

It was an unexpected treat to find out about Mary and even better when I learned that William Morris was commissioned to do some work at West Park Lodge.


The information I have used here is taken from  hotel literature and wikipedia.
http://www.bealeshotels.co.uk/westlodgepark/downloads/WLP_Art%20Booklet.pdf

The Bodging Project

The Bodging Project:
Before, During, After

The Harley Gallery, 27 March - 2 June 2013

I can do no better than take the information prepared by the Harley Gallery Staff and present it in it's entirety.  The photos are mine.

Look up 'bodge' in the Oxford English Dictionary and you'll find that the word is 'an altered form of botch', dates back to about the year 1500, and means 'to patch or mend clumsily'. Skip forward four hundred years and you'll find the highly-skilled itinerant chair-makers who worked in the beech woods of Buckinghamshire described as 'bodgers'. Either way, it's an interesting word with conflicting meanings. This has served the project well because what we've really been engaged with here is walking the line between craftsmanship and art-school improvisation.

Chris Eckersley

In 2010 and 2012 two groups of designers went to a woodland workshop in Herefordshire and placed themselves outside their comfort zone of drawing boards, computer-aided design, and electrified workshops. Armed with only simple sketches, traditional green woodworking tools, and a time frame of six days they set about an archaeological inquiry into context, process and design.

'Before, During, After' features ten selected designers, their work prior to the experiment, the results from the woodland, and the effects it had on their practice. The show in the main gallery is broken down into these three distinct areas. The results of an experimental workshop carried out by some of the group for the chair-makers Lloyd Loom of Spalding is shown is the upper gallery. 

Gareth Neal & Chris Eckersley

Before: Individual Practice.

Design and craft practice has been a highly discussed topic over the last twenty years, trying to pigeon-hole furniture designers in one discipline. The difference between craft and design has often been the education received and the working environment these skills were learnt within. Studio practice created designers and workshop practice created craftsmen. Surely one should inform the other? The ten selected designers were chosen to highlight this diversity and demonstrate the variety of thinking and breadth of approach prior to going on the project. 

Gareth Neal

Examples of "before" work

During: All Together Now.

The Windsor chair is an exemplary example of accumulated knowledge, its design and process of construction handed from one maker to the next. The chair is not a styled object, it has evolved to be as strong, make-able, and comfortable as possible using cheap materials that were to hand, so any rethink of the design needs to remember to start with all these tested solutions. So designers - throw away the Computer! Craftsman - put down the power tools and forget about the Industrial Revolution, press the 'refresh' button and Make, Do and Think... You have six days! 

William Warren & Gareth Neal

"During"

After: What did we take away?

Having spent six days in the woods everyone changed! Appreciation of materials was renewed and ideas of production in relation to locality were identified. New versions from trusted forms and techniques went into production. Experiments into carbon emissions were undertaken. Manufacturing companies reconsidered their practices. Friendships were forged and working contexts reconsidered. Most importantly, good working practices were critically rethought and reappraised, with the importance of process and design working hand in hand. 

Gareth Neal

"After"

One piece that particularly caught my eye was by

"During"
Stefano Santilli 2012
Ash, chestnut and found hedgerow materials

"After"
Stefano Santilli 2012
Ash, chestnut and found hedgerow materials

And other lovely things....

Amos Marchant
Upside down children's chair
American walnut

Chris Eckersley
Devon bench, 2012
English ash and Scottish elm

And the quirky....

There are some pieces that I've got muddled with who made which item so I'll be going back to sort it out very soon.

The Elves and the Chairmakers

The Harley Gallery, 27 March - 2 June 2013helped themselves to components and experimented with the signature weave to make new designs. Ov

On a weekend in early June 2012, 5 designers visited the closed Lloyd Loom factory in Spalding, Lincolnshire. While the assembly workers were away, the designers used their machinery, er 2 days, 13 new concepts were developed and these pieces were left in the factory showroom for the staff to find on Monday morning.

The ideas behind this exercise was to skip the long drawn out process that normally comes with developing new designs for big established names and to ensure that all the new concepts generated would be almost production ready.

The prototype 'sketches' that came out of the weekend opened a enthusiastic dialogue with Lloyd Loom and several pieces were selected to be taken forward for further development. The resulting production items are to be launched later this year and added to the Lloyd Loom range.

William Warren

(I didn't take a picture of the bar stool for some unknown reason)

Exhibitors

Amos Marchant

Carl Clerkin

Chris Eckersley

Clifford Leo Harris

Dave Green

Gareth Neal

Gitta Gschwendtner

Jon Harrison

Koji Katsuragi

Liam Hopkins

Rory Dodd

Sarah Kay

Simon Maidment

Stefano Santilli

Valentina Gonzales Wohlers

William Warren

There was a sample of the material used in the making of Lloyd Loom furniture.  In my photo you can see clearly the wire passing through the warp of twisted paper tubes the furniture is made of.

As ever the Harley has presented this exhibition superbly.  There are activities for children and the Bodgers will be at the Open Workshop event in May.  Guess who's going?