What's been happening?

What's been happening?  

Well.....
It has been a long time since I wrote and I really will try and keep this more up to date.  It isn't as if I have been away or anything... just busy with this and that.
Briefly, what I have been up to.

January - a fabulous 'bucket list' experience on a cruise to Antarctica with 6 days on the White Continent.  I have to say it was a dream come true... You know me - besotted by ice, glaciers, snow everywhere.  Well... it was so inspiring!  I will have images to work with, draw, paint and stitch for the rest of my life.  And... the penguins were perfect as well.
Here is some recent work done for Art Textiles Made in Britain exhibition in August at the Festival of Quilts.  The first 3 pieces are currently at the Forge Needle Museum in Reddich and the 5 will be seen when 'Concealed' exhibition goes to the Minerva Gallery, Llanidloes, Wales in May.  

Titled "What lies Beneath" each piece is 24" square mounted on canvas and is a composite of images collaged together, heat transferred onto cloth and machine stitched.  The concealed aspect reflects the evidence of fossils and petrified rainforests that have been found in Antarctica.   

The last few months have been busy with sketches and paintings based on local landscapes, vistas from the A303 across the plains and valleys of Somerset and Wiltshire.  This time the stitch paintings were started as monoprints and watercolour painted pictures.  Transferring them onto cloth with stitch gave them new depth.  Very colourful and lively for me.  They have been fun and all were framed for Somerset Open Studios here in Somerton this year. It is always a great event and we had close to 300 visitors. Looking at these remind me of the colours in the Bocca area of Buenos Aires.... Maybe I brought the colour home with me.

These are all quite small framed pieces, and this abstract approach to my local landscape has been fun.

I will be adding another post soon with details of a course I am teaching in France next May...  so please come back for a visit.  

thanks for reading,