a day of colours

hope you had a good Easter

we had a very nice Easter week with mixed weather
but Good Friday was especially warm here in St. Ives
and we enjoyed a day of colours
a day of stripey deckchairs and vermilion windbreaks

a day of spring flowers
enjoyed on my walk down the coast path
and saved and pressed for a rainy day

I popped in The New Craftsman Gallery
to see Emma Jeffryes new collection of paintings

this one was my fave
it's called "boatful of daffodils"

I also love the work of Shirley Foote
and was thrilled to see some of her original work


Shirley loves this palette and most of her paintings and prints feature these soft but warm yellows, ochres, oranges, olives and browns
 

her paintings call to me ... they make me want to paint
and sing and dance all at the same time!

do you have a favourite artist that does that to you?

next up ... I revisited the Crypt Gallery on the last day of my friend Sally's and her son Sam's "Mother and Son" exhibition for a proper look. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many friends at the opening party, which was very busy, but I also wanted to spend some more time looking at the paintings



it was lovely to have some time to chat to Sally and also leaf through her latest sketchbook ... such a wow! If you are in St. Ives locally or on holiday this year ... Sally's studio is just wonderful and magical and directly opposite the Malakoff with gorgeous views across the bay

 

Sally's studio is open most days and I would thoroughly recommend a visit if you are interested in textured paintings, textiles, sketchbooks, art dolls, jewellery, altered art boxes and tags etc.

if you are not likely to get to St. Ives for a while
then you can make a virtual visit instead as
Sally has a blog and a website ... all gorgeous!!

Sally MacCabe

also on Good Friday I met Colin Birchall

showing his work in St. Ives Arts Club

 I do love his work
his paintings are full of colour, shapes, interesting lines
and wonderful textures that are so very inspiring
especially of interest to textile artists

Colin was exhibiting in the Arts Club for just a week
but his work is permanently on display in his own gallery

 Colin Birchall
The Harbour Galleries, Wharf Road, St. Ives
(on the seafront)

the entrance to Harbour Galleries
is between Jus' Desserts (ice creams)
and Fat Willy's Surf Shack

website:
Colin Birchall Gallery

these wonderful textures would look fab
stitched up in felt or on painted calico
with machine embroidery and hand stitching

 

 

 and these lines and rust tones interest me enormously

if you like what you see here ... 

pop in and see Colin's work in his gallery this summer

 

it was very, very busy in St. Ives over the long Easter weekend

we had many more visitors to the town than usual

 the weather was really lovely some days ... warm and sunny

and every now and then ... a surprise downpour

that seemed to come from nowhere

the rest of my Easter weekend

was spent preparing for a visit from friends

having a much needed clear up in my work space, etc.

I will share some of what we got up to in the next post ...

The Erosion Bundle Project 2012

the Erosion Bundle Project is not officially running this year but,

as mentioned in my last post, my friend Julie and I
thought we would have a go on our own this year
and have both created bundles with a seaside/St. Ives theme

I thought I would share some "before" photos
of some of the things I've placed inside my three bundles
this is mainly to remind myself how things started off
at the start of the project, so that I can record change

but they also make quite good still life arrangements

I used white cotton for the bundles (an old sheet)

and these are some of the things that made it inside:

ephemera from St. Ives such as local newspaper clippings including gallery reviews from the week Julie and I went to The Millenium Gallery, art brochures, pictures of artwork, seaside inspired images from magazines, coloured tissue papers, my own painted papers/vellums, paper lace doillies, textured papers and sand paper

beach finds (all unwashed and as nature intended) such as soggy seaweed, wet and sandy limpet and mussel shells, St. Ives pottery pieces (including a piece that I found with "St. Ives" on it) tangles of fishing net and wire, scraps of fabric and coloured plastic

I also included things that might fetch colour or create colour runs such as rusted objects or things that I think will rust when wet, tissue papers that bleed when wet, little drawings made with water soluable pencils and fabrics (cotton, silk, scrim) which I dyed in seaside colours of blue, turquoise, aqua, seaweed green, ochre and sand ... which I placed inside the bundle while still wet with dye

other fabrics included lace and cotton and
crocheted lace doillies given to me by Julie

so there follows a gallery of photos
without too much more chat from me ;o)

there are many paths to take
the choice is up to you

this is a moment in time
this day will never happen again
document it's passing ...

the blue ribbon parcel bow was found on a wet pavement
a left over reminder of new year festivities

new year is HUGE is St. Ives

this is the boat piece that Julie found
I thought, later, that it would make a good book board

paint with beach sand mixed in

all these things were layered up in the white cotton
tied with hand dyed ribbon
and placed in my garden around
the first or second week in January 2012

the bundles will be opened on or around 1st May 2012
which is not all that long to wait now
only 23 sleeps

meanwhile
I will continue my catch up posts
mixed in with current things
till I am back on track

thank you for visiting me
have a lovely weekend ♥

grey sea town

brrr brrr brrr

it's has been bitter cold here the last few days ... around 5°C
but with a wind chill factor it's felt freezing
and we've had blustery rain ... hailstones ... the lot!

so with the weather turning so cold again

it seems the right moment to share some things
from earlier in the year when it was wintery
and cold enough to snow ... but didn't

harbour lights

January started off lovely
I met up with my dear blog friend Julie, and her husband,
who came down to St. Ives for a week at New Year

we managed to meet up a couple of times in the week

the first time we had lunch of cheesy crumpets
lovingly prepared by Julie's DH
(which has become a bit of a custom for us now)
and then Julie and I had a walk
and went beachcombing in quite heavy rain

Julie found a lovely old bit of boat which she couldn't really justify taking home in her suitcase so she gave it to me
but it was hard to photograph

however, the boat piece has gone in one of the erosion bundles
so I may be able to photograph it later

the second time we met up at one of our faves galleries
The Millenium Gallery in Street an Pol

here are a few works of art that interested me
and that I most enjoyed

firstly, the inimitable style of Tim Shaw
Tim Shaw "Silenus"
this piece by Tim Shaw was made using
burnt paper and masking tape

with such fine details

and this is the work of artist Simon Allen

12 carat white gold on carved wood

beautiful lines
and forms that change shape
depending on the angle of view
so very interesting

I loved all the texture work on these paintings
such depth was achieved despite the pale pallette
my photos, of course, do not do this artists work justice

lovely textures on this one too

after our gallery visit, and to warm ourselves up from the January cold, we had toasted teacakes and a pot of tea here ...

and talked about the erosion bundle project which we agreed to do together on a seaside theme with our beach finds
seaweed and St. Ives inspired ephemera

once Julie got home she put together five erosion bundles in total and I managed three. Our bundles have been outside in our respective gardens since the first week of January and we have agreed to open our bundles on or around 1st May 2012

Julie's erosion bundles

I will show some photos of mine ... next up ...

Westcotts beach
and then, once again, we braved the biting buffeting winds
to have a little walk in the harbour

also during January I made this heart for Sarah
it was a custom order for one of my seaside hearts
which came out in these soft greys
as I was in wintery mood

"grey sea town I know so well"
I really love the soft tones of a beach in winter

winter shells and an icicle dangly
my shop
I shall be listing new things over the weekend
and I have sets of my winter cards available too

... all year round ... I love the soft tones of winter whites


thank you for visiting me
I hope your weekend is a lovely one

I'll have "bundles" for you next time
Carolyn ♥