A dandelion in my pocket

On walks or in the park, or whenever he may see one, my little boy will often pick a dandelion and give it to me. I put it somewhere until it may be put in a little cup with water to help it last, but inevitably it always withers before we reach home. Today he picked one at Glebe farm, Astbury. I put it in my pocket, but sadly it didn't last our visit. We very much enjoyed our visit with pigs, chickens, goats and their kids, donkeys, owls, canaries, finches, geese, ducks and alpacas that have faces like teddy bears (last photo). Good coffee was served at the cafe too and mum bought a lovely scarf with owls on it. We will visit again.

Studio shelf in bedlam!

Mmm... this is going to take some sorting out! And the other three quarters currently resides in the garage.

Scribbled hens

A few scribbled hens using pencil crayon.

Art books: Helen Frankenthaler- Woodcuts

Another art book, this time Helen Frankenthaler. Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist artist. I love her big blustery colour field paintings, but her woodcuts are also powerful in colour with contrasting delicate mark-making. I love the rawness of these prints with wood grain showing or handwritten notes visible. To me the book has a feel of sketchbook pages with that  experimentational quality and the possibilities still evident.

Holden Clough nursery

We had a delicious meal and cappuccino at Holden Clough nursery, Sawley today. The plants were framed beautifully in ancient stone, lichen covered borders.

Hens

Hens in Ribchester and Holly Farm, two days out which were full of sun, a bit of rain and animals.

Rain rain go away

The sunshine has gone, instead metallic grey skies bring big fat rain drops. Hopefully the bright sharp summer light will be back soon.

Art books: Estelle Thompson

Firstly I will need to apologize as I apparently won't be able to add any links in this post. I am using the blogger droid on my phone as it is quick and easy having the allotted short time to blog while my little tiddlers are asleep, rather than blog on my computer, so sorry you won't be able to go to a link of galleries and artist's sites. You can of course search on google but it's not the same, grrr! Of course someone out there might know how I can add links on blogger droid?
So.... I used to love visiting Purdy Hicks gallery in South East London, not far from Tate Modern, although it was still a power station back then, defunct or not I'm not sure. I like Purdy Hicks because I see it as a painter's gallery so to speak, although I haven't been able to visit for a long time now. It was also small enough to really spend time in and explore the exhibition on show, rather than feel overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of art to see, which is often how I feel in the very large galleries.
Estelle Thompson was an artist whose work was on show in Purdy Hicks in the early 1990's. I can't remember if I found her in gallery listings which we trawled through before a London visit, or we just visited the gallery and saw her work on show. I related to her work a lot at the time, probably because I was exploring abstraction in my own painting. I still do like her work but of course styles and tastes move on so I'm not sure I would relate to it quite like I did. However I notice from Thompson's website she is still painting, so I'll have more of an in-depth look at her more recent work. Another artist whom the gallery still represents is Michael Porter. I have liked his work for a long time, especially those huge paintings that hang in the Whitworth art gallery in Manchester. Porter's work is in the landscape tradition but focusing on close-ups and what may be underfoot within the undergrowth, really exploring painterly techniques.
Well that was a longer post than I thought I'd write, but I find one artist leads to another. Their work is worth a look if you can.

Art books

I was an art student in Bath, Somerset, 20 years ago now which still feels like yesterday. Once a month we would all board a coach and make the hour journey to London, to visit art galleries. Not just the huge prominent galleries such as the National Gallery or Tate but the smaller galleries that had at the time less well-known artists or those that were well established very well known artists. I would love those trips, wanting to soak it all in, not just the art, but being in London:the big city, the vibrancy, bustle, noises, smells, the sheer cosmopolitan feel and size of it. With a few friends we would see as many galleries as possible, usually quite obscure and small to see a particular artist's work, but worth the couple of tube stops for (or in some cases really not worth the couple of tube stops for!). We would become over saturated with art and leave physically and visually exhausted by the time we left for Bath in the early evening. I remember one student got so preoccupied he actually missed the coach home and had to catch the train back to Bath under his own steam! On every trip I would bring away with me information on artists, all the better if they were free of course, but every now and then I would buy myself (which as a typically poor art student in those days, was a big deal) a book about the artist. I haven't a huge amount by any means but those I do have I treasure. As a means of reintroducing myself to these books, some more recently bought than others, I am going to look at a book (or maybe pamphlet or magazine) on an artist, or more generally on the subject of art, once a week. Hopefully it won't just serve me and maybe you will see the work of an artist that you recognize or quite like too. So I'll make another post at some point this week on this very subject.

Spring has sprung?

I don't think this sparkling weather is meant to last, but while we were at the Wild Boar park in Bowland it really was a beautiful day, so much so that we actually took a few layers off rather than the norm of rapidly adding them before we set off from the car! The Wild Boar park is in a beautiful part of the world, but we couldn't stop commenting on how the landscape is still so brown with any greenery yet to come bursting forth from their buds. Winter still has it's grip. So it was a strange contrast to have such warm summery sun. The animals seemed to basking in this rare weather and it added a spring to everyone's step. We didn't opt to see the wild boar on our visit this time, sticking to the deer, sheep, meercats and chickens.

Another try

Really am not happy with the fish sketch I put on my last post: static and solid is how I would describe the sketch and that is not how you would describe a fish! So another try. Not perfect by any means but a little more fluidity and light. You'll just have to excuse the strange cartoon eyes on the latter paintings. When I haven't had time to do much drawing or painting it is a painful reminder that when I do have time for a quick drawing practice is all important, translated as I'm rusty! I really need to follow the promise I made to myself, about three months ago now, that I need to practice every day, of course with not much success! I still need to remember to include a little sketchbook and pen in the nappy bag when we go out, so it can be whipped out and a quick sketch or drawing made each day.

Fish!

Completely addictive to photograph! When we visited an aquarium the fish were so beautiful in contrast to the bright cobalt blue of their tanks. They were so healthy too so were shiny and lively (not that I'm an authority on the health of fish or anything!). I did a watercolour sketch of goldfish a while ago so thought I would include that aswell.

Gifts unwrapped

I received a belated birthday present from my sister. Wrapped in lovely brown paper with a beautiful green pom pom was a gorgeous bowl and a silver starry bracelet too, a treat indeed! Why are belated birthday presents such a joy? Well I think maybe it's because the official occasion for gifts has ended, so it feels like a real treat amongst ordinary everyday life. Whatever the reason they are always nice to get!

Cup of tea

There is something about that first cup of tea of the day. It is about ritual. However a teapot adds to this ritual allowing more pause for thought, a teabag in a mug (how we do it at home) doesn't quite do the same thing! Here at my mum's tea is always made in a teapot. It's time to pause when we are on a break from the rush of the everyday.