Warts and All

Fingers: Been testing out a sturdy artists’ canvas in my free machine stitched drawings. My machine took a dislike to my Big New Idea….and went into a huff. Sooooo it’s been a testing time (in more than one sense). Tried different needles, jean, leather, topstitch, metallic…. Tried threads, cotton, polyester, poly/cotton, topstitch threads….Tried drawing image with pen first, tried drawing image with pencil, tried drawing with Magic-Pen-That-Disappears-With -Heat, tried stitching through photocopy of drawing, tried stitching through tracing paper, tried stitch-and-tear…  AAAAAAAAAaargh!

Anyway, here’s a couple of rather tatty looking samples and one/two? that might be going somewhere… (the bin? hehehe)
 
 

News from Brittany: Jean is taking Ellie to a recording studio today, to record a CD. She’s hoping to get 10 to 12 tracks down.
Think Jean will be accompanying her on some of them. Can’t wait to hear how it’s going…. Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Field Trip: Going to town this afternoon, drawing.

A few more flowers in cups…

Stitched and painted drawings, set of 6

Ellie’s CD

When we were in Brittany, Dave and I accompanied Ellie and Jean Kérivan to a session at  Radio Kreiz Breizh radio station in ‘deepest Breizh’. Jean had kindly arranged for Ellie to be interviewed and recorded. Christian Rivoallen, le (wonderfully warm and funny… and he’s a singer) directeur, welcomed us and regaled us with stories, as he showed us around and tried to explain in fast French how the radio station broadcasts its programmes….. fairies, pixies magic dust.. that sort of thing.  (Thiiink I translated it ok…:).

Then he took us into the recording studio and Ellie played some traditional tunes (and two she’d composed herself) on domra and accordion. Jean, (he plays the Breton accordéon and teaches Breton dancing), accompanied her on one  track. On another track, Dave accompanied Ellie on mandola, while I ‘clacked’ along (with all the subtlety I could muster)  on a pair of wooden spoons that Jean had kindly given me.

Christian interviewed Jean, then Ellie, in French (bien sùr), while Dave and I tried to sit verrrry quietly in the corner! I think the gist was… Ellie being English, but having quickly developed a passion for Breton music and dancing. Also there was a discussion about the difference between English trad tunes, played mainly for themselves, and Breton tunes- played mainly for dancers and how that effects the music.

Christian then kindly gave Ellie and Jean CDs of the music recording session. We have much to thank Jean for,  he has introduced Ellie (and hence us all) to the delights of Breton music and dancing.

Well today, I got an email from Ellie….
“WOO HOOOOOOO!”    http://www.lulu.com/content/compact-disc/coincidanses/7248280

and there’s her CD, uploaded to a website. Here’s the cover:

Nice eh?

More doodles…

Death and the Maiden…

Rosie has made a montage of  drawings to illustrate a track by Tunng from the Imagined Village CD….

Take a look here on youtube

Ten Plus, plus…

Ten Plus Textiles: So good to see everyone again. Great to see members’ work progressing.
Ooh er… ..not long now before the Rossendale exhibition! Also, Yvonne and I have both been selected
for the Three Shires Textile Fair at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal. It’s on Sunday 12 July 2009. We’ve been
allotted stalls next to each other, which is nice. I’m looking forward to it.. .Yvonne will be showing
with the inspiring Priscilla Jones. So it will be well worth a visit.
Thoughts for: Celia,  recovering in hospital. And cousin John and family.
Fingers: I love to see flowers picked and ‘plonked’ in a jar, a cup or a mug, do you? Here’s some 
stitched  illustrations running with the theme of  Picked and Plonked….

Sun-day

Hot hot day… Been catching up on household chores and I’ve been drawing and working. 
Music:. The ‘breakaway’ adult  domra group that Dave now belongs  to, were asked to play in a church in Birmingham, for a Russian speaking community. There were some great ‘turns’ he said.
Karine Polwart: A sweet video of one of her songs here.
Fiddle-faddling: I did work a little more into the jug images….

This one has been worked up from an old sketchbook drawing…

Bringing the files: stitched drawing and wash.

Sunshine, Songs and Stitching.

“Happiness is a warm puppy” , I seem to remember Schulz saying in his Charlie Brown
comic strip. So what would a warm cat be, I wonder? Zeldie our four legged friend has been sunning herself on the swinging chair in the garden today. She looked pretty content: legs tucked under her, queen of all she surveys… which isn’t much frankly, but cats have no concept of “Small Back Garden”… to her, every garage roof, every tree, every garden is hers. Maybe I should have written “Empress of all she surveys!”
Ears: Songs of Karine Polwart. Lovely !
Hands: Drawing with the sewing machine today…

Stitched drawing with colour wash.

Stitched drawing with colour wash 2

I may work into them some more tomorrow, it’s useful to leave them for a while  then look at them with fresh eyes. Sometimes it’s immediately apparent what needs to be done. And of course sometimes it’s not… and I fiddle and faddle until I’m sorry.
New image format: I’m using larger images than usual. I’ve returned to using WordPress’ own post editor, they’ve made improvements. I’m wondering though if the larger images cause any problems… does the blog upload ok? Not terribly slow? If you get a moment, please give me some feedback, thanks.

 

Museum Sketchbook

Spent my morning with an antelope, a stag beetle, a crow and a jay… in Manchester Museum.  I needed some reference studies for a piece and the jay was a personal quest.

Sketch of impala

Lots of foreshortening here… eyes really bulge out to the side and those ears! Imagine what it must be like to  receive all of that of sensory input, through those eyes, ears and that nose.

Quick sketch of a stag beetle

It would have been more satisfying to get closer to this, to understand the structure
better. I wonder what they look like from underneath?

Study of a crow's head

I love the long frond-like feathers that form a light covering over the head of the beak…
I’d like to go back and draw more of this chap.

Study of a European Jay

The jay  was …well, fluffy… had the taxidermist given it a ‘bad hair day’! Didn’t have time to ‘flesh’ out’ the main part, as my car was parked on a meter and I had to leave.

Overheard at the museum:
Adult carer to child “Tell me what you want to draw and I’ll draw it for you.”

This saddened me. I’ve also come across this with support workers of adult learners
with disabilites.  It’s like saying “Show me what you want to eat and I’ll eat it
for you.”
Who gets nourished?

Drawing is a way to learn to see, to learn to understand, to learn patience, to learn to
settle, to learn to become one with the world, to quieten the noise of the mind.
No one can do that for someone else. It can’t be bought, stolen or won as a prize.
That is what’ s so precious and valuable about drawing… the attempt.
Not the end  product.

OK Julie… Off the soap box, now!!!!

Among the lilies…

Rosie and I went to Wythenshawe Park today. We wandered through the gardens and the hothouses, taking photos. It was such a beautiful morning and our hours there passed easily and peacefully.

Lily pads and goldfish.

Such a strong pink, this lily…it seemed to vibrate.

And in the Lotus Pool...

His colour shouted out his position in the green pool, but we watched as many other visitors walked over the nearby little wooden bridge without detecting his presence.

Pink lily

  Drink-My-Pinkness! What a confection. 

Lotus

 The Buddha’s flower.

Birds of a feather...

These birds sang their little hearts out as we sauntered through the hothouse. I’m surprised they had any feathers left though… Wo! the heat!!!! Rosie and I were spitting feathers by the end!

An eco-project building

I want to live here!!!  This was built in the park garden using traditional cob house techniques.. stone foundations, then sand, water and straw walls (about 2 feet thick, I reckon). Loved the turf roof too. Apparently cob houses built 500 years ago are still standing!