Summer hotting up

- and I am seeking cooling greens.

A ruined abbey at midsummer

Mary, Queen of Scots' last night in Scotland was spent at Dundrennan Abbey in what is an idyllic spot these days.  Summer weather and solitude with the attractive ruins made for a perfect morning.

Practising with my new zoom

Not long ago my camera decided to retire itself.  It had served well for many years, so I replaced it with the latest model - a Canon IXUS185.  One facility I'd always wanted was a better zoom, which this claims to have.  And so today, the first day of our trip, I had the chance to try it out.

After torrential rain in showers yesterday (always while we were in the car, thank goodness) today, appropriately for the Summer solstice, the sun shone.  We went to Castle Kennedy gardens, and then to Torhouse Stone Circle, then Wigtown for an Ecclefechen tart and tea.

A diversity of input

She is known to every star (image from here)
I am currently enjoying such a varied selection of stimulae, but what accompanies me to my sleep are the thoughts about Wordsworth and Coleridge's poetry, their time in the Quantocks as described in my bedtime reading:  Adam Nicholson's book The Making of Poetry - and I am especially enjoying Tom Hammick's accompanying woodcuts.
It is a joy to have a book with frequent images which add such a rich breadth to the content of the whole. (More about Tom Hammick's art here.)  It is not only the very young who enjoy pictures in books.

Procrastination, or expediency?

There are two projects, long planned in outline, one of which at least I should be starting now.  Meantime it is the tennis season, continuing next week, and I need work in hand for that - then with Wimbledon fortnight not long after Queen's.  As I do not want to rush into one of the bigger projects - also not fully decided which should be the first - and not completely comfortable with the outline plans yet, ... or is that my excuse for putting them off?... I have instead printed off three smaller pieces to work on.  After all, I not only have the tennis to think of, but also a few days away for which I always like to have stitching with me.
So I have printed one design which has been in the pipeline for some time, but tells me it's ready now.  

And I have worked on another design which has been hanging around in bits, so to speak both digitally and in my mind.  Suddenly today I had an idea which brought all the pieces together.

The third design arose from contemplating all the greens in the garden and the countryside around at this time of year.

The great thing about stitching is that it is such a facilitator of thinking and working out, so doubtless when July comes around and I am sated with tennis, I shall be ready to plunge into the bigger projects.  Now of course my next decision is which of these three to start with? - I'll put off the decision until I have allocated appropriate threads.

Encapsulating England

In so many ways a pointless exercise, but if I had to pick one view which epitomises England for me it is this one of Thurle Down which I took from the Ridgeway at the end of April.

Enjoying the tennis

and in intervals enjoying a few rare interesting images of tennis:

Camille Pissarro: Girls playing tennis (image from here)

Yuko Shimizo (image from here)

Current reading (in between tennis)

Mary V. Marsh: Books & habits: coral necklace (image from here)
 I'm part way through Edvard Munch: love and angst (catalogue of the British Museum exhibition), and waiting on the pile is Lee Krasner: Living Colour (catalogue of the Barbican exhibition).
I'm also about to embark on Adam Nicolson's The Making of Poetry, subtitled Coleridge, the Wordsworths and Their Year of Marvels.  A review here.

Bad planning!

I have completed the stitching of a batch of Readers, which are now ready for pressing, stretching, and mounting.  But I have left myself with no stitching to hand as the French Open tennis gets more interesting.  I cannot just sit and watch - the Calvinist half of my upbringing makes me uncomfortable 'wasting time' thus.
It's not as if I have no other things to do - apart from finishing the Readers, I have lots else in the queue - but away from the tennis.  So, seeking an interim project, I uncovered an image (above) which originally had been generated for an exercise in the days of intensive development with my duodidactic friend.  I had forgotten how much I liked this image - so, I've now printed it onto an A3 sheet of silk, and now have something to see me through the French Open.  I shall have to think further to cover Queen's and Wimbledon.

Another adjustment I've made today is to my website.  Folks seem to be interested in what goes into my digital collages, so I've added a Development page showing the 'ingredients' of a particular work.  I will change the deconstructed work from time to time.

Divers threads

An exhibition showing how art can be made with thread: Thread: Contemporary Textiles is a show on at the Rheged Centre in Cumbria until 30 June.  Mid-week, early in the morning it was a glorious cool space, empty except for the exhibits, and such a pleasure to stroll round.  Although showing the variety of ideas which can be created with thread, the emphasis seemed to be more on those ideas rather than on the techniques of their execution.  It was for me the thought-provoking qualities of the pieces which attracted - my favourite being Louise Bourgeois' embroidered handkerchief: I have been to hell and back.

Louise Bourgeois: I have been to hell and back (image from here)
Others who particularly caught my attention were

Abigail Booth (image from here)

Sara Impey (image from here)

Rosie James (image from here)

Philip Sanderson (image from here)

I was familiar with the work of all of the above except Abigail Booth, but it was good to see unfamiliar pieces displayed so well and in such good company.  They made for me a powerful exhibition.

Blue skies

Blue skies and picturebook clouds today.  Southerness lighthouse is a delightful structure.  The tide was going out.

Wild flowers in abundance.

Even up on a spire!

An almost solitary wander

This morning, as soon as Threave gardens opened we went for a stroll round the place.  The blooms were perfect in the warm clear fragrant air.  Mostly birds, trainee gardeners, less than a dozen visitors, and us.  Bliss.

Such a glorious clashing of colours!

Caught my eye

I was quietly reading the other evening, past dusk but with the curtains open, when my attention was drawn by a quick movement outside.  On the grass was a tiny fluffy black ball with huge feet, moving at tremendous speed.
Taking off my reading glasses I saw that it was a moorhen chick, looking for its mum - which it quickly found as it zigzag-ed around the garden then back towards the wetland. 

The photo here captures just the kind of chick I saw (image from here).

One thing leads to another

Christine McArthur: The Crimson Window (image from here)
I always like to follow up exhibitions with a poke about on the Internet for more information, more illustrations of the artist's work, and anything else of interest which might arise.  Pursuing the Still Life aspect of Elizabeth Blackadder's work I found the current exhibition on at The Scottish Gallery.  I was attracted to a very red piece, (see above) by an artist I had not previously encountered. 

Christine McArthur: Seven Pears (image from here)
Curiosity thus led me to Christine McArthur, and was lucky to find that she had recently had a solo exhibition at the same gallery: The Diary Series.  There is an online catalogue for this show on the same link as the title of the exhibition, and there is also a 45 minute You Tube film of the artist talking about her work here.

Christine McArthur: Sorted Threads (image from here)
I was delighted also to discover that Christine McArthur makes embroideries, inspired by her grandfather, as explained in her talk and in the catalogue.
What I found inspiring was the discovery that the paintings are actually collages in construction.  It has provided me with a spark of excitement and I have started a new notebook of ideas.  Of course my work will in no way be anything like the lovely works of Christine McArthur, but she has provided me with a glimpse of an inkling as to how I want to develop.

(image from The Diary Series catalogue)
Here is a quick look at a Christine McArthur sketchbook.  The integral use of words and writing also made a connection with me.  Inevitably, I now have a catalogue of The Diary Series exhibition.

On at my local museum

Elizabeth Blackadder: Still life with lily and flute (image from here)
Recently I had a double pleasure: catching up with a now distant good friend, and seeing a lovely exhibition of a long admired artist.  The first piece of work by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder which I encountered was the print above.  That was many years ago, and I was immediately drawn to the composition, the mix, the feeling: the piece made me both calm and excited at the same time.
Not all of her work gives me that special reaction, but I always love seeing her work, and when individual pieces give me that frisson, it is priceless.
My local museum is the Willis in Basingstoke, and I have been lucky to see some excellent touring shows there.  

(image above from here)
Elizabeth Blackadder: From the Artist's Studio shows a range of her works, painting, drawing, watercolour, and print.  She loves flowers, cats, and buildings, and her compositions have the immediacy of a sketchbook while presenting the kind of timelessness of the carefully considered.

There was also the pleasure of seeing a tapestry made by the Dovecot Studios of one of Blackadder's paintings.

Basilica San Petronio, Bologna (image from here)
As well as the works there are also a couple of video clips to see at the exhibition - this being one of them on her printmaking at Glasgow Print Studios.
A brilliant day - despite thunderous downpours - each of which we managed to miss.