Peacocks travel best in pairs

Where Flowers grow there is hope

Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all

This is based on one of the photos I have snapped on one of my many cycling adventures. Again this is derived from a well known phrase which is derived from the Tennyson poem In Memoriam:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

This summer had a loss and when I was feeling particularly sorry for myself I would think the situation was hopeless and that it had all been for nothing. This was not the case and I know that at least I had had a chance and that it can happen again. Referring back to the previous work Life is Risky - it is better to try than not to try at all.

Proverbially English II

Many hands make light work.


All good things come to an end.

Proverbially English I

These are like old friends to me now - I first conceived of them when participating in a postcard swap based on the colour spectrum. I added a further theme by using proverbs as my inspiration. As some of these postcards were going to far off places (one went as far as Australia) I decided that the proverbs, where possible were English. Further to that I found the proverbs I chose helped me think about my creative process. When I created the postcards I made a twin - so I had record of what I had done and a connection to the card that had sent overseas.


Mighty Oaks from little acorns grow. This proverb was chosen to remind myself that its okay to start with something small even if it is just a small seed. Presented with the horror of a blank canvas and no ideas. Just one small idea can be played with, thought about and enlarged upon. Ideas can also be like magnets attracting further ideas until you find a large project on your hands. If you're really lucky a finished piece.


A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner. I think I have learnt the most when something in my work has gone wrong or hasn't turned out as expected. Even if it is to never do that again!


A Stitch in Time Saves Nine. A devotee of the leaving it to the last minute movement I still recognise the wisdom of such advice. As a school girl I did leave some key essays to the very last day before handing in but I always got away with it. Unfortunately paint has to be given time to dry, fingers can only sew so fast and take so much punishment (especially as I never bother with a thimble).

Life is Risky

The title was taken from a quote from a video that M was watching as part of his counselling skills course work.  The man who said it is Carl Rogers one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research : "Life is risky. To take the responsibility for being the person you would like to be.....".  This year I have taken some risks they have all borne some fruit some of it welcome, some of it not so welcome.  The unexpected outcomes have not been happy times but I do think I have come out stronger and I am more aware of silver linings in situations which I may not have wished for.  You can look at things in a negative way but you can also recognise the good. 

This piece can be viewed in two different aspects - the view shown above represents the idea of growing and blossoming, the view shown below represents the idea of falling and tumbling. 

Tread Softly

 

This refers to the last line of the Yeats poem "He wishes for the cloths of heaven". I was introduced to this poem when I was at college. Studying for a computer science degree didn't mean a lot poetry study but a friend of mine gave me a copy of it when we graduated. Since then my dreams have changed considerably.

By the way

I think its about time I started the online exhibition!

I have an interest in proverbs and sayings since my earliest childhood. I remember my paternal grandmother quote the odd proverb and there were many times where my mother would quote her own grandmother. A proverb is also known as a nayword or byword and is a simple and popularly known saying expressing a known truth or basic rule. Aristotle considered proverbs a survival of an older wisdom. The word proverb comes from the Latin translation of the Greek word paroemia. Oimos was the ancient Greek word for road or way. So I chose to call this first piece "By the way".

This piece is the first I did using this technique. It is typical of my style of working colour and heavy hand stitching. The hand stitches used are running, seeding and woven circles. I have used a combination of natural and synthetic fabrics, some of the pieces used in the background are hand dyed or painted.

My First Exhibition

Last weekend started off busy as I was putting the finishing touches to this:

My first solo exhibtion! It is part of the larger county wide exhibition organised by Hampshire Libraries: New Artists in Libraries. This year the spotlight is on textiles so encouraged by Mr. Happy (now also known as my Exhibition Manager) and C, I appeared in front of a selection panel in April and was selected to show my work in Havant. The exhibition runs from now until the end of September.

I received the brochure in the post a few days ago and found that amongst some others our artist biographies have been missed out so just our pictures and no infomation is shown. So I include it here:

"Kitty Redwood

I have stitched, painted, dyed and embellished textiles since my teenage years, using the medium of textiles to express my creative side whilst studying and working in another discipline. I have taken this further by completing a City & Guilds course in Design and Embroidery at Eastleigh College.


Currently, I am finding inspiration in folklore and cultural references, in particular the work presented here explores the use of traditional contemporary proverbs and quotes to convey life experiences in a layered language. Colour plays an important part in my work, using my own hand dyed fabric and threads to achieve vibrancy and texture."

I appreciate some of my regular readers won't be able to make it over to Havant, so I have decided to have a little bit of a mini online exhibition during the month of September. Also some people may have made their way over here after seeing my work so I will talk a little bit about the background of my exhibition pieces as well as peek inside my studio.

Reporting back - Knitting and Stitching Show 2008

I wasn't going to go to this years Knitting and Stitching Show, as I had been with the college for the last 4 years. Also, this year was the first year I didn't need supplies, research for course or anything else. I did however, want to see my new tutors work which they were showing entitled 'Bodies of Evidence' in this they were working together to see how an embroiderer and a quilter would inspire each other. Their inspiration point was the human form and took a look at dancing and sporting activities. They produced a very vibrant show - plenty of colour, texture and movement. They were just across from Ruth Issett's display 'Connected with Colour'. This was a rare treat as most years she has been getting her hands dirty demonstrating at the Art Van Go stall. It was lovely to see her vibrant work translated from her colourful paper and paint samples into a forest of colour. Very rarely for displays at past and present Knitting and Stitching shows we were positively encouraged to take photos, so here is one I snapped with my phone camera of Ruth walking amongst her work:

A visit to the K&S show wouldn't be without a little bit of shopping. My budget got blown on the usual yummy fabric from Euro Links Japan (and this year I will use it) and a bag kit. This bag sewing, however, was put on hold when my next purchase turned up earlier than expected on Tuesday.

***Warning : this is either going to get my sisters nostalgic or running out the door screaming ***

Wandering around I found a very busy stall which hadn't been there in previous years: Clothkits are back. The one and the same company of 80s and early 90s fame resurrected for the new century. Their range is not vast but has some very cute childrens kits, some adult sized skirts and the classic doll t-towel. I had known of their renewed existence for a while (thanks to C) and had stopped short of making a purchase but could no longer hold back. Unfortunately they had sold out of the "Big Birdie - I Want One Too! Skirt" but were happy to take an order and send one on. I was expecting the kit to turn up some time around Friday, but it turned up first class post Tuesday, which M fetched from the Post Office for me. He was rewarded with me disappearing off to the studio for 5 hours to sew it up. It would have been just over 4, but I had to fiddle about with my overlocker to produce some cover stitched hems on the skirt and the lining. I completed the overcasting of the edges in record time with the overlocker, sewing the seams with my regular sewing machine seemed rather slow in comparison.

This is a rather fuzzy picture of the skirt showing the gorgeous Liberty print lining. Needless to say the skirt was finished by evening's end (despite one or two stupid numpty errors) and was proudly worn to work the next day. If I had to give some feedback I would say that some of the instructions could be a little clearer for a newbie sewer. Luckily I am not but it still didn't stop me from nearly ruining the lining by using the whole of the facing as a guide for adjusting the lining. Also it is a BAD idea to sew in a zipper which has been pinned into a skirt. Pin yes, but then baste it in and remove the pins so that it is a flat as possible. (lesson learnt from my first year at secondary school where I had to sew my zip at least 3 times, and most of my hapless classmates got a few machine needles stuck into their fingers).

Vienna Part 5: Monday Art Galleries

Final posting - (its been over 4 weeks since we went!)

It was much easier to get up on Monday morning - although a little sad as we had to pack our bags and check out from our lovely hotel. After checking out and stowing our luggage for later collection we headed out to the Museums Quartier once more to use the second half of our duo ticket to go to the Leopold Museum. M had entered into Art hell whilst I returned to Art Heaven.

Having learnt from our previous visit to the MOMUK gallery we took the lift to the top floor where we started with early 20th Century art. To be honest this is the only floor I actually remembered because there were more Klimts (including some of his very erotic sketches), poster designs from the Secession and Werner Werkstatte displays. This gallery also had the bulk of the work of Egon Scheile, whilst he was no doubt accomplished I found some of his potraiture quite grotesque and unappealing. It is debatable that more people would have known more about this artist if he hadn't died at the relatively young age of 28. He and his wife were victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic. In fact, 1918 was a dreadful year for the Austrian art world as four of their major artists died in that year: Egon Scheile, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner and Scheile's mentor Gustav Klimt. We made out way further through the rooms and until we got to the lowest floor where there was an exhibition of art from the Faro Islands, this included pictures of Puffins in formal tie and suits. I think G liked it, I found it erm, forgetable.

M and I sought out a touch of lunch after this, and after a few crossed wires with G & Mr.T who were already on their way to another tourist visit, I managed to convince M that another art gallery visit could be squeezed in. The next excursion included a metro ride to the central station and then a 10 minute walk - making use of my excellent map reading skills. We were walking amongst some fairly unremarkable Viennesse streets in the outskirts when we came across our destination:

The Kunst Haus Wien, a building in the middle of a pedestrian street decorated in black and white squares. Our tickets weren't even the usual kind - I think if M and I went repeatedly (unlikely - his patience was tested enough) we could end up with a jigsaw puzzle. We didn't have a long time to look round the gallery featuring the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser but what we did see was very colourful. I am pretty sure this guy inspired the Teletubbies house. I did not have very much time in the shop either but came out with the regulation guide book and postcards. I also couldn't resist some Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn (in colour 676A) it screamed C's name (the turquoise and purple are her colours), I think socks are off the menu though (baby cardigan for BabyBel is). G - if only I had known you were going to become crochet obsessed 2 weeks later........

Vienna Part 4: Sunday Art Galleries

After an late breakfast (erm call it brunch), M and I found we had a little time to occupy before meeting up with G & Mr.T for further explorations of Vienna. By looking at my tourist map I saw that one of the art galleries on my wish list was sort of round the corner. This was the Secession Hall.

This hall had a number of contemporary exhibits in it including a red and white one which I didn't have the stomach to look at too closely - it had a certain amount of fur coats and fake blood. What I really went to look at (as well as the external architecture) was the Beethoven Frieze by Klimt. Apparently there was a reproduction of this in the Tate Liverpool but I got to see the original work. I don't know how it was displayed in Liverpool but here it is shown high up on the walls of a rectangular basement room with a blank space for where there would have been an archway showing a sculpture of Beethoven. Whilst the surroundings could be considered a little stark this in no way detracted from the frieze itself which included plenty of the gold leaf Klimt was known for, this frieze was produced in 1902 at the beginning of his gold phase.

After this we wandered back to our hotel and met up with G who had gone on a long ramble round the city and Mr.T who had a major lie-in. Whilst M and Mr.T decided to go off and play in the Volksprater, G and I departed on a tram for a more cultural afternoon - more art!

The Belverdere Palace was top of our list as I had expressed a preference for managing to see as much Klimt in Vienna as possible and this is after all, the gallery which has the largest collection in the world of Gustav Klimt's paintings.. Whilst I was worried that a lot of paintings may have been carted off due a "little art show" in Liverpool, I was not to be denied. There was plenty to see the only notable omission (due to its travels to the Tate Liverpool) was "Adam und Eve" which was my only disappointment.

The one work which C would have liked to have seen in Liverpool was also on display in the Upper Belverdere. The Kiss - said to be Gustav Klimt's most famous work was on display behind its (no doubt) alarmed glass. Unlike some of the famous art galleries in Paris, Florence and London it wasn't too busy and there was clear and easy access to look at this work close up alongside a number of his other works.

I was particularly taken with a smaller work in the same room "Judith I" which was smaller than I imagined but I loved the way the paint was applied for the choker the subject is wearing. I was reminded of this when we made our next visit to another gallery closer to the city centre. Our next visit was picked out by G and she couldn't have picked a better place - Vienna's answer to the V&A! - MAK. What made it even better was that the lady at the ticket desk was more interested in chatting on the phone than making us pay for entry. Amongst the many delights to see was the gorgeous and little known of Waerndorfer Frieze by Margaret Macdonald (wife of Rennie Mackintosh. This was a beautiful gesso frieze with wonderful texture in the Glasgow style and had embedded mother of pearl embellishments. It was hanging alongside 3 panels by Klimt the Stoclet Freize (panels 1, 2 & 3). The museum was thoughtfully organised and designed : the galleries of the permanent collections had been designed and arranged by contemporary artists. Parts of the study collection were also on display and of course I had to spend a lot of time looking at the textiles. The current arrangement was organised by the textile curator - picking some her favourite pieces as well those pieces which gave a representation of the variety of the collection there was an Opus Anglicanum chausable and it was quite interesting comparing it to a later European chuasable nearby - I can quite see why it had its reputation for being the finest of its time and for centuries after. My favourite piece though was a pink pleated Fortuny dress and accompanying evening jacket, which was in velvet - the edges of which were embossed and beaded.

A nice extra that was one of the current their exhibitions was a solo show by the Britart artist Julian Opie. Well known for the album cover for the pop band Blur, for which he transformed potraits of the band members into his distinctive style of reducing photographs into figurative reproductions. I found a while ago a mini tutorial on how to do this yourself in Photoshop and was inspired to have a go on photos of M & me.

Not bad, but I think the one of M is better (due to better lighting and not watching the TV at the same time). I don't think Mr.Opie is losing any sleep.

We then returned to the hotel where we found our boys after an afternoon kitsching it up at the funfair. We decided on a quiet (and much earlier night) so ate locally at the previously mentioned "brew house" (where, coincidently, the original photo for M's potrait was taken - I cut out the krügel of beer).