Sunday, October 5, 2008

SWLA And The V & A

This image is inspired by a fashion illustration book I have been reading. It is entitled "The Cool Breeze". She certainly needs her pashmina.

This is a "work in progress" pen and ink drawing. It will have a lot more elements when it is completed and I will post the finished version. I am enjoying drawing it but I am not sure where it is going. That is part of the fun though.

I got the idea for this one from one of prints at the SWLA exhibition. I like the naive quality.


You will probably have to click on this one to enlarge it as it has come out quite small. I think blogger likes square pictures best and most of mine are portrait. I enjoyed doing the buildings at the top of picture. I may try a few more of those.


These are two of my latest Christmas card purchases. I like the contemporary one on brown recycled card. A really nice design. The santa one is by Clare Madicott. I love her cards. They are so bright and eye catching. She has a nice website but it is off line at the moment




The following images are the artwork of master wood engraver Colin See-Paynton. What an incredible talent he has. I would love to own one of his engravings.




















Goodness, how time flies. It doesn't seem a minute since I last did my blog and now here I am doing another one. Does anyone else think time has speeded up somehow...? Impossible, I know, but it does feel like it.


I treated myself to a day out last Tuesday. I enjoy going up to London every few months just for a bit of window shopping. I made my once yearly visit to the Society of Wildlife Painters Exhibition at The Mall Galleries. It is a wonderful treat for anyone who loves animal, bird and nature art. All media are encompassed but my favourite section is definitely the printmaking part. None of it was to be rushed over and I spent over an hour in there but part of that was spent drinking coffee of course. One of my favourite artists was exhibiting - Carry Akroyd. The past years I have visited have been slightly disturbed by very noisy and enthusiastic childrens' school parties but they were absent this year.


In the afternoon I made my way to another favourite spot. The Victoria and Albert Museum, better known simply as the V & A. It is a huge museum devoted to decorative arts and crafts and is totally wonderful. There are rooms crammed full of old sculptures, wooden statues dating back to medieval times, 20th century English and American artifacts, fashion, ceramics, textiles....you name it, it is in there. There are a lot of exhibits from churches all over Europe - not sure how they got there. They also have a wonderful cafe and a mouthwatering shop which I tried to keep out of but didn't quite succeed. I bought a small book on contemporary bird art which will provide lots of inspiration for my artwork in the future.


The only downside is the poor light in some of the exhibition rooms makes photography difficult. If you use flash it whitens out the subject. There were so many things I wanted to photograph too. Some people have managed it because I looked the museum up on the Flickr site and there are some great shots. The textile and tapestry rooms have very subdued lighting to prevent the textiles losing their colours. There is so much to see that you can only ever see a tiny proportion at each visit.


All in all I had a lovely day in London and my return travel arrangements even fitted in nicely, not something that usually happens I can assure you.


On Saturday I popped into John Lewis to check out their range of Christmas cards. I love buying cards because I love to see other peoples' designs as well as my own. I usually buy a pack and save one of each design for myself. I often buy greetings cards specifically to keep because I like the image so much. I have posted a couple of new ones that appealed to me.


My featured artist this week is Colin See-Paynton. He is a very well known and respected English wood engraver. He is totally self taught so we have that in common if nothing else. He always works in black and white and the detail he achieves is unbelievable. The work must be very painstaking and imagine how mad he must be if he is almost at the end of a very complex piece and suddenly realises he has made an error. He doesn't strike me as the type who would make mistakes like that though. Have a look at his work on his website here. He has published several books and one I borrowed from the library a while back costs well over a hundred pounds on Amazon.


My artwork this week is more illustrative and is mostly pen and ink work with a touch of colour here and there. I am going to London for the fabulous Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace on Thursday so I should have some interesting pictures next week.

16 comments:

Old World Primitives said...

I feel like time keeps speeding up too! It seems to go by faster and faster each year. I love your latest works - the 4th one down is my favorite this time. I really like your latest Christmas card purchases too!

Trudy Honeycutt ~ Folk Artist said...

I just spend tooo much time here, Cathy, enjoying all the wonderful artwork that you share of your own and others!! Thank you sooo much for the most enjoyable gallery!! Always fun, always educational, always makes me want it all!!! HA!! Hugs, Trudy in Colorado, USA

Cathy said...

I am glad I am not the only one who thinks so Stephanie. Glad you like the art. I love all the new Christmassy stuff coming into the shops now.

Cathy said...

That's very kind of you to say so Trudy. I certainly enjoy producing it even if it is a bit of a rush on Sunday night. I know what you mean about spending too much time. I visit lots of other blogs and it can be very time consuming but I do so enjoy the visits.

~ Phyllis ~ said...

Yes, time does fly. Every year it goes by faster. As my Dad says "life is short". I love the Cool Breeze drawing especially the pink flowers on her dress. I so enjoy reading about your journeys. I 'm really looking forward to next week's post.

Holly Zemak said...

I enjoyed both of the Christmas cards - it's nice to meet someone else who collects cards as I do. I have a bulletin board above my drawing table full of different artists. 4th drawing is my favorite also, I like the trees.

Cathy said...

Thanks Phyllis. I will see if I can get some nice photos of the exhibition. Some of the stands don't like photography though because they are worried about copyright infringement and unlawful use of their work.

Cathy said...

You must get your inspiration in similar ways to me Holly. I have a bulletin board too, with lots of lovely inspirational images and, of course, my favourite cards displayed.

beck said...

Just to say that I have just found One Pink Goose and I love it. I am just starting to try to do art again after a long break and I must have similar taste to you as I love everything! You are a real inspiration ! I am having trouble developing my own style at the moment, I have not had any art training, have you any suggestions?

Cathy said...

Hi Beck, thanks very much for your nice comments about my work. I love creating art and really enjoy keeping a blog. Like you I am self-taught and I am still trying to find my own style...lol. I envy people who have a recognisable style that as soon as you see it, you know who created it. I haven't got to that stage myself because I tend to like to draw and paint in different styles. I think style is something that develops over a period of time rather than something you consciously do. I would say just create what you feel most comfortable with and you will probably find your style comes naturally. Anyway, glad you like the blog. I ususally do a new post late on Sunday evening.

bunnits said...

I just have too much fun looking at your blog. Thanks so much for sharing all your beautiful artwork and the neat work of other artists, too.

Cathy said...

Thanks very much bunnits. I am very pleased you enjoy the artwork. I love finding artists to feature.

Sylvia Jenstad said...

Had to stop... love your work... they are all so sweet... my favorite is the girl with those cool trees and the castle up above... really cool

Cathy said...

Thanks Sylvia. I loved doing that one. Thanks for stopping by. Always nice to meet new bloggers.

~ Phyllis ~ said...

Cathy,
I love the little welcome sign with the colorful leaves. When did you add that. Very Colorful.

Cathy said...

Thanks Phyllis. I popped that in a couple of weeks ago. My intro was a bit wordy so I rewrote it and added a little picture to make it more interesting. The larger version is on my website. I enjoyed doing that because it is so colourful and pretty. Glad you like it.