Thursday, July 15, 2010

Art Swap, Angels and Nymolle Ceramics

I have had a very busy time since last blogging but I have lots of catching up with everyones' blog posts to do now. We have had some much needed rain but it has gone back to hot, hot, hot again this week. The summer is speeding away and Christmas is just around the corner...just joking....or am I?

A while back (quite a long while back actually). Lesley of sea blue sky abstracts blogspot and I agreed to do an art swap. She sent me this beautiful painting very quickly but then had to wait ages until I had done my pen and ink drawing. She was very patient. I love this artwork for its lovely lines and gorgeous, serene colours. I haven't yet decided the best place for it to hang but I am working on that. Lesley is a very talented artist who lives in Cornwall and is inspired to produce beautiful artwork of the Cornish sea and coast. Pop over to her blog and say hello.

this is the pen and ink drawing I produced entitled Nuthatch which I am glad to say Lesley liked. She didn't specify any particular theme but left it to me to decide. I just hoped that she liked birds!


This is my latest digital drawing entitled "taking care not to spill any". I posed my mother with this one as she has good hands for drawing. In fact she has provided the reference for a lot of my drawings involving hands.


I found some lovely new James Lynch greetings cards a short while ago. You may remember that I featured this fantastic artist some weeks ago. He works in oil and egg tempera and produces beautiful landscape and animal work with a lovely glow to the colours. The cards are by Towell and Scott and you can see the full range of James Lynch's cards here.




Some views of the beautiful countryside nearby. The trees are looking very lovely in their deep green summer garb and this week we have had some much needed rain so hopefully everything will not be turning brown too soon.




Out on our geocaching walk recently we invited ourselves to homemade cakes and teas at a local church hall. I spotted these lovely angels whilst walking through the churchyard. I have been to this particular church before but these seem to have escaped my eagle gaze. They are sculpted in beautiful honey coloured stone and are so pretty that I couldn't leave without a photo. The cakes were delicious by the way and the tea came in large mugs. Much better on a hot day than the delicate china cups.


and here is the complete monument to Alfred Gates complete with the trio of angels. Aren't they lovely. They look particularly nice with the filtered sunshine highlighting them.


I am a great fan of retro ceramics and textiles and I found some great images of Bjorn Wiinblad's wall plaques a little while ago. Wiinblad was well known for his sweet, whimsical and very detailed designs. These wall plaques were designed for Danish pottery Nymolle and you can find the rest of the set here. Interestingly they are not as expensive as I thought they would be.

Konflikt Wall Plaque


Paradis Wall Plaque


Maskerade Wall Plaque


I have long had a great admiration for the paintings of Ophelia Redpath. Ophelia is an English artist who originally decided on music as a career but later turned to painting, and we are very glad she did. Her work has quite an old world, almost naive charm about it, with intense colours and detail. She has exhibited very widely both here and abroad and is very well known and collected. You can see a huge display of her artwork here at the Darryl Nantais Gallery.

Grow Your Own


Feeding The Geese


Bring Back My Bonnie To Me


I found a couple of lovely little booklets in a charity shop recently. They are about touring the county of Herefordshire and contain lovely illustrations by Peter Manders. They are scraperboard engravings and if I ever get even a tiny way towards producing work like this I would be very happy. The details of the engravings are wonderful. I have shown just a few below but there are lots more. I couldn't really find out anything about Peter Manders on the Internet unfortunately so no links to more of his work.


Whitchurch


Moccas Park


Lower Brockhampton


Madley

32 comments:

Artist said...

love your bird drawing!

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

Hi Cathy, thanks so much for mentioning our swap - it's a relief that you're as pleased with my creation as I am with yours - and I feel so lucky to possess such a lovely illustration! Lovely post too. Best wishes, Lesley

Crafty Green Poet said...

oh what a lovely post as ever, your nuthatch is so beautiful, and the angel's face. I love Ophelia Redpaths work too, I can almost sense music in the style of her paintings,

A bird in the hand said...

Hello Cathy,
Nice to see you back. I love your nuthatch. Great job!

Colette xox

Caroline said...

Hi Cathy! I do like your 'Taking care not to spill any' - you've captured those hands really well! I always like to see what treasures you turn up in the charity shop too - superb illustrations in those booklets. I'd really like some of those cards by James Lynch and a painting by Ophelia Redpath! Oh and I enjoyed drinking in the English countryside from your photos! Thanks for putting it all together for us, Cathy! Hope you have a great week!

Chrissie said...

Thank you for all the great links - I specially loved Bring back my Bonnie (being married to a bagpiper!)

Cathy said...

Thanks Artist. I love drawing birds, whether pen and ink realistic or quirky digital.

Cathy said...

Hi Lesley. Yes, I love my painting. It makes me feel calm and relaxed when I look at it. Very happy to have done our swap.

Cathy said...

Thanks Juliet. I agree. Ophelia's work is very rhythmical and full of movement. I love her geese too.

Cathy said...

Thanks very much Colette. I just wish I could see one in the wild.

Cathy said...

Hi Caroline. I bet you would love to walk in a quiet and green English woodland now and again. Where you live must be fascinating and exotic but I would miss my trees if I was there for any length of time.

Cathy said...

Hi Chrissie. How great to be married to a bagpiper. I love bagpipe music.

ale balanzario said...

Hi Cathy, thank you so much for this lovely post,
Your bird drawing is great. the artist you show us this time ... they are so great,
I really enjoy my time visiting your blog every time you post.
An a very thank you for sharing your country side, hope it stays green a little bit longer.
Have a fantastic week
Looking foward for your next post.
Ale.

bunnits said...

So glad you are back!

I love the nuthatch. They are one of my favorite birds. Those outdoor photos make me want to go up to Tennessee and wander the family farm.

Cathy said...

Thanks Melissa. Glad you like the photos. Summer is a wonderful time to take pictures of the countryside at its best, although I love the skeletal trees and frosty mists of autumn/winter too.

Cathy said...

Hi Ale, I love your blog too. Very inspiring. Glad you like my posts. I have lots more countryside photos in the pipeline.

Chatters said...

Hi Cathy a really beutiful posts as always. loved both of the works in your art swap with Lesley. The painting is very beautiful and I agree very serene and calming. Your nuthatch is also really beautiful, very detailed and gorgeous work. You caught the nuthatches famous walk beautifully. We have a couple in and out the garden and we love to watch them going up and down the tree bark, very much like in your drawing. As you may have guessed I love birds too

Threads of Inspiration said...

I enjoyed my visit to your blog, so many great artists out in the world aren't there!

Cathy said...

Hi Amanda. Lucky you to have nuthatches in your garden. I have never even seen one in the wild although I live in the country. I have seen them on film though and I love their movements down tree branches too. Birds are very dear to my heart.

Cathy said...

Thanks for visiting and commenting Susan. Nice to hear you enjoyed your visit. There are so many wonderful artists and craftspeople around for us to be inspired by.

Threads of Inspiration said...

Cathy,
Thanks for visiting my blog...and you were not too late to be in my giveaway! Good luck!

andamento said...

Hi Cathy,
I really like your pen & ink Nuthatch, it must have taken ages and it looks so beautiful. Lucky Lesley!
Of the other artits you feature this week the work of James Lynch is most appealing to me. I like the cards you have selected.
As to the weather, you can have some of our rain if you like!
Anne.

Cathy said...

Thanks very much Susan.

Cathy said...

Hi Anne. Funnily enough we have had a bit of your wet weather today so thanks for that..haha. I love James Lynch's work too. A master artist to my mind. Glad you like the nuthatch. I enjoyed drawing it.

ArtPropelled said...

You've drawn your Nuthatch so beautifully, Cathy and I love "taking care not to spill".

Cathy said...

Thanks Robyn. That nuthatch took me a whole lot longer than I envisaged but I am pleased with how it turned out and I think Lesley is as well.

Sandy Mastroni said...

Dear Cathy , your posts are always so amazing !
I couldn't possibly comment on each thing that impressed me
I do love your nuthatch bird , it is a wonderful illustration
and those angels .....that monument ! wow
Thanks Cathy !

Cathy said...

Thanks Sandy. I love those angels. I may pop back there one day before the end of the summer and take some better shots.

Aritul said...

The Whitchurch drawing is just beautiful.

Cathy said...

Thanks Aritul. The quality of the illustrations is quite amazing. I would love to see them in real life.

Anonymous said...

I stumbled upon your lovely blog. I love your drawings and also the interesting observations about things around you - things that also appeal to me. I will follow your blog from now on.

Cathy said...

Thanks so much for the lovely comment. Unfortunately I am no longer blogging due to time constraints but still drawing and painting I am glad to say.