Why Is Everything Such A Rush

I have been busy drawing my design for this year's Christmas card. I have chosen a blackbird on a hawthorn branch looking out over snowy fields and trees. I made a good start on the bird but the wing went completely wrong and I had to start again. Hopefully it will be in a condition to show next week. I am quite behind with it now and having threatened postal strikes over the card sending period isn't helping. Does anyone else think time seems to have speeded up somehow. Crazy, I know, but it does seem that way - or am I just getting slower?

This pen and ink and digital drawing was inspired by my huge butterfly book which I mentioned in a previous post. This is my own design of course, not a real butterfly.

A watercolour of whale sharks done some time ago

This is the completed pen and ink drawing of Georgie. A few people mentioned that they liked the unfinished background but I still have that version in my originals folder

And here is the original Georgie before he became very ill about 2 years ago. As you can see he was a very big, chunky cat with a big personality.

I couldn't resist these greetings cards from paintings by Gerry Plumb. He is an artist and illustrator who moved to Cornwall to paint gorgeously quirky views of the sea and delightful seagulls. You can see some of his artwork here at the Out of the Blue Gallery at Marazion - a place I enjoyed visiting when I holidayed in Cornwall, and some of his cards at The Blank Card Company here.

Times Past

Tree Of Life

I came across these lovely fun linocuts by Cath Deeson the other day. She is a printmaker living in Kent who creates lovely coastal inspired items. She has a website here if you want to take a look. On her biography page she tells us that she has to remind herself to make sure she cuts the text in reverse. That is something I would definitely forget. I like prints with snippets of poetry, sayings, quotes and text of various sorts.

Caravan

I took this picture the last time I visited Cliveden in the autumn. It is one of the tortoises from the tortoise fountain.

Just to add a nice hint of red - some hawthorn berries.

An autumn tunnel in a local lane. This is an older photo but it looks the same every year when the sun shines in the evening.

I first came across Blandine Anderson's ceramics many years ago. She produces stylised and beautifully detailed work of mainly animals and birds, often relating to folk tales and old sayings. Her hares are a particular favourite and I came across two of her hare paintings the other day. They are wonderfully stylised with exaggerated limbs - very iconic. You can see her work in many art and craft galleries online but she has her own website here and you can find more of her ceramics here at Castle Gallery (don't forget to check out the second gallery) and here at Cambridge Contemporary Art.

Blue Hens With Six Eggs

Lepus-Constellation of Hare

Rosy Moon

When I visit my favourite craft fair at Stonor I pass an old farm on the roadside. I have been photographing it for years now and each summer it is slightly more derelict and another piece of masonry will have collapsed. I always feel such a beautiful old set of buildings should have been preserved years ago. There are lots of farm outbuildings apart from the house and barn. In our county there has been lots of renovation and change of use of old barns to homes and I cannot believe this farm has escaped the eyes of a developer for so long. I sometimes stand and ponder as I take the photos of what it would look like if sensitively renovated. It would cost millions probably but I, for one, would like to live there. I would open the barn as a art and craft gallery and use the outbuildings as artists studios and workspaces...oh and live in the farmhouse of course...ahh dreams.

Derelict Barn

Derelict Farmhouse

I have always been a great admirer of the wonderful retro patterns of the 1950s. I picked up this little book at the K&S Show (but found later that I could have obtained it a lot cheaper on Amazon UK). They are selling them very cheaply if you want to take a look here. It is full of blissful retro screenprinted designs. Below are some of my favourites, with the pink and grey bird design being my absolute favourite. I don't know why we are so nostalgic about retro fabric patterns but the ones I have featured in the past are among the most popular google image searches on my blog. The V&A is a fabulous museum but unfortunately, because of the detrimental effect of light on old fibres, most of their old textiles are kept in VERY dark conditions and you would need a torch to be able to see them properly.

V&A Pattern Book - The Fifties

Feathered Friends - Sylvia Chalmers/Elizabeth Eaton Ltd - screenprinted 1953

Perpetua -Lucienne Day/British Celanese Ltd - screenprinted 1953

Macrahanish 1954

Dovedale by John Drummond/Wemyss Weavecraft Ltd - screenprinted 1953

Barbara Pile screenprinted fabric 1950

The tiles below are all created by ceramic artist Iris Milward. I met Iris many years ago at a local craft fair where she was showing off her tiles and explaining how she achieved the look. She was selling greetings cards of the designs in those days and I still have the ones I bought. If you go to her website "Poetry Tiles" here you can see lots of lovely designs and beautiful text. I love the way she wraps the poems around the birds and animals. The tiles are really beautifully designed and I noticed on Jackie Morris's blog the other day that she has some set in her kitchen floor amongst the flagstones.

Knitting And Stitching Show 2009

Most of this week's blog is about the wonderful Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. I would love to have shown you much more of the exquisite work on show but, for obvious reasons these days, people are reluctant for their latest designs to be photographed. There are lots of stories around in the textile design world particularly of unkind individuals ripping off whole portfolios of work and presenting them as their own. It seems to be happening more and more these days. Very sad reflection of our times.

I have had very little time for drawing this week so not much to show really. This is an unfinished pen and ink of our lovely cat Georgie who, for the past two years, has been chasing heavenly mice in that big cats home in the sky. He was a huge cuddly bundle of fur and this was his favourite position for sleeping. I will draw him on patterned fabric but didn't get a chance to do it this week.

Relaxing

Here are some gorgeous paintings by Cuban self-taught artist Jose Garcia Montebravo. I love the way he paints his birds. Beautifully colourful and stylised. You can find lots more of his work here at the Indigo Arts Gallery.

Infanta Del Pajarito

Gallo Para Eleggua

Gallo Con Platano

I made my yearly pilgrimage on Thursday to the wonderful Knitting and Stitching Show. It is a vast exhibition that I spent six and half hours looking around and still didn't see all that I wanted to see. Quite a few people make it a two day visit and I wish I could do that. I travelled by coach which is by far the easiest way. Unfortunately owing to a serious accident which closed off three miles of a very busy local road and the coach driver forgetting to collect two travellers and having to go back for them, we were an hour late in setting off. Our driver promised us an extra half hour at the show but he still managed to make up the lost time and get us there at the usual time. He probably felt he couldn't rescind his offer of the extra half hour though, bless him. We weren't complaining!

One of the first stands I visited was Richard Box. He needs no introduction to people interested in textile crafts. I admired his beautiful series of hare oil paintings, some of which you can see at the rear of his stand, and he told me he was an artist and art teacher before he became involved in textiles. He always produces wonderful work and has authored several books. You can read a bit more about him here. You can find more of his work if you enter his name into a search engine.

I loved these paper thin porcelain and paper vessels by Katie Almond. They are lovely whimsical pieces with quirky decoration. You can see more of her work on her website here.

This is Gilda Baron at her stand at the exhibition. She is a very well known textile artist, embroideress and teacher. Her work is always colourful and vibrant and her stand was very popular. You can see Gilda's website here.

These gorgeous items of knitwear are created by Patimarkorn Tangsakul. She has a wonderful sense of design. You can view more of her work at Red Shed Textiles here.

This is a detail from Harriet Smith's lovely knitwear. The neckline is heavily embelished with pieces of ceramic and other items.

Stunning knitwear designs by Anna Wilkinson

These are applique and embroidered cushion designs, the bottom two pictures being postcards. The colours were jewel bright and gorgeous. These are the work of Carol Dixon. I love the retro look.

One of the stands at the show

A view of the market hall where the traders were. There were lots of amazing stands but so little time as usual.

This is a detail of a beautifully designed and made quilt by Laura Kemshall. It has a limited palette but the detail is quite exquisite. It is called Pearl Essence. I am a great fan of Linda and Laura Kemshall's work and I have a copy of their book - The Painted Quilt - which is lovely. They have a website here although Laura's part is not completed. Nevertheless there are lovely things to be seen.

Detail of Mother Earth quilt by Helen Godden. This quilt was enormous as you can see from the photo below. It was difficult to get a good photo as I had to stand back a long way. The colours and shades and design were gorgeous. This monumental work must have taken ages to create and it was certainly getting a lot of attention. Here is Helen's quilt gallery on her website and also check out her blog on the side menu.

Lisa Connolley is a graduate illustrator and designer from Wales although she actually hails from Ireland. She had some beautiful work on display. These are two of her embroidered images. Very contemporary and quirky. A very nice girl to chat to, I hope she does well in her career. She has certainly made a good start. If you want to see more of Lisa's work and what she gets up to on the design scene you can check out her blog here.

One of my favourite stands at the show was definitely Victoria Lindo's gorgeous applique embroideries. They are funny, witty and quirky. I fell in love with all of them. She told me that for some of the coloured shapes she uses pieces cut out of postage stamps. Although she hasn't updated recently, probably because of work commitments, you can read a bit more about Victoria on her blog here.