A Tiny Gallery And Some Great TV

There is some good news on the TV front at the moment - Time Team is back for another series. I have been watching this programme for 18 years and I love it still. Tony is definitely even more rotund and irritating but even he doesn't mar the great archaeology. Is there anyone in the country not watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding series? Compulsive and fascinating. I couldn't believe the girl who wore the wedding dress with the multiple battery packs and lights and which weighed 20 stone. Lastly a bit of spook in Marchlands. This series covers three time lines but is very well acted. No artwork next week then. I will be too busy watching the box...only joking!

This is a digital piece called Black Bird In A Bright Garden

This is an ink and watercolour I call "The Shieling". Those little coloured dashes took forever but I like the effect. It is a bit like running stitch embroidery.

I visited a tiny little art and craft shop last week in the market town of Wendover. The shop was so tiny the three of us in there were almost a crowd but it was filled with delightful crafty goodness. I was amazed when the friendly owner Kate told me that she had made everything herself. There is such a variety and all very reasonably priced. If you click on the two photos you can see everything in more detail. Kate's friend Mary also showed us some of her exquisite textile work. I spent quite a while in there chatting to these two delightful and very talented ladies and will definitely return soon.

I had only taken a small amount of cash with me so I wasn't able to purchase much but I did get the lovely hare card, an exquisite map heart and a tiny vintage Oxo tin. You can find Kate's website here so pop over and pay her a visit.

Two mysterious secret pools I discovered whilst out walking. I hope to incorporate the first one in a pen and ink drawing.

For all lovers of mid-century textile design the name of Jacqueline Groag will be quite familiar. She was a Jewish emigre to Britain from Czechoslovakia at the time of WWII. She had previously lived and worked in Vienna with her architect husband. She produced some amazing and iconic designs for the next forty years. This lovely big book is full of her intricate and illustrative design style for furnishing and clothing fabrics. I have read it cover to cover but will definitely read it again.

I discovered a wonderful field full of old and gently decaying sunflowers recently. I find it quite fascinating to see the degradation that time, weather and the birds have wrought on their previous beauty. Very few of the flower heads have any seeds left which means they have provided sustenance for our feathered friends during the cold winter that we have had.

and here are some plant heads put into PS filters. You may have to click to enlarge to see the detail properly.

I know where I will be going if I am lucky enough to come into some money. Helen Shere's silver jewellery is quite exquisite and she has a really delightful Etsy shop here. Helen graduated in 2004 with a design degree and she now lives and works in Nottingham. Her work is very illustrative in nature and she is inspired by whimsical birds and animals and nature generally. If you go to her website here you can see her different collections at the top.

Bird In The Garden Rings

Dunnock Brooch

Bird On The Tree

The beautiful etchings below are the work of American artist Francis Kelly. He was born in Minnesota and studied art in various locations before coming to the UK to settle and work. He has studied and carried out painting conservation and restoration work and is the author of several books. His work has been shown at many galleries and museums. He has produced a wide variety of art including etchings and paintings of coastal scenes, landscapes, nudes, floral and his poster series. I definitely love his stunning landscape etchings of all his work though. You can see lots of his art on his very comprehensive website here.

Willows

Field Gate

Old Oak

Country Lane

Animal Antics And Interesting Art And Craft

I have had a very busy week this week and therefore haven't achieved as much as I would have liked. I start the week with grand plans and 80% of them come to nothing. At the end of the week I am quite glad to have achieved 20%. How our goals change when the circumstances alter.

This is a delicate little pen and ink called Birds In A Strange Garden... and here is a detail from it

Some of you may remember me starting this scraperboard of Abby back in July here. I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, but I am almost afraid to touch it for fear of ruining hours of work. I must get it finished though. It is a slow, painstaking process but I am sure I will get her finished...one day.

I thought I would include this photo although it is not good due to the distance but we thought it was very amusing to see these horses all with their backs to the hedge as if they are getting ready to start a race. I do have another photo where another horse joins them in the same position. I suppose they must have had some protection from the biting wind.

Below is the work of English artist/printmaker Angela Harding. Her work is immensely popular and I have several greetings cards with her images on. Needless to say I don't send them to anyone. Angela is from the Midlands and is inspired by nature, flora and fauna. Birds are a recurring theme in her work and very beautifully stylised - always the best way. There is lots to see of Angela's work on her website here and also on the Serena Hall Gallery site here.

Black Bird And Berry Print

Hare, Field And Stream

There is a local community book area near to where I live. People bring in books and magazines and volunteers sort them and shelve them and keep things tidy. It is actually housed in a covered yard area but gates are shut at night to prevent vandalism. The books and mags are dirt cheap but you can pick up some great old books sometimes. I found this early copy of Far From The Madding Crowd and was really taken by the cover. It only cost me 50p but I think it was worth it for this lovely Lola Fielding illustration. It looks like woodcut or maybe scraperboard as a lot of book illustrations are done on this medium. Anyway I have tidied it up a bit in Photoshop to take out most of the crease lines and I am quite pleased with the result.

Here are a few of the hundreds of sheep photos I have taken over the past few months. I cannot resist photographing sheep. There is just something about them that fascinates me.

Below is a rather handsome Jacob I saw recently. A spot of sunshine works wonders.

This poor little lady looks like she has been involved in an explosion in a poo factory. I think this is the sort of fleece you get if you stand too close to a tractor revving in a very muddy field...hmm.

This one is brave to stare. Mostly they turn and run when they see me approaching. I have more photos of sheeps' bottoms than anyone else in the country.

These gorgeous and cleverly detailed whimsical creatures are the creations of American jeweller and artist Robin Wade. She believes in recycling and repurposing as much as possible and uses silver, typewriter keys, buttons and all sorts to create her angels. I love their names and the titles she gives her pieces. You can find Robin's little angels, and other pieces, in her Etsy shop here and also on her website here, where she also displays her exquisitely painted little faces. A very talented lady.

This was the scene I thought would make a lovely photo on our geocache walk last week....

but who are these two and what on earth are they up to? Well we thought a cache might be hidden inside the footpath sign (they sometimes are), but the only way to get to it was double human height. Luckily no one happened to pass at the time or they may have been a bit of explaining to do. I didn't offer to look as I am not good with heights...haha and no, it was hidden in a totally different place.

My eye was caught by these amazing patterns on the inside of bark and I had to stop for a photo. At first glance they looked a bit like tooled leather but on closer inspection they turned out to be the damage created by the elm bark beetles and the fungus spread by them which wrecked such havoc on British trees from the 1960's onwards. The sad thing is that this damage is recent. The elm bark beetle is still here and still destroying elm trees. When the trees reach a certain height they fall prey to the fungus spread by the beetles. There is lots of elm in the hedgerows of the countryside and it remains as long as it doesn't grow into a tree.

Natalia Moroz is a wonderful printmaker with a well deserved international reputation. She has a fantastic sense of graphic style, line and colour. She studied graphic design and illustration in Uzbekistan but now resides in the USA. She has a lovely website here with a huge number of very varied artworks. She is married to another artist who also creates jewellery and has a young son who is a very competent linocut artist, so there are three websites in one to browse. You can find her Flickr site here and her Etsy shop here where she sells her and her son's prints and her husband's jewellery. What a creative family.

Along The Bridges And Canals

Winter Branches

Bird Catching

Eve

Scent Of Lilac