time out by the sea

I haven’t been working or creating much this week – the weather has been lovely and we’ve had two days out to the coast, yesterday to the north west Cumbrian coast and on Thursday to the Galloway coast on the other side of the Solway. I’ve uploaded some photos we took yesterday to Flickr.

solway mosaic

The combination of nature and industry there makes for a beautiful landscape full of rusty colours, greys and bluey greens. We visited Maryport and Allonby and walked by the sea. Allonby has a long sandy beach and as you approach you see the colourful arcs of the kitesurfers all along the shore line, like huge birds hanging in the air. There are many graceful old houses, and close-cropped turf greens by the sea where people play. There were two stripy pigs wandering about on the grass too (I think they were these). I used to go to Allonby as a child but hadn’t been back for many years – I had forgotten what a delightful place it is.

Most people who read this have probably heard by now, but just in case – Sharon B’s blog In A Minute Ago is now at a new home, so blogrolls and bookmarks need to be updated.

Textile Arts Resource Guide

The Textile Arts Resource Guide is where artist Gwendolen Magee collects and shares a "wide range of online resources that are informational, inspirational and/or thought provoking". It’s a very interesting and useful site, with links to information about the practical – for example applying for grants, submitting work to shows, photographing textile art; the philosophical – art and craft, ‘making meaning’, creativity; and fun, like this post about the Smithsonian Museum site where you can design your own mudcloth virtually. Gwen’s first post was in May and there’s already a vast amount of food for thought and inspiration here.

hearts and sunshine

I went into my favourite local shop (local is Kendal, UK) yesterday for some black fabric and came away with the most luscious heart shaped glass beads – yummy.

glass heart beads

It was quite an eventful trip to town – I was waiting at the bus stop when another bus caught the corner of the bus shelter as it pulled in to the kerb – there was a huge bang and a cascade of glass rained down as one of the glass panels disintegrated. Thankfully none of the people sitting in the shelter or passing by were hurt, though there was glass everywhere. I even found a tiny piece between my toes after I got home!

We are having some wonderful sunny breezy weather just now, so I’ve been scouring lengths of cotton for dyeing. Last night I ironed 6 or 7 metres of it – probably more ironing than in the whole of the previous year! My lack of ironing practice is rather evident though as all I ever seem to end up with are flat creases…

I’m very excited today as I just booked onto a pattern cutting workshop in October – it’s an introductory day but I think I can go back for more. The course is at Unique Image in Ulverston – not far from where I live but I haven’t come across it before.

Last week I mentioned Germaine Greer’s article – since then I’ve been fascinated to read a number of discussions on it from several different points of view – especially on Sharon B’s inaminuteago, Arlee’s Albedo Design, Monique’s All the Rest of My Life, Pat’s Art Journal and Olga’s Threading Thoughts. I left a couple of my own thoughts on Arlee’s blog. I think in the end my main issue with the piece was Greer’s underlying assumption that a woman does not have the right to choose for herself what she will do, unless it’s something that was formerly a male preserve. If her choices take her in any direction associated with domesticity, nurture or ‘traditional feminine pursuits’, they are denigrated. Yet the tone of Greer’s comments about Edrica Huws suggests that even if she can’t bring herself to explicitly concede respect for women who choose to liberate themselves from some of the more constricting elements of feminism, in practice she does respect Huws, and seeks meaning in her work. The Guardian prints a response today from Effie Galletly – Quilt-making is as much of an art form as painting, which at the moment is still open for comments.

happy and sad

In OCA Textiles 1 right now, I am working on the use of colour to convey concepts like happy/sad… and how resistant I am to putting sadness onto my paintbrush. Maybe because I have been feeling a little sad myself this week, I want – I only want – to paint colours that bring me joy. Interestingly, the word ‘sad’ was once commonly used as an adjective for colour, meaning

Dull; grave; dark; sombre; – said of colours. “Sad-coloured clothes” (Walton)
“Woad, or wade, is used by the dyers to lay the foundation of all sad colours” (Mortimer) dictionary.net

Sad colours were deep and dark, neutral, sober. In the OED I read that in the 18th century chemicals were added to dyes to ‘sadden’ the colours – to tone them down. So could I bring myself to sadden my colours – maybe a very dull and dirty looking brown would do it, or a constricting, choking black?

sad colours

sad colours

Debussy wrote

The colour of my soul is iron-grey and sad bats wheel about the steeple of my dreams.

Which is how I often feel. Yet even those greys and browns and blacks (or blues) – well, I wonder – I can’t help feeling that even the drabbest dingiest colour may be singing away quietly to itself in its own understated way, hiding a dark rainbow in its depths.

Really, in my head and my heart I’m with Calvin (for once)

There is not one blade of grass, there is no colour in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. John Calvin

joy colours

joy colours