Promise Auction

I offered to give a workshop in painting at the Christmas Fayre promise auction....hmmm!

I thought that maybe nobody would bid...but what do you know...three did!

Anyway ..taking it seriously, I've been studying the wants oftwo of these lovely folk...
......watery watercolours ... expressionistic acrylics.

Now I follow a blog site called ...Making a Mark...and this morning it put up a post about the "Watercolour and Works on Paper Fair", at The Science Museum in South Kensington, London.

So you know how it is when you bring up a site ...and then you find within it another site ...and another...and another...
 and eventually you stumble upon something great that you had forgotten all about!!

Well I came upon the work of the poet and painter...David Jones.

He was an associate of Eric Gill and Eric Ravellious and was engaged to Gill's daughter Petra...an unusual relationship...to say the least..
...actually least said... and all that...

But you know the links that we have with the Midland on the Bay...so of course this all caught my attention and looking through some of his work I was able to get examples of "watery watercolours" for one of the "auction buyers".

But more than that I recalled, how diverse and skilled an artist he was, by seeing once again the paintings, calligraphy, carvings and book letterings of this little spoken of artist.

I love that thing... when you see the work of one of the quiet people of art again and are enriched by their legacy.

He has inspired a society to continue to examine the work that he began....

Now all I need is a good site with some expressionistic, colourful, landscape art...
...back to the drawing board!

Given Time.

I only seem to have time at the moment for bits of sketches,

what with workshops and garden parties!

But here's another little one of husband and muse at work with clay. 

and yes "He does seem to have lost the p(l) ot!"

Kitaj Exhibition in Kendal

I'm inspired. I always am after seeing an exhibition.

This one was at the Abbott Hall Gallery in Kendal.

                          

Showing the work of Kitaj.

So after the show we made our way back down the road to the Bay

and stopped off at The Midland for a drink.

The sky was heavy with purple/blue clouds and the water was stunning.

So I got inspired and made a quicky sketch and wet it with a spot of my Guinness!

Cheers!

Sweet Memories

I had such a good weekend up in the house in Morecambe.

The bay was at it's most glamorous......

.......that's Morecambe Bay for anyone new to my ramblings.

I said to the potter, that it was a watercolour day.

The lake district mountains in the distance looked as if the painter had turned them upside down and let the wash of colour settle in the top of the hills and the valleys were lost in a sweet mist.

Eric was his usual smiling self.

I never go past him but he is surrounded by happy people raising their left leg!

We sat outside at the Midland Hotel one evening.

The day was still warm,

and we drank our Guinness and watched the sun go down.

Old friends from Co. Down came by

so we sat in the lounge at the house and drank tea

and put the world gently to rights.

The fire was lit in the big hearth

and being old friends

we all but fell asleep.

Sheep graze on the salt marshes around the Bay.

Red Bank Farm have opened a little eaterie there.

 And they sell their home grown and home cooked Lamb Henry

with heaps of fluffy mash and petit pois and yummy gravy.

And then all that is left to do is have a walk along the salt marshes,

while happy dogs romp

 and kites are flown.

And travel back down the M6 for another week's work.

Ruskin's View.

"For most men, an ignorant enjoyment is better than an informed one; it is better to conceive the sky as a blue dome rather than a dark cavity; and the cloud as a golden throne than a sleety mist"
John Ruskin, Modern Painters ( 1856).

This is "The last word" quote in the Times today, and the view of Ruskin.
Each early spring we plan to go up to Kirby Lonsdale to walk the Lune and climb the steps up to "Ruskin's View".

We park the car at the old bridge and take the river path along towards the town. We've been doing it since forever it seems and yet it still makes us sigh with the beauty of all that is there.

Often the water is icy on the edges and makes wonderful patterns with stones.

By the time we get to the bottom of the steps I'm never sure if I'm going to make it to the top!

The river at this point is smooth and deceptively calm but underneath the currents coming from a couple of different directions merge and a fierce battle takes place beneath the surface.

Ruskin was an odd old fellow but he certainly knew a good view when he saw it , and the joy of getting to the top of the steps is rewarded by not only the sight across the river.......

 .........but the beauty of the ancient church yard that we then walk through to get some sustenance in the glorious Sun Inn.

Neither was he a slouch when it came to painting  watercolour landscapes. There are quite a few in the Abbott Hall Gallery in Kendal and I'm hoping that there will be some more in the big Watercolour Exhibition coming to London at the end of February.