Commemorative spoon framed!

I decided to give this commemorative spoon, which I have posted about earlier, to a friend who was with me at Priston festival (whether he wants it or not!) So I had to mount and frame it. I used scans from the festival programme to create a mount, and set the spoon back behind this, and managed to find an appropriate frame from my collection. Although I was initially focussed on presenting this individual spoon it has suggested ways of presenting my other “tree-painted” wooden spoons. More to follow.

And he was very appreciative of the gift.

More painted wooden utensils.

I do find it difficult to stop myself from sketching on found things. So when I find myself with a minute or two off I go. I always carry a pen or two, and a small sketchbook. But sometimes it is nice to work on something different. Here are a couple of lolly pop sticks that were lying around while I had a minute or two, and some sunflowers were growing nearby. I took them home and painted them later. As you do!

Bo Lee. Nocturne

Nocturne is the title of the current exhibition at the Bo Lee gallery in Bath. It is showing the work of two of its artists, Rose Sanderson and Patrick Haines. These artists have overlapping concerns and influences. Both draw inspiration from the animal kingdom and Natural History, both often make use of ready made objects, and both have a dark and sinister side to their work. Patrick Haines’ sculptures are the most overtly strange and unsettling, while Rose Sanderson’s deal more with fragility and mortality.

In this show Patrick Haines is exhibiting work that is larger in scale (includes more objects and items) and has more narrative (suggests a more detailed story) than I have previously seen.

Rose Sanderson has also moved from small intimate paintings of birds and butterflies on single book covers, to larger scale paintings which spread across several covers.

Patrick Haines creates delicate and detailed sculptures of birds and other feathered animals, and juxtaposes these with various everyday objects. Often he uses books, his sculptures eating into the fabric of the object. Other times he uses light fittings, rulers, and, in his largest piece here, furniture and fixtures from a Botanists study, which is alive with sinister beasts, and sinister animal parts.

Art in Bath

After my post on Art and craft at Just make, in Wells yesterday, here are a few photographs of pieces in Rostra and Rooksmoor Galleries in Bath today. Most of the work is by artists we are familiar with, but there are occasional surprises.

These ceramic figurines are by Jo Lucksted.

These, and other, paintings hung over most of the walls are by Christina Holvey. They have a lovely textural and painterly quality, and a detailed and decorative homely imagery. They have a simplicity and engaging freshness. 

These small paintings by Nicola Cooke of the beach and coast made us long for the Cornish Coast. We hope we might make it there before the end of the summer! They have the simplicity and lightness of sketches done on the spot, and not unlike something I might do.

Local galleries

My significant other (half) is helping out in a gallery in Wells, Somerset, at the moment. There are some very attractive and lovely hand-made things for sale. There are prints, small sculptures in clay and wood, cards, and jewellery in both ceramics and fabric, as well as other textile work. Here are a few examples of the gorgeous tactile and decorative things for sale. The gallery is called Just make.

Sculpture 1

There has been a fashion for decorating and displaying large animal sculptures around city centres in the last couple of years. Around Wells town centre in Somerset there is a display of decorated swans at the moment. For want of anything better to post about at this particular moment(which is a lie actually! The problem is most of my posts take me too long to compose!) I thought I would show you some of the swans that I saw today. The Swan’s of Wells.

This swan is decorated by Candace Bahouth, a well-known artist around Bath, who creates bejewelled objects, most notably shoes! It is quite beautifully decorated with a wide variety of shells, very carefully composed and constructed, and entitled Queen of Shells.

This amusing swan was sponsored by, and sited outside, a solicitors and entitled Up Before the Beak by James Mark Long.

This swan is covered in maps, entitled Cyril and decorated by Lisa Wooding, and sited within the Bishop’s Palace.

This lavishly decorated swan is entitled Odile-the Black Swan by Kate Rattray.

Perfection in a confection

Do you find yourself staring at things and pondering, as I do, frequently? Most often it is trees and clouds, or the rise and fall of a verdant rural hillside, which attracts my attention. But there are many other things, such as the fold and creases of a discarded crisp packet nestling against a wall, a road traffic sign, mildewed and weatherbeaten, or a distressed piece of concrete wall with a patina of grime and dirt.

Anyway, I found myself alone with a Mars bar the other night, staring at it and considering it’s aesthetic qualities. Now I have always considered a Mars bar a thing to be savoured; a rich and dense sweet confection. Surely a Mars bar is confectionary perfection. The perfect way to deliver sugar to the human body, in an efficient and attractive package. I have seen people devour a Mars bar apparently without proper consideration for its content or form! For me it requires a small considered bite, or cutting into small mouth-sized pieces, which are rolled around in the mouth. It is not to be eaten lightly, a real treat and indulgence.

The surface of the bar is a glossy and creamy outer shell, the liquid chocolate frozen in luxurious folds, as though molten lava had become stone. Smooth, crisp and shiny. Inside is a chewy and fluffy nougat layer, beneath a viscose and golden caramel. A feast for the discerning eye and tongue.

So there I was alone with the bar, having peeled back its papery outer cover, and found my eyes roving over it’s rectangular chocolatey form, about to begin my journey of sugary titillation. Needless to say, I devoured the thing of beauty, and enjoyed every bite. A real treat to eaten consumed in moderation!

PS. I do recall children’s author Roald Dahl (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) speaking very passionately and knowledgeably about chocolate confectionary. I believe he was buried with some chocolate. I must look into this further.

Harris Museum and Art Gallery

The Harris Museum is in the centre of Preston, Lancashire, an excellent example of Neo-Classical Victorian municipal architecture. Its a very impressive and imposing structure in the middle of the city.

Visit its Fine Art collection here.

Inside it houses a very good collection of art and artefacts. There is an extensive collection of glass and ceramics, which includes some fine examples of Staffordshire pottery. I did like this rather eerie veiled female head, with delicate folds of fabric describing her facial features.

There was a temporary exhibition of contemporary Fine Art, constructed around private collectors and their collections, A Private Affair. Below are works by Lisa Milroy, Andrew Bracey and Gordon Cheung.

There were a couple of very fine Carel Weight paintings, one of them depicting the crucixion (appropriate at this time of the year). Both very dark, with rich, deep colours and a heavy texture.

This striking head, by Dhruva Mistry was displayed in the centre of a room of Victorian and Edwardian female portraits. Its simplicity and Eastern-inspired form contrasted starkly with the detail and realism of the paintings.The central hall is adorned with Egyptian, Greek and Renaissance friezes; a grand and impressive space.

Air Gallery Exhibition February 2010

The latest exhibition at the Air Gallery, Wells, Lust and the Human Body, has an interesting mix of art works. Candace Bahouth’s mosaic sculptures are attractive and beautifully fashioned, lending a fanciful exuberance and permanence to simple objects. The broken, glittering ceramic surface places them somewhere between Fairyland and a Far Eastern decorative aesthetic.

Other works are figurative, and demonstrate a range of approaches to the human form. Kay-Lewis Bell’s paintings are large, expressive portraits that are finely drawn and full of colour. Kate Noble exhibits painted figure studies from life, loose and structural images, crammed onto long, thin pictorial planes. Monika Millers’ drawings and prints are semi-abstract figure studies, capturing the movement and energy contained within the body’s form, reminiscent, to me of some of Giacometti’s and Matthew Smith’s work, though with less definition and clarity. Julia Gatrill is showing ceramic work based on parts of the female form, sometimes tending towards eroticism and at others more humorous.

The craft gallery also has some very appealing and attractive works. Well worth a look.