Out & About: the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

The National Museum of Scotland has been a long time favourite of mine, from before it was even called this and had fish in a huge pond in the atrium (I miss the fish!).  It is rare when I am in Edinburgh that I don’t walk up the hill and over the bridge to spend a little bit of time there and each time I find something different.

This visit, I ended up exploring the early history of Scotland and got rather excited by some of the shapes and patterns of the items on display, particularly the carved stones and pottery. 

Some of the metalwork was incredibly impressive too.

I’m sure I’ve wandered through this part of the museum before, but I had never noticed the Andy Goldsworthy installations in the galleries.  A lovely, helpful guard took me round all of them when he saw I was interested and as they have been there since this part of the museum opened I must have seen them on another visit, but they hadn’t caught my eye before.  Perhaps it was because they just fitted in so perfectly with the early history items on display; they complemented them so well.  It is a fantastic idea juxtaposing the ancient and modern in the same space in a museum.  It makes you reconsider both the old and the new. 

I do like Andy Goldsworthy’s work; his fantastic use of basic materials, often highlighting the fleeting nature of life and its beautiful moments.  I love how these installations don’t fight with the museum artefacts; they don’t shout for attention because they are new, but blend into the gallery, adding to the ambience.  This doesn’t make them unimportant though as they really enhance the viewing experience, which is perhaps what art should be about?

in my studio: wall of opportunity or wall of shame?

Are you a glass half-full or half-empty kind of person?  I would like to be the former, but I think at times, I can see the gloomy side of things too much – perhaps it is my Scottish upbringing and background coming through!  So looking at this photo gives me the perfect opportunity to gauge how I view the world.  It is all my current work in progress, which I put up on my design wall, just to see what there was.   Some of it is very old and will probably never be completed and in fact I had totally forgotten about; others are bits I’ve worked on this week, quite compulsively so.  So is it a wall of opportunity – lots of things to do – or is it a wall of shame – look at everything I’ve left unfinished...!

I actually put it up last week and have left it in place, because it provides a powerful sense of what my work is about in my studio.  I’m enjoying looking at it, seeing the synergy, having new ideas... for even more work to be in progress.  So I think at the moment it is a wall of opportunity.  However, if it hasn’t changed by this time next year, it would definitely be a wall of shame!

Good news and even more completed work

9.29 in the morning by Gillian Cooper

Please don’t collapse, but after last year’s almost complete lack of finished work apart from PomPoms, this year I’m on a bit of a roll and here is yet another!

 

9.29 in the morning (detail) by Gillian Cooper

I’m really pleased with this piece of work for a number of reasons.  Firstly, because I almost gave up on it, but didn’t.  It felt like it was taking way too long and that it just wasn’t going to work.  This was partly due to the (very) slow production process.  I only have one silk screen and it covers any area roughly 30cm square at a time.  I had to get the pattern onto the screen, wait for it to dry, then print the fabric, wash the screen, wait for it to dry and then set off again.  Oh and fabric generally needed to be printed twice.  The stitching didn’t take too long, but whilst I was doing it, all I could see was the blue fabric: it was a piece that only came together at the very end: after the squares were sewn together and the orange and other wool tops added.  So I almost stopped.  However, with a little gentle encouragement from R (and some childcare too!), I finished it in time to enter it for the SAQA juried exhibition ‘Redirecting the Ordinary’.  Having had a number of rejections the week before I entered, I didn’t hold out much hope – you seem to get into a pattern of them for a while.  I know that rejections are all part of being an artist, but it isn’t always an easy part, especially when you seem to get nothing else...  But guess what?  To my amazement, it was accepted and will be jetting off to America in the summer to go touring with the exhibition.  I’m really chuffed and waited to tell you until I got these lovely photos of it that Alan took last week.

9.29 in the morning (detail) by Gillian Cooper

It’s surprising how much better you feel after an acceptance, especially as the sun is now shining and the daffodils are out!

In my studio: snatches of work

This is all hand-stitched - something I haven't done for a while

Here is a flavour of some of the things I have been working on this week.  In case you have the impression I am some superwoman or a whirling textile dervish, this work hasn’t all happened this week – more stitching had been added or another layer of print to the fabric – not the complete thing.  If only I did have the time or ability to do all of this in one week!

Spot the needle - a definite WIP

In addition to my ‘real’ work, I have been attempting piñata mark II for an important 7^th birthday party on Sunday.  It is currently sitting on my studio table, filled, but still newspaper coloured.  It has to be goblin shaped and coloured by Sunday.  Here’s hoping that it will actually split unlike the last one, which was so indestructible, I had to take a Stanley knife to it so it would spill its contents.  Wish me luck...!

Ripple effect through hand stitch

 

Putting the hand-made beads to use at last

Even more hand-stitching, with beads from the African Fabric Shop

Not hand stitch, but you can probably see the potential for it in the drawing...

How to: Dyeing in Popular Patchwork

Since I made a print table last year, I have been spending lots more time dyeing and printing.  I’ve always dyed fabric since we were introduced to the delights of it in our first weeks at Goldsmiths.  Over the years I have refined my processes and tried lots of different methods.  So, I thought it was time I shared some of these ideas with the readers of Popular Patchwork. 

You can see the article in the current issue.  I’ve recently started increasing the colour range in an individual piece of fabric – which is fun, but maybe slightly less suitable for most of my work!  One of the ways of doing this follows MarjoryMcKinven’s dyeing in a cup.  However, unlike me, I suggest you don’t use a paper cup... they eventually leak!

 

 

I'm now working on the next article on printing.  The writing is not taking long, but I made the decision that the accompanying piece needed to be hand-stitched, which, of course, is taking ages. 

New work: Facing the Past

Facing the Past by Gillian Cooper

The last few weeks have been very productive for me.  Perhaps it is the coming of spring which always makes life seem easier or perhaps it was the successful use of a self-imposed deadline.  Today, Alan McCredie was over photographing some of my work, to go onto my website, which is in the process of being updated.  Alan’s a great photographer – check out his blog for the Scotman newspaper on 100 weeks in Scotland to get a flavour of some of his other work.  This week's photos reflect the 30 year anniversary of the start of the miners' strike.  I can't believe it was 30 years ago - it was a significant event of my teenage years as the strike-breaking lorries hurried in convey past my house carrying coal to the steelworks. 

This is a little piece I finished last week – only 6½ x 4½in, postcard size.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t photographed by Alan today as I had to send it off on Saturday, so don’t hold the photo against him – it is entirely my fault and when I show you some of his photos of my work over the next few weeks you will appreciate the difference!  This work is for the SAQA Spotlight Silent Auction at the SAQA Conference at the start of May.  I particularly wanted to make a piece as I am going to the Conference.  I’m hugely excited (and a bit nervous) at going to the States for 12 days.  It is a big trip and I really need to get on with planning the details.  I’m going to the big quilt show at Paducah, having a couple of days in New York, then going down to Washington for the Conference.  If anyone has any tips/ideas for things to do in New York/Washington, please let me know.  It is years since I visited.

Anyway.  Back to this piece.  I found it quite challenging to create such a small piece, especially one with straight edges.  I made another couple of pieces, but liked the shape made by their raw edges, that they have been kept for other things!  Over the top, I used an embroidery pattern I created a while ago from the remains of one of my ancient figure patterns and, of course, I’ve stencilled a figure on top.  I’m pleased with the results, so much so I might try small again.

My art influences

I’ve recently discovered the wonder of online courses and when I saw an art history course aimed at artists,  'Live!' I knew it was time to sign up.  It’s currently in Week 2, so it’s not too late to sign up (and it’s free).  It’s run by CalArts on the Coursera website and there are lots of other courses available.  It is amazing to see people from all over the world participating in one course at one time and from such a large variety of backgrounds.  This week’s assignment was to come up with the ten biggest influences on our art life, from the start. 

My influences

Here is my resulting collage (can you spot the problem with it?).  I’ve used fairly broad categories: I love books and would literally read the telephone directory if there was nothing else around as a child, so I couldn’t home in on just one book: there are so many that have influenced  me. 

So if you were undertaking this exercise, who would your biggest influences be?  Can you be more specific than me?  Do we overlap in any way?  Reviewing it, I think my biggest omission is all the teachers that have taught me and all the students I have taught as they really have inspired me more than anyone else... maybe I need to redo the exercise.

Out & About: Katie Pasquini Masopust workshop

detail of the finished quilt

Last May (yes, I can’t believe it was so long ago!), I had the privilege of participating in a workshop led by the well known quilt artist, Katie Pasquini Masopust at the Studio, Loch Lomond.  It was five full days and I really enjoyed it.  The subject was from watercolour to finished quilt.  By the end of the five days, all I had to do was bind the quilt... which is why it has taken me so long to share it.  As June was rather busy with PomPoms and then other things took over, I only got round to finishing it a few weeks ago.  

The finished quilt

 I learnt a lot from Katie and her process is really interesting.  This is a quick and rather abbreviated summary of what we did.

My original watercolour

We painted lots of watercolours (most of mine were disastrous but the aim wasn’t to create a great watercolour painting, just source material), then we selected the best bits of each one before deciding which one to make into a quilt. 

The selected detail to make into a quilt

These were then traced and blown up in full sized patterns, which were meant to be copied exactly.  She also does ‘proper’ appliqué – none of this raw edged stuff – and showed us her technique. 

The back of my applique

 

Laying out the pieces to applique

Applique in progress

 

Finally, Katie heavily quilts her pieces to add interest and tends to use a similar coloured thread to the fabric, using a different pattern for each area.

Quilt ready to be trimmed

Being awkward, I was the only person in the class who created a horizontal piece, but now that it is complete and trimmed down to rectangle, I think I may prefer it to be hung vertically. 

 

It was a great learning experience, not just for what I learnt, but for what I also discovered about my own working practices.  For instance, I don’t like working to exact patterns, I want things to evolve and life is just too short not to use raw edge appliqué (besides I like the effect)!  Also, I like the quilting to add to the design as well as the texture of the piece. Overall, it was a great experience and even though I am highly unlikely to make another quilt like this (it is Katie’s technique after all, not mine), well worth going to.