Pauline Burbidge Exhibition at The Bowes Museum

Honesty Skyline by Pauline Burbidge

As I mentioned in an earlier blogpost, I had a lovely weekend in the north of England at the end of November.  The highlight (in art terms at least!) was visiting the Pauline Burbidge exhibition at The Bowes Museum on its opening day.

Detail of Horizons of Puglia by Pauline Burbidge

I don’t think I have ever been to an exhibition where the visitors all spent so long looking at the artwork.  Apparently, the normal time a museum visitor spends looking an artwork can be measured in seconds.  All of the visitors I saw spent several minutes carefully absorbing each artwork on show.

Samples of Pauline Burbidge's mark-making on fabric

This exhibition is of Pauline’s most recent work.  Having moved to working in simple monotone, she now is adding a striking band of colour to her work through the use of cyanotype printing.  Her subject matter continues to be that of the nature which surrounds her.  She doesn’t make work of a recognisable place, more to give you a sense of place.  I felt as if I was out in a field, totally surrounded by tall grasses; the wild countryside and high at the top of my vision was a brilliant blue sky.  This was pleasurable viewing, especially given how awful the reality of the weather was outside – I had no desire to spend time in the real landscape that day – Pauline’s created one was much more congenial!

Samples of Pauline Burbidge's cyanotypes

To make the visit more encompassing for the viewer, there were two videos: one of Pauline’s awesome inspirational photos; the other of her at work in her studio.  The visit was also accompanied by specially composed, haunting music.  There were  her tools, sketchbooks and samples on view – all the things makers want to know about her working processes.

A selection of Pauline Burbidge's tools and equipment

It was my first visit to The Bowes Museum and all of us (R and the kids included) really enjoyed it.  There was a great kids trail and activities for them to do and we all wished we had had the time to sample the cafe. 

Starscape by Pauline Burbidge, with added reflections!

Pauline’s exhibition was in the Fashion and Textile Gallery, which was worth a visit in itself.  Tantalisingly, to accompany her exhibition, there is a display of quilts in the Glass Cube.  They were all overlapped, so you couldn’t see them properly, but apparently if you go as part of a group, you can arrange to gain better access.

Honesty and Fern by Pauline Burbidge

I’ve written articles about the exhibition for Popular Patchwork and The Quilter, with proper, high quality press images.  So you will need to read them if you want to see those photos and to read about my thoughts on the exhibition in depth.  These are just some snaps I took on the day.

The antique quilts on display at The Bowes Museum

The exhibition is on at The Bowes Museum until April, when it transfers to the Ruthin Craft Centre.

I would really recommend a visit.  If you are unable to go, there is a lovely catalogue which accompanies the exhibition, which is available directly from the museum shop website for £9.99.  If Santa is being generous, some of Pauline's quilts are also for sale there!

Inspiration: Stitch Stories by Cas Holmes

I have to admit I’m not buying many books at the moment.  I see many books which look interesting, but I don’t quite get round to buying – I persuade myself I really need to finishing reading all the books I have at home first.  And we do have a lot of books.

However, there is always a book for which I have to make an exception and at the Festival of Quilts, I had no hesitation in immediately purchasing Cas Holmes’ new book ‘Stitch Stories’ which had only come out that week.  And I haven’t regretted it. 

It is a great book – exactly what I am looking for in a book on textiles at the moment.  It showcases the work of a diverse range of artists, mainly working in stitch.  It isn’t just the usual suspects, which is fab as it introduces me to a whole new range of artists to go and look up and to explore their work.  Cas must have a wonderfully inquisitive mind to be aware of not just these artists, but the exhibitions and techniques she also references.  To be able to pull all of these artists together into one book shows how much goodwill she can generate – she must be a generous spirit. 

Cas displays a fantastic breadth of knowledge in the book, covering many ideas and techniques, all related with storytelling through textile art.  I appreciate the book more, because it is not a ‘how-to’.  It doesn’t have any projects.  However, it does go briefly into some of the techniques Cas uses in her own work and by other artists.  The book also has photos of sketchbooks and work in progress, which is always fascinating.  I really like the idea of ‘shadow drawing’ that Cas suggests and will definitely be trying that out soon (when the sun finally shines...).

A word on the way the book is made: it is gorgeous.  At a very basic level, Batsford textile books now have fabric covers, which feel lovely – a fantastic move.  The photographs are luscious and make me want to get straight into the studio and start working – always a good thing!

It is quite a scholarly book, with many quotations from catalogues and thinkers in the textile field as well as Cas’ own thoughts.  It is a book which will repay many reads; one to keep coming back to for inspiration and to egg me on to keep creating meaningful work.  If you are looking for a good book about textile art today, I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

Inspiration: Tynemouth Priory

Tynemouth Priory on a gorgeous summer's day

Last week the kids and I headed down to Whitley Bay for a couple of days to visit family.  Keeping up the great family tradition imbued in me by my parents, we had to do something too.  So this time we visited Tynemouth Priory.  Although I have been visiting the area for over 40 years (gosh, I’m getting old), I don’t ever remember going there.  It is well worth a visit as there are layers of history: churches built, expanded, turned into a castle, a lighthouse, used as gunning positions, and a coastguard station, before becoming a visitor attraction.

I just loved this rusting detail on the chapel door

We explored the ruins and as we didn’t have much time, I just took photos rather than drawing, but I’d love to return and do some proper drawings one day. 

The sunlight through the stained glass made a lovely pattern on the floor

The circular stained glass was gorgeous, even if my phone camera didn't capture it very well

A worn down gravestone, after years of weathering from the salt air and wind

Inspiration: everyday materials, sheep, exhibitions, talks... and Ikea!

I haven’t written an ‘inspiration’ blogpost for a while – I’ve been so busy making the work I was already inspired about and getting everything to exhibition standard, which also involves remembering to pack things like staple guns and labels.

So now that the exhibition is up, I feel I can get back to normal and start looking again and get inspired, rather than have tunnel vision and just focus on the show.

On Friday morning when I went to photograph the exhibition, it was a beautifully sunny spring morning.  I intended to go for a walk in the countryside in my inappropriate footwear (see I was too focussed on the exhibition), but instead I was distracted by this tractor and other old industrial, rusting machinery in one of the workshops besides Farfield Mill.  I think they are wonderful.

I did also make it into the fields because I felt I should and the sheep were just crying out (or baa-ing) to be photographed!

On my way home from Farfield, I dropped into the 62 Group’s exhibition at the Upfront Gallery, near Penrith.  There were some interesting pieces, particularly by Catherine Dormor and Hannah Lamb, but unfortunately no photos were allow so I can’t share them with you.

Saturday was also a lovely sunny day, which I spent in the company of the delightful ladies of East, Midlothian and Borders Area of the Quilters’ Guild.  I always intend to take photos of these events, but then I’m so busy delivering the talk (this time about how I get from inspiration to finished quilt) and then discussing the individual pieces with the quilters that I forget.  Anyway, they were great and some of them even enjoyed my lame jokes.

On the way home I popped into Ikea to buy the furniture I need to turn my studio into a teaching space.  This week is going to be spent tidying out the studio and then, hopefully, putting the furniture together – wish me luck – I think I’ll need it!

Inspiration: Marjory McKinven and Marion Robertson

Marion and Marjory

I’m really pleased that my latest article in Popular Patchwork features my friends, the sisters Marjory McKinven and Marion Robertson.  Marjory and Marion are both lovely people, always ready with smiles, encouragement and laughter.  Marjory has also been a fantastic help to me this year with the C&G course, whilst Ruth has been too ill to teach.  Marjory also creates the most amazing hand-dyed fabric.

Detail of one of Marjory's quilts

The reason for the article is that they are having their first joint exhibition in August in Carradale, on the Mull of Kintyre, where Marjory spends more and more of her time.  Carradale really is a long way from anywhere, but I assume that is part of its charms.  We’re heading down to see the show and are going to take the tent (and the kids) with us, as there is a campsite besides the village.

Detail of one of Marion's quilts

So if you are looking for something interesting to do over the August Bank Holiday weekend, why not come up to remote and beautiful Scotland?

Their exhibition ‘From the River to the Sea’ runs from Friday 22^nd to Sunday 24^th August from 10am to 5pm.  Email marjorymckinven@hotmail.com for further information.

Inspiration: the Difficult Fabric Challenge

I’ve just spent the last four days teaching the C&G Summer School with Ruth Higham.  The weather was glorious, which helped as we spent Thursday at the Botantic Gardens in Glasgow.  There was so much inspiration in the plants, especially some of the amazing foliage and the glasshouse architecture.  The next three days were in the Studio making a piece of art cloth using dyeing and printing using a thermofax screen which the students designed as a result of the Botantics visit. 

I also gave the students a fun challenge.  When I visited AQS Quilt Week in Paducah I spent several hours trawling the vendors’ booths for a particularly difficult piece of fabric to work with.  When I saw this piece, I knew I had struck gold.  

Each student got a piece and was challenged to turn it into something beautiful.  Someone did suggest burning it and I think that could have worked, if you then stuck the ashes to some nice cloth in an interesting pattern, but no-one took me up on this!

Here are some of the results (there were another three but I didn't get to photograph them):

Laura dyed her piece and it will look great in some quilt soon

Moira dyed hers and then appliquéd it to a red and purple background.  I love the colours she achieved

Valerie’s  is in progress and is chopped into pieces of confetti, along with other fabrics, layered between dissolvable fabric

Rosemary has hidden her piece in the middle of this faux chenille design

Irene also slashed hers and then stitched it down

Christine dyed then stitched her piece onto a black background with tiny seed beads

Ellen cut circles from the fabric and turned them into a group of Suffolk Puffs to decorate her apron

Finally, Linda decided to celebrate the fabric and created this little appliqué.

I’m really impressed with their inventiveness – what do you think?

Inspiration: Lily Lui's Textile Vessels

Lily Lui

Textiles are very flexible and can be used in so many different ways.  I think this is part of the fascination for us.  Functional such as clothing, curtains, towels, bedding quilting, embroidery, knitting and, of course, art.  Any regular reader knows I really like objects which subvert our understanding of the textile form and so I was thrilled to discover Lily Lui’s work in Paducah. 

Lily Lui

With a background in textiles and ceramics, Lily creates beautiful 3D vessel shapes from tiny pieces of fabric, exquisitely rolled into shape and then joined together.  The forms she makes are undulate, like her fabric rolls; interesting kind of bowl shapes.

Lily’s work was included in the Fantastic Fibers exhibition at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, and also in her studio/shop ‘Created For U’, which was very close to the Exhibition Center.

Lily Lui

I can’t find many details about Lily’s work online for you to look at, but I did discover this fantastic blogpost by Rose Hughes, showing how Lily creates these beautiful vessels.  I would have loved to bring one home, but unfortunately I had a soft suitcase.  I really need to grow up and stop using rucksacks and get a hard suitcase so I can purchase proper art when I travel!

Lily Lui

Lily Lui

Inspiration: the ultimate guide to Art Quilting by Linda Seward

I received a lovely surprise yesterday afternoon when a courier arrived at my door with a flat parcel.  I didn’t remember ordering anything, so was rather intrigued.  The kids lost interest when I opened it to reveal this quilting book, but I certainly didn’t!

Linda Seward is the author of one of my favourite traditional quilting books:’ The Complete Book of Patchwork, Quilting and Appliqué’.  Whilst I have been teaching C&G Patchwork and Quilting over the last 18 months, if there was anything I needed to know, you could guarantee it would be in this book – have you any idea how few mentions there are of Somerset Patchwork even on the web?!  It definitely lives up to its name and is comprehensive. 

With this new book, Linda is setting out to do the same for Art Quilting, something that barely existed when she wrote her original book 27 years ago (she has written lots of other book besides).  ‘The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting’ covers every imaginable technique used by art quilters today.  From a quick flick through the book, I can see snow dyeing, soy wax, wet felting, upcycling, a variety of different raw edge appliqué methods, computer generated embroidery amongst lots of others.  Of course given the volume of techniques covered, there is not a lot of detail.  But that is not the aim of the book.  The book aims to show you the potential there is at the moment in the art quilt world.  If you want to try one of the techniques beyond basic, you need a specialist guide to it and there is no way one book could contain it all.

As well as giving me lots of technical ideas to try – there are lots included that I haven’t yet – what makes the book really special is the range and quality of art quilts in it.  Linda obviously made a significant effort to ensure that the book also acts as a survey of art quilts today.  It has many artists I know, but also several I don’t  and it has been lovely looking at all of these gorgeous quilts and just feeling inspired.

A friend asked me on Facebook yesterday was the book worth it and my response has to be yes on two levels: for the beginner it is a great introduction to exciting techniques used by art quilters around the world; for those more experienced, it is a good book to dip into when you want to play and try something different and to admire the talent of art quilters today.

Oh, and  you may recognise the quilt on p229... but my review would have been the same even if my work hadn’t been included.  I feel honoured to have my work included with all of these other amazing quilts.

Inspiration: Mary Fisher in Popular Patchwork

Some articles take time to be written.  There are a number of reasons why.  For this feature on the artist Mary Fisher, which appears in the current issue of Popular Patchwork, the reasons were fairly straight-forward.  Mary is a talented artist, whom I met at last year’s Festival of Quilts.  She graciously agreed to be interviewed by email.  Her work is fascinating and deals with a very serious subject matter: HIV/Aids and in particular, our treatment of women in sub-Saharan Africa who suffer from this terrible disease.  So it took time for me to craft something that was suitable for an entertaining quilting magazine, read primarily for light relief, whilst treating such a subject with the seriousness it deserves.  Hopefully for Mary and the other women she helps, I have got the balance right and have helped highlight an issue we would generally prefer not to think about. 

For Mary, this isn’t a possibility as she has HIV too.  Prior to meeting her and doing some more research, I had naively believed that with the new drugs on the market, it was pretty much life as normal for HIV sufferers in the West.  You take the medicines and basically it is no more inconvenient than the migraines I suffer from and treat with drugs on a daily basis.  Sadly, that isn’t the case, as whilst the HIV drugs prolong life, like all drugs there are side effects and these can be devastating.  Aids isn’t a crisis that has passed, it is still ongoing and when you discover that in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, half the population are infected and the life expectancy is  lower than the years I’ve already achieved (and I’m young in quilting terms!), it is an outrage that more isn’t being done.

As well as being an artist, Mary has become a major international campaigner on this scandal and devotes much of her time to trying to make people aware and change lives. 

I know this is more serious than things I normally write about on my blog: my art doesn’t affect life and death, but hopefully you’ve stuck with me to the end of this piece and will be inspired to try and do something about HIV locally or internationally.  Ironically for Mary, as a white, upper-middle-class American Republican, she does not find much companionship/ support in the States as she does not meet many women in a similar position.  In her book (well worth a read), she says that the contrast in the support she received when she was diagnosed with breast cancer was telling.  People knew what to do in that situation.  She often finds herself more at home with African women in the same circumstances as her: can I live long enough to see my children through education/college/marriage/parenthood.  We should all be doing more.

PS If all this makes Mary sound over-assiduous and humourless, you couldn’t be further from the truth.  There is a definite sense of fun and joy pervading her work and her life too.  I strongly recommend you visit her website or read one of her fascinating books.