National Gardens Scheme- Manor House,Chalgrove

The second part of last week's open

garden visit was The Manor, Chalgrove.

I am posting this separately so there are not too many photos 

on one post, and to do both gardens justice.

The medieval manor house is just stunning,

set in beautiful gardens with a meadow and pond  

with Koi carp.

We finished a  great afternoon with tea and cake.

National Gardens Scheme-Mill Barn, Chalgrove

Last weekend Richard and I visited some open gardens

in South Oxfordshire.

This is Mill Barn, Chalgrove.

Such clever planting in this one, with rose-covered

archways leading through from one part of the

garden to another. Beautiful colours and textures.

I am not a gardener, so look at them from an

arty point of view, as if looking at a painting.

 

Joan McQuillan

My inspiration this week comes from the work of

textiles artist Joan McQuillan, who lives in Reading

and took part in the Whiteknights Arts Trail  a couple

of weeks ago, which I visited.

I really loved Joan's piece, Gone for a Swim , 

and am happy to say that I bought it and know that

I will treasure it and be constantly inspired by it.

You can find out more about Joan in the Diversity 

website,a textiles group she belongs to.

Joan is like me a "Windsor Girl", that is to say she studied for

her City and Guilds in Creative Embroidery at Windsor College, 

but some years before me, and to a higher level.

I met Joan on a train last year returning to 

Reading after my friend and I had been to an art exhibition,

and Joan and her friend had been to a textiles

exhibition. I couldn't help tuning in to their conversation,

as kept hearing enticing City and Guilds words! It's

always good to meet like minded people, and I like the

coincidence of sitting next to each other on a train.

Gone For a Swim is a stitched textile piece inspired by

St Ives.

I am going to put the picture up in my studio as a reminder

to keep working hard on techniques and always aspire to

 greater things.

Gone for a Swim by Joan McQuillan

Detail of Gone for a Swim by Joan McQuillan

The Scottish Colourists

Painting by Jane Greiner

I painted this portrait in art class last week.

It is from a photo of 1920's star Louise

Brooks and painted on a black background.

We have been looking at the work of the

Scottish Colourists, who featured
black backgrounds and heavy black lines
 in some of their work These four artists,
Francis Cadell, John Fergusson, G Leslie
Hunter and Samuel Peploe are among
some of the most admired early
twentieth century British artists.They were 
heavily influenced by French
Post-Impressionists such as Matisse.

Tag Tuesday-Out of Our Comfort Zones

Out of Our Comfort Zones

was the thought-provoking theme

for this week's Tag Tuesday

My tag looks simple, but it took a lot of

working out. Inspired by digitally manipulated

tags I have seen, such as by Pat Brennan, I thought

I would have a go at one, as I haven't done 

much of that sort of thing before. I don't have Photoshop

or other software, so used Open Office, which is

quite basic and suitable for a beginner.

The quotation I have used is by Rumi,

13th century mystic and poet from Persia,

who is currently the most popular poet in the 

United States. 

The font I used is called Eenvoudige Batik

Regular, and I followed instructions to download

it from the Graphics Fairy. (Very clear

tutorial and easy to follow). I liked the

embroidery effect.

I used wallpaper from Open Office for background.

Pub walk

Yesterday Richard and I decided to go for a walk to a

pub in the Chilterns. Luckily for us we started out across

a field, because the end of the walk was very overgrown,

and was a lot easier coming downhill than fighting

the undergrowth uphill!

Sign hidden by greenery

The start of the footpath

Victorian post box seen en route

Glorious honeysuckle 

Leafy lane

Lady's lace

Tag Tuesday-Arrows

This week's theme on Tag Tuesday is Arrows

I had no idea how I was going to make an Arrows 

tag! I pulled out some bits and pieces from

my fabric/paper/miscellaneous stash, and found some

hand made paper printed with an arrow pattern. I thought

this was a good starting point, and I decided to stitch 

the paper and create more arrow shapes. It was not as easy

as I thought it would be! I couldn't manage any more

stitching! I framed it with washi tape.

Inspired by Beryl Taylor

This week I have been reading Beryl Taylor's lovely book,

Mixed Media Explorations. The subtitle, Blending Paper, Fabric and

 Embellishment to Create Inspired Designs describes

the contents.

I really like Beryl Taylor's work, and the way she

combines mixed media techniques with

stitched textiles.The book is beautifully illustrated with

clear descriptions of projects to give you

lots of ideas

Tag Tuesday-Fruit

The Fruit theme for this week's Tag Tuesday  was a timely one for me.

In my art class we have been painting a still life of fruit in

watercolour. I decided to paint some thumbnail studies from 

my pear painting as 2" square pieces. The longer one

is 2" x 21/2 ". This was before the Fruit theme came up,

but I knew it would fit perfectly! 

Here are some macro shots.