Cambridge exhibition and more walking....

On Friday evening I went to the preview of Angie Lewin and Rob Ryan's exhibition at Cambridge Contemporary Art. It was a fun evening with lots of people viewing the fabulous work. In my head I spent a lot of money!!

 I met Angie Lewin, it was interesting to talk to her -  I know Kate Sullivan who works with Angie and Simon, Kate is the daughter of friends of mine. Also had a chat with Rob Ryan, an interesting character - meticulous cutting.

Day 3 of Offa's Dyke

This was a long day - 17 miles to our B and B beyond Pandy.

We walked through this Bulmer's cider orchard, lots of apples but they would taste awful of course!!

We had our picnic lunch at White Castle, an impressive ruin.

Stunning scenery all around and inspiration.

 Our B and B didn't do evening meals and would drive you to a pub 1 or 2 miles away but you would have to walk back (in the dark, rural Welsh countryside) - surprisingly, another 1 or 2 miles didn't appeal so we had bought a salad that morning - not quite what you needed but tasty!! Also our room (up 39 steps!)! was designed for midgets. Beams everywhere, as you stepped over them in the floor you hit your head on the one in the ceiling! BUT there WAS a bath and the breakfast was good.

Day 4 will follow!

A morning in Saffron Walden and good news.

On Friday I spent some time with Helen at the Church Street Gallery in Saffron Walden showing her some of my prints. I'm glad to say she liked my work and chose several prints to sell at the gallery. I've always loved Saffron Walden and visited the gallery a few times, so it's exciting to have my work there. Thankyou for the coffee Helen and the tweet on Twitter!!

http://www.church-street-gallery.co.uk/

 I then went to the Fry Gallery to view Chloe Cheese's exhibition, I love the spontaneous nature of her work. I'm taking a course with her at the Curwen next week.

Oops!! My last post I didn't preview and check and left it mid sentence asI suddenly realised an item I was watching on ebay was about to end!! (I won it!!).

So this is to continue the last blog....

On the outskirts of Tintern there's an old railway station, made into a cafe where we bought our packed lunch (no shop in Tintern!).

In the grounds there were some examples of chain saw art, I liked thisWelsh knight and his faithful dog - it was a really sad legend, no wonder he looks so unhappy.

Fabulous scenery all around and lots of ups and downs!! It was on the way down to Monmouth that I discovered I'd hurt my knee when I slipped in the rain the day before - it was really painful going down, but OK going up or on the level. What a very long High Street Monmouth has!! I was limping badly by now, luckily we found a chemist open and I bought a knee support and pain killers. Our B and B turned out to be clean and basic, I wouldn't stay there again, we were the only guests!! but at the end of a day walking (13 miles) almost anywhere will do!! A huge plus was the BATH - HOORAY!!! We had a lovely meal at a pub nearby and the cooked breakfast was delicious.

Photo shoot oportunity - this is Sue at the bridge over the Monnow before setting off for Pandy; 17 miles ahead!!

My long walk - half of Offa's Dyke day1 and 2

In September a friend and I went off on a long walk; actually there was a train journey first, otherwise we would never have got to the start point!! The picture is proof that we were carrying all our stuff!! We left from Stevenage early one morning and by lunchtime arrived in Chepstow.

This is me at the start of the Offa's Dyke walk, at Sedbury Cliffs in Chepstow, about a mile from the railway Station. At this point it started raining, so walking the 7 miles to Tintern was not a good start! Luckily the B and B people dried all our wet clothes and the next morning was bright and sunny.

Our B and B was at the opposite end of Tintern to the Abbey, so we walked a mile to the Abbey which was beautiful; an an ideal remote spot for a religious community all those years ago.

There was a sense of peace and quiet with few visitors.

Lots of inspiration for printmaking....

I liked these decorative bosses - horse chestnut leaves I think.

Our 2nd day was walking to Monmouth, part of the route was along the River Wye. On the outskirts



Christmas cards

Hi everyone, I 've been on a long walk; but more of that in my next blog. This is about my lino cut designs for Christmas cards that were accepted by the RSPB and are now on sale in their shops and available in their catalogue. It was all by accident as well. Someone who has bought several of my prints turned out to work on products for the RSPB; she saw my card designs last year and asked to take samples to show her boss. Here are the two designs they accepted and printed in gold and red.

Here they are in the catalogue - I still can't quite believe this has happened; it's exciting....apparently I am now a freelance artist!!!!

I called them Snowy trees and Winter trees, the RSPB renamed them Winter silhouette, as you can see.

 I have recently submitted some designs to be considered for 2012; they work a long way ahead.





Artist's book course

I went on a great 2 day course last week with Gillian Hand  http://www.gillianhand.com/ at Art van Go in Knebworth. Gillian lives in Oz and has been over here for a few months sharing her book making skills.

Work in progress on a concertina book made with origami paper.

The finished book  (I will probably add some decoration to the covers), it was fun to make.

This flag book has a lovely sculptural look to it. On the 2nd day we tackled this one....

I used part of one of my prints as the cover with off cuts of somerset velvet paper as the pages.

 I love the spine of this book. It was tricky to make as my paper was really thick.

This one took most of the morning and I think we were all worn out!! However the final book was fun. We made the hard cover with a spine and stitched in 3 folios (a group of pages) using a linen thread with 2 needles to make the rope pattern down the spine.

Again I used a not so good lino print for the cover with some hand made paper pages. This was my first time at book making and took lots of concentration; so two tiring but enjoyable, successful days.

Herts Open Studios

Last week I was getting ready for my open studio weekend with Herts Open Studios event, which takes place from September 10 to October 2nd. I was also baby sitting for my cute grandson, Barney, who decided to lend a helping hand.....

He delved into my box of paperwork waiting to be shredded.....

...........just checking a bill!!.......

.................what fun he had playing with a pile of paper, he brings lots of joy to my life.... and how great to be 15 months!!