New venture at the start of the Year

On my birthday, Mr S and I set out for Coventry, for a little walk around the Herbert Art Gallery Museum and a spot of lunch.  In one of the galleries we came across a delightful exhibition of textiles & paintings by Michala Gyetvai.  Without having read much, we instantly recognised that she gained much of her inspiration from the walks we loved in and around Kenilworth, which indeed she does as is explained in the supporting literature.  I loved her work, the colours she used, and the emotion captured in the work.

When Mr S pointed out to me that there was a workshop associated with the exhibition, I went to enquire, and was asked if I would like to be on a reserve list as all places had already been taken.  A few days before the first of the two workshops, I had a call to say there was now a vacancy.  I was so excited, and this would really make me use my sewing machine...

We spent the first part of the morning, exploring how artists capture the essence of the landscape, its very varied interpretations, and how to start to design on paper....the only item we had to take was a sketch pad.....mine was quite empty and new.  This would be the first time since I was a small girl that I would draw.  With hits and tips about colour and perspective, I took as inspiration a picture of Prince Charles garden with trees and tulips, which I had taken from a gardening magazine, and made up a sketch which we shall use as a basis for our work on the second workshop.

After a delicious lunch in the Museum  we went on to explore felting onto old dyed blankets, with additional hand stitching.  Michala explained her love of threads and how different types: woolly ones, shiny ones, etc could be used to excellent effect in different areas. 

Some sewing machine free stitching techniques were demonstrated, and each of our machines in turn examined and checked.  Its taken me a few days, and a call to the Singer Helpline to work through some issues that I had so I shall be ready to try new things.

Doing the sketching has made me really look carefully at pictures and scenes I like, and I am trying to understand what it is that pleases me, and how to capture this on paper...at least when Mr S and I went for a walk last Sunday I took a few more landscape pictures.

It was perhaps coincidental that last week's Radio Times had some iPad drawings by David Hockney which also really appealed to me.  Another new venture in the planning is a trip up to London to meet up with a dear friend and spend some time together at David Hockney's exhibition at the Royal Academy