Framing day. One done and four more to go. This one took more than an hour, little bits of stuff kept floating onto the mount. Despite doing it on a clean piece of linen. Static is the work of the devil and it makes me huff .
These end bits of arty admin are not my favourite part of the process. In contrast, my morning was spent with 15 other artists drinking coffee and nattering joyfully about their creative processes.
The texture in the room was gorgeous , enhanced by coffee and cake. Three hours of arty energy and caffeine to power me through the pain of framing.
If Turner had been walking in the Tamar Valley today he would not have been looking at any views. Today was a fine example of Tamar Greige. The grey lovechild of mist and rain rolling together in a fertile valley.
As luck would have it for me, I have spent the last two days in the gorgeous Autumn Exhibition of Drawn to the Valley Artists. So I know how beautiful the valley is when it is in full colour.
Calstock – Carolyn Wixon
My morning started close to home with my own painting showing the tidal pool in full colour which it certainly was not at 7:30 this morning.
Then a drive up through the Tamar Valley in the thickest of Tamar Greige conditions. Not for me the colours of Sonia Wicks , Looking for Luck.
But the mist did briefly clear, just around lunchtime. Cotehele House, a National Trust property serves very fine sandwiches with a great motivational message.
As an aside, I rarely need to be motivated to eat a sandwich. But at lunchtime I was not the only one nibbling and crunching on National Trust comestibles.
No motivational message for the squirrel on the bird feeder, they also need no encouragement to eat. This lovely lunchtime encounter happened as I overlooked the Cotehele Dovecot.
Dovecot-Carolyn Wixon
A completely greige afternoon carried on the weather theme but I can illustrate my return with one last painting.
Tamar Sunset- Michael Jenkins
A greige day, illuminated by some great paintings and a cheeky squirrel.
This is the very best sort of reading to start the day with, curiosity in book form. Since leaving the committee of Drawn to the Valley last year, I have had very little to do with the nuts and bolts of organizing the current programme of events. For local readers there are two more days to visit the Summer Exhibition in Tavistock.
This book is a joy to read and shows exactly how far Drawn to the Valley has come from those dark years of the Covid and post-Covid complexities of running a fairly large arts organisation in a geographically widespread location.
After 5 years as a member of the organisation these pages are now filled with the work of artists that I have met and shared creative journeys with. Many of them are my friends and teachers.
The page below shows how successful one of my projects has become.
Creative Tables has spread over the length and breadth of the Tamar Valley. Started to bring artists back together after the isolation of the Covid Lock-down in Plymouth. Creative Tables now operates monthly meetings in several different locations.
This book also shows how one life feeds into another as some of the people in the exhibition photographs are also bobbers and one artist has painted gig rowing the only team sport I have ever loved.
I was never quite so glam in my rowing days. Another curiosity for me is which piece of art will tempt me at Open studios. There are many walls in my house with work by Drawn to the Valley artists.
Curiosity is a superpower, it can take you to the most fabulous places even when sat in bed with a cup of tea and a fabulous brochure.
Yesterday afternoon and evening I had the pleasure of receiving and unpacking the work of 42 artists who had submitted work to the Drawn to the Valley Spring exhibition.
On average the artists had submitted 10 pieces of work. That is a lot of glorious creativity to unpack.
Work that beautifully swoops from the moors of the Tamar Valley down to the Atlantic Coast.
Sometimes in minute detail.
I know that I witter on about art a bit but last night was such a delight to see how people are inspired by our local and dramatically changing landscape.
It is also just the loveliest thing to spend some time with the artists themselves. We work away in our studios like solitary bees only coming together infrequently.
For local people a trip to Meavy Lane in Yelverton might be just the thing for a long Bank Holiday Weekend.
I’m going to pop along on Monday to see the exhibition in full show-time mode. More pictures then.
Joy is a friend and model for the artist and printmaker,Annette Wrathmell. Annette was doing a lino print workshop at Face Value the current Drawn to the Valley exhibition at Gunnislake in the Tamar Valley.
Joy was the subject matter for the print demo but she also appeared in an oil painting by the same artist.
Annette started the demo by showing her early sketches from which the link cut was created.
Annette explained how she creates light and shade with her specialist cutting tools.
What really thrilled me was the accuracy with which Annette carved into her lino. I superimposed one of her prints on a head shot that I took of Joy at the demonstration. The fit was almost perfect.
As luck would have it Joy was wearing the same earrings, which enabled me to register. the two images easily. It was a small jump to add some digital magic to this image.
Annette is a very charismatic printer who shares her knowledge easily. Her audience were inspired to get on creating Lino prints for themselves. That seems like a morning well spent. I have shared her artists profile below and a link to her website.
I left the world of science to embark on a Fine Art Degree and found my home in printmaking. A world with endless possibilities and not unlike science open to experimentation. Etchings and the more painterly carborundum prints led by natural progression to painting and I now use both in response to the many subjects which inspire me. A keen walker, I love the landscapes which surround me, the Cornish coast, Dartmoor and the trees and forests in the Tamar Valley. I have also spent many summers in Greece and wherever I am always carry a sketchbook and a camera. Many of the sketches are of people and consequently another interest is portraiture. However life is full of interesting sights and ideas and it’s wonderful to be able to explore anything that comes my way to incorporate into a painting or a print. I am a member of Drawn to the Valley artists’ collective and take part in most of their exhibitions and annual Open Studios.
Yesterday was a surprise. Dawn was mighty fine and then I went to work at a gallery/exhibition that had been running for nearly a week with no publicity. I definitely anticipated a slow start but was pleased to see that there had been a few sales.
Red dots at a gallery signify that a piece of art is sold. The work is either taken away at the time or left in the gallery until the exhibition ends. A mix of both greeted me when I arrived and soon after we had a steady stream of visitors through our, quite remarkable, door.
There must have been something in the air because both myself and the other steward each sold a piece of our own work within an hour of being there.
Obviously, we couldn’t do the traditional artist happy dance of backflips and somersaults because we were in such an old and precious building. But the sentiment was the same without risk to life or limbs. I have a feeling this is going to be a memorable exhibition.
My plan for when the exhibition was quiet was to take loads of photographs to share our beautiful location on this blog. Now that has to be a job for another day. If you live anywhere near the Tamar Valley a trip to Cotehele in the autumn is always a colourful experience. Our art group has just added a little bit of extra interest.
A late blog because meetings and swimming kept me busy from early today. I rushed through the early morning chores and quickly typed this little thought on water colour paper. Or that was the plan, the mornings meeting was a creative one where planning and exchanging ideas are accompanied by people creating small projects at the same time. What I had actually typed onto was blotting paper, so the words were more prophetic than the original plan. Painting onto blotting paper is highly unpredictable. Some colours just stuttered to an immediate halt, no hope of all the usual watercolour tricks and effects. But something emerged. The conversations also flowed and stuck in unexpected places. Two succesful exhibitions have just closed. The talk as it often is, was about change in general and the role of Social Media in promoting the work of arts organisations and indeed communicating with members via social media and electronic newsletters.
Electronic NewsletterInstagram post reminding members about a meeting
I’m sure most people involved with any small to medium voluntary or creative organisation must be wrangling the same discussions. The love of familiar hard copy, something to hold onto, something to keep V information only accessible by using a computer, tablet or smartphone. The only time we have produced an actual paper brochure post pandemic is for an Open Studios Arts Trail.
Even this is best used with a QR code.
Feelings and opinions are strongly felt and the old ways of doing things worked but I think a global pandemic has pushed forward so many things often in unexpected ways , I think however that going back to even how things were done three years ago is a boat that has already sailed.
On a more personal level I probably don’t need to paint on blotting paper ever again.
Hang out the flags. The Print exhibition I have been curating and managing, with others, has come to a close. With its closure comes the end of the most delightful commute of my life. Just a ten minute walk from home, today I took my car and parked even closer, under this bunting which was caught in this tree during the Queens Jubilee during a windy spell.
At 8 am the gallery was very peaceful before the take down team arrived.
Despite our best efforts of restocking after prints were sold some gaps have appeared but we only started to rum out during this last, very busy, weekend.
Ocean Studios in the Royal William Yard was a new venue for our art group. It has been a completely positive experience for the curating team and the Printers who took part. Our work has been seen by many of our regular visitors but we have also had a completely new audience and many international visitors. The next event for Drawn to the Valley is Open Studios.
The brochures for this Tamar Valley wide event were leaving Ocean Studios like the proverbial ‘hot cakes’
On a personal note I did sell enough prints to recoup my costs but I also bought quite a few prints so there may be a financial imbalance, but my house walls will thank me, I’m sure. And at last the purple note book and my emails do not need to be by my side or checked regularly.
Yesterday was a day of Drawn to the Valley , stewarding at the print exhibition during the day and then a quick trip to Tavistock for the Summer Exhibition Private View. It was refreshing to visit an exhibition that I had no responsibility for and no work submitted. Anne and Michael have curated a stunning exhibition at Butchers Hall.
Councillor Caroline Mott, Mayor of West Devon with Anne and Michael.
Visitors to the Private View were treated to a fabulous Mid-Century Modern buffet of vol au vents and intricate delicacies mounted on Ritz biscuits, served to accompany locally produced apple juice. The wines may have come from beyond the valley…
Vol au vents are an exploding confection of Coronation Chicken and flaky pastry. My terrifically arty outfit, a concoction of various blacks was a terrific background for the crumbs that my greed created. Undeterred by my flaky appearance I set about talking, a lot, to artists and friends and enjoying the art. The picture at the top of the blog is by a member Glenis Blakiston, she was a long term member of Drawn to the Valley until her recent death. Her husband, very kindly, submitted some of her pictures to this years Summer Exhibition. Her Encaustic wax image is one of the first things visitors to the exhibition will see this year. The terrific texture in her work gave me the theme for a few pictures from the exhibition. Texture.
I love that the two creations above share the same colour palate but have a significantly different visual heft. Similarly the next two share similar colour and line but could not be more different.
A really late blog today. Floods and powercuts are the reason. Finally the exhibition in Tavistock is set up and the doors are open. After 18 months of being affected by plague it is somewhat irritating to be affected by a flood for this exhibition. Tavistock issued its first flood warnings for 11 years overnight.
theoldmortuary.design 