A Mural For Kenilworth

In the Summer I spent time painting a mural for Clinton Primary school in Kenilworth.

This large area is their new art zone with several music rooms leading from it. I wanted to paint the landscapes that inspire me, the ones from my own childhood memories, the landscapes in Warwickshire and the changing seasons.

I hope these murals will inspire the children in art, music, dance and poetry.







June at Ragley & Warwickshire Open Studios

"June" My first month working at The Dawn Harris Art Gallery and Studios at Ragley Hall.
Each month I will share with you my visual diary, the studio artist's work and the landscape changing through the seasons.

Open Studios is a wonderful way to meet artists and to find out more about the way they work.
It's also a free event so do come and visit.


I will be exhibiting in three places for Warwickshire Open Studios!
Firstly, I will be displaying my larger works with the artist and sculptor George Wagstaffe in his studios at,  258 Hawkes Mill Lane, Coventry.
The opening times are 29th,30th of June 10.30pm until 4pm. Thursday 4th and 11th July 2pm until 8pm.Sunday 7th and 14th of July 10.30am until 4pm.

I will also have a range of work in my studio at The Dawn Harris Art Studios and Gallery at Ragley Hall. I will be there on Thursday 4th and 11th of July 11am until 1pm.
In both venues I will have a selection of my smaller stitched pieces, cards, paintings and prints.
There are many other artists exhibiting with a huge range of work in different mediums.
 
I will also have a piece of work exhibited at Rugby Art Gallery & Museum during the Warwickshire Open Studios event.
 I hope it will be a busy few weeks for all Warwickshire artists!
Good luck to everyone taking part.

Faces In The Landscape

I'm not at all up to date with my blog compared to my face book and flickr pages which is why I have uploaded these images as a mosaic.
I have been using many different methods of recording and documenting ideas, these quick sketches, apart from one, have been on my ipad ( a wonderful Xmas present).
The figures have come about quite naturally, each one emotionally linked to the landscape.

When I was a child I lived in a small Warwickshire village surrounded by woods and fields.
I spent many hours playing in these surroundings, making dens, climbing trees and playing with all nature had to offer.
Not far from the local church, where I played, was a beautiful country track which was free from traffic as it led to open fields.
I will never forget the day when all the mature Elm trees which lined that hedgerow had been cut down, each one lying side by side in full leaf.
At first my friends and I played amongst those fallen branches, excited by the natural climbing frame, unaware of the impact to our local landscape.
A few days latter we returned to find no trees,  I remember to this day the devastation I felt at seeing the tree stumps.
 My vivid memories of this this time form the philosophy of the my art work, my feelings are linked to my landscape.
I will update my blog again very soon as I have more stitch work to share with you ( you can find more recent images on my face book page).
Bye for now.
Michala

"It Feels Like Autumn"

I have been working on many different pieces of work the last few weeks, some painting and stitching smaller pieces for University Hospital in Coventry.
I have been asked to display some of my paintings in the hospital which is part of a healing arts programme.
It's a great way to showcase my work and of course it makes the hospital environment less clinical, creating areas of interest where normally there are endless corridors of blank walls.

The weather here has been unseasonably cold, with a feel of Autumn ,which has led to me stitching this piece.
Have a good week.
M x

From Stitching To Painting

I thought I would get back to some painting this week, again working from studies I made around Kenilworth in my sketch book.
This is quite large, A1 size, so I used a big brush with plenty of inks and water colour.

Workshop At The Herbert

A Winter Landscape

 My Favourite Subject Talking About Threads & Art!

Engrossed in our landscapes

Last week I had my first workshop at The Herbert Art Gallery entitled Landscape In Threads.

The Herbert have fantastic facilities, the room is spacious, full of light, I would love it as a studio, it inspires you to be creative!

It was rewarding to share my interest in fine art, talking about artist's in history who used landscape to interpret the world around them and my own passion for exploring my art through textiles.

Our first day was spent looking at methods of developing our work in the sketch book, talking about how those ideas could be translated with threads and fibres, luckily I had a wonderful range from Madeira.
It didn't take long for us to start to play with the varied materials, wool, silk, rayon, combining stitching with needle felting.

The course is over two days, the next will be a week on Saturday, plenty of time for everyone to be creative in their sketchbooks!
Thank you to everyone who came, it was lovely to meet you and I look forward to seeing all your work next week.

Mono Printing

On Friday I visited Stratford -Upon-Avon college and was made very welcome by the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.
I had been asked to do a talk about my work and it was a great opportunity for me to share my latest stitching, sketch book development and to enthuse about art textiles.
Luckily it's one subject that I am never lost for words!



This week it's half term so I have been experimenting with mono printing, here is one I did today based on some of my sketches.
I have used a water based ink which I have applied onto perspex using a small roller.
I then drew into the ink using cloth, cotton buds and a pencil, the next step is taking a piece of paper and then placing it on top, applying firm pressure and rubbing the paper evenly all over.
You then lift off your paper carefully and you should have a simple print!

Sketching Stitches

This week I'm working in my sketch book.

I'm experimenting and developing my composition, looking closely at how I relate to my landscapes, how do they make me feel and how can I become a part of them?

I have finished my last piece for the exhibition which is a great relief and now I have some time to tidy my mass of jumbled threads!

Thread Visions

The Landscapes are growing, not in quantity but in size.
I have been working on this one for months, it has engulfed me both physically and mentally.
Last weekend I did manage a few days away staying with my sister and enjoyed an evening at The Royal Albert Hall.
We saw the opera Madame Butterfly, which was extremely beautiful and moving.

This week I will continue working on the piece above and also another larger textile wall hanging.

Art Stitches

This week I have some of my art work on display at The One Elm in Stratford-Upon -Avon.
The event is called The Roaming gallery and a selection of artists will have work on display on Thursday 28th October from 5.00pm until 11.00pm.
The event is being organized by Ginger The Art Of Print you can find out more about the event here http://www.theroaminggallery.co.uk/.

I will have a few textile art works and art brooches available to buy.

If you have time do pop over to Gina's blog she has photo's of a quilt my Mum -in-law has nearly completed and also news of a very interesting lace art project she is working on about continuity and connectivity.

I have still been working on exhibition pieces, mainly working in my sketch book and with half term this week, I will endeavour to experiment with my paints.
Those of you in the UK may be interested in the series The Genius Of British Art, on tonight, which is called 'Visions of England' and focuses on landscape, can't wait to watch it!
I hope you have a good week.
M x

August Stitching

We have had so much rain this August, I can count on one hand the dry sunny days we have had.
It rained here for at least 48 hours non stop this week, so apart from taking the dog out we stayed in, this gave me time to work on my handmade felt, stitching my "August Walk" landscape.
If we get a dry day we hope to go blackberry picking, it looks like a good year which is maybe because of our wet August!

Before I forget I must say thank you to Twiglet for her blog award.

P.S If you click the image you can see the whole picture, I have uploaded the extra large size but it won't fit on the page!

'August Walk'

I have spent most of the week out and about sketching, in between the summer showers!
The wheat is ready to be cut, it looks dry and dusty now.

I love the colour of the yellow fields against the lush green trees.

There are so many interesting patterns in the landscape, I wish I had more time!

Recently, I have been asked by an art studio in Leamington Spa if I could run some weekend workshops, so when I get more details I will let you know.

Landscape Painting

The first week of the summer holidays and all we have had is cloud and rain!

My sister and I took our dogs and children for a walk through the fields and I not wishing to miss an opportunity, took some photo's of the landscape.

The fields had been full of blue flowers which I had sadly missed, but they had gone over to reveal a beautiful pale colour green, a perfect shade with the purple Borage and pink grass.
We walked to Kenilworth castle and I love this view through the trees.

When we returned home I started to do some more painting and sketching inspired by our walk.
Fingers crossed the weather improves!

Abstract Stitching & Sketching

Here are a few more brooches to share with you, these are stitched again as I would paint, lots of small stitches dancing,flowing and creating rhythms of colour.

As we have had a few sunny days, I managed to do some drawing in our local park, with dog, son, husband and rugby ball!
I found a shelterd spot to sit in the sunshine and sketched very quickly,these drawings may develope into paintings.

Tomorrow I am off to London to stay with my sister,I'm so excited!
We are planning a visit to Spitterfields Market on Thursday as it has lots of antique stalls on that day and I think it has vintage clothing too.
Also to visit, if we can get in, the http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/vangogh/ to see the Van Gogh exhibition.


Oh and if you would like to enter my draw,do leave a comment in the post below, it finishes on Saturday.

I hope you have a lovely week.

M x

Textile Landscape

I'm making slow progress on the stitching, my sewing machine is being serviced this week, not before time, its been in constant use and needs a bit of love and care.

So I am adding hand embroidery to my picture which I really enjoy, very relaxing and I can multi task, watching a good film.

On Sunday I was watching Pride And Prejudice for about the sixth time, I love the rain scene!

I always seem to connect more to the piece when I start the hand stitching, it gives a rhythm to my composition.

The picture above shows it displayed, balanced on my bookcase, I'm not sure yet how I will display this larger piece, any suggestions welcome and also any more good films to stitch to!

The World Is Full Of Stitches

With the weather so, well rubbish actually, I have been stitching away.

Another landscape to add to my collection.

I must say thank you to a few other stitchers,

cathy cullis for including me in some of her wonderful mosaics.

Kirsty from Me plus Molly who very kindly donated feathers,beads and other lovely things to the school I work at.

Carolyn from Love Stitching Red who tagged me, for six summer sillies, Carolyn, I can't think of anything except embarrassing my children by dancing!!

I hope the sun is shining soon, it would be nice to do a bit of outside painting.

Have a good week.x

Yellow Field Of Stitches

The last couple of days I have been a taxi service for my daughter.

We celebrated her fourteenth birthday yesterday and I'm still wondering where those years have gone?

I have managed to do some stitch work on my landscape, so here it is.

These were the fields I walked through in April , you may have seen my sketches.

Has something happened to blogger?

It's not showing my flickr link and other links, I know some other blogs are the same.

I'm always worried I have done something wrong!

A Magic Land

My colours this week have filtered from one piece to another.

Firstly my winged creature which initially inspired my colour pallet, it started with the shimmering turquoise wings.

Then I moved on to my tree brooch which is a commissioned piece, then following that my landscape.

I have a few more commissioned pieces to finish and then hopefully I can get some painting done.

I hope to bring you Shopping List Saturday tomorrow evening.

Have a great weekend.x

Work In Progress New Landscape

Last night I started on a new landscape, again working from my sketch book.

I am building up my layers of fibers and then working over the top with stitches.

I am stitching as I would draw or paint.

You never know at this stage how it will develop.

Fingers crossed it will work!

New Landscapes

Today I finished this landscape, it measures 15cm x 12.5cm approx.

I hand dyed the wool and used a combination of wool and silk fibers.

This landscape is from my imagination, or perhaps it's a dream.

I have just realized that this is my 99th post!

So I think it will be fun to have the customary give away on my next post.

I had better get busy.