Oriel Mostyn Gallery

This morning I went back to the Mostyn Gallery which I’d visited yesterday as well. It has just been reopened after a complete makeover and I was so impressed. If you visit the website you can read all about it.

Here is a photo I took in the rain this morning and I had permission to take photos inside for my own use. I wish I could share some of these with you. The work shown is inspirational.

This was my favourite work and I think the sculptor was David Nash, there was no label on it. I’ve seen his work before at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. Find some of his work here at the Sculpture Exhibitions.

Have a look at the exhibitions here.

This is work done at the gallery by children from local schools.

Off-line

Computers are wonderful…. until something goes wrong. We had a letter saying that our electricity board needed to change the meters. They were supposed to do it 3 years ago, but never arrived. Unfortunately they came this time and asked me to switch off any computers I had on. I did, but I never thought of removing the router from it’s socket. When the electrician had finished and went on to his next job, I switched on my laptop to find I had no internet connection and nothing I did would bring it back. All my computers were the same and refused to believe I used Virgin.net. I wasted day one trying to get the Netgear Router to connect, decided to get a new one and chose a Belkin. I still couldn’t connect. I was determined not to pay anyone to come and set it up for me and after 3 days I’m back online.

In between I finished a piece of work I did in a class with Margaret Beal. I have a small room overlooking the estuary, grandly called – The Sunroom. It’s really only a narrow strip, but I decided to have a bit of fun and it now has a nautical look and I thought this piece had the right shapes and colours.

I loved the colours of the estuary and had to take a photo. It was rather cloudy, but the sun was just trying to shine through.

The tide left this old boat which has floated from somewhere. It has a big split at the back and will never float again, so I shall follow it with my camera as it deteriorates.

 

I love seeing the large tankers on the horizon like this, this one looked really good at sunset. 

Icing sugar castle

We have been having wonderful weather here in Wales, so I thought I would show a few photos I have taken recently. Above a photo of the castle during the day.

Here a castle made up of pink icing, taken yesterday evening as the sun was setting.

This was the sunset that created that lovely pink castle.

This is Karen Newby, an artist creating beautiful stained glass windows. For more about this artist please visit Croesew the North Wales Embroiders’ Guild blog.

SerenTex

I’m having a very busy week between one thing and another, but I did make time to go to Ruthin to have a look at the exhibition. It is quite a small one this time as the work is up in the small gallery in the entrance of the library. I found it rather difficult to park close by and was only allowed 1/2 an hour’s parking in the centre of the town. I think it’s worth a visit by locals interested in textile art, but would be disappointing if someone has travelled far especially to see it. Just a reminder, it is early closing on Wednesdays, so the Library will not be open in the afternoon.

I will now be posting full images of the work when I have time.

Design to Stitch

SerenTex Exhibition now on at the Ruthin Library Gallery until June 19th.

This is as far I got myself today. I dyed the background and built up the sandwich using tacking to hold it all together rather than the pins I would normally use. Tut tut!

I chose to make a rather large size and Janine thought it would have been better slightly smaller, but I’ll see how this one turns out and I might make a second one later. the timing of this class was perfect for me, just as I started taking a particular interest in quilting.

For more photos visit Croesew the North Wales EG blog.

Design to Stitch

It’s a lovely day here in Wales, the sun is shining brightly and it’s warm!

I’ve had a wonderful day once more and you will be thinking that all my days are wonderful won’t you? Well, on the whole , thankfully they are too. Today I went on a Guild Workshop called Design to Stitch taught by Janine Jones and she is one of our own Guild members who taught a highly successful City and Guilds , Design, Patchwork and Quilting course at  a local college for the last 7 1/2 years.

I will show you some of the things I did, but I have also put some photos on Croesew our Embroiderers’ Guild blog.

   

I used two sources of inspiration for my work. On the left is a design I created some time ago. I just love these colours, so my colours are based on this. I’ve had the image on the right for about 10 years and I have used it to inspire me more than once before. It was bought at a Knitting and Stitching show in Alexandra Palace from the lovely lady who made it. She was a well known textile artist from the UK - Margaret Nichols, who sadly passed away a few years ago.

But you will not believe how much has changed during the day of studying both colour and design source, which is exactly what Janine wanted.

 

  

I think the first is the one I will be using tomorrow for stitching, but I quite like the second – maybe rather busy. We prepared a lot of samples, but a few were failures and I had intended to make some more at home this evening. This is not going to happen, because I’m tired and if I carry on I won’t be able to do anything tomorrow. I need to do a few things for tomorrow’s course anyway, like preparing a more detailed plan and choose suitable fabrics. so I think I’d better stop nattering and get on with it.

Puffin Island

This is a photo I took this morning of Puffin Island(North Wales), which is in the Straights between us and Anglesey. It was the only place where the sun shone. Before they built the Conwy Marina a few years ago we had a wonderful clear view of Puffin and also a perfectly clear view of the horizon and spectacular sunsets we often get before they built the Deganwy Marina and the Quays Hotel. So instead of getting on with my creativity I spent time looking for images of the Puffins to show you and found the BBC You Tube video below amongst many others. I hope you enjoy it.

I have only once seen a Puffin on the beach here and I thought it was a lost penguin, so I rang the RSPBA to tell them and was told that I was probably looking at a Puffin that had flown from the island.

 

 

While I was having my morning coffee, I noticed this Heron quietly fishing and minding his own business, when along came this cheeky Jackdaw (I know some twitter will correct me if it’s some other blackbird) and sent him packing. We have a family of them around and they seem to think they own the place. The herons don’t like fishing near one of their own kind and will send them away, but for such big birds they seem to be afraid of the Jackdaws and the Seagulls and fly away as soon as they approach them.

The photo is not very good quality and it does seem as if the Heron is chasing the Jackdaw, but believe me it’s the other way around.

A fun day

My day started well by meeting Cath for a coffee in Llandudno. We last met ten years ago on a course at Queenswood School with Rosemary Muntus. After coffee we went to an exhibition of work by Betty Mills whose work includes botanical images and designs in watercolour and  also embroideries and baners. as I had to leave Cath there to save myself a parking fine I shall have to visit again.

Then a continuation of the work started at Mary’s Workshop on Tuesday all afternoon. The first 3 use watered down acrylics, but the last one uses silk dyes. I used the left over paint to continue with my journal pages.

Here are some of the pages in progress. The last page is more or less finished with the addition of fabric circles stitched for my rainforest project. The other pages use a stamp I bought from Trapsuutjiies at the Knitting and Stitching in Alexandra Palace last year and I also have some of Laura’s lovely fabric paints.

These are stamps I made myself. The first used layers of craft foam and the second are the stick on floor protectors for furniture legs which really work well.

 

I wonder if my colours were influenced by these pansies outside my window?

Sunset

Here is a beautiful sunset.

    

This is the effect of the sunset on my lounge. Can you see the reflection on the window? There are two images of the dock and the Quay Hotel.

Here you can see how the castle looks in the evening sun. The photos don’t really do it justice I’m afraid.

The town in the sunset.

My efforts from Mary’s Workshop yesterday, now waiting for some colour.

SerenTex

A taster from SerenTex. See more here.

We had another interesting workshop today taken by Mary. The work will be finished at the next meeting.

Betws y Coed

It was a beautiful afternoon at Betws y Coed and it was quite busy there. For such a small village it draws many visitors.

As you can see all these people enjoyed themselves by the river.

  

And I could not resist taking photos of the reflections.

This was the Air Ambulance that had landed on the football field, but I don’t think anyone was injured.

Some circles to finish off.

Rainforest exhibition work

At last I’ve finished the SerenTex rainforest exhibition work and I’m now free to play with something else for a while. Since I started to work on this inspiration I have wanted to work on my Journal, but I had to prioritise and finish my exhibits first, so I should imagine I will be working on my Rainforest Journal soon. But first things first! I’ve been ignoring all the housework and the whole place is in a mess because I have taken things out and not put them away as I should. So now things must be sorted.

Sundew 1

I’m very pleased with my digital art now it’s been framed, but of course the photo has reflections on the glass and it’s not showing up well.

Sundew 2

Sundew 2 is on stretched canvas painted a deep purple. It turned out slightly darker than intended, but it does bring out the work.

 

Sundew3

 

I’ve enjoyed working on them, but am very relieved to have finished a few days early.

Politics and a pastime

You might remember my beautiful Rhino?

Now I’m not a political animal but I do enjoy listening to them all trying to win our votes. We stayed up until about 4 am this morning and I whiled the time away by playing with my ‘Rhino’ among a few other things, just for fun.

 

I shall probably print some of them out and use in my journal.