A beautiful piece - relax and enjoy

 This is the most beautiful piece of music, 'Ave Maris Stella' by Edvard Grieg, sung by Voces8.  It will provide just a few minutes of peace in this busy world.

In case the upload doesn't work for you for some reason, here is the link.

Enjoy!

Exhibitions at Birmingham (part two) - Victorian Radicals

The other exhibition we saw while in Birmingham was Victorian Radicals at the City Museum and Gallery.  There are some really good stills of the exhibition on the site and much better photos than mine!  This exhibition again featured Pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings, but also ceramics, sculpture, enamels, jewellery, stained glass, textiles and clothes, from the Victorian age. Above is Paolo and Francesca by Alexander Munro.

This small ink drawing is King Arthur and the Weeping Queens by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Again, being able to get up close meant we could see so much detail.

This is a sketch for a textile design by William Morris and it was beautiful.  

One of William's daughters, May Morris was a skilled embroider and helped in Morris and Co.  Her embroidery is featured on this dress.

You can see it a little more clearly here.

This necklace was much brighter in real life.

A sketch of a boy used in Rossetti's The Beloved.  The painting is in the Tate here.

'The Last of England' by Ford Madox Brown is full of details, from the cabbages hanging at the front, to the children with their mother behind the main couple and the child inside the mother's shawl.  Apparently the pink ribbons took the artist four weeks to paint.

Kate Bunce's 'The Keepsake' featured the most stunning dress materials although you can't really see them that well in my photo. 

I do like the Persian pottery of William de Morgan - all those lovely blues!  (The 'Medea' by his wife was featured in the Scent exhibition in my previous post).

Wouldn't these tiles look lovely in a bathroom or kitchen?

This exhibitions showcased some wonderful work by some very talented artists and craftspeople.  I was really pleased to have seen it and it was well worth the entrance price (£11.00).   The people we met in Birmingham were really helpful, (particularly when we had gone the wrong way to the train station) and were very friendly too.

Exhibitions at Birmingham (part one) - Scent and the Pre-Raphaelites

 Last Saturday, we headed off to Birmingham to see two exhibitions, one called Scent and the Pre-Raphaelites at The Barber Institute and the other called Victorian Radicals at Birmingham City Museum and Art gallery.  Our journeys there and back were awful as although we went by train, earlier trains had been cancelled so we were all squashed in like sardines and far from comfortable.  We have decided not to try travelling on a Saturday in future!

However, the journey aside, the exhibitions were really good.  I had last visited the Barber Institute around seventeen years ago.  We were able to really get up close and see lots of details that are missed when you look at reproductions in books. There were eleven paintings featured in this exhibition, some lent from other galleries.

Chris was fascinated by this painting 'Thoughts of the past' by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope.    

When you can get close, you notice the veneer missing off the drawer, lots of items on the table, the reflections in the mirror and all the details.  

Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the paintings which first got me interested in the Pre-Raphaelites.  He painted eight versions of this subject.  In this version, she has red hair.

'Medea' by Evelyn de Morgan was another painting full of fascinating details.

Some of the frames were as elaborate as the actual paintings they housed.

The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais had some incredibly vibrant colours.

This beautifully observed harebell is on the left on the painting, near the girl's hand. There was a podium where you could press a button and a scent would be released to go with a painting. One for this painting did smell like fresh grass, or hay.

I didn't much care for the central figure in Frederick Sandys' painting, 'Gentle Spring' but the details of the flowers and dandelions really grabbed my attention.

The gallery also houses this beautiful portrait by Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun of 'Countess Golovina'.  There is more information about the painting here. (This face reminds me of an actor, Julia Sawalha.) 

This is another lusciously coloured painting, The Blue Bower by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of one of his muses, Fanny Cornforth.  No reproduction can do the colours justice, as they really are vibrant.  I particularly like the blue and white background. 

Victorian Radicals will follow...

A frosty morning

The cold snap continues and I ventured into the garden armed with my camera this morning. I know this isn't really that cold, compared with other countries, but as our autumn had been so mild recently, this has taken me a bit by surprise. Above are buddleia leaves.

This is Rose Dannahue, which was still flowering in my previous post. 

Blueberry Blue Pearl.  The frost patterns are beautiful to look at. I had just finished insulating some of my pots before the cold weather arrived, so I was very grateful for that,

Rose Charles de Mills. 

Hydrangea Annabelle, who usually features on this blog with her gorgeous white flowers in summer.  However, I think her faded flowers tipped with frost are just as lovely, albeit in a different way. Apparently Storm Bert is on his way this weekend, but temperatures are due to rise.  No wonder we talk about the weather so much here in the UK - it is always so changeable...

What a difference a day made

As we are heading towards the end of November, I went out yesterday morning to see what colour I could find in the garden.  Above is hydrangea Vanille Sundae - those oranges and reds were really singing out.

Another hydrangea, Merveille Sanguine.

Rose Dannahue is still trying to flower.

Salvia Cerro Potosi growing through Magnolia Susan.

Liriope Muscari still holding on to some flowers.

There were even two raspberries - I ate the one at the top a few moments after I took the photo!

Rhodanthemum Casablanca had one perfect flower.

One of the Nemesia Melody series was also still flowering.  Still lots to enjoy, I thought. Then last night, we had snow.  It hasn't snowed in November for quite a few years... 

This morning when I went into the garden, the snow was melting, but everything looked bedraggled.

What a difference a day made! (Here's a link to the song sung by Dinah Washington, which has been in my head for a few days.) 

Autumn Colour

I have been enjoying the autumn colour in the garden. It has been rather dull and dry weather recently, but there is always something to lift the spirits.  Above is a hydrangea, with its gracefully ageing flowers, which remind me of old velvet.

This is Hydrangea paniculata 'Pinky Winky' with the flowers starting to turn.

The blueberry leaves are doing their fiery thing...

and I am enjoying these while I can - they will soon fall.

Salvia Cero Potosi has been flowering all summer and it still going.  The colour really is that vibrant - almost neon.

Then there is the elegance of the cyclamen hederifolium with the shades of green and silver on the leaves.

The 'cyclamen corner' on the patio is a very restful area.

There is always something to look forward to in the garden and here you can see the developing flowers of Hellebore Ericsmithii 'Winter Sunshine'.  

Finally, you may remember that I bought a large japanese anemone 'Ruffled Swan', which I had completely fallen in love with on someone else's blog.  I also bought two little plants online, just in case I couldn't find one locally, so now I have three.  One of the little ones has rewarded me with the prettiest flower now and this brings me joy every time I see it.  You can see the pale lilac/blue on the back of the petals.  Isn't it a beauty?

New gel printing techniques and other projects

For my sister's birthday card, I took inspiration from the new collage book I bought.  There is a post about it here.  I used some of my painted papers, cut the shapes out and decorated them.  I hope she liked it!

I have also been enjoying Clare Cosens Designs on Youtube. Her videos are clear and easy to follow and she is a great teacher.  I watched her video on layering using stencils and had a go myself.  My paints beaded up a little on the gel plate, rather than being a flat layer, but I like the end result. The secret with this technique is to let each layer dry thoroughly, before adding the next.

Here is my other experiment with this technique.  It is one I will use a lot, I think, although waiting for the paint to dry takes patience, especially when you want to add the next layer!

I really enjoyed the Gel Printers Summit where every day, a different gel printer presented a different technique.  Some really appealed to me, especially one by Sarah Jane Gordon.  She used seaweed,  stencils and fossils to create a layered print, and by using printing inks, which stay wet for a long time, you could work directly on the plate.   I had some printing inks which I use for lino printing, but I hadn't used them on the gel plate. They wash out with water so are much better than the inks I had to use at school and college, which could only be cleaned using white spirit.   

Here are some of my first attempts, using stencils and stamps. 

I do like the layering effect and I wasn't waiting for layers to dry, so it was a less time-consuming process.  Again, I am sure I will get better with practise.

The ghost prints were still rather nice too.  Gel Printers Summit gave me a lot of information and I shall revisit some of the videos as they were packed full of tips and techniques along with the projects. While gel plates are very forgiving and a beginner printer can make some amazing images, I hope that as I improve, I will make more considered decisions and end up with some lovely prints.