Doddington Hall visit - Sculpture (part two)

For the second instalment of sculptures which caught my eye at Doddington Hall, let's start with this chilled out polar bear called 'Adrift' by Jonathan Loxley.  I particularly liked the contrast of the smooth finished marble of the bear and the rougher ice floe, which reminded me of some of Rodin's sculptures.

I would have happily taken this piece home, 'Pink and White circles' by Ellie Drake-Lee, as I do like a circle and this would look wonderful with alliums, or phloxes, as it was placed here. 

This leaf was another of my favourites 'Fall into Autumn' by Paul Burton.  I think this would fit well in most gardens. 

'Singing Lily Water sculpture' by Ian Gill gave a wonderful gentle sound as we walked round the more formal garden area.  

Another of my favourites was 'Earthlight Moon-Gazing Hare' , by Paul Burton because it featured a hare and circles.  I was really tempted by this one!

The colour of 'The Dream Keeper' by Jeremy Moulsdale caught my eye.

No-one could miss these orange glass 'flowers', but actually called 'Colour Catchers' by Neil Wilkin, which reminded me of Dale Chihuly's work.  They looked really impressive grouped together...

...but this smaller sculpture called 'Promise'  intrigued me more with the reflections.

I also liked the 'Lotus' water feature by Ian Gill which reminded me of the Magnolia fountain at Trewithen in Cornwall.  

'Wren celebration 2024' by Joel Walker also caught my eye.  Another one I would have happily taken home, but probably would have put inside the house, not in the garden.

Joel Walker's 'Swift Party' looked perfectly at home...

...'Swallow Bright - Birdbath' also by Joel Walker, was another sculpture that I would have happily taken home. 

'Come to Herald the Sun-time - House Martin Sundial', again by Joel Walker, looked very much at home. 

'Circle of Life' by Shaun Gagg appealed to me - circles and spheres.  

Finally, 'Slinky Fox' by John Cox, which looked very natural and was slinking towards the woodland area.  There were also four dog sculptures by Tanya Russell placed around the orchard and one, 'Running Working Spaniel', made me smile with the sheer joy it showed as it was bounding along.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of it although I thought I had done!  However, you can see it on her website here.  

There was a lot to take in and to enjoy.  There was also a very good selection of art works to appeal to everyone. Creativity in all its forms needs to be celebrated and this was a wonderful way to do that.

Doddington Hall visit - Sculpture (part one)

 Last Wednesday, we headed out to Doddington Hall, which is hosting a sculpture exhibition over the summer.  I took many photos, so will split them up into several posts.  If I can find or remember the number, I will add the name of the sculpture and the artist.  All of the sculptures were for sale but the prices reflected the creativity, the time they took to make and the costs of materials, as they should. However, I could dream and in my head, I spent a lot of money!

I do like hares, so this first one, 'Large Leaping Boxing Hares' by Martin Duffy was right up my street.

'Rain man' by Shaun Gagg was made out of nuts.

'Smoke - Life size whippet' and the 'Sitting greyhound' by Stuart Anderson were ones I would have happily taken home.  I do like the elegance of these dogs.

This bronze pangolin by David Cooke caused lots of interest as we went round.  

This horse, 'Stanley's Shoes', by Paul Pibworth, is made of of stainless steel plates which have letters stamped out of them.  

I really liked this idea.

These three large panels, 'Make a Wish' by Ian Gill warranted a closer look...

...the artist has bent the cut out pieces back, rather than removing them, to give a three dimensional effect.

More blue stained glass by Joe Szabo...

...and again.  It's the blue panes which captured my interest.

The bronze and steel 'Stag Head' by Nadine Collinson looked very much at home in the tree filled setting.

I would have loved to have taken the 'Corten Fern' by Ian Gill home with me too, but it was a little out of my price range.

It is a beautiful thing.

More photos to come...

Junk Journal July 2024

I took part in Junk Journal July, run by megjournals, where you are given a prompt for every day and then create a page based on that prompt (or not, depending how you feel!).  I made a little journal for this challenge and here are some of my favourite pages.  Above on the left is 'observe'  and on the right is 'scraps', which is what it says!

'Petals' is on the left, using photos of some of my roses and 'aged' is on the right, using old papers, tea-dyed papers and digikit images.  

'Free' is a simple page, using one of my favourite bird stamps and 'Tag' is on the right.  For the tag page, I was playing with some new rather gorgeous stamps from Paper Artsy, designed by Alison Bomber.

'Timeless' is on the left, using some of my hand carved stamps and 'Tip in' (where you add something that folds in or out to a page) on the right, where I used Alice in Wonderland illustrations.

For 'ephemeral' on the left, I used all sorts of tickets, bits of writing, and book pages and for 'tea-dyed', it was tea-dyed copy paper, and bits of tea bag as the background.

Finally, there is 'shine' with texture paste stars and then 'celebrate' with scraps of digikits, and a mushroom print which was done by a friend.  Chris said it looked like a chimney sweep brush!  It was an interesting challenge to work on, which I enjoyed.  

Meeting old friends and more flowers...

We had a nice day last Sunday, as Maria,  my friend from Canada, was over in England and we went to spend the day with her and her friend Nicole. I had seen her last year, so wasn't expecting her to come this year as well, but she did!  Maria and I have known each other since we were four and we just pick up where we left off every time we meet up.  Friends like that are rare and need to be held on to!   

We went to Uppingham, a small market town in Rutland, which is where Maria was based.  Above is the town square. When I was little, Uppingham was the nearest town to where we lived,  so it has fond memories for me.

Here is an ironmonger's shop, where a multitude of useful things can be bought.  It was Sunday, so some shops weren't open, but we had a wander round an antiques centre and then a gallery.

Maria gave us some beautiful flowers, which we are enjoying. Sunflowers, Chrysanthemums, a Red Hot Poker,  Alstromeria and a rather interesting flower which looks a bit like a miniature artichoke, but with an orange head.

You can see the interesting flower on the right.  I am very lucky to have another lovely bouquet to enjoy and it was a wonderful day.