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Playing with images

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Capturing a fleeting moment in a way which one day will take you right back to that place, the smells, the sounds, the feeling. There is magic in photography. I love taking photos and I think something in me helps me take some sweet shots with the occasional flukey great one, but I don’t really know why I like the ones I like, and I know there is so much more to learn. So I have just taken a class with photographer extraordinaire Susannah Conway, learning more about composition, light, and all sorts of other things I never really think much about.

I photographed my cup of tea, and then played around with some editing tools. Which one do you like best? And which one do you like least? I’d love to know which and why.

Original photo:

Playing with images 4567892175 fb38e91d57 o
Altered versions 1-12:

 

1.Playing with images 4567837945 80bc1ea96d o
2.Playing with images 4568473926 914076035c o
3.Playing with images 4567837789 38a3b3dd45 o
4.Playing with images 4568473762 22670b4849 o
5.Playing with images 4567837575 8e48382679 o
6.Playing with images 4568473564 1d0146b408 o
7.Playing with images 4567837367 977d71304c o
8.Playing with images 4568473356 82034faa6b o
9.Playing with images 4567837183 54ec9fc699 o
10.Playing with images 4567837089 023f96fb22 o
11.Playing with images 4568473096 7dcd1eac3a o
12.Playing with images 4568472932 f4889c7ba7 o

I quite like the original photo, but think altered version number 12 is my favourite. I love the difference in texture either side of the diagonal line, and the pattern in the bottom right corner would make fantastic wrapping paper!

Photography actually runs through my family (right back four generations) so maybe this is just awakening something that has always been there… more on that another day.

The most wonderful piece of bad luck

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A volcano erupted in Iceland sending a cloud of volcanic ash across Europe yesterday. You may have heard about it, seen the pictures, thought it bizarre.

4619861760_2d2486cfdb_zRangarvallasysla, Iceland Credit: Neil MacWilliams

As the cloud has filled the airspace, the airports have shut down one after the other and it has left an estimated 600,000 people stranded – including me! I was in Geneva, supposedly for a day. But my flight back was cancelled and the earliest I can get home to England is Monday evening on the Eurostar train. So what is a girl to do but head to Paris for an impromptu weekend of cafes, galleries, wandering and dreaming?? Oh life is hard.

It’s quite odd actually as I had been dreaming about going to Paris in the spring. Unusually for me I  had no plans this weekend, and I accidentally bought an ‘anytime’ instead of fixed time return train ticket back from London so even that is still valid when I get back. I only had my handbag with me, so no laptop = no work, and no clothes = excuse to buy new ones. Funnily enough what I did have in my handbag were every girl’s true travelling essentials: credit card, camera, chocolate, sketchbook and mascara. What more do I need? And an old friend from the US just happens to have also got stranded and is heading here right now. What a wonderful piece of bad luck. Even ash clouds have a silver lining…

If you also happen to be in Paris or have any tips on must-visit ateliers, flea markets, cafes or stationery shops please do share!

A bientôt.

More Paris posts here:
Paris je t’adore
Shopping in Paris
Travelling Light
Random acts of generosity

Bloom True

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Thought I’d share a piece from a series I am working on – ‘Bloom True’. The smells and colours of the emerging spring made me want to paint flowers.

Acrylic on canvas (20"x16") Bloom True
Acrylic on canvas (20″ x 16″)

Recently I was introduced to the incredibly talented Flora Bowley in a post by Lorrie Spotts, and instantly loved her work.  I was intrigued to then discover she is teaching a workshop at Squam in the autumn, entitled… Bloom True! It felt like a sign so I have recklessly signed up for Squam and will be heading back to the US for more creative fun with lovely American gals later in the year. I have also signed up for a photography workshop with Susannah Conway and wabi-sabi paper with Judy Wise.

Anyone else going? It’s going to be so much fun.

But for now, I am living in the moment of gorgeous sunshine, long mountain bike rides and painting – bliss.

Happy weekend!

seduced by Japanese ink painting

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Cherry blossom (Japanese ink on rice paper 12" x 6")Cherry blossom (Japanese ink on rice paper 12″ x 6″)

When I started learning Japanese 15 years ago I used to stay up until the early hours of the morning in the college library copying characters from an old dictionary, dipping my brush in juicy ink, sweeping it across the rice paper and marvelling at the words that spilt out. Such a beautiful script, each word a picture in itself. The therapeutic quiet rhythm of shaping the text belied the speed at which each piece was created.

Although sometimes it is good to work on a creation for days, weeks, months even, there is something fundamentally satisfying about finishing a piece in under a minute. I took out my old brushes again yesterday and tried this with sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) with a little help from Takumasa Ono.  As the ink flowed through the bristles the memories flooded back.

Heron (Japanese ink on rice paper 9"x9")
Heron (Japanese ink on rice paper 9″x9″)

Girl (Japanese ink on rice paper 12"x9")Girl (Japanese ink on rice paper 12″x9″)

Spring is…

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…trying to emerge from a long dark winter, seedlings wiggling up through the ground, trees preparing their new wardrobe, daffodils blooming courageously.

Snowdrops and Daffodils. Credit: Dominic Alves

Snowdrops and Daffodils. Image credit: Dominic Alves

 Is it just me, or do they look like they are whispering secrets?  

“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

This feels like a good time to reflect, breathe in and look forward. A time for something new…

A Homemade Life

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Just wanted to introduce you to this delicious foodie/love-of-things-homemade book ‘A Homemade Life’, as author Molly Wizenberg has just announced a new book tour of the US. As I am not planning to be in the US in April I sadly can’t go to any of them, so I thought I’d tell you about it instead, so maybe you could pop along and indulge for me! The dates are on her award-winning blog Orangette, along with lots of tasty recipes and ponderings about food and life.

A Homemade life by Molly Wizenberg

Following the death of her father, Molly took herself away to Paris, a city that ‘held vivid memories of a childhood trip with her father, of early morning walks on the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarter and the taste of her first pain au chocolat’. There she discovered that her heart was in the kitchen, and she goes on to tell a tale of cooking, eating, reading and love (with recipes!).

It’s funny, reflective, inspiring, and you can almost taste the vanilla bean buttermilk cake. Yum.

Books of the week

ART: Manolo Blahnik Drawings by Anna Wintour  – a collection of sketches of some of the world’s most gorgeous shoes.
ADVENTURE: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – ‘one woman’s search for everything’.
STORY: The Other Hand by Chris Cleave – on the back cover it says ‘We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book. It’s a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it’. I won’t spoil it either; let’s just say that it is stunning and shocking, sad and uplifting in equal measure.

Noise in silence

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graffiti

What better breath of fresh air during the working day than a quick gallery fix? One of the most wonderful things about London is that apart from special exhibitions, all the museums and art galleries are free, and no-one tries to sell you anything (except when you exit via the gift shop…).

Anyway, finding myself at a conference near the financial district, I snuck into the corner gallery of ‘Bloomberg SPACE’ to see Damien Deroubaix’s contribution to the new Comma series of special commissions. 

Enitled ‘ A place to lose oneself’, the blurb says ‘The visual noise that Damien Deroubaix energetically orchestrates in his paintings, sculptures and woodcuts is overwhelming: brutal, deafening, sharp and dissonant.’

His piece is a tree.

But somehow it is more than that. It is an angry tree, and in the silent white gallery space, it really does create visual noise. Not my ‘taste’ and perhaps not the most peaceful lunchbreak, but certainly a thought-provoking one. 

It made me think about what makes me like some art and not other, and in the end I think it comes down to whether it speaks to me, tells me a story, and whether the colours and textures draw me in. 

How do you know what you like?

Knitting for good

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Yesterday I added my two stitches to the world’s biggest knitted textile! Force of nature Ingrid Wagner had brought her 4-metre long(!) needles to the Twisted Thread Stitch and Craft Show at Olympia, showcasing her particular style of ‘big knitting’ and raising money for Breast Cancer Care.

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Ingrid holds the Guinness World Record for knitting with the biggest needles, which were over twice as long as she is tall! She said that it made her feel like she was a character in The Borrowers – either that or she was knitting a scarf for a Big Friendly Giant…

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Ingrid also makes divine wall hangings and rugs out of this ‘big knit yarn’ which is about 4cm wide.

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Watch out for the giant needles coming to a town near you, and knit a stitch or two for Breast Cancer Care. There’s nothing like women supporting women.

Hanging out with London’s emerging new craft talent

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One school night last week I blissed out at ‘Craft London: the exhibition of emerging new talent’ in Clerkenwell. I headed over to the cosy gallery space of Craft Central for wine and chat with some of London’s most talented makers. Having been challenged to rediscover their city and represent this visually, the exhibition was as varied as the capital’s 32 boroughs, and reflective of the city’s incredible cultural diversity.

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French-born illustrator Julie Vermeille (above) translated her love of fairytales into 3D characters living in her installation, creating a fantasy world of fabric pigeons, lace clouds and stringy stuffed people based on children’s book Arthur’s Seat. Quirky and cute.

Ruth Babajide celebrated her West African heritage with a range of loud, colourful ceramic storage units, in stark contrast to the delicate and peaceful collection of hand thrown porcelain whispers created by Hannah James (below).

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Jessica Light is a woman on a mission to revitalise the dying craft of tassel-making. Jessica was responsible for the ornate embroidery on Buckingham Palace’s balcony hangings, and now works with designers such as Vivienne Westwood to find a new life for a centuries-old skill.

But my favourite of all was the set of magical cobwebs created by Katie Barton. ‘Spun’ from metallic embroidery thread and fixed into jewellery cases, they took two days to install and will be destroyed after the exhibition. Katie, who describes herself as having an obsession with making repulsive things beautiful, said she loved the ethereal nature of piece. I felt simultaneously privileged to have seen these gorgeous creations, and sad to know that they will soon be swished away to nothing, as if they were never there.


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We entered into the age-old ‘what is art, what is craft?’ debate, swiftly followed by a lively discussion on the pros and cons of being university trained vs being a self-taught artist.

These are topics I shall return to, as I ponder them often.  What are your thoughts?

The exhibition also featured fabric craft, ceramics and jewellery from Laura Felicity, Jo Davies, Ana Meneses, Daniele Geargeoura, Yuki Sasakura Assiter and Alexandra Simpson.