The joy of colour!!

A picture heavy post this week, and to be honest pictures speak louder than words!

I have returned from spending the weekend visiting the Kaffe Fasset 50 years of colour exhibition in the Scottish city of Aberdeen. His first solo exhibition in Scotland.

I made it by the skin of my teeth, the final day of the exhibition.I had been excited since I heard of its imminent arrival but had had to wait till Saturday to experience for myself the glorious explosion of Fasset technicolour!!

 As a textile student in the 1980s  Kaffe Fasset was hugely influential, both to me and many other textile students
 I still adore his use of pattern, and opulent colour. As soon as I walked into the exhibition I was filled with Joy.... The joy of colour!

Each section was themed,

faces and animals

squares

early works

with a huge inspiration wall

And insights into how traditional Kilim designs were translated into knitted designs.

Abstract and geometric patterns in both knitted and quilted designs

fabulous florals.... and  his trademark cabbages

the displays were mouthwatering

I adore this fruity chair covered in fruity needlpoint. The  duck egg blue is so beautiful!

The quilts were amazing

This one I particulary loved.

Also  on show were some of  his wonderful paintings used to inspire his work.

I love this painting......

And this knitted hanging!

having studied Tapestry weaving at University the above tapestry really blew me away.

And finally these two little needlepont plates..... how adorable!!

If you want to find out more about Kaffe Fasset I bought a copy of his wonderful autobiography which is well worth delving into.

Dreaming in colour

Linking up to paint party friday

Neocolor and painting without a brush

Brothers point cottage; painted without a brush

I did a post a couple of weeks ago on the wonder of neocolor crayons and some folks out there asked about them, what were they and what could they do?

here is a quick sketch made using them, they are great for outdoor sketching as they are so immediate

Once the sketch is done water is added, as much or as little as you like.

and some line added. I often use this type of sketch as a step towards something more experimental, which is where the painting without a brush come into it.

using my brayer and white gesso I paint over a roughly collaged background.I refer to the tones of my original sketch but without the constraints of a brush I am forced to be free with the paint.

I add colour using only the brayer, no brush allowed!
The lines are made using the side of a plastic stencil dipped in acrylic raw umber.

The thistles are painted using a piece of scrunched up paper towel.

and the finished painting, I did add a few drawn lines for the grass detail and scratched through some of the paint in areas to add interest.
The finished piece is much more free than the original sketch, as you can see I covered many of the lines I made with the raw umber as I thought them too heavy. Creating is a process and often I have little idea what direction things will go. Sometimes it is all a happy accident!

Linking up to the wonderful paint party Friday ;)

 Rubha nam Braithrean

coloured pencils, cereal boxes and the wonder of blogging.

Blogging is a wonderful thing!
Sometimes a blogpost fills you with a creative wow!
The immediate thought of, ' I must go try that now!!'
This strange experiment is the result of reading Lynne Hoppe post a couple of days ago on the artist Peter Rush
Peter uses old cereal boxes and coloured pencils to make the most fantastic cityscapes. Please take a look at his flicker link and prepare to be amazed at what you can do on the back of a cereal box!!
 There was something about the idea of making something from nothing, and the shape of the opened cereal box creating a strange shaped canvas which I loved. I think the pencil, just ordinary coloured pencils look very effective against the greyish, buff toes of the cardboard. I did add a little collaged bookpaper to the finished sketch for the sky and spread a little gesso over it.

This was a quick couple of hour sketch, and I really want to try collaging on cereal box card and perhaps sewing it when I have a little more time.

I used one of my photographs as inspiration.

Thank you dear Lynne for sharing and I will get back to eating my cornflakes :)

Neocolor berries

I have been using my neocolor crayons to draw my favourite Rowan berries. I love their rich colour

The Rowan tree is also a very magical and features in many folk-law tales.

This year there seems to be a bumper crop of berries. Perhaps because of the warm spring.

I have also discovered a wonderful new white marker. Posca pens, never used them before but I am now smitten, I have struggled finding a good white marker and this one may be the one!

September sunshine

Linking up to paint party friday

barefoot with the daisies

Hello!
Back from my holiday and blog break. The weather has been good and bad, but some days warm enough to kick of my shoes and feel the warm grass underfoot!.

I have sketched a little.

And been out and about with my camera.

I also have been in the Scottish borders visiting my Daughter who has re-located there. This is not her new house by the way!
It is the beautiful Floors castle situated on the outskirts of the lovely border town of Kelso.

It is apparently the oldest inhabited castle in Scotland. The home of the Roxburghe family and built in 1721.

It has beautiful gardens too. Formal walled gardens and lovely woodland paths to explore.

The landscape of the Scottish borders is very different to the highland mountain scenery. Soft rolling hills and gentle flowing rivers.
The whole landscape is lush and green.

River Teviot

The whole border region is steeped in history and the fertile landscape peppered with castles, abbeys and historical monuments.In the past this particular area of Scotland was fiercely fought over by England and Scotland and these stand as a poignant reminder of the areas turbulent past.

The 12th century Kelso Abbey

Hope to spend the next few weeks catching up on painting and checking what my favourite bloggers have been up to.