Freezin in......

not exactly an artist's garret but my room is certainly on the cool side at the moment which is a nuisance as ideas have been buzzing.  I have been making pages, using my own photographs. There is a Ro Bruhn type book in my head but the fabric pages are coming on much more slowly.

The indefatigable Seth Apter has just published a list of blogs called The Art Blog Directory.
I am honoured and a little scared to have been included.  So if you have a couple of minutes, hours, days to spend, follow the link and enjoy.
I have also just signed up for a continuation off the Magic Diaries with Jude Hill.  Watching Jude work  and listening to her thoughts have become an important part of my life.  I am working on another large piece called (for the moment ) "Earth" but something in me doesn't want to share it just yet.My "Space" cloth is a comfort in this weather.
Hoping the weather doesn't keep us away from the first Embroiderer's Guild of the year tomorrow.

First one.....

off the list.  Enjoyed the film Quartet. Perfect entertainment for a chilly afternoon. I have to thank Margaret Cooter for her post about sketching at the National Gallery. Here. I thought "Oh I could never do that, attempt to draw in public" . I love the National Gallery site so I followed the link and before I knew it I had produced this..

 

Original Gainsborough here.

I as thrilled because I didn't know I could do this.  I was so thrilled a couple of days later I tried again.

 Original Bellini here

The site is wonderful because you can zoom right in to the paintings, nearer than you can get in the gallery in a way. I don't think I am going to be the next Grandma Moses butI must keep trying, who knows, I might pluck up courage to do it in public.

Just found....

another exhibition to add to The List.  "Fate, Hope and Charity" at the Foundling Museum.Thanks to Hens Teeth.

Apparently the UK team won the Ice Sculpting competition but I can find a picture of the actual finished piece.but lots of photos here

Snow has just arrived. Guess who has tickets booked for cinema and theatre this week. Amazing how it times itself to Monday morning.

This is a cold sort of thing I did some time ago,

Not as planned......

My friend was still unwell so I set off for the Tate on my own.  It was one of those lovely soft grey days in London so I enjoyed the walk down Whitehall and along the river. Past Westminster Abbey

and seeing the less famous side of the Houses of Parliament.

but when I arrived at the Tate I found they were booking tickets for 3pm in the afternoon.  Ah!! A 4 hour wait. Moral don't leave exhibitions until the day before they close.
On the train  I had read that there was an Ice Festival at Canary Wharf this weekend. I can see Canary Wharf from my bedroom window but I have never been there so that seemed like a good idea.
Wow.  Only the taxis tell you this is London.

The festival had only just started and the contestants were getting to grips with huge blocks of ice. There were saws

strange wooden blocks

and lots of chain saws

It was fascinating. I took loads of photos so that I can check what the blocks turned into.
There was a very elegant pair of street performers.

 I returned my usual stamping grounds of central London, a quick visit to the London Graphic Centre and Cass Art and then home with a new label maker and a clutch of sketch pads. I will have to try and do better with the rest of the things on my list but although it was not what I planned it was an interesting day. 

Two photos to play with. Enjoy.

Getting started...

These are a few of the samples I have made from the Creative Jump Start. 

It am enjoying being prompted to try things and these are a couple of pages from my "journal" (mess about book)

The List

I was going to London today in a last dash to see the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Britain but my friend is not too well so we are going to try for tomorrow instead. Because I so often leave exhibitions until the last day or miss them altogether, this year,  I have made a list of things I would like to see.  Here it is.

Exhibitions

Pre Raphaelites ENDS January 13  Tate

Anthony Gormley ends 10 February White Cube, Bermondsey

Ice Age Art  opens 7^th February British Museum

Rain room Barbican until 13^th March Barbican

Pompeii opens 28^th March British Museum

Bowie March 23-July 28  V&A

Vermeer & Music June 26- Sept 8 National Gallery

Australia  Sep 21 –Dec 8 RA

Treasures of Royal Courts March 9-July 14  V&A

Manet 26 Jan to April 14 RA

Paul Klee = Tate Oct 15 Tate

Colombian Gold Sept 12 British Museum

Lowry June 25- Oct 20 Tate

Summer Exhibition RA

Fate hope and Charity 26th Jan - 17th May The Foundling Museum

On Going

Dennis Severs House 

The Wallace Collection

The Geffrye Museum

Turner Gallery, Margate

Textiles

Textiles in Focus Feb 15/16/17

Prism 29 May – 1^st June

Knit & Stitch 10/13 October

It would appear there is a Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia March 14/17.

Cinema

Quartet

Les Miserables.

An of course

Kentwell

Not a resolution you understand, more a wish list.

Happy New Year

This was taken from the television. The end of the wonderful year for London and hopefully the start of a good one for all of us.
Last night I went to see "Merrily We Roll Along" at the Menier, a Christmas treat. I was a little disappointed in some aspects,  I have magical memories of a production long ago but loved listening to some of my favourite Sondheim melodies.
I arrived in London with time to spare so I took a little walk , I usually only see London at night as I leave on the train so this was a treat. Some place you might recognise.

An unusual view of Southwark Cathedral, the bells were ringing which made it even more special.

Christmas decorations still around

(The lights were not blue by the way). Even HMS Belfast looked festive.  How do you decorate a battleship?

I don't do Resolutions... no will power but I have signed up to Nathalie Kalbach's  Creative Jump Start, so we will see how long the will lasts.

 There has been a short intermission since I stared this post. Computer threw a hissy fit when I was perparing it.  I will publish as was and finish it later.
Yesterday was a hastily arranged visit to the  "Bronze" exhibition at the Royal Academy. How is it you know for ages that am exhibition is coming, has opened and then ....oh! it closes on Saturday! It was well worth the dash. We started the day with a look at Fortnum and Mason's windows. I am afraid I was a bit disappointd this year Dick Whittington hasn't enough tinsel and sparkle for me.

We did just pop in for a little masochisitic visit to the Food Department, the chocolate and the cakes and we wondered who buys a box of six Cristmas Crackers at £250???

The on to the RA.  You can see here the  figure of a Dancing Satyr, brought up in fishermans nets which opened the exhibition. I really loved this head by Constantin Brancusi

and  a small Giacommeti called  "the Cage"

So much to see, my only criticism was the labelling. The labels were about the A5 size and in a crowded exhibtion impossible to read.
After lunch we strolled through the Burlington Arcade

and onto Bond Street

Cartier had just wrapped the whole building.

Just finished........

"Un Lun Dun" by China Mieville.

 Loaned to me by my a son as being in the "suitable for mother" category it is actually written for children/young adults (which is probably why he thought it was suitable).  It is the best read I have had in a long time.  Exciting and funny it sparks the imagination.
Mr Mieville "has indicated that he plans to write a novel in every genre,^[2]"
I understand from my son that I definitely would not like some of his books so I told him to let me know if he, Mieville, ever attempts chick lit .

P.S. I would have been interested in "Supersized Earth" on BBC last night but the "background" music was so loud I couldn't hear what the man was saying.  Why do they do this????

More magic......

One of the things that suprised me yesterday at the Hollyood exhibiton yesterday was the attention to detail on every level of the cotumes, but the thing that really dropped my jaw were three beaded dresses made in the 1930's.
This one was worn by Joan Crawford in "The Bride Wore Red".

The dress was covered in 2 million beads which weighed 30lbs. I gleaned this information here
The film was made in black and white so it's full colour glory wasn't seen on film.

Just look how it hangs. I wish I had a close up to show how the beads followed the lines of the dress, I wish I could try it on, I wish I had the figure to..........

It's magic....

I have just returned from the excellent Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V&A Museum..  In the past I have been the wardrobe mistress for various amateur musical productions (I count "Camelot" as my finest hour) so of course I was fascinated be the processes which go into costuming a film. But it was the film lover who was most thrilled by this exhibition.  To stand so close to the  costume which Vivienne Leigh "made" from the cutains in "Gone With the Wind"

or

Greta Garbo as Anna Karenina gave me goosebumps.
And as for this .........

It is one of the best exhibitions I have seen ... great combination of memories and new information.

Family tree..

 I think am I am delighted with the new resource on the Find My Past site. They have added a selection of British Newspapers from 1790 - 1950.Not only have I found the death notice for my Gt x 3 Grandfather but I have I have found a source of fascinating reading.
  This obituary caught my eye...
"...of Covent Garden Theatre. After an illness of three weeks, caused by excessive inward debility, brought on, as it is supposed, by a diseased liver, and which at last attached itself to the lungs, he breathed his last a few minutes past eight o'clock on Thursday evening, at his house in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury. He was in his 47th year, and has left an amiable widow and seven young children to lament their loss, for whose future support there is reason to fear he has not made the most slender provision. Mr E. was highly esteemed by all who knew him, and everyone who has been a frequenter of the theatre is well aware of his superior talent as an actor."  Seeds of a whole novel here I think.
Poor woman.
The reason I only think I am delighted with this resource is that I can see me spending even more hours glued to the screen.
The little church at Crosscanonby in Cumberland where my Gtx2 Grandparents were married.

Freezing.....

but worth it.  Yesterday was the NFL Fan Rally in Trafalgar Square and the weather had just hurled itself into winter but the promise of Wes Welker and Tom Brady had me donning the layers, I was there early enough to be right at the front, necessary at my height. Oh my goodness.

The crowd yelled for Gronkowski to "spike the mike" so he did, someone captured it.

Sam Bradford and the Rams team

Mr Kraft said he could see a franchise team here within the decade.  Maybe for my 80th birthday?
Super day, this was the closest I could get to "Wes", display in the Nike store

 So looking forward to the match today, hope it's a close one.