Bridget Riley

On Friday we had the pleasure of attending the opening of the Bridget Riley Curves exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion; doesn't that sound delightful?

It was indeed fun, interesting to move from the serene cool view from the balcony above, 

down to, and through, the bruising cacophony of the in crowd seeing and being seen, glasses of wine delicately tilted as ears reached avidly for the latest witticism, then .....

...... into the cool curves of Riley's early works. They dazzle and delight with the singing nature of colour, even those that are simply composed of warm and cool greys. Some I found quite entrancing, others, the more recent works, I was less sure about

but with so many wandering round, it was hard to feel her works the way I believe they were intended to be felt, moving in and out of the shimmer of colour playing with more colour. I shall go back at a later date, in the quiet, with the cool light of the sea behind me, and see how they feel then

this fine jacket belonged to a gentleman who was most taken with my tattoo, cradling the top of my arm gently to present it to his lady friend ..... "did it hurt?" he enquired, "yes" .....  "how long will it last?" .... "as long as my skin I hope"

It was a gently teasing exchange, which pleased the three of us I think

Oh my!

I am almost beside myself with delight

Look what arrived in the post today

as recommended by

preceded by

and hopefully to be followed, at some stage by

though I don't promise to read all of Gilgamesh!

Klimt beginnings

So we had the pleasure of Wendy Dolan for two whole days on Saturday and Sunday, 

There was a plan, which was adapted from Klimt's Stoclet Frieze - the headdress on the dancing girl called Expectation

and layers of yummy fabric, all tacked together, the design traced off

And the basic design stitched into the reverse,

Then came the soldering iron, and the delicate peeling away of layer upon layer, carefully separating with a needle, then melting away, stitching, foiling, stitching some more. We were, at all times, guided by Wendy's patient, good humoured, informative, ably demonstrated and skillful support. 

I think we all did rather well. It is one of the great pleasures of doing a workshop with a group of friends, you get to see so many differing and beatiful interpretations of one idea.

And mine so far? It all depends on which way the light falls

Plenty more to do, but I'm rather happy with the start