'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Friday 9 March 2012

Slowly getting back to normal…

thank goodness – by tomorrow I might even have some energy.

The college session on Wednesday was helpful – the advice was to keep on doing what I’m doing, scrap Prayer Flags which I’ve been increasingly unhappy with, and get some natural dyes/paints/inks to colour the pieces I want to colour.

So I have – except that the natural watercolours and oak gall/ genuine walnut inks haven't arrived yet. In the interim I have started an indoor piece for which I  can’t think of a name – brown paper, bleach, non-natural gold paint and hand-dyed thread bought from one of my fellow students. I’ll post a photo later when I’ve worked up the energy to take one.

This afternoon Wensleydale dragged me out to Mottisfont, for the exhibition ‘A Slice of Life’ – interesting works from Mottisfont’s own collection, and from that of Southampton Art Gallery. I may have mentioned before that Southampton has a brilliant collection of 20th century art – they reckon it’s the best outside London - and Mottisfont’s isn't bad either. Degas, Hockney, Hepworth, Sickert, Lanyon, Spencer, Goldsworthy, Long, Piper, Sutherland, both the Johns, – and lots more. Mostly small, apart from a great George Shaw drawing, mostly British, mostly drawings and prints. And of course there’s a good coffee shop – and daffodils in the grounds. If you do visit you should look out for the bird feeders behind the entrance kiosk for another brilliant show…

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