Pottery head I made over twenty years ago. It’s planted up with straggly snapdragons this year but this photo from two years ago looks better. I really need to get out in the garden but I don’t seem to have the strength to sort things out at the moment. I’m fed up and I know gardening would help but the heat over the lost few days has made me really weary. It’s been close to 30°C. At least my hubby has been watering plants. Today? We are expecting heavy rain showers, so the plants will get a little water.
I think this man sized puppet at Etruria canal festival a couple of weeks ago was meant to be a preying mantis. I didn’t get the details of the puppet theatre company but they are obviously very skilled makers! I think this is absolutely beautiful (sorry if you don’t like insects), the colours are amazing and the way it is painted with such great detail is a tour de force. If anyone knows the name of the puppiteers please let me know, put it in the comments. Then I will edit this post and include it here. X
Mother and baby macaque Monkey sculpted from an old tree stump. This is at the entrance to the Trentham Monkey Forest. We went a couple of weeks ago and saw a few babies, a bit older than this one. They were swinging off branches and twigs and learning to climb. I think the guide said there have been eight babies born so far this year.
They are happy in our climate because they originate high up in the mountains in North Africa so they are used to wide temperature variations. The monkey forest is part of a group of parks, the rest are in France, and they are working to conserve the Macaque population. Worth a visit.
Monkey made by willow weaving, tree trunk carving, bottle kiln shaped bug hotel and a large house shaped bug hotel. These are in the entrance compound of the Monkey Forest before you actually walk around the money enclosure. It’s interesting to see the different ideas that the sculptors have come up with.
Today was the last day of the Fine Art BA (honours) degree shows, and art foundation show at Staffordshire University. It’s an annual event and I have tried to get there most years since I graduated from there myself.
I think this year the body of work was excellent. There seemed to be a resurgence of painting and there was some beautiful art. There was quirky, humourous and poignant art too. Dotted throughout the show were “Mushroom Creatures” for a piece called “the oddity of connection”. They were small felted wool figures with mushroom heads or hairstyles. Very unusual. A bit like mythological creatures, I think they had won first place in the degree show.
I’m so glad I was reminded to go to see the shows. And lovely to see such a variety of styles, it takes me right back to when I was there all those years ago.
A photo of a lion at Saltaire by my friend Timothy Hargreaves.
I think I remember him telling me that the lions at Trafalgar square in London were made by the same sculptor. There are on the hill going down to the entrance of Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire, and they look extremely magnificent in the Spring sunshine. I wish we had sculptures like this nearby. It’s very impressive and I think Victorian?
Just down the hill from the metal stag in the Dorothy Clive garden was another stag we found. It was made of willow withies I think.
There were plants growing up through it which looked like clematis. I guess it will look amazing when the flowers are in full bloom.
I have gone a bit botanical in these last few posts. I have enjoyed getting out. I don’t go to many places anymore, and with my new camera on my phone I have taken an excessive lot of photos.
You may notice there is a brown area towards the top right of the photo? That’s because I’m waiting for a phone case and the one I’m using is too big, so the edge of the cover is overlapping the camera lens.
When I was younger we used to go camping a lot. I can recall many adventures over a few years. On one occasion we decided to go cyclo camping. We took a train to Wales and cycled over to a campsite. But when we got there I realised we didn’t have the tent just the fly sheet and poles! We had a chat with someone who was already there and he kindly let us attach our flysheet to the back of his tent. We spent a cold night under it and in the morning decided we couldn’t continue. We did not have enough money to buy a new tent and carry on so we caught the train home!
Another time we drove down to St Ives. The campsite was on a field above the town and we spent a few nights there. On the last night there was a howling gale. My hubby stretched out and put his foot through the zip at the front of the tent! We knew we would get soaked if rain got in, so I got out my sewing kit, I had a torch in my mouth (hubby had gone to sleep) so I sewed up the front of the tent to hold it shut. I think that was our last night there.
We got a new tent and went to Grizedale forest in the lake district. It was a sculpture park and I remember walking around the forest trying to find all the sculptures, these included ones by Anthony Gormley I think. We also cycled up to Hawkshead and from and to Windermere where we travelled on the train.
The last trip I remember was in the car. We went to Anglesey and camped at Red Wharf bay. We had borrowed a big six berth frame tent, which we had never used before. It was only after an hour of trying to put it up that I noticed the built in curtains in it were on the OUTSIDE! We had to start again. The other slight disaster was my hubby backing the car up next to the tent. He drove over the saucepan we had taken with us.
I think that’s enough for one night. Safe camping!
In a display case, trapped like a tiger in a cage. Black and brown tabby sculpture. Little legs, massive tail. Iove this piece of cat sculpture at Salts Mill in Saltaire, Yorkshire. I think the technique is scraffito? Where you have a thin layer of slip pover a different colour. When it’s dry you can carve through it to reveal the underlying colour. A purrfect decoration for this wild tabby!
Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt was Marble. I thought of drawing glass marbles but then saw a programme about Michealangelo last night. It had information about the rivalry between Davinci and Michealangelo. I didn’t know both had Sculpted David. So I drew the bust of David that I found on the Internet. I used felt pens so it’s not really smooth enough. Fifteen minute sketch.
Mallaband-Brown 