Interconnections

So here I am in Scotland . . .

Sunset across Wigtown Bay

. . . but recently I was in Ireland where I was honoured to have been invited to open the Interconnections 4 tapestry weaving exhibition of Irish and Scottish tapestry artists.

I was also asked to be the keynote speaker at the Fine Art Weaving/ Fibre Art Symposium held at the the same time.

It was all part of the Roscommon Fibre Art Festival which included another tapestry weaving exhibition by the CTA – Contemporary Tapestry Artists Ireland – at King House in Boyle.

All in all it was a most exciting return to Ireland for me after a number of years and as I was staying in a house with four other tapestry artists, we had an intensely tapestry weekend and it was fantastic.

Huge thanks and congratulations to Frances Crowe https://francescrowe.com/ and Joan Baxter http://joanbaxter.com for organising this event.

The exhibition in Ireland continues until 14th May at Roscommon Arts Centre https://roscommonartscentre.ie/event/interconnections-4/ and it will then be travelling to Weston Park in Shropshire https://www.weston-park.com/events/category/exhibitions/ from June 4th to August 30th so anyone in England and Wales has a good chance of seeing the exhibition and I highly recommend it.

Also during this time (25th June – 20th August) I will have an exhibition of my own work at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre in Cwmbran where many of the tapestries will be https://llantarnamgrange.com/ interactive with audio being triggered by the actions of the viewer.

Metamorphosis in action at the Heallreaf 3 exhibition.

So you have two excellent reasons now to visit this part of England and Wales and update yourself on what is happening in the contemporary tapestry weaving world in theUK and Ireland. Don’t miss out.

from the PUP

New Tapestries and Coming Out of Lockdown

Two new tapestries finished and an exhibition re-opening – can’t be bad!

Firstly, the exhibition that is re-opening and running for an extended period is the Fabric of the North show at Kirkleatham Hall Museum in Redcar. It opens again on 18th May and will run until the end of 2021. My tapestries will only be there until October.

The first of the two new tapestries are “from the PUP” which will be on exhibition as part of the BTG Threads in Sheds show at Whitchurch Silk Mill from 11th September- 21st November 2021 and then Farfield Mill in Sedburgh from 5th January – 27th March 2022.

The second of the new tapestries is another interactive audio work for the Solway Branch of the British Tapestry Group exhibition at Gracefield Arts Centre from 11th September – 30th November 2021.

Short videos and more information about both these tapestries can be found on my Sound and Weave page.

Supported by an Artists Bursary from a-n the Artists Information Company

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tapestry design detail

Decisions, Decisions – Electric Brae

As we go into the New Year, 2021, I have been making decisions repeatedly about how I should proceed with the tapestry currently on my loom. The design development is based on a painting by Gordon Perfect's painting "Electric Brae", held in the Scottish Art Collection at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfires and Galloway.

My tapestry will be part of an exhibition there by the Solway branch of the British Tapestry Group later in 2021. They invited me to take part as I come from that neck of the woods. The criteria for the work was to respond to a selected work in the art collection but not to make a copy of it.

I selected this painting because not only do I like its colours and the textures created by Perfect's handling of the brush, but also because I have a strong memory of experiencing the illusion of the phenomenon known as the Electric Brae near Ayr on Scotland's west coast. The challenge for me was to find a way of representing the original work as a tapestry whilst also referencing my own experience of the subject - hence the in depth decision making.

I am not showing my design at this stage (other than the detail above) but can say that the tapestry will have an interactive audio element to it and one of the materials I am using is conductive thread. I am being helped with this aspect of the work by the funding I received as an Artists Bursary from a-n the Artists Information Company. The rest of my time spent on the work is also funded by a Stabilisation Fund grant from the Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes.

On another note, I am pleased to say the the Fabric of the North exhibition (see previous blog post) was extended through to the end of March 2021. This is due to the fact that all galleries have been closed for most of the originally scheduled exhibition dates. Hopefully they will be able to open again before the end of March.

Supported by an Artists Bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company and a Stabilisation Fund grant from the Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes.

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