Bucks Open Studios 2016
11 June 2016
And we are ready to go! Ready to welcome the admiring crowds.
Last year I hosted our first venture into Open Studios -and we had a blast.
This year Mix3d Stitch (that is myself and textile friends Jane and Yvonne) had to think on our feet and at speed because there was no guarantee that I would be in the same house. And, if you read this blog regularly, you will know that much of this year has been taken up with moving house and boxes!
So, Jane is a lady of many contacts. She is a very big wig at Arts Central and in turn runs the gallery space at Christ the Cornerstone, the big ecumenical church in the centre of MK.
So, we booked out the Gallery for BOS - and because the gallery is on two floors we then found 6 other MK artists to share the space. And two days of hard work (my feet are sore, and we had to clean and titivate etc.) we opened the doors last night.
My work is predominantly on the ground floor.
Hanging on a curved wall can be a bit of a challenge. Abscission I - on the left in the picture below - fell off during the hanging process. Emergency reframing required!
And down stairs we have space for Jane's monster of a quilt - the New Bradwell Quilt which she completed with the children of New Bradwell School in 2013 to celebrate it's centenary.
The kids each did a panel. It is a joy and so nice to see it getting another outing.
Upstairs is a little section for some of my jewellery and cards. Filling a little hole and looking rather lovely.
Upstairs Yvonne is showing her beautiful stitched landscapes and silk paintings.
And a cabinet full of little treasures.
And a shelf full of stitched wonders.
And Jane Charles her experimental stitched pieces.
And we have been joined by Lily Glover Wright - another painter
Elaine McKenzie and her amazing characters
And Nicola Saunderson's graphic illustrations
Do pop in if you are in the area. We are in central MK opposite Marks and Spencer.
Someone will be manning the gallery Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am and Wednesday afternoons. But the gallery will be open on other days - actually when ever the church is open - so do pop in to have a browse.
Bradwell Abbey Artists Studios.
6 June 2016
Open Studios is nearly on us and to get into the mood I popped along to what turned out to be a hidden gem literally just along the road ( or more strictly footpath) from me.
So, I think I told you about this chap.
Actually, I don't think I did. I think I only posted this on Instagram.
Well, I met him one morning on my dog walk. This is literally about 15 minutes walk from my new 'home from home' here in central Milton Keynes.
Yes, you're correct. He is a monk.
Because here, right in the middle of Milton Keynes, is Bradwell Abbey. This is an ancient priory used by the Benedictines, they of the black hoods.
Bradwell Abbey, or Priory, seems to have had a bit of a chequered history, and in no way can be described as one of the great priory churches of England. It seems, from reading it's history' to have been very small with hardly enough monks to keep it going properly.
But it did have an Abbey Fishpond which is still there today.
At one point it fell into the ownership of Cardinal Wolsey and after that was never really loved and cherished as a dwelling as other former priories have been.
Anyway, that is history for now it belongs to Milton Keynes and is the site of the Milton Keynes Discovery Centre. Here you go, straight from the website.
"Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre informs visitors about urban geography and new city planning - as well as the historical and natural heritage of Milton Keynes. Since 1992 Milton Keynes Discovery Centre has been based at the beautiful and important medieval scheduled Ancient Monument site of Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes."
Now this is all fascinating stuff, but I don't think you pop by my blog for the local history of MK. So, to cut to the chase!
Well, today, it turns out, Bradwell Abbey has two resident artists. They rent a room as a studio there and, in preparation for Open Studios, they welcomed friends into their space on Friday and Saturday.
So I popped along.
Let me introduce you to Jane Rhodes and Liisa Clark.
Jane does some wonderful work using pastels. She has an amazing ability to capture wet urban people scares. Not the best photos below, but you get the gist.
Liisa was showing some large, abstract canvasses but is now moving to more figurative work.
One of Liisa's birds.
And Jane also paints using Watercolours and oils. She is a bit of an all rounder. These two floral watercolours rather blew me away (that bottom one uses tissue too, a bit of a lady after my own heart!)
And her sketch book studies were amazing.
Less than a week to go and I have my own Open Studios. Got to crack on with the presentation etc.
Coton Manor - an English country garden
30 May 2016
Sunday here in Blighty did not bode well weather wise. There was chillsome nip in the air despite the fact that it is almost June.
But it was a bank holiday weekend and it also happened to be the first weekend that I was up here in my home from home (I moved in a month ago, but due to family issues I have been up and down to Portsmouth a lot since). I was supposed to be cutting the monster of a front hedge.
But instead we (that is my good friends Rob and Andy) decided to visit what must be one of my favourite gardens (actually, it probably is my favourite garden) - Coton Manor, just north of Northampton. As always, it did not disappoint!
I am no plantsman, so don't ask me to name that Rose - but it had the smallest and most exquisitely perfect little yellow flowers. It was scrambling up the garden wall.
Every detail is thought through - the plant support were woven willow.
I have been several times before but never quite this early in the year and consequently saw the very best of the irises (though sadly the bluebell wood had 'gone over', though it was easy to get a sense of how it would have looked a couple of weeks before).
And little stone troughs planted up with jewels.
And possibly one of the best pelargonium collections - both hardy and tender (this one was such a hit that Rob bought a couple from the nursery on site. A fabulous place to buy plants because they all really love plants and gardening and it shows in the quality and selection of plants available.)
What I love about the garden is both it's domestic nature (it all feels as though you can re-create bits of this at home) and that round every corner there is a surprise.
And we found a rill, the sun came out so an opportunity for a bit of posing.
And bantams keeping the slugs and snails at bay (though I did keep wondering how they manage with the foxes) and even flamingoes! But no photos of those.
And the odd primordial gunnera!
And there is a beautiful wild flower meadow. Clearly they struggle to maintain the balance of flowers so this year there was a family of longhorns - an ancient and once endangered breed of cattle - happily grazing in there.
The bull was a chap of immense bulk! With spectacular horns! But he would not oblige for a photo so here is his rear end! Rump steak anyone?
The garden is on a sloping site - in the heart of such a beautiful county (it had a bit of a feel of Devon about it!) and makes so much of the borrowed adjacent landscapes.
Native tulips in a walk way leading to the plant sales area (even the sales area looks lovely)
That's a real house - as in people actually live there! Jealous? Moi?
And time to sit and ponder on life, the universe and ducks!
Go visit. But normally it is only open Tuesday to Saturday - only on Bank Holidays is it open Sunday and Mondays too. (So you will have to now wait until August for the next open Sunday - but so very worth it!)
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