Chris Ofili Tapestry

I was lucky enough to have a few days off work and head down to London for a few days of immersing ourselves in art of various types.  

This post is about the Chris Ofili exhibition at the National Gallery.

From his watercolours he stepped out of his comfort zone and designed a tapestry triptych called "The Caged Birds Song" which echos the writer and black activist Maya Angelou's powerful autobiographical work, "I know why the caged bird sings".

 His watercolours and sketchbooks were on display

and whilst the final watercolour is impressive

It really does not prepare you for the final room where the entire walls are decorated in his paintings and in front of you the HUGE tapestry.

The weavers of Dovecot Tapestry Studio in Scotland took over 2.5 years to hand weave the three pieces.

Their rendition of the watercolours and the way the pigment moves is magically brought to life in wool.  They get the flow of colour by blending wools to create the colours.

 

 

The scale and trying to get my head round that this is wool and NOT paint was mind blowing

 

It was a fantastic exhibition, free and not like anything I have seen before, if you get the opportunity to see it I recommend it.

Kyla

 

Resin tests

Well I finally found some time to have a play with the resin I bought recently.

I used a variety of molds I already have for resin, hot glue, air drying clay etc.

Now it's the waiting game as I have to wait at least 24 hrs for it to cure before I can remove them from the mold!!  For someone who is quite a quick crafter this is going to be a LONG wait (a reason why I don't use oil paints either!!).

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Happy hump day peeps!  So once again its time to show our desks in response to the queen of desks, the lovely Julia (link over on the right).

For the first time in many, many months I have new stash to show!

The other week I stumbled across a craft shop closing down (sadly, but I believe the owner is now going to run craft classes so not too bad) and they had some resin kits in red and green.  I have used resin before but not this brand, but as its such a big name I knew it was pukka stuff so took the gamble.  Also they were only £1 each!! I know, they are usually over a tenner each-so I really couldn't pass this by.  It is worth the gamble if they don't mix well or maybe have been open a bit too long.  I am looking forward to having a play.

As to my "Man Bites Dog" cards....well I really wish I video's myself choosing these because they really were randomly chosen AND they came out in that order!!!  The 6th card I chose (I usually choose 6 then use 3-5 to make a phrase) was actually "1st Lady" - you really cannot make this stuff up!!!!

Happy crafting (and I am SO keeping an eye on this weeks news!)

Kyla

Art Abandonment at Upfest

 Following on from my Upfest post I thought I would share the Art Abandonment's I placed around the festival.

Art Abandonment is a global group of artists (search Facebook/groups/artabandonment) and we leave pieces across the globe for people to find, leave or pass on.

This is one of the canvas boards I made a couple of weeks ago ready to leave at the festival.  My husband found some stencil art left by 'Dave The Agent' (I found a piece of his a couple of years ago!) so I left this in its place, it seemed fitting.

This is the piece my husband found abandoned, lovely find instead of just abandoning.

My final piece was one of the cardboard pieces I made painting a Studio Ghibli inspired Totorro and Soot Sprites-I am a huge fan of Ghibli and always manage to find inspiration in their work.

I have also abandoned some rock art around Sidmouth during the folk festival and my husband took some for me to Blackpool to the Rebellion punk festival.  I hope to be able to blog about those soon.

Happy crafting

kyla

Upfest 2017

 Hello peeps.  The other weekend I went to Upfest, Europe's largest free street art festival. 

It is SO inspiring and I took over 200 photos!  If you follow me on Instagram or FB then you have already seen these but if you don't then grab a cuppa and skim though a few photos.

One of the main differences this year was how many women were taking part.  Over the years I have noticed this increasing but this year there was a marked difference.  It is great to see the younger generations getting into creating art, many with brushes as well as spray and stencils.

This tapestry is on metal wire mesh attached to a door!

Gemma Compton's work was amazing as always.

There are so many difference styles and subject matter on show

But some of them are HUGE, several stories high!

 There were a lot of faces at this years festival being painted in different mediums and different sizes.  The details were amazing though.

So that is another 3 days of Upfest finished.  If you are ever down in Bristol then I recommend popping over to the Bedminster area to check out the art.  Whilst the temporary hoardings are only up for the festival the art painted on the walls are often there until the next festival and some even longer.

I struggle to paint faces on a sketch book so I am in awe when you see these faces 15 odd feet across!  That is real skill and talent!

Kyla

WOYWW

Another week has passed and this time I have an action shot!

I have NO idea what this is going to be!

Our 45 year old freezer recently broke so we needed a new one and it came in some lovely corrugated cardboard which I immediately snaffled away as it looked too good for recycling!

I have just applied some gesso roughly to the surface whilst I think about what to do with it.

I am tempted to stencil a background and paint over it then cut it into smaller pieces to abandon at Upfest at the weekend (Europes largest street art festival, and it's held in my home town of Bristol) but I am waiting for my mojo to sit up and take notice!!

My "Man Bites Dog" cards are 'Nurse Revealed Naked Star Lover'-watch this space!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Bullet Journal

So, time to admit it (in case you don't know)...

"I am a list maker"!

Yep, there you have it.  Be they full blow project plans with workstreams and resource allocation right down to those on scraps of old envelopes!

Whilst on the 'interweb a couple of months ago I came across the "Bullet Journal". 

This is a new thing to me but immediately struck a chord so the past two months I have been trying different ones out.  

Both June and July had a monthly chart across two pages to act as an overview but I really like the double page spread of the week overview too.

I have a list of tasks for the week, some notes, my habits (walking 6k steps, meditating etc), daily appointments and a weekly goal.

I am going to keep the monthly overview and weekly journal for another month to see if there is anything I can add/remove to make it work for me, but at the moment I find it works really well and its all in one place (well apart from my filofax and online calendar and those scraps I jot things down on....)........well, give me time to change!

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Welcome to hump day which can mean only one thing.....

"What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday"

 where across the globe we bare all (well, our desks at the very least)!

On my desk this week is my 365 challenge journal.  I know the next few weeks are going to be really busy so I am trying to get a headstart!

At least I have gotten colour down on the page and the blank squares date stamped so if I get no further then at least it's usable come 1st Aug (1st Aug-I mean really?  Where is this year going?  I SWEAR as I get older the year passes quicker)!

My "man Bites Dog" cards this week are '1st Lady Drops Mystery Intern'-oooh!

So, why not join us over on the Queen of Desks blog, the lovely Julia (link over on the right hand bar).

Happy crafting

Kyla

Pebble art

 Some of you may know I take part in the Art Abandonment project https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtAbandonment/

This involves leaving art in a public place for someone to find.  There doesn't have to be a reason it is just 'because'.

Since I was in Devon recently and there were loads of pebbles along the coast I decided to paint a few up to abandon.

 I painted this koi carp whilst I was having lunch and left it at the cafe.

This lizard I painted sat on the beach and I left it next to the walkway for someone to find.  

On each pieces (I often leave decorated tags or pebbles as they are small and light to carry) I leave contact details of the facebook group so people can register a find, should they wish.

In the past couple of years I have probably left over 50 projects in various countries and have NEVER heard anything back.  Now I haven't got a problem with that as I don't paint them to get feedback, I paint them to try and bring a moment of joy into a strangers day.

However, this week I heard from a lady who said her young daughter had found my lizard and she was delighted!  I was so pleased to hear that someone found it and liked it.  They only take a few minutes to make and I really enjoy the act of setting them free (and the bonus is it uses up some of my stash)!

If you like the idea why not pop along to see the Facebook group?

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

Sorry I have been absent for a while and tardy in my returns.  

Life has been hectic between really busy in the pay the bills job to a lovely holiday with my mum to Malta (where my grandparents and parents used to live), a sketching trip to London and then a week in Devon whilst we had a fabulous hot week in the UK! 

So no crafting but a lot of washing and ironing between ridiculously long shifts at work.

However, I did get some lovely mail: 

This fabulous WOYWW ATC was waiting for me when I got back home.  

It is from Kelly Henkins and she kindly included some lovely die cuts, none of which I have already so I look forward using them soon in a project.

So, no desk from me (again) but I wanted to at least take part this week.

Happy WOYWW

Kyla