a bleak day on the beaches of normandy .....

This was the coldest, bleakest and saddest day of our trip ...... the beaches of Normandy.  This memorial sculpture on the sand at Omaha beach was the only glimmer of joy that day.  Bunkers, remnants of Arromanches, a pre fabricated harbour built by the British, war stories of the brave men on D-Day, museums showcasing the war and various strategies ...... and the cold.  

As is often the case - the photographs have their own beauty but do not speak of the horrors or the grief.  The sculpture is a magnificent memorial of all those who lost their lives on those beaches and  also to the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

play day bliss .....

Play days are better than medicine - especially when you get the chance to share such a day with a special friend and collaboration buddy.  Those two apply to Fiona!  Apart from a couple of hours a month ago, we have not had time to sit and work/share/plan since I left for overseas mid February and we only live 15 minutes apart.  For both of us life has been frantic for one reason or another.

Today was set aside however, and as usual was a real tonic.  The plan was to work out how we would house two of our collaborative pieces - our envelope bundles and these small playful books below.  In our posting on these books we mentioned that we had decided to leave them as unbound books as they really are 'books' (I use the term quite loosely) to be played with and rearranged.  As such it seemed that perspex would provide the perfect solution and we each made our little perspex slip cases.  Seeing it open ended here in these photographs, I think I may make another slip case to close it in the other way.  A double slip case can look quite effective.  We will see.

We decided on a pouch format for our envelope bundles and the last photograph shows the papers we selected to house these bundles.  We will complete these in our leisure time at home ...

One of the exciting aspects today was sharing with each other, the thoughts we had been having regarding our next collaborative book.  The collaborative aspect of this books is that we will be working to a common theme and will mentor each other.  What we do and how we do it, will be our own decisions. We are hoping to have these ready by the end of July.  Fun.  Again!

ode to fallen angels .....

ON looking at these images you may wonder about the title of this post!  No clues in the graphics here ....  Many years ago a soul mate of mine died fairly suddenly and in an outpouring of emotion I wrote (scribbled) many of Dylan Thomas's poems in an obscure manner on three sheets of perspex which I subsequently printed.  They were never wonderful engravings but having come across them today, I decided that rather than throwing them away, I would cut up the engravings and make them into a book called 'ode to fallen angels'.

I am out of practice with blogging and forgot to photograph them before I cut them into strips, however, here are a few images of the 'pre' book and I hope in the next few days to show what I have done with/to/in it.

One of the many things I love about this form of digital diary, is that I have a photographic record not only of the finished product, but also about the way in which a piece is made or in a case like this, what the work looked like before I began to alter it.  Ultimately, I am hoping that the concept will look better as an artist's book, than as a series of engravings.

the textures of the alhambra .....

I bought a children's book of The Alhambra whilst there and the chapter about the buildings begins thus ... "For the poets the Alhambra is 'a crown on the brow of Granada', 'a paradise on earth', a dream, a treasure of harmony and light ... and many things besides.  But let us leave the poets.  What does the word Alhambra mean? It means 'red'. So that in the Arabic tongue 'alqala al hamra' means the red castle."  Personally, I favour those words of the poets and only wish I had the talent to write more about this amazing place.  

I took so many, many photos on our visit to the Alhambra in Granada.  We managed to get tickets and were amongst the first visitors to enter.  Thousands visit each day and you must pre arrange your visit or be disappointed. I am so glad we were first in as the crowds were enormous as the hours passed.  We had about four hours looking around - you could spend days.

Books abound on this unbelievable and unforgettable building - site really, a collection of buildings which grew and changed over the centuries.  My photographs do not compare with those that are published and I am not going to compete.  Here below are a number of the hundreds of photographs I took. The first ones show only tiny glimpses of the detail of the Royal Palace.  It is overwhelmingly glorious, and the following photographs show some of the details round about which caught my artist's eye.

reflective drawings ...... soon

These are photographs I took when we visited Honfleur in Normandy.  The reflections in the port will be a starting point for many large drawings I think.  I am feeling rather impatient to get on with these but soon I will have a couple of weeks whilst Steve is away doing an Emergency locum in Emerald.  I miss him dreadfully when he is away, but really enjoy having my own head space during the day.

I find that I really need that isolation when I start any large body of work or even singular large works.  With painting too I found I had to isolate myself in order to achieve any good results.  Not that I paint much any more - I much prefer my drawings which I like to refer to as painting drawings.  I may even add splashes of colour with these new works - not sure yet.

For this reason I think I took to etching and book making so readily while the children were still at school - I could manage it in smaller time spans.  I guess it stayed with me and both those practices have become my favourites.  I have been missing my large work though - not that I have posted on that, but I will.  If I have success with them!

So, I am thinking that the Richard Serra Guggenheim installation and these reflections, may be a good starting point.  Sometimes that is all you need, and most often you end up in an entirely different place.  Which is grand.

These images look so much more interesting larger ......