'Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly' at the Corner Gallery

See that little door on the left? That is the way in to the Aladin's cave of a gift shop then through another door at the back of the shop to the Gallery. Follow your nose as there are lavender smellies for sale. I park my car just around the corner and smell them from there.



'Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly' features the work of several artists and started last night with a lavender themed private view. We had lavender biscuits baked at Cocoa River a few doors away and lavender tea from Marks and Sparks.
One of my silk paintings is in the window. The rest of my paintings are grouped together as shown in the third photo. The other artists' work includes some large oils on canvas, watercolours and some stunning photographs.
When I arrived with my paintings on Monday morning and saw all the paintings I wondered how Jacky would fit them all in. When I came back later in the day it looked amazing. It felt as if the walls had been stretched. The different styles of work together make a lively mix.
My silk scarves are displayed on little easels behing the paintings in the window. (photo to follow)

My paintings below range in size from tiny up to about 28x 24in. They are mostly watercolours with one oil, one acrylic and 2 silk paintings.

The exhibition is on till the end of November. There will be a demo of lavender crafts on Sat 6th and I am doing a watercolour demo on Sat 20th.

and if you should visit don't miss popping in to Cocoa River afterwards.

The gallery is only a few steps away from Carshalton Beeches station.

Work in Progress

Mayfield Lavender, Woodmansterne.

Well I've done a lot of work on these since Friday. I may still add some finishing touches before framing them for an exhibition next week.

The painting above was started earlier in the month and has just had some finishing touches. The first layer was done using FW acrylic inks. I like the way these spread and mixed on the paper creating some interesting effects. I was a bit reluctant to work to over this with acrylics but it was only intended as a base so I took the plunge. The colours from the inks glow through the painting and create an effect that I would not have got otherwise. I will use the inks again both under acrylics and as a wet loose watercolour in its own right.

Friday Work in Progress

Here I am working on 2 watercolour paintings of the Mayfield lavender field. I started with the skies for both then worked on the building and underpainted some shadow areas in the trees.

Green Silk Necklace

I made this necklace by painting some silk in fresh woodland greens and embellishing with gold gutta swirly lines. This is combined with gold plated beads with a floral motif, some green glass beads and a vine leaf charm.

Silk Necklace

This is my latest necklace made with hand painted silk in Autumnal colours, with beads. The necklace is adjustable and ties at the back with silk rouleau painted to match. It is colourfast.
More details here in my etsy shop

Lavender Landscapes

I have been working on these two paintings over the last few days and think they are now just about finished.
The frames and mounts are ready and waiting. They are going to an exhibition at the Denbies Wine Estate at Dorking on Thursday morning along with some other paintings.

More Glass and one for Button Wednesday

Last week I had my second lampwork lesson and here are the results. Helen is an excellent tutor, As well as making lampwork beads and tutoring she makes wedding tiaras and jewellery, do have a look at her website here
One of the things I enjoyed doing in the first lesson was dipping the hot bead into frit (tiny coloured pieces of glass )and melting it onto the surface of the bead. This time I made swirls by prodding the hot fritted bead with a stringer and twizzling it. A stringer is like a thick wire but made of glass. Please see earlier post here.
I used the same colours to make a button. I found this very difficult to do. A mandrel with two prongs is used and the molten glass has to be positioned carefully, too near the end and the holes will close over and too far from the end and the button might not come off the mandrel when finished. It got really out of shape and the holes got nearer and nearer to the edge of the button. Helen got it back into shape for me. The side that I have photographed had frit sprinkled on. The other side which could be dipped has more frit and some of it has developed a silvery effect. I will make something special for the button probably either a journal cover or a bag.
The heart has 22k gold on clear cobalt glass and was fun to do.
The pink bead on the right is has murrine melted onto the surface. These are little slices from a glass cane that like Brighton rock has the pattern running along its length. Millefiori is glass decorated in this way. In Italian mille means a thousand and fiori means flowers. I used just 3 on the bead. I love the effect. Helen gave me some spacer beads to match.

and here is my button for Button Wednesday! More buttons here

I will photograph the other side of the button when the sun comes out.

voila!