Canna Durban silk painting

  Canna Durban    silk painting by Tessa Spanton (c)

                                   
I have several paintings in 'Art for Gifts at Christmas' until 24th Dec 2013
The one above is in the window. It is in a light hardwood frame size 23x27in
at The Corner Gallery, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey

I grow these cannas in my garden and draw them at different stages as they grow. I did a series of paintings from my drawings inspired by the way the colours glow in the sun.

I painted using successive layers of colour and clear outliner resist. No size or thickener was used.
I draw on the silk with a pencil and then wet the silk. It wouldn't work using a fade away marker as it would vanish when the silk was wet. The colours are brushed onto the wet silk and go beyond the pencilled shapes. I used iron fix paint for this but steam fix can also be used this way. Clear outliner is then applied to some of the pencil lines. Then paint is brushed to one side of the line to cut out the shape.
It needs some planning as to which colours will work over which. The outliner lines will not be visible if paint is only put on one side of the line when finished a sharp edge is created. If painted both side of the line then the line will be the colour of the first layer as in the pink edge of the stem of the central flower. Depending on the painting I might repeat this several times building up more layers and depth of colour.

Paintings from Tresco

 Island Dreams    oil pastel by Tessa Spanton (c)  2013

Scilly Blue  oil pastel by Tessa Spanton (c) 2013
Gimble Porth, Tresco, looking towards St Helen's Lighthouse


 Both paintings will be on show with the Dorking Group of Artists exhibition at Denbies, Dorking from 9th - 12th October.

 I have painted on the beaches of Tresco in different seasons and times of day. Although there is beauty on a misty day it is the incredible blues and turquoises of a sunny day when set against the whiteness of the sand that inspire.
Tresco is one of the Isles of Scilly, set in the Atlantic like little gems almost 30 miles SW of Lands End.

Working with Silver and Copper

On Friday I had a taster lesson in silversmithing with Aileen Hamilton at her studio in Redhill
 (details here )
 I thoroughly enjoyed trying something new and it was a treat to learn with Aileen.
She showed me some techniques and we tried them out on copper first.
I tried embossing the copper with various hammers and stamp like tools
Photos below
Top and bottom right
Amazingly the embossing on the top and bottom left were done by a dried leaf and some lace. These would be too fragile to hammer so each was laid on a piece of copper and were passed through a roller mill.

 Some of the tools I used.

To emboss the copper I hit the top of this tool several times with a hammer.

Annealing  The copper is heated then cooled in water to make the metal softer to bend. 

 Here the ring has been shaped, soldered and cleaned ready to be filed and polished.

I then chose how to decorate the silver. I enjoyed this part the best.

I then went through the other processes as described above for the copper ring.

Here I am trimming the ring to my size.

 and here it is soldered, cleaned filed and polished. I am pleased with the result and most satisfying to try something new to me and have some insights into an age old craft that goes back millennia.

florum 2013 Exhibition of Botanical and Floral Works

' Daylilies' silk painting (c)  Tessa Spanton SWA

 florum's 10th anniversary exhibition runs until 5pm on Saturday so if you haven't already been there is still time. I have 7 paintings on show plus prints and cards.

http://www.florum.co.uk/exhibition.html

florum 

Exhibition of botanical and floral works

7^th – 14^th SEPTEMBER

KWT Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks TN13 3DH

more than 60 invited artists

all works for sale 

many different media

prints and cards

free admission and parking 

credit cards accepted

“It was certainly the best looking exhibition I’ve attended in terms of botanical artwork”  

(Katherine Tyrrell, one of the UK’s foremost art bloggers at http://www.makingamark.blogspot.com)

Our 2013 visitors said…

“It is so exciting to see something of this quality”
“This exhibition goes from strength to strength – every year better than the last!”
“An incredibly high standard – brilliant work”

http://www.florum.co.uk

Poppy in the Lavender watercolour (c) Tessa Spanton SWA

Marbling at Art in Action

In July I spent a day at Art in Action, one of my favourite events of the year. It is held over 4 days in the beautiful grounds of Waterperry House near Oxford. There are some truly superb works on display and as well as watching artists and crafts people at work there is a chance to ask questions and several opportunities to try something new.

This year I tried a taster a marbling taster with Hikmet Barutçugil from Istanbul. I wanted to do a tulip and the results are shown above. I have done a bit of marbling on silk as described in a previous post and would like to do tulips on silk.

Hikmet works on silk as well as paper and also does yardage.

The photos below show Hikmet's wife demonstrating some of the steps involved. 

1 For marbling on paper natural dyes are used. These are splashed or carefully dripped onto a soft gel  like layer made from water and gum arabic.

2 The dyes are manipulated in various ways. The second photo shows the pattern floating on the gel .

 3 a monoprint is made by lowering a sheet of paper onto the surface then carefully pulling it off.

Each artist /crafts person contributes what they consider their best piece for a display that fills a large marquee. Hikmet won the Best in the Best of the Best at Art in Action last year. Shown below.

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Mosaics, Parc Guell, Barcelona

 Parc Guel was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi and built between 1900 and 1914 and is part of a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Tip If you visit on a hot day and want a good work out first, go by tube and spend 20 min climbing  a steep hill, if you want to save your energy for the parc which is also on a hill with some steps go by cab or bus.

Gaudí's multicolored mosaic salamander fountain, popularly known as"el drac" the dragon shown above, is near the main entrance  

An enormous terrace is surrounded with curving seating like a giant 

sea serpent, with wonderful views over Barcelona to the sea.


This place was top of my list of places to see in Barcelona and was 

even more amazing than I imagined!  In this post I am just 

highlighting the mosaics. I found the scale of their use and the 

colours and patterns of them inspiring. Many of the mosaics here were the work of Gaudi's collaborator Josep Jujol. for more info click here

Trencandis is a type of mosaic done using broken pieces of tiles and dinnerware, waste products from potteries. Gaudi sourced these from Spanish manufacturers. This technique was used for the first time on the Guel Pavilions  The complex curving shapes could be covered by breaking the pieces even smaller. The colourful mosaics on the serpentine seating are said to be the work of Jujol who also included pieces of glass bottles, broken china from his own dinner services, pieces from a broken porcelain doll and tiles he specially commissioned.

I wrote a post earlier in the year that included mosaics from Kaffe Fassett's exhibition in London. I still have the pieces of a broken mug kept after seeing Kaffe talking about making mosaics from broken china, on TV back in the 80s.  here  
I am feeling inspired to find some other pieces and make something from it now!
I would also like to design a silk scarf with mosaic patterning.

Guell Pavillions

Details from the top of this building are shown below.

Strelitzias on Silk

 

This is an original silk painting of Strelitzia reginae, They are also known as Birds of Paradise. 
I first noticed and found out the name of these beautiful flowers in Madeira. I have seen them growing out of doors in the mild Winter climate there and have photographed, painted in watercolour and brought them back home on the plane. People are often surprised to hear this. It is allowed to take them to another EU country and the florists and airports are all prepared.
I have been trying to grow one in the UK but so far in about six years it has only produced leaves. it has to come inside in the Winter as it is tender here,
The painting was done in my studio and is mounted on a ph neutral backing board.
I have ear marked it for an exhibition in September unless it sells before then.

Details and contact  here

Notes about buying these flowers
 When I first bought them I was advised to get them from a florist. The next time I got them in the market from Botanica 17, both times beautifully packaged in a sturdy box and delivered to the hotel. For no extra charge BA would put them in a special area that didn't get cold like the area where the cases go. BA sold the line to Easyjet, they charge for this.
 I decided it wasn't worth bringing them on Easyjet. I had been originally advised by the rep not to buy the flowers from the market or airport. Having bought them from the market and found they were good I was tempted to try the airport ones which were much cheaper. The florist there said Easyjet don't charge if  you carry them on to the plane as a bouquet. wrapped. They are very robust flowers and were fine without the box though I think some flowers like orchids are better boxed. They lasted well.
 There are extra flowers in the beak of the flower that would come out if they were growing. As cut flowers you can give them a helping hand out of the beak when the first flowers start to fade and they will last a few days more.