Saturday, June 21

Art is in the Air

Well, first off, I need to tell you about the great day out Hugh and I had last Sunday - visited a whole stack of artists participating in The Art Tour in Northumberland. First stop was The Hearth at Horsley - a converted church, church hall and ancillary buildings now housing artists' workshops and a very fine coffee shop - saw some excellent painting, etching, pottery and textile work. And met Carol Nunan and Rebecca Vincent who are Horsley Printmakers - you may hear more about this great venue as I am sorely tempted to do a two day course in collography that they are running later in the year....

Headed off to Langley Village Hall then, where I checked out the work of Mandy Patullo in particular - a textile/paper artist whose work is happy and colourful and full of retro images and machine and hand embroidery. Then a quick trip across the road to explore the delights of The Garden Station before searching out the shed which is Katie Jackson's studio.In Katie's words.... Welcome to my magic shed, where I take jumble sale finds and mat them into bold designs, where damaged books find a new use and old recycled objects get another chance to shine. I love paper, fabric, wool and above all ...colour! A popular destination, [it was already full up when I took this pic] inside was a treat for all textile and paper recyclers. You'll see what I mean if you look at What Katie Did.... . I could have moved in happily. Poppy the collie was delighted to see so many people though she was curtailed behind the fence - probably for her own safety!

Hugh drove us home - I was too busy looking at the booty I had acquired during the day.

The Borders' own Art Studio tour is well advanced in planning now - two exhibition venues and studios from Berwick to Hawick and beyond will all be opening their doors in early September. Crossing Borders' members reach from Lowick in Northumberland to Peebles, so far, and membership is increasing all the time. The website will be live very soon - I'll let you all know! Hugh and I will be participating - the arty cabin will be throwing open its doors to welcome you all.
I met up with Anne and Fiona this week to say farewell to Helen as she and Stevan and the dogs head north to live permanently in their gloriously located but'n'ben in the North West of Scotland . We'll miss her but through blogs and Ravelry we'll be keeping in touch to watch her new business unfold. Good luck!

8 comments:

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Goah, what a wondeful sounding day!

Lindsey said...

Sois Katie's shed as wonderful in 'real life' as it looks in her pictures? I love her blog and I just want to own her shed and tree house. What a fab day. Wish we had art tours like that in the Midlands. :o)

Suzi-k said...

oooh that tour sounds wonderful, and your border one too, hope it is a great success. wish we could be there, but it now looks as if the great european adventure will be earmarked for april next year.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the good wishes, BorderTart! Pop in for a cuppa if you find yourself up our way :-)
Love DropOne

Anonymous said...

We did the Art Tour too yesterday. Loads of inspiration. Wasn't Katies shed fantastic. Unfortunately the Garden Station had run out of cake when we got there. Must visit some other artists too as there are still a few weekends left.

Tart said...

Yup, it was a fine day out, and Katie's shed was a wee treat! I hope you got my e-mail reply the other day, Katie..
Sorry to hear the cake ran out at the Garden Station! We Scots and Northern English are a pretty sweet toothed lot.
Next stop for me is Woolfest on Saturday - the pennies are burning a hole in my pocket already, though in my defence I have been doing a lot of spinning lately so the stocks are low(ish)

Anonymous said...

NO!! I didn't get your email! i wonder where that went - if you still have it in your sent items can you turf it out and send it again!? Please? k@tejackson.fslife.co.uk - I wonder where that went! i was so sorry i didn't get to talk to you - I am sure you must have visited when that old work collegue turned up and nattered on about everyone who had died. i would rather have talked to you! this is a lovely post - thank you and I am so sorry the G Station ran out of cake!. Poppy confined for YOUR safety!!!
bless you - and your other commenters - you are lovely!!

tlchang said...

What a lovely sounding day. I love art and studio tours like that. Can't wait to hear about your own as well. Sounds like plenty of artsy minded folk in the area.