Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Alberto Giacometti and School Holidays...

Hello!

Such a long time since I've posted, hope you're ok!

The school holidays were really enjoyable and busy too.

On Monday I took my two younger girls off to The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia in Norwich only to discover that the drop-in Art sessions were on everyday apart from Monday! We still had a fun time though just walking round the campus in search of the bank. The UEA, and a suspect every other campus, has such an out-of-this-world feel about it somehow, or maybe its just out of MY world! The UEA is very interesting architecturally which definitely adds to this feeling but it was also so alive with young people (mostly), at the start of their life journey, I felt quite invigorated by it. Mind you, it was extremely cold and breezy shuffling along those aerial walkways so it could've been that that invigorated me!

After having a delicious breakfast with good friends in Norwich, we ventured back to the SCVA the next day, and took a bracing dog walk noticing signs of Spring in the UEA grounds first.

I haven't actually looked around the Sainsbury Centre since having some of my Theoretical Studies sessions there as part of my degree. It was just as I remembered it and we had a lovely time there. The activities were loosely based around the work of Alberto Giacometti a Swiss artist with a very distinctive style. He was born in 1901, died in 1966 and used sculpture, drawing, painting and printmaking. He was  also a friend of Robert and Lisa Sainsbury who bought a lot of his work.

Giacometti liked to hold a hard-2H pencil, very close to the top which resulted in very fine and almost scratchy marks and therefore, energetic and dynamic drawings. I like to do this with charcoal and a soft pencil-4B and softer, as I have less control of the marks I'm making giving a degree of unpredictability to the drawing.

Giacometti also liked to draw a frame around his work, so when displayed there is a frame within a frame. He found that this helped him focus on the subject matter as he worked.

Below is a video of Giacometti painting a portrait which you may like to watch. You can clearly see his distinctive technique in it. I also think that he very much resembles the people he portrays, which is so often the case.

 One of his portraits was rendered using the technique we all tried out as children, that of drawing with a candle and then painting over it with water colours, we decided that this would be a fun activity to try at home later, the results can be seen below.

I was intending to write about the inspiring talk I heard by Marilyn Brocklehurst of the Norfolk Children's Book Centre on the importance of reading with your children, but this post is long enough and I don't want to bore you to tears, so I'll write about that tomorrow.

Ooooh, and very quickly, I now have a Facebook page-Walking With Betty set up. I know that some of you have tried to leave comments on here and its been a bit tricky, so please do leave one on Facebook if you'd like to. Also, I'm now on Pinterest, again as Walking With Betty, so do follow me there if you fancy it too. Its very addictive!

Creating a frame

The Most amazing sky on Tuesday morning

Signs of Spring, hooray!

Bye for now x

The Love was there but Valentine's Night Turned into a Bit of a Disaster

Hope you're having a good weekend.

We haven't done too much but did have a nice walk last night and took some photographs of the sunset. Also saw two barn owls, which seem to be doing really well here in Norfolk. I've had numerous sightings of them in the last few weeks and their ghostly forms slicing through the air are always magical to see.

Thursday evening (Valentine's) turned into bit of a disaster. We had planned to go to Cinema City in Norwich to see Breakfast at Tiffany's-see previous post. We settled down to one of those Waitrose meal deals first, Paul having just taken Betty and Flossie on an evening walk. As we settled down to our starter we suddenly realised that Flossie was bleeding profusely all over the kitchen floor. On inspection we discovered a 3-4" gash on the inside of her ear which nearly went the entire way through. The vet was called and our evening promptly cancelled. Very disappointing. I ended up taken my eldest to the theatre as she had been offered a last minute ticket to see Woman in Black at the Theatre Royal. At least she had a great evening! The joys of being the owner of a very unlucky and accident prone spaniel. It would help if farmers didn't insist on putting barbed wire everywhere.

During the day on Thursday I experimented with some ideas I have for the illustrations for a children's story I'm working on with my cousin, Susie Flashman Jarvis. The story is about a little girl called Debbie who feels her life would be much happier if she were someone else. Over the coming weeks I will be tweaking the thumbnails for the story and completing some spreads to take to publishers. Fingers and toes crossed.

At the end of next week-which is half term for us, I will be heading to my old home of Market Lavington in Wiltshire. As well as catching up with some good friends, I'll be collecting some work from Red Flag Studio and bringing it back here for my Etsy shop and a gallery I'll be visiting the week after next. I'm looking forward to finding some of the work I wasn't able to bring here when we moved and to collecting other paints and materials so I can really crack on with producing some new paintings and drawings. The instructions for my fisheye camera are there too and I so want to get out and about with it...

Lastly, after reading an article on the illustrator Emily Sutton in Country Living magazine, I found an interactive app for a story she has illustrated called Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day. The app is loads of fun and, although it is an easy read for my seven year old, she loved playing with the hats, buttons and bus on this app. Emily's illustrations are lovely and reminiscent of the work of illustrators in the fifties. Her work closely resembles Judith Kerr's in The Tiger Who Came to Tea.

Plans for this week:

Go to The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich for a crafting session with my younger two children.

Get to grips further with the workings of my camera.

Think about My Name is Debbie, even if I don't get much actual work done.

Embroider-Biddy's Stitch Group on Tuesday evening, go there with big daughter.

Have a fab time in gorgeous Wiltshire with my friends and pick up more of the materials that help me to be me.



Have a good Sunday. xx

Our meal before it all went wrong

Beautiful flowers from my husband

Sunset in Shotesham, Norfolk last night

I know they're blurred but I love how dynamic these geese look

Happy Valentine's!

Good morning and a very Happy Valentine's day to you all!

Will you be celebrating? We are off to Cinema City in Norwich to see Breakfast at Tiffany's tonight, there's a chocolate tasting session before hand which I'm really looking forward to. Never seen the film the whole way through, but with Audrey Hepburn what's not to like? We did think about seeing Amour which won a BAFTA and looks fantastic, but I thought it might be a bit too gut wrenching for Valentine's so we will reserve that for another night. We've become members of this fab theatre on our doorstep. We haven't been there for years but I'll take some snaps if I can and post them on here tomorrow-here's a link to it http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Cinema_City/

While I was at St Benet's Abbey in Norfolk on Monday I took some photos of some very old graffiti, I think its 18th Century but might need to check on that one-I'll let you know if I'm wrong. I thought it very fitting for today.

I've also including the Valentine's card I made for my husband. Its drawn in inks and then stitched in places-Paul's beard and glasses, the rain, sun rays and love hearts. I think I've captured my usual disgruntled look that I reserve for my husband, rather well! Want to do blanket stitch around the edge just to finish it off.

I did trawl some shops looking for a card with my friend Jayne but they offended my eye with their ugliness so badly there was no way I was gonna purchase one. Jayne and I did have a good laugh though, I noticed a girl in her twenties clutching one with two puppies on, I think she really was going to buy it, I do hope she wasn't too offended by the taste police! In the absence of my favourite card-and other lovely things shop-The Inner Yard, The Old Potato Yard, Lydeway in Wiltshire http://www.theinneryard.co.uk, I was forced to take the matter into my own hands. I'm quite happy with the results and so was Paul which is the main thing after all!

Have a good and romantic day-if you're that way inclined! xx

http://www.etsy.com/shop/walkingwithbetty

http://www.etsy.com/shop/walkingwithbetty

Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea & Gallery Added to Blog

Hello & Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Hope you had a good weekend. We spent Saturday in Southwold, Suffolk taking in fish and chips at The Harbour Inn (so good). A real treat for me as I'm gluten intolerant and try to stick to avoiding this as much as I can bear. Occasionally, like on Saturday, I allow myself a treat and it was such a pleasure to eat that crispy battered cod. After eating we walked along the harbour to the beach and onto the pier where there is so much to see including this rather cheeky clock.

I was really pleased to receive my linen-thanks Julie, and have started my first ever embroidery, I'll post some photos later in the week. At least I won't feel a total fraud next time at Biddy's Stitch Group.

Yesterday I went up to Ludham Broad in Norfolk to discuss a possible art project about St Benet's Abbey-more to follow.....

Lastly, I added a gallery section to this blog last week, so if you're interested take a look!

Loved this beach hut sign!

The Owl and the Pussy Cat

Clock on Southwold Pier

I'm off to the carnival at my daughters' school now!

Bye for now xx

The Lightening Tree & Spooky Structures

Good afternoon,

Went over to Catton Park in Norwich today with my friend Jayne. She's been keen to show me the sculpture there that you just kind of stumble over quite unexpectedly, the best kind a reckon.

Catton Park was once the gardens to a manor-I think that's right, aficionado Jayne will correct me if I'm wrong, and was designed by Humphrey Repton.


Here are some photographs of the sculpture along with some very sculptural trees and a lightening tree. The Lord of the manor placed, what looks like a ship's mast, in an oak tree opposite his house as a sun dial. Unfortunately it got hit by lightening and all that's left is this wonderful structure.

Have a good weekend, what are you up to? xx

The Lightening Tree

A Bit of a Grizzly Find

Morning!

Morning routine of four kids to school, washing on, two dogs walked and fed, bread made, hot chocolate and marshmallow (thanks Juliet Abbott) and a sifting through of this morning photographs ready for this post, complete.

I was out for about an hour with Betty and Flossie today but kept the actual ground I covered to a minimum wanting to take in a small area and capture it with its dappled light and fresh scattering of snow. I also took a slightly different route taking in the snowdrops that I shot yesterday with the morning sunlight illuminating their tiny, perfect petals.

My walk took me over a couple of very rickety bridges that even Betty was concerned about negotiating-Floss just launches herself into the water with no regard to the available walkways.

It was as I contemplated crossing the river that I came across a rather gruesome find-see photos. I believe it to be from a deer-there was a slightly darker side of me that wondered if the spine and ribs scattered before me were human (too much watching of Waking the Dead, Silent Witness et al) but I'm fairly confident this wasn't the case. I have to confess also to hunting for the skull. This may seem a little macabre to some of you but I find them fascinating and great to draw, I do also have a fondness for taxidermied (not sure that's even a word but you know what I mean) animals, although I don't own any (yet). To my disappointment it didn't reveal itself although I did find a scapula and some leg bones.

While all this was going on Betty put up a Woodcock which I was very pleased to see, they are such a sweet bird.

Anyway, my hunt for beauty wasn't too hard this morning, in fact I was spoilt for choice. Here is what I found today....

A Grizzly Find

A deer?

I just love shadows

Frozen leaves 

In a row with their fluffy slippers on

Tiger Tree

Snowdrops being snowdrops in the snow

Have a good day all xxx