Nessie the second.

Remember the Nessie I crocheted for the Loch Ness Knit Fest? Well, I loved him so much I had to make another one for myself that I could keep. This one is a different colour but the same shape and size.

It didn't take that long to make him and I finished him yesterday evening.

Here he is posing on a stone.

Here he is peeping through the leaves, trying to hide just like the one in Loch Ness does.   :) 

I can see myself having to dig a pond for him to use as his own little loch.  ;) 

 Here are some more of my photos that I've taken during the summer. They're mainly plants and flowers as they tend to keep still where as animals move a lot, mostly as you're about to press the button. :D  

These first two are a beautiful pale pink rose with water droplets on the petals. I don't know why I like droplets on petals and leaves so much. Maybe it's because they look like jewels and the sunlight shining through them creates gorgeous light reflections and colours. 

 

 A foget-me-not.

 Another rose.

I happened to see a TV programme last night about a Victorian lady called Marianne North. She was unusual for the time because she was an explorer, plant hunter and painter who travelled all over the world to exotic countries, climbed mountains and trekked through jungles to find and paint the plants she found. She didn't want to settle for the ordinary life of a woman back then and wasn't interested in marriage, preferring to live the travelling life and to do whatever she wanted.

The paintings that Marianne North created are absolutely beautiful, full of vibrant colours and were different from the botanical illustrations that had been done before as she painted the whole environment of the plant, not just the plant itself. She even discovered new species and had several plants named after her, unusual for someone who wasn't a botanist or scientist.

From what I heard on that programme Marianne North seems to be someone who was slightly ahead of her time. One quote I heard from something she wrote was to do with men of the time destroying nature far quicker than animals or earlier humans (she used the word savages) had done in thousands of years. That was back in the 1800s! I wonder what she would think if she saw the world today with all the pollution and destruction. She knew back then that the world needed looking after but it's taken many years for the majority of people to agree. 

It sounds as though Marianne was a fascinating woman, brave and determined and I encourage you, if you like plants and exotic places, or paintings to look her up. There's a gallery in Kew Gardens in London, which Marianne designed and had built herself, where her paintings are all on display.

Sightings of Nessie.

I recently found out about the Loch Ness Knit Fest and the record attempt for the most number of Nessies at Dores Beach, Loch Ness. They want people to knit or crochet Nessies to achieve it and they will then be donated to charity, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I quite enjoyed crocheting Nessie and was very sad to send him to Loch Ness, but I did and now he's travelling there.
Here he is:

You can find out more about the Loch Ness Knit Fest at: www.lochnessknitfest.com

It's taking place from 29th September and there are links on the site to find various Nessies to crochet or knit. I really liked this one because he looked much more like the image of Nessie that I have in my head. The pattern for it is in one of the links on the Loch Ness Knit Fest website but you can also find it here if you want : www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nessie-4

This Nessie has horns but I left them out. I imagine him without horns, just a nice smooth head! :) And very cute, of course! :D

Altered Art Nouveau

I've been having a play again with art and digitally altering it. This time I've taken some of the Art Nouveau images from my last post and changed them with different effects and using PIP.

I hope the artists wouldn't have minded me doing this, but as Art Nouveau was concerned with taking the old and making it new, I think they would have liked it. That's what I've done: taken old art and altered it using new technology to make it new. It's just a bit of fun anyway. I hope you like it too.

Influences no.5~Art Nouveau

Another of my influences is Art Nouveau. I really love the flowing nature of the forms, the elegant lines and curves, the way flowers and wings are incorporated into the designs and the whole mystical, almost mythical feel to the whole thing.

Tiffany

The Art Nouveau movement began in 1890 with artists and designers in Paris, Brussels and London. Each place had its own interpretation of the ideas and themes behind it, the Austrian name being the Secession, Germany referring to it as Jugendstil and there was also the Glasgow School. The design differed even further when designers in Italy, Spain, Russia and the USA became involved.

Tiffany

The movement lasted until the First World War but had a revival in the 1960s when the look became popular again with the event of the Counter Culture.

Alphonse Mucha

Some of the most prominent examples of the design are Tiffany Glass, book designs by Aubrey Beardsley and posters by Alphonse Mucha.

There are also the textile and furniture designs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, and, among the others who followed the style was Arthur Rackham

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The sinuous lines of Art Nouveau were based on forms in the natural world, one of the iconic symbols being the 'whiplash' line which curls back on itself and seems alive, wanting to 'whip' off the design. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum it is a metaphor; it
    'displays in graphic form the radical drive to break away from the constraints of tradition.' 

Tiffany

This was one of the main ideas behind the Art Nouveau movement: to do away with tradition, as up until then, art had been dominated by historical influences. The artists and designers were influenced by medieval art and also by Celtic art with its intertwining lines, but they wanted to make it modern. Instead of producing work with the traditional, old fashioned styles, they wanted to be original and innovative, taking their influences and making them new with modern looks.

Alphonse Mucha

As Art Nouveau was the movement which straddled the turn of the century, with the old and new combining as new technologies and industries came about, it combined those ideas of old and new, tradition and modernism, playing with the tension that combination created.

Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh

Aubrey Beardsley

Until the advent of Art Nouveau, art had been seen as superior to craft but the designers wanted to challenge this and bring them to an equal level. Alongside this, one of their principles was that the product should be well crafted and not produced on an industrial level. They wanted beautiful, individual items. Craft was seen as superior to industrial production - something we are finding out again in the 21st Century with the rise of handmade products and their value against mass produced items which can easily be discarded to add to the environmental problems we face.

Alphonse Mucha

Art Nouveau spread quickly through Europe and was applied to a number of different disciplines including architecture, jewellery, furniture, textiles, posters, book covers, glass and ceramics.

Aubrey Beardsley

Another influence of Art Nouveau was the Pre-Raphaelites who shared their love and portrayal of nature. Flowers were one of the main features of the designs, along with tendrils, leaves, wings, feathers and seedpods. However, geometric shapes were used alongside them providing a contrast, particularly in the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Women were a prominent feature of Art Nouveau as well, portrayed in a stylised way rather than natural, but they seem to be surrounded by, if not part of, nature, sometimes even the personification of the seasons. This prominence of the natural world seems to be a portrayal of our relationship with and place in nature, an exploration of where we fit in: part of it or have we separated ourselves? Either way, nature was brought indoors with the furniture and decorative objects which the designers and craftsmen made. Perhaps they were trying to influence people to see the beauty in nature again, to reconnect with it after the effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Privat Livemont

Symbolism was another thing the artist and designers incorporated into their work and another theme they shared with the Pre-Raphaelites. The Victorian era was obsessed by all things spiritual and mystical of course and symbols were combined with art to portray mythical or spiritual themes, which the artist wanted the viewer to understand. For example, poppies, lilies and roses were symbols of love and death. The art was meant to say something, not to just be an object of beauty to be looked at and nothing else. 

Victor Horta

When the Art Nouveau movement ended with the First World War, the Modernist ideas within it carried on but within other movements which took its place. Art Deco and the Bauhaus were two of the artistic styles which came in its wake and its influence is still felt today as many look to it for inspiration, so Art Nouveau is still has a strong identity.

You can find more on Art Nouveau by clicking these links: The Art Story 
                                                                                V&A 
                                                                                The Tate

There's also much more on Art Nouveau in this interesting article on Artsy


 

Fairy Jewels and Flowers

I thought I'd show you some of my photographs that I've taken recently and a bit more of my work in progress.

This first photo is a buttercup in my garden. I just thought it would be a lovely image for inspiration, but it turned out with a blue background rather than green. I assume that the intensity of the yellow colour of the flower affected the background somehow. I promise you this has not been altered at all. It looks amazing though. I love the shades of blue and the more purple parts at the right, the complimentaries of yellow.

 

This is one of my aquilegias. It's only the second time it's flowered. Again, I love the colours and no doubt it will influence some future work.

 

A primrose. (Just because I like them!)

 

I happened to see this one day after it had been raining. It's a spider's web with tiny water droplets among leaves and the sun is shining on it to produce a beautiful rainbow. You can just about see it in the centre.

Here's some gossamer with fairy jewels. Or another spider's web with raindrops. Take your pick! :o)

 

I love seeing things like this. Little bits of beauty and unexpectedness (is that a word? :D ) in everyday life. Little pleasures are there if you look for them.

They also provide great inspiration for patterns or colours or entire pieces of art. 

Here is more work I've done for my 'Wild Nature' wall hanging. Some machine embroidered leaves:

These will be cut out and attached to the main piece, which I have added to with some more hand embroidery, sewing leaves, dandelions, daisies and forget me nots.

 

I'll leave you with a lovely quote that I came across this week, another unexpected thing which turned up. I have never read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, which I hate to admit, but I think I will be reading it soon because of this:

'I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again." '  Lewis Carroll.

Influences no. 4 ~ Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy

Following on from my love of nature which I've already written about in terms of it influencing my textile and art work, I also love the art of Andy Goldsworthy. I suppose that's obvious really, as I love nature and art, so this combines the two.

Andy Goldsworthy

I first heard of Andy Goldsworthy when I did the Foundation Art course and absolutely loved what he does. His art had an influence on my final degree work, although mine was in textiles, of course, rather than real, natural materials.

I love this one where the reflection of the sticks in the water make it look like a circle.

Andy Goldsworthy

I love the way he just uses what's there in the environment, anything lying around: sticks, stones, leaves......

Andy Goldsworthy

He doesn't add anything and he doesn't take anything from its natural environment. When the work is complete, he leaves it to the mercy of the elements, allowing it to disintegrate and decay and become part of the land again. But, having said that, his art looks like it is part of the land anyway, like a natural extension of the materials already existing there. They look completely at home in the space, adding to it and not detracting from it. Rather than being all about the art, his work makes you look at the land and realise its beauty.

Andy Goldsworthy

The work Andy Goldsworthy has made from ice is, I think, spectacular as he only used water which then froze to stick the parts together. Left to melt, they disappear even more completely than the art he creates from stones and sticks, the water soaking into the ground and the art, being so ephemeral, lasting only until the temperature rises, reminds us how quickly things can change.

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy

I'm inspired by the way he uses colour and form and I aim to do a similar type of thing in my work, but using fabric and sewing or paint.

I'll leave you with two pictures of this wonderful gradient of colour.....

Andy Goldsworthy

...and this mystical looking bridge between trees in a wintery wood. 

Andy Goldsworthy