Birds and Sport
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a gallery in Devon, and asked if I had any work I would like to display in their gallery. It is a new craft gallery at the Dartington Cider Press Centre, in Devon, which houses several designer shops and cafes but it is best known for its glass gallery. Of course I accepted the offer and last week I took the remaining three pieces of work from my series The Four Elements down on the train from Castle Cary to Totnes. I had forgotton how beautiful the journey is – the train follows the river and then the sea all the way from Starcross, which is just past Exeter to Teignmouth, 8 miles of sparkling water. I met my sister and my niece, both artists themselves, at the station and they took me to the Cider Press Centre. I have also been offered an exhibition in the gallery in March 2011, as they have recently built a new extension especially for specific exhibitions. The theme will be “birds” and the exhibition will be shared with 2 other artists yet to be found.
I hope to make new work for this exhibition and including one that I am in the process of making (see post “and now to something more serious” Dec 7th 2009). Some of the work I intend to make will be 3 dimensional.
My sister reminded me about my fascination with birds when I was a child. I used to belong to the Young Ornithologists Club, and I spent hours learning the names of different birds taking note of their colours and song and making coloured drawings from books. I always remember a club trip down the river Dart with Tony Soper, who was an expert on birds during the 70s.
Another project I will be working on is sport related. It is for the Art at the Edge public sculpture project to celebrate the Olympics in 2012. As a guest artist I am planning to produce a mosaic sculpture based on the physical and psychological effect of sport on the body- in the form of a sweat gland or a tear.
It is called “Sweat and Tears” – here is a rough sketch of what I have in mind.
The face is a reflection of a sports person , sweating and focused on the sport.
Art at the Edge website: www.artattheedge.org
