Snowdrop Day at Goodnestone Park Gardens

 

After a few wrong turns and wondering yet again why there are so few sign posts for certain places, Ruth and I found Goodnestone Park Gardens.   website here.   It was their Snowdrop Day with the gardens open and plant stalls from Kent Hardy Plant Society.  website here

It was very muddy, but the day was fine a mixture of sun and cloud and the snowdrops were glowing white around the gardens.  It was interesting seeing the winter bones of the garden and it would be good to see them in the following seasons.

Some magnificent old pine trees,  walled gardens and woodland walks.  As well as the snowdrops there were Camellias in flower, Iris, Daphne, Hellebores, Aconites, and Primulas and some beautiful large Hamamelis or witch hazels, one with a very heady perfume.

 The stall holders had specimen snowdrops, I hadn't realised how expensive they were, as well as ordinary, snowdrops, iris, and other hardy plants. We bought a few flowers which I will be drawing and painting before they go out in the garden. I started with the double flowered snowdrops.

Opening of Mr Lion Exhibition Turner Contemporary Gallery Margate.

 

Mr Lion opened at the Turner Contemporary Gallery last Tuesday.  It was good to see our group Blank Canvas's work on the gallery walls. Link to the exhibition here  Article in the Thanet Gazette here

 

We had been planning the show for a few weeks and my painting Call of the Wild rather than my artists book, was my choice in the end for the show.

 

We had the Lion bars, Battenberg cake, biscuits tea and coffee ready and some art tables for people to experiment with  making something.

There was an opening speech and Blank Canvas was praised for our work in the exhibition, for supporting Turner Contemporary and for being part of their vision for the gallery.

We had a lot of visitors and I think most people were interested and intrigued by the idea of Mr Lion.

The show is on till 22nd March 2015 Tuesday till Sundays 10 till 6pm

Souvenirs of Cliftonville exhibition by Sadie Hennessy

 

I went up to Resort Studios with Ruth today to see Souvenirs of Cliftonville an exhibition by Sadie Hennessy.  I'd met Sadie when we went down to the Art Car Boot fair in Folkestone last year and had bought one of her prints there. Sadie's website

   Article about the exhibition in the local paper here

 

This exhibition has arisen out of Sadie's residency and shows 14 commissioned portraits of local Cliftonville residents.  The portraits include found ephemera, the residents own memories and different aspects of Cliftonville.  The portraits give a sense of vintage postcards and have a celebratory feel to them which is very attractive.

The whole exhibition is styled as a souvenir shop which satisfied two of my ideals, an exhibition and a shop. The good news here is that Sadie has produced some great souvenirs to buy at really good prices. So you can purchase, soaps, badges, sweets, mugs, postcards and snow globes amongst other things.

Do go and visit the show if you can it is open on February 14th and 15th, 21st and 22nd   12 till 4pm.
Resort Studios website

Pettman Building
50 Athelstan Road
Cliftonville, Margate
Kent
CT9 2BH

Mr Lion Exhibition at Turner Contemporary Gallery

Call of the Wild painting

I'm part of an arts group, Blank Canvas that meets at Turner Contemporary most weeks. We have been working on a project using an old card of Mr Lion that the lead artist Lucy Steggals found.
Lucy's website here.http://lucysteggals.co.uk/

This mysterious character has been explored through a variety of mediums including, photography, print, sound and stage and we have put together an exhibition which will open at Turner Contemporary on the 10th of February  till 23rd of March. Tuesday to Sundays

The opening event is on the 10th 4.30 till 6.30pm everyone welcome.  link to the exhibition on the gallery's site here  I am showing my painting, Call of the Wild.

I've been continuing to work on my Mr Lion sketchbook and would like to continue exploring the lions that were at Dreamland in Margate. I especially like the stories of lions being walked on Margate beach.

There is a great exhibition of self portraits on at Turner Contemporary too called self. More about that later.