Screen-printed chair covers
We recently had a new kitchen fitted which prompted the renovation of a couple of old Ikea chairs we have had for years and still love.
They fit just nicely into the bay window and provide a good spot for a g & t or a read.
They don't need much fabric so I when I chanced on a massive old thick cotton sheet for 3 Euros in a vintage market in Paris, a plan began to formulate.
It's taken me a year to actually bring it to a conclusion!
I tried to explain to my better half what I was thinking about doing - mono-printing the fabric and layering up the prints made with ferns from the garden - but it defied explanation.
In the end I took a deep breath and just did it and its turned out alrighty.
Favourite old course / new venue
I'm so happy to say that I'm going to start running Painting & Drawing Flowers at Winterbourne House & Gardens. This is a class that I have developed and run for a few years and now it has a new, super inspiring home.
What better place to find beautiful flowers, plants and leaves to draw and paint.
Just being in the grounds is going to be inspiring and we will work outside when we can and in the studio at other times.
It's a class designed for everyone at whatever level of experience you may be - I'm a great believer in the emphasis being on enjoyment not output so just come along and have fun being creative.
The first block of classes is up for sale here each Tuesday from 10.30-12.30, June 6th - July 11th 2023. Then another block will run in October/November time.
£125 for all six 2 hour classes (inc your entry fee) come for coffee and leave for lunch and enjoy the garden all day.
We will use charcoal, pencil, watercolours, acrylics, chalk & oil pastels as we study plants in real life and works by past and contemporary artists.
And we've kept the course cost low by you supplying your own materials - you'll mostly need to buy paper and I'll have some bits available to use each week - it won't be an extensive material list, promise.
You can book here.
Garden Birds
I began this new year wanting a fresh personal project to work on and wanting to *play* a bit in my work and just follow inspiration where it led me.
That feeling also coincided with a growing interest in being able to name the birds that frequent my garden and also the purchase of a pair of binoculars.
A few months later on and I have completed my very own book of garden birds.
I dug out a few of my favourite vintage bird books for both good information and great reference pictures.
And I studied up before I began painting each feathered friend. Once you're not in education, its easy to forget the gains from reading up and learning.
Over some months, in and amongst other work and things going on, I compiled some illustrations of birds - the only pre-requisite being that I included only birds that I've seen in my garden. The Jay and the Woodpecker have stopped for a nosey but not often or for very long.
I once had the magical experience of actually watching momma Wren fledge her chicks out of the nest in our hedge and chase them down the garden willing them to fly for the first time.
I had already decided to bind these paintings into a book format and so I set up the pages with that in mind.
I decided to hand write all the information pages and keep the true handmade feel through and through. I painted an abstract leaf pattern for the cover and set to putting it all together with glue and waxed string.
And I'm delighted with it in so many ways - I can use my own work to reference and teach myself and there's something so scrummy about a handmade book which also makes a perfect place to keep a body of work intact.
If you'd like to see all the birds and the films I made of making the book and the book itself, then head over to either Instagram here or Facebook here
Cezanne exhibition Tate Modern 2023
Yesterday I made the pilgrimage to London to see the Cezanne exhibition (the much hyped exhibition)
Yes, there were a lot of people as expected and some queuing to see the pictures as talked about.
What I wasn't expecting was the inconsistency. Bear in mind that I photographed pieces I like that resonated with me in some good way - so I'm not showcasing here the works I thought best left in the development portfolio.
But let me try to explain.
Maybe it's because I only think of Cezanne as the painter who painted post-impressionist landscapes and not as an artist who (pre-impressionism) practised, experimented and honed a style, that I found the work displayed jarring.
The Bathers - I loved this piece - it really shows beautifully how the same style and direction of brush-marks used on both the foliage and the flesh serve to meld one into the other making the people part of the landscape. In this way (style) I like his figure work.
Not being able to see the date cards (and therefore an explanation of repeated attempts to tackle a thing) didn't help the experience that here was one very fine work of art sat next to two or three less fine works of art - mostly his figure work.
Perhaps we were being shown how he worked away tenaciously at a subject until he found his unique approach?
But I found the way it was hung left me feeling like Cezanne didn't hit his stride but kept trying new approaches of media and style and is not the Cezanne that I thought he was.
There were a few absolute treasures that shone out from across the gallery for their clever composition or luminosity or colour palette.
Which made it all the harder to see the stuff which maybe didn't reflect him at his best.
It was a huge show with many rooms and a lot of paintings but I wonder if some further editing of images or better explanation might have helped me appreciate what Cezanne was working towards, better.
Original watercolours sale
I have completed a little body of work from my Hebrides trip this year. If you would like a piece they are all listed below in order of size, with prices and UK postage included - postage will be worked out for any sales abroad once you have emailed the destination.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk and I will send payment details :) Thank you x
BALRANALD 10cm x 7.5 cm watercolour on watercolour board £15 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
FIELD 10cm x 7.5 cm watercolour on watercolour board £15 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
DUBH-LOCHAN 10cm x 7.5 cm watercolour on watercolour board £15 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
PORTREE, SKYE 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
THE BRAES, SKYE 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
AHMORE, UIST 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
LOCH MADDY. SOLD 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
LOCH MASSAIG. 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
SOUTH UIST 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
UIST INTERIOR 1 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
UP TO LOCH MAASAIG 6x4" watercolour on watercolour paper £20 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
SEILEBOST 10.5 x 27.5 cm. watercolour on watercolour paper £30 in UK p&p.
Please email me at hello@claireleggett.co.uk with the painting title as the email subject.
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