Before you start, please start this video for accompanying music (80's child here!)
Welcome to my Gallery!
If you have been hiding under a blogging rock these past few weeks, you will not know I've organised a Bloggers (please don't ask me about the Apostrophe, I am ignoring the issue!) Art Gallery.
Please go and visit all the other virtual galleries- you will find direct hyperlinks at the bottom of my post. It would be LOVELY if you could comment on any galleries you visit- even just a little comment to show you visited!
Let's start off in the bedroom.
This piece hangs above our bed and is a limited edition print (We own 21 out of 250) by P.Stangroom http://www.paulstangroom.co.uk/ bought from the Prudhoe Art Gallery. Most of his paintings are of Northumberland and he does window views out of dilapidated buildings with Northumbrian countryside but this one was from a period in his life when he lived in the Himalayas and depicts a giant Rhodedendrum tree which was the view from his garden, dwarfed by mountains. It is entitled Rhodendendrum.
The next piece is an abstract sea-inspired piece by Leigh-on-Sea artist, Emma Bell. It hangs above our built-in wardrobes. She uses gilding and gold leaf in her paintings as well as sea-colours. We bought this one in her sale last year.
On the radiator (switched off), there are two pieces of artwork. The left view of Ox-eye daisies (my favourites) was actually the wedding 'card' (one-sided- it has a message on the reverse) made for my by my dear friend Eleanor Steinitz (started her Art Foundation and Art Degree course in her 70's- she is the coolest!). https://www.instagram.com/curlewcall123/ is her Instagram handle. It is a dear favourite. The photograph on the right is by Peter Bolton and is number 5 of 50 which CBC bought at an Art fair quite soon into our relationship.
We are taking you into the Study/Library (3rd bedroom now) to the first of three collaged fabric works by Leigh-on-Sea-based artist Katrina Parris ( https://katrinaparris.wixsite.com/onlinehttps://katrinaparris.wixsite.com/online.) We are Katrina's biggest fans and I was so happy when she greeted me with a big hug last time she saw me at the Leigh Art Trail as we follow each other on Instagram and she loves how much we love her art.
This is called, 'Fragment of Monet's garden'.
This piece is all made up of pieces of material which she has painted and cut to size and collaged by stitching or gluing. It's hard to tell in this picture but if you look below, you can see the orange flowers are a sort of silk/satin which shines in different lights.
The next piece was a present from my Mum and perhaps you might call this craft rather than art, however, I think that all handicrafts count as art. It is a flower made out of old books and it is fitting it is in our 'library room'
Beneath our electric piano, you can spy this oil painting painted by my husband. This is CBC's Sixth-form common form, known as the Winter garden which is at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham. He started painting in characters who dominated the social hierarchies of school but left these unfinished so they appear as ghosts. When we found this in his Father's house when clearing it out, he was going to chuck it out but I insisted he keep it.
If you turn around and look at one of our four book cases, you will spy this work of art lying on top of one of them. It is an unfinished violin made by my Grandfather. He began violin-making classes in his 70's or 80's and whilst my sister was promised the finished violin, since she doesn't play anymore, I nabbed this. It would be lovely for it to be finished but then I am not sure I want to finish it. The amount of careful measurements, precision and fine-tuning (no pun intended) it takes to make a violin by hand earn this beauty its place in my gallery.
This next piece used to be in our bathroom (where the fish are now) but CBC said it was too dark for the bathroom and moved it (yes, he is a grumpy so and so) to the study bookshelf which is a shame as it is harder to see it against books.
It was a handmade paper cut out which was a wedding gift from my work teacher colleagues who came to our wedding. It has our names and the date at the bottom but I have cropped this to edit them out!
We will return to the study later for some pieces which are being stored in there but are not currently being displayed.
Into the spare bedroom now and we find our second Katrina Parris piece. This is called The Rock Garden and it is based upon a scene from RHS Hyde Hall gardens. Katrina's pieces are so reasonable in price but you can see the painstaking precision. If you sleep in our spare room, this will be what you see when you wake up.
A little piece of art which is hiding on the bottom shelf of the bedside cabinet is this hand-made 3D decoupaged card made by my Stepmum- I thought this was exquisite. Even though is it made of shop-produced printed pieces, I thought it was so lovely, I have kept it over a decade.
Before we go downstairs, I will take you into our main bathroom to spy this beautiful little painting with gold-leaf which we bought in either Split or Dubrovnik, Croatia on our holiday back in 2014 or 15. I LOVE fish art-work and we wanted to buy something bigger but it wouldn't have fit in our luggage so we had to restrict ourselves to this little piece. It now sits on the shelf flanked by two big Aloe-Vera plants.
I love the way the light catches on the gold-leaf.
We are moving down to the kitchen now.
As you go down the stairs, you will see these two prints by a Northumbrian, Newcastle-based print-maker artist, Joanna Bourne (www.joannabourne.co.uk) - one is called . Both are inspired by a Danish island, off the coast of Sweden, called Bornholm. Her brother lives there (who is a photographer). CBC purchased them from https://www.robinsongay.co.uk/
"In the shade in the garden at Fru Petersen's cafe"
"Prevailing Wind, Westerly"
Into the kitchen now.
As you come in, you will see this little sculpture of a Nut Hatch. CBC bought this for me for my 38th birthday present. It was made by Robin Fox (www.TheArtfulRobin.com). It was such a sweet and unexpected present. I really like Nuthatches.
Below that, you will see my floral wreath which I made for Easter but is now part of the kitchen. I was rather proud of this so that's why it gets included in this gallery!
We leave the kitchen now and come into the main living room.
I apologize for the reflections. This Squirrel painting was painted by Margaret Bainbridge, a good friend of mine. This was her wedding present to us. She gave us her portfolio to look at, pre-wedding and asked us to choose a painting which she would get framed for us. CBC and I love red-squirrels and are a big part of our Northumberland love.
Below our TV sits a small hand-carved wooden nativity from a single log, made in Bethlehem and bought as a special present for my by the a wonderful Muslim mother from my school about 7 years ago. She bought it specially for me as she really valued the music lessons her son received and I was so touched she bought it specially for me.
Musical instruments can count as artwork if they are as beautiful as this. This is my Pemade (Per-Mad-aye), a handcarved, handpainted bronze and wooden metallophone bought in Bali, Indonesia.). It takes an artisan Gamelan maker or carver months to craft this,
They often depict scenes from the Ramayana, the story of Rama and Sita but this one featured birds.
Another hand-carved piece is this sculpture which sits in the corner by the piano. It came from Kenya and was a present from the family of a girl who left my school last year. Her Dad specially carried this home from Kenya for me and gave it to me after the holidays. It is solid wood and I dread to think how much he paid in excess luggage for it. It is entitled 'The family dance'. Another incredibly thoughtful gift.
The largest artwork in our house is also our newest. This is a 100m squared painting by Emma Bell (https://70thebroadway.co.uk/) We bought it two weeks ago as I wanted to invest some of my saved train journey money into a local artist. We love this abstract sea-view which is in shades of turquoise blue, brown and large swathes of gold leaf (which are hard to see in this picture). We are going to hang it above our sofa but CBC has not put it up yet! It looks very much like an aerial map-view.
Finally, in the lounge, is this oil painting by Oliver Hurst (www.oliverhurst.com). He is a book illustrator as well as an artist. CBC loves owls like I like squirrels. This was CBC's 'support an artist during lockdown' purchase. A lot of artists painted small affordable pieces for people to buy during lockdown and CBC loved this one. It is painted on board and currently sits on our piano until it finds its display place.
Let's make a detour into the downstairs bathroom.
On the wall, you will see this South African batik cotton art work (if you hold it up to a window, it is translucent) which I bought in Cape Town. Hanging this in there was one of my lockdown projects- I sewed and tied it to a stick from the garden!
Above the window hangs this willow-heart with Rose-quartz which was a wedding present from 2 of my dearest pupils made by their talented Mum. The pair of girls came to my wedding.
Continuing the Giraffe theme is this hand-carved giraffe bought from Cape Town from the Artisan's market. You will see a pretty ceramic candle-holder behind it which CBC bought me from Costa Rica.
Into the front room/dining room now and on the wall hangs this photograph of a beautiful Lake District view of Buttermere, Rannadale and Crummock Water (not totally sure). The story of this is a little bit sad as CBC bought it as a present for his sister. She didn't seem to like it or want it so CBC's father, WOMOTM hung it in his bedroom (as he was a big Lake District fan). We gave it a home when he died. It's hard to see with the reflections but it is such a beautiful picture.
Let's make our final destination stop to the entrance hall.
A selection of photos, arty bird calendar plus art works hang here.
Up first, we have a piece by one of our Bloggers Art Gallery Participants, Alison Wale. Alison is incredibly generous with her Zentangle artworks. She made this Fox Zentangle for another Participant, Bev, but she made a copy of it for me! Isn't it beautiful!
Alongside it is another of her Zentangles, specially made for me, a musical Zentangle.
And now let's return to the study for a few pieces which are not on display at the moment sadly...
Here is a beautiful cloth piece I bought in Bali when I lived there, Batik with gold glitter. It may be mass-produced by I suspect not.
When I studied in Bali, two of the artists I met gave me their artworks. I sadly don't still have the first one (painted by Filipino artist Thomas Daquiag) but I still have this personalised goodbye painting by Dania, who went on to marry Katerina, my Greek room-mate from when we first arrived.
The Jon Pertwee print was a limited edition one I bought aged 16 from a print and framing shop in my childhood town. I paid a pound or so a week to buy this.
The top TARDIS was a gift from a blog swap with Janet who used to blog at JBistheinitial.
The Radio Times frontcover also came from that childhood shop.
The other two TARDISese were all blogswap gifts. I also had a beautiful Zentangle TARDIS from Alison but I'm not sure where it was!!! Ahrgh!
And now, please take your time (can be done over a few days) to visit the other artists participating in my Blogger Art Gallery. It would be so nice to support all of those who have generously shared their art from their houses when maybe you can't visit art galleries in person. Comments, no matter how brief (but of course, feel free to leave lots!), kindly, are really appreciated.
Here are all the participants. I think everyone, except one person, has their posts up! Participants, feel free (and please do) edit and add this to your post so your readers can click easily on hyperlinks to visit the other galleries
Updated:Rach has also joined in and she has loads of amazing part! Rach is the reason I am a blogger!
Thank you very much for participating and commenting everyone. Lurkers are invited to come out of the woodwork! I will be off to visit everyone's posts over the next day or so, leaving happy comments! Thanks for all of you who I can see, have already been commenting and visiting!
Much love,
Kezzie xx
