Art Sale…

harp recital - 16 Jan 18 (2)

My exhibition is over.

It was so sad taking it down.  It looked so perfect displayed together in that beautiful bright white box with loads of natural light shining in.

It wasn’t just me who thought so.  I can report that the exhibition was really well received.  There were five whole pages of comments in the visitor book and they were all so lovely I’ve photographed them and am sharing them here.

Out of the Darkness Comes the Light – SALE catalogue

There are three paintings that need returning having been brought back to me on loan, two more need sending to their new forever homes.

I’m now looking for a venue that might like to display the remaining collection –

three glass sculptures and twelve acrylic paintings. …

“Out of the Darkness, Comes the Light”

When I began this body of work in 2014 it was as a result of the awe and emotion evoked when I looked out at the huge expanse of the dark night sky from my home in rural Mid Wales.  There were so many more points of light and smudges in that darkness than I had ever seen before, having previously lived inner city. I would look up, with wonder at the prospect of the infinite new beginnings and endings; the energy that must be existing, living, dying and flowing beyond beyond.

Then I started looking at images taken from space telescopes and felt a spiritual connection to all that light and energy exploding out of the darkness.  These energetic outpourings millions/billions of years ago still shine bright today; still impact on the here and now.  For every action, no matter how large or small has an impact.  A smile, a frown, a wave, which road we take, which path we walk.  Everything makes a difference.

They say that something as a small as the flutter of a butterfly wing may ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world…

Also, all items are available for sale, if anyone is interested.  (I need to sell a few more to make space for the next collection. )

Out of the Darkness Comes the Light – SALE catalogue

 

Rose Tinted Ramblings2 Comments

Spring, St Davids Day and the sunshine flower…

Daffodils - Wordsworth

art, painting, snowdrops
acrylic painting of snowdrops by me

It’s supposed to be Spring, yet (and not for the first time at this time of year) it’s snowing, halting the daffodils in their push to shine bright in our gardens and roadside borders.  Its rare, to be fair, for us here in Mid Wales to have many, if any daffodils in flower for St Davids Day , 1st March.  Yet every year, as the daffs begin to poke their snouts out of the cold ground in January we hope impatiently and unrealistically , that they will be bobbing their sunny heads in the early days of Spring, before winter has said its final farewells.  They never do.

So today, the very last of February , there is a blanket of snow covering the grass, hiding the daffodils with their still covered heads, and camouflaging the snowdrops.

Tomorrow is St Davids Day, and living here in Mid Wales for the last 13 years , it’s pretty hard to ignore.  Why would I want to anyway?

So who is this St David you may be asking…. (or not, but I’m going to tell you anyway).

Related image
Well here is the handsome chap….. depicted in this lovely stained glass window from Castell Coch in Carmarthenshire

David was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw ( now St Davids, Pembrokeshire) during the C6th.  He lived from 500 – 589 AD and died on the 1st March that year. He was canonised in the 1120AD by Pope Callixtus II and since then 1st March has been a festival day to celebrate him; St Davids Day, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi.

He was born to an aristocratic family in SW Wales, descended from the royal house of Ceredigion..   He was a teacher, highly disciplined and during his life helped found a dozen monasteries in all.  He founded a Celtic monastic community at Glyn Rhosyn (The Vale of Roses) in Pembrokeshire (where St Davids Cathedral now stands).

The Welsh (quite rightly in my opinion) think St Davids Day should be a National Holiday as is St. Andrew’s Day in Scotland and St Patrick’s Day in Ireland. In fact cross-party support resulted in the Welsh National Assembly voting unanimously to make Saint David’s Day a public holiday in 2000. A poll conducted for Saint David’s Day in 2006 found that 87% of people in Wales wanted it to be a bank holiday, with 65% prepared to sacrifice a different bank holiday to achieve this.  However a petition in 2007 to make Saint David’s Day a bank holiday was rejected by the office of the then PM Tony Blair (grrrr).

The national symbol being the leek, The 7th century king of Gwynedd, Cadwaladr, is said to have ordered his men into battle wearing them for identification purposes.

Back to the Daffs.  The daffodil is the national flower of Wales, the origins of the national flower of Wales appears to be as an attractive interloper, introduced during the 19th century, as a replacement for the humble leek. David Lloyd George, the only Welshman to serve as PM, was a public advocate of the daffodil and its appearance in early spring as a symbol of nature’s optimism neatly coincides with St David’s Day on March 1.

So there you have it, whilst we have no daffodils in flower here at Cerdyn Villa yet, there are plenty , I’m sure, in full bloom in England.  there are certainly loads in the shops but I shall wait until my garden is abundant with them.

In the meantime I’ll make to with the stained glass ones I’ve been working on.

stained glass, welsh, daffodils for St Davids Day

My Random Musings

Lucy At Home

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Rose Tinted Ramblings11 Comments

Ladies who lunch, light hearted banter, art and an unexpected harp recital….

Sometimes an ordinary day turns into an exceptionally wonderful day…its a rare and wonderful phenomenon.  When they happen I wonder if they are by luck or by state of mind.  Probably a bit of both.  I do know for sure that those days I’m in a bad mood, more negative things happen.  However, this Friday, just gone…that would be yesterday(!) was highly anticipated as a planned busy but nice day.  The resulting day was glorious.

As you may know I am mid way through my first ever solo art exhibition.  it was quite a long time in the planning and prepping and quite emotional in the setting up and previewing… but it’s there now. It’s actually going well in terms of feedback and I am definitely extremely proud of it.

A small group of wonderful friends who I know mainly through teaching them stained glass during the wonderful Welsh Legends Window Project, had arranged a jolly to the Radnorshire Museum to see my exhibition and I had arranged to go with them and do our fave thing “Ladies Who Lunch”, first.  So as you can tell, it was already going to be a lovely day.

These, lovely, colourful, energy filled, inspiring women gathered to join me at The Herb Garden for pre-exhibition food.  The Cafe is my very favourite in Llandrindod Wells, a community cafe , serving wholesome, freshly made, delicious delights with top quality organic ingredients. It has friendly staff, cosy sofas, a selection of newspapers and magazines, a pile of toys for any kids, a local information board and a gallery wall.  In this instance there was a display of stunning photographs of China by a local photographer/friend of mine, Mike Lewis. A perfect accompaniment to our lunch with it being Chinese New Year. (sadly I didn’t take any photos at it would have meant leaning across strangers who were eating their lunch and I thought that might appear a tad rude!  the place was packed)

As we trotted round to the museum, it was a gloriously sunny early Spring day, the type of day that fills you with optimism and joy for new beginnings and the arrival of Spring flowers and the hope of Summer not too far away.

There was quite a buzz of excitement from my friends climbing the stairs (or using the lift) to reach the exhibition space.  I think there were genuinely impressed and enjoyed the exhibition, which really gave me quite a boost.  Additionally, because of the location, they had the bonus of discovering this quaint and eclectic collections within the museum itself.  So a fabulous afternoon..

… but there was icing on our daily cake … on arrival we were told that three internationally acclaimed harpists were about to arrive to look at the Welsh triple harp the museum has in its collection and that one of these harpists was going to play it…. we were allowed to sit in on an impromptu harp recital by Robin Huw Bowen (head to discography and click the listen button, its exquisite …  ).Robin proceeded to discuss the history of this harp, his interaction with the ancestors of the owner who donated it to the museum in 1952, and played some classic Welsh tunes and some Welsh gypsy popular music of the time

Those gorgeous looking ladies sat by the harpist are Camille & Kennerly Kitt, otherwise known as The Harp Twins here as part of a world tour, having just finished a 4th gig in Wales.  They play rock music on electric harps – something to behold!

Here’s a little clip from the recital.  Robin did apologise, he said if he’d known there would be an audience he would have arrived earlier to tune the harp!!!  Still …we were happy !

acrylic art, orion, great nebula, exhibition, acrylic on wood
TITLE: “There is beauty all around; we simply have to open our minds to see”. DESCRIPTION: Based on the Great Nebula in Orion, spirals of gas resemble a gargantuan flower. ……My friend , D particularly wanted a photo of me beside this piece as she said it was a perfect artistic impression of me and my personality ! how lovely XX
Mission Mindfulness

 

My Random Musings

Rose Tinted Ramblings5 Comments