Posts Tagged ‘secret gallery’
Windy Wednesdays and flowers on the garden table
Photograph Recycled juice carton and oil paint
The wind blows a lot, the sea is so churned up it looks white, doors swing and slam, balloons get caught up in mini whirl winds and we giggle as we watch our children run around in circles trying to catch the illusive balloon! When I go out into the hurricane, my hair covers the whole of my face which is tense and grimacing as I attempt to clear away the escaped curls from my mouth and eyes getting more and more irritated! Swearing at plastic bottles as they are carried off from under my nose in a very erratic fashion, finally coming to rest half way up a thorn bush or some equally uncomfortable place! I love nature but I do have trouble coming to terms with the wind especially when it is cold and wet as well.
It is Wednesday again, it is windy again but today is a beautiful sunny day. I have just put some painted cartons at the gate and they are full of water so they don’t fall over,(apart from one that has more rounded edges and attached seed or bulb container) and even if they do they don’t smash like a vase would. I really Like the idea they they are affordable hand painted objects, as not everyone can afford to spend several hundred on a painting or artist’s print or sculpture. So today the Secret Gallery is open, well outside is we are still working on inside. I enjoy putting art in public spaces, this is like a very modest and transient form of motorway art!
These are multiuse vessels, one of their uses is called “art on the go” for filling with water and taking with you if you are doing water colour or or using any materials that need water, outside, I am in the process of designing the rest of the “art on the go” artist’s kit! I am going to keep one in my own car just in case I get the urge. It is a bit like the idea of having a suit case packed and ready for spontaneous adventures! Something James suggested but we still have not done, one day! Spring is defiantly in the air!
Beach collections
The other day, I headed to a beach near Lahinch, well it is a stony beach with driftwood and a lot of rubbish. After almost filling the boot of the car with drift wood, I decided to fill a large bag with plastic bottles and bring them to the bottle bank. It was like saying a little thank you to the beach for the driftwood. When we got home our children played with the driftwood and we have been burning it in the fire and I have kept some of the more suitable pieces for hanging some of the hand made books from and maybe to make some other things with them.
The Secret Gallery will be opening again soon, so we are getting ready, lots of tidying and painting and making small art objects for it. At the moment the theme is to create a fun and memorable ritual with an every day recycled object; creating something special out of the ordinary! Just think how much of our life we don’t remember; one day is often much like another. I would like to do little things to change that.
Off to search for pigments and drink mint tea in Marrakech
Just is short blog tonight as we are off of to Marrakech via London tomorrow, cant wait! I wont be writing anything for a week but I hope I will have lots to say and photographs to put up when I come back! I am really looking forward to getting some more indigo pigment and poppy or poppy seed pigment or whatever you would call that lovely deep red colour! I remember the indigo I got there before, it had amazing variations of blues and indigo through it there were even traces of turquoise in it. When I ran out I found some more in Barcelona but is was not so amazing. If anyone knows a good place to get pigments could you please let me know, thank you! Here are some things I made using Indigo Pigment. I also did some time-based word ice melting on a sheet of, you will never guess……indigo pigment!
Indigo Wind dripped records, intervention at the Secret Gallery
Words written in indigo pigment,(twice submerged in the sea, once in Barcelona and once in Fanore Co Clare) the Secret Gallery
Horse Blanket, outer layer wax on cotton painted with Indigo pigment and terracotta earth, the Secret Gallery
The Secret Gallery is a Sleeping and Meditating Space for the Winter!
Gradually The Secret Gallery has become more and more homely, James has been baking everyday and his croissants, breads and biscotti have been divine! I have been making my own stock and soups. The other day as I carried a wooden platter turned by my Dad with some fresh bread made by James with loganberry jam on it made by my Mum into our children, they said “and everyone made the butter”! Long live the Good Life!
The gallery is becoming a meditation room for the winter, paintings are being stored and incense and candles are burning! If people are interested in visiting the studio to see some art work we can arrange that if we have a little notice! We will be opening up again next year, hope to see you all then!
Front door of The Secret Gallery last Summer.
Shells down the garden path at The Secret Gallery
Road sign, between Doolin and The Cliffs of Moher
The times they are a changing!
Propelled into motion by James my partner, we are juxtaposing drinking at home, budgeting and reducing our carbon footprint! (when I say drinking at home I mean once, but it was fun!) I have not been taking my usual unnecessary ticky-tours around in the car and constant trips to the not-so-near supermarket! The Secret Gallery has been a secret bakery today! I was hoping that just at its messiest moments that nobody would walk in! The smell of freshly baked bread can help sell a house but I am not sure about paintings! Or more lightly recently, burnt offerings and flour everywhere! This morning’s baking was brown bread, then sticky flap jacks, apple and pear crumble with organic fruit from Mum and Dad’s garden. I am trying to resist the temptation to do a 20 something kilometer round trip just to buy a bulb of garlic, I know it would make the lentil and squash Indian dish I am making, taste allot better! Though I made it so spicy we probably wont be able to taste a thing!
The other day I picked up the book, Scott’s Last Expedition. Reading the glossary I was woken up slightly when I read the endangered words such as:
Barrier, the immense sheet of ice, over 400 miles wide and still greater length, which lies south of Ross Island to the west of Victoria Land.
Frost smoke, a mist of water vapour above the open leads, condensed by severe cold.
Piedmont, coastwise stretches of the ancient ice-sheet which once covered the Antarctic continent, remaining either on the land or wholly or partially afloat.
Nunatak, a ‘lonely peak’ of rock in the mist of ice; when rounded by glacial action, a Nunakol.
