just a few things

Well, I survived the second exhibition of the year, more importantly, we survived the taking of our last child up to university or rather, down to Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh. Which shall I talk about first?

 Lets talk about the above pic first. What is it?!! do you know?

Above is a pic of one of my favorite paintings in the Lochalsh Art Fair which I was involved in again. A wonderful show as usual. I put 3 pieces in; my 3 fish, the monoprinted & rusted hanging & one of the Curlews. They fitted in well but no sales this time. 

 This was Eilean Donan Castle when we came out of Dornie Hall after the opening. What a sight.

 I was involved in another exhibition down in a room turned into a temporary gallery in Sleat. It featured beautiful pieces by Heather Macdermott who is a jeweller but also paints evocative images of the trees left behind by the felling of commercial forests, a subject that is also close to the heart of my arty buddy Janet Soutar. Above is inspiration by Heather

 & above here are Heather's pieces, below x 2 are samples from a 2 hour workshop that Heather ran before the exhibition using inspiration from the forest where the wood was cut.

 This is my piece; 2 hours of fun, chat, playing with wood & wire - I found the rust in the garage next door, they said they had more if I wanted it ;) - & just making something for the sake of making. Can you see I'm using the same color pallet?

 Another guess the image, above. Something to do with our Middlest celebrating his 21st at sea. He came back for a couple of weeks, went of on a visit to Spain, came back for a weekend festival & has gone back to sea again for about 6 weeks this time. We didn't get to see much of him then, so it really is empty nest now (well, a few more weeks of B&B to keep us busy!)

He brought these back for me specially, saw Flamingo feathers, thought of Mum, just lovely!

 Parliament in Edinburgh. I'd like to hear the reasoning behind these bars all over the building. Is it to keep the masses out or the decision makers in do you think?

 As a sop to me, to keep me from crying about the removal of my apron strings from the Youngest, we went to have a look at the beautiful embroideries that happened to be hanging in Parliament for 3 weeks, just when we were visiting! It was a very quick visit & didn't do them justice at all, grabbing quick record shots of a few of the 160 panels but we had to get back for B&B guests.....

 This below is Kyleakin by the South Skye Stitchers, I had the honor of seeing it just before it was sent off, such lovely detail.

 Not sure if I got the panel that the words below belong to but they were interesting anyway....I was a little stressed & emotional ;(

 Above is the Battle of the Braes, in the North of Skye - we stayed there for many wonderful holidays, just look at those women fighting for their men! I think this was the one done by Skye Quilters - I somehow missed hearing about either of these stitching events going on, so I really must become a member of both groups so I can join in next time ;)

I had a lovely visit from Anne of Chocolatefrog
who was up here on holiday. She said some lovely things about my work so my ego was wonderfully stroked, thanks Anne!

She gave me a beautiful package wrapped up in delicious sari silk ribbon & I gave her an envelope of 'inspiration bits & pieces' including a bit of rust & 'coral' from the place she was staying; coals to Newcastle! In the package was this beautiful book mark which as you can see I used immediately, so lovely & such detail. You can still see the fern clinging on to the walls around here. I love it!

This a piece of fabric I made at the exhibition, I'll show you next time what I made out of it & who I gave part of it to.......