The Stone Wall Gallery: Olivia Lomenech Gill

Last week saw the opening of a beautiful new gallery, The Stone Wall Gallery near Preston, Duns.  The opening exhibition features work by Charles Poulsen and Olivia Lomenech Gill.

I first saw Olivia Lomenech Gill's work at Charlie and Pauline's open studio in August. I don't think I've ever blogged about it yet. Rich and I have gone to Allanbank Mill Steading every year since we moved and find inspiration each time in the work exhibited and from the artists themselves.

The first encounter was War Horse. Beautiful, large scale etching in response to and for Michael Morpurgo's writing? One glance and I was entranced, even more so having had a chance to look again. Layered, textured, emotive.

  

Image courtesy of the artist and The Stone Wall Gallery website

One of my fondest memories of teaching was sitting on the windowsill at the back of my class room reading with my classes. On one occasion I was perched aloft and finishing Morpurgo's Private Peaceful  with my year 9s. In those days year 9 was all about national curriculum testing and levels. I hated that fact, they hated that fact and it was a joy to be able to share a novel with them, to explore, respond and enjoy. They were marvelous. So, reaching the final few pages of a book that has reduced me to weeping my voice wavered a little. A certain student, who was fully capable of being a challenge, raised his hand and quietly asked, 'Miss, would like me to finish reading for you?'

And now, I've had the chance to see this beautiful work and even have a selection of my rings in the same exhibition.  This makes me happy.

Happenings

Well oh well, it is all very exciting over here as we prepare for the Art Trail. We have visited exhibitions...

Photographed and celebrated a joyous wedding...

 We had a visit from a lovely friend, celebrated Rich's birthday and in a delightful turn of events I will now be working at both number four gallery in St Abbs and Coldstream Gallery. Splendid! I have been thoroughly enjoying the galleries and will be bringing you a selection of my favourite pieces at the moment, I warn you, it may be a long list!

Sea Glass Pendants and Sumer Jobs

Hello, hello!

How are you all?

Things are rolling along well here working away on new pieces for the Crossing Borders Art Trail including a host of bezel set pendants like these ones which are in various stages of completion:

The blue on the top left is going to be oxidized so the texture on the copper stands out. I did a repair on a bracelet last week and forgot how much I love the blackened, textured look when you oxidize silver so there will be more.

The bracelet to be repaired was a very pretty Macintosh inspired piece and the roses were originally oxidized, however, after soldering and pickling as part of the repair the whole surface was back to silver. With a bit of liver of sulphur (pongs!) followed by polishing the bracelet was returned to its owner.  I dotted the liver of sulphur onto the roses directly(that's what you can see in the picture above) and then put the whole piece in warm water. This meant the whole bracelet became patinated, however it was more concentrated within the lines of the rose and then easy to buff off where the patina wasn't wanted.

So, yes, more textured, patinated work is on the way.

In other news I have a summer job! I will be working at the beautiful Number Four Gallery in St Abbs on Wednesdays so do come and say hello!  If you are longing for the sea and are on fb, following the gallery page might help with some beautiful pictures of St Abbs and the fabulous Art work too!

Number Four Gallery Christmas Show 2011

Day 70 - 72

Day 70 - The damson harvest! So far this lot have gone towards many litres of damson gin and the rest are bagged up in the freezer.  I feel a crumble coming soon!

Day 71 - The last day of September and little Mog came to investigate why I was lying on the grass with my camera.  I was going to post some sunny sky, bright flowers against autumn trees to document the record breaking temperatures but, well, Mog is just too cute not to share with you all!

Day 72 - New jewellery fresh out of the tumbler and nearly ready to go to photographer Ian Oliver's Tweedside Gallery.

The Found Gallery, Dunbar

Last weekend a beautiful new gallery opened on the High Street in Dunbar.

Look closely . . . left window, oh yes it's a Rich Johnson original!

I can assure you The Found Gallery is beautiful as we visited yesterday to replace one of R's paintings which sold on the opening day, yay!

There are so many splendid pieces within and owners Amy Christie and Simon Glover offer a warm welcome to a gallery of work they should be justly proud of.  The vibrant paintings in the back corner shown above are by Siobhan O'Hehir whose work I first saw at the Crossing Borders Gallery, Paxton House.  On my day working their last month I spent a lot of time looking up close at her work (fret not, my nose did not, at any point, make contact with canvas!) and the textures achieved with wax and paint are mesmerizing.  

Lace textured porcelain jugs by Stephanie Earl.

Simon Glover and Rich Johnson, The Found Gallery, Dunbar

A marvelous mooch around Dunbar followed and, as you may tell by the fact that I have left the house on a non work related venture, I have finished the marking work at last!  Free time is amazing, in the last day and a half I have weeded and planted in the garden, cycled and wandered, scraped, sanded and oiled the garden benches.  Am I ever glad that's marking done for this year!

Chirnside Gallery

I am pleased to announce that a selection of my sea glass and silver jewellery is now available at Chirnside Gallery. The Gallery is on the main street in Chirnside and also happens to be the Post Office; clearly a good call moving here when our nearest Post Office is a lovely gallery too!

The two pendants above are at the gallery and I love how the fired and polished art clay silver works with the sea glass. The deep blue piece of glass is gorgeous, like a moonlit sky, although it is still slightly damp from tumbling in this photo!