Benode Behari Mukherjee at David Zwirner, London

Benode Behari Mukherjee - Untitled

I thought you might like to see some of the Indian artist, Benode Behari Mukherjee's work which was shown earlier this year at the David Zwirner gallery in London.  Entitled "After Sight" it was a showing of the artist's collages from the 1950s and 60s after he had lost his sight.  Born blind in one eye and short sighted in the other, Mukherjee lost his eyesight completely in 1957.  This didn't stop his visual arts practice but inspired him to try tactile media too, such as sculpture but particularly collage, as well as drawing.

Benode Behari Mukherjee - Untitled

Mukherjee (1904-1980), a pioneer of Indian modern art,  studied at Kala Bhavana, the arts institute, in Santiniketan, West Bengal which was pre-eminent in modern art in 20th century India.

Benode Behari Mukherjee - Reclining Man

Mukherjee organised his collages by touch and chose the colours and subject matter from memory.

Benode Behari Mukherjee - Boy With Shell Nose

Mukherjee's collages were very colourful and vibrant.  His style reminded me of Matisse's cut-outs.

Benode Behari Mukherjee - Faces with Sutli

On another point altogether, the David Zwirner gallery has an impressive staircase.  Take a look...

Staircase at David Zwirner

Staircase at David Zwirner

Next time you're in London why not check out what's showing at David Zwirner?

A Bit of Making at the Harrrogate Knitting & Stitching Show

Summer days are gone

I love the Knitting & Stitching Show - it's an annual highlight.  There's loads of inspiration from a lot of talented people.  Of course there are endless supplies you can stock up with (and no, I have never managed only to buy what was on my list and yes I do still have things I bought years ago that I have yet to do something with!)   

I do like to try out a few workshops when I go - sometimes to learn something new and sometimes for a bit of a rest from looking round.  This year was particularly good.  I have to say my favourite was Alysn Midgelow Marsden's "Time for Tea" which I managed to complete in the time allowed and which I was pleased with (see above - Summer days are gone).  Great fun collaging and stitching with tea bags, fabric, feathers & paper.

Dark blue cabling - almost there, light blue cabling = success

I also learnt how to cable with Monica Russel.  You can see from my efforts that I didn't get it right first time but seemed to have mastered it in the end.  I have even gone on to do a couple of extra pieces as homework so that's a thumbs up! 

Cotton scrim indigo shibori

Vivien Prideaux showed us shibori with indigo which was very interesting not least because I learnt that indigo has antiseptic qualities and that it's a substantive dye (e.g. doesn't need a mordant), that there are some Woad Houses in Toulouse that are worth a visit and that I'd like to try out a smocking machine (must find out if our EG has one to loan out!) 

Velvet indigo shibori

And finally I did some needle felting with Fi Oberon to make a little chick.  It took me a little longer than the hour we had to finish it but Fi gave us lots of helpful tips and info especially about those legs which I particularly wanted to know about and which I still need to work on!  (Last year I made a head - so there's a recommendation as I came back for more!)

Needle felted chick in the rain

So all in all a very enjoyable time!