e-Luminating Cambridge

Colouful Fitzwilliam Museum

It just so happens that the e-Luminate Festival was on in Cambridge when I was there.  Apparently 2015 is the UN International Year of Light!  It was fun to see the City's amazing architecture lit up in weird and wonderful ways!  It's over for this year now but here's a flavour of that city's bright lights ...

King's College Chapel

Peterhouse

Senate House

Senate House

Senate House

A date for your diary next year perhaps!

Kettle's Yard House, Cambridge

Kettle's Yard House - Entrance

I discovered this little gem on a recent trip to Cambridge.  I can't believe I've never found it before especially as I used to live in Cambridge.  On the edge of the city centre, it is tucked away behind Kettle's Yard gallery which has changing exhibitions throughout the year.
 

View of Kettle's Yard House from the Gallery

Now owned by Cambridge University, it was the home of Jim Ede from the late 50s until the early 70s.  Jim was a curator at the Tate Gallery, London in the 1920s & 1930s and as a result met and befriended many artists.  Over the years he amassed an astonishing collection of 20th century art.  I've never seen so many paintings by Alfred Wallis (a personal favourite)!  They are displayed without labels throughout his house amongst his collections of natural objects and other works of applied art.  It is kept largely as it was when he lived there with his wife, Helen.  You are encouraged to sit in the chairs and see the art as he would have viewed it. It is a personal curation of his taste over a particular period displayed how he wished it to be experienced.  There are works by Ben & Winifred Nicholson, Christoper Wood, Willian Congdon, Joan Miro, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Italo Valenti, Henri Moore, Barbara Hepworth & others.  

There's also an amazing spiral of almost spherical pebbles that came from a beach in Norfolk - I want to go there too!

It's fantastic, it's free and on Fridays one of the grand pianos is used for lunchtime concerts.

Kettle's Yard Gallery

If that's not enough you can pop across the courtyard and take a look in Kettle's Yard Gallery and shop.  The current exhibition is Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay

This place is a gem - go see!

Granary Square - Kings Cross, London

Granary Square + Winter Sun Project

Next time you are near Kings Cross with a bit of time to spare go and take a look at Granary Square.  You'll find the House of Illustration (a gallery of illustration), Central St Martins (part of University of the Arts, London), Word on the Water (a book shop on a barge), Winter Sun (a light installation & social space) and lots of restaurants.

You get the view above from the viewing platform just opposite Granary Square where you can also see back down to Kings Cross ...

View to Kings Cross

read a poem ...

Steel Birds by Kathy Henderson

read about the Winter Sun project ...

Winter Sun Info

 Then you can check out the bookbarge ...

Word on the Water Bookbarge

Word on the Water Bookbarge

before going to Winter Sun to make some ghostly images on the screens ...

Ghostly images at Winter Sun

More ghostly images at Winter Sun

and then whatever takes your fancy - worth a look!

Katharina Fritsch - Blue Cockerel, 2013 - Trafalgar Square, London

Katharina Fritsch - Cock, 2013

Don't know if I haven't been to Trafalgar Square since July 2013 but I have only recently spotted Katharina Fritsch's ultramarine blue cockerel on the fourth plinth.  It's made from glass fibre reinforced polyester resin on a stainless steel supporting structure. Standing 4.72m high, it weighs over 800kg.  

Katharina Fritsch - Cock, 2013

Katharina Fritsch - Cock, 2013

Good job they're not that size in real life -  that'd be a bit scary!

You can read more about it here.  Go see it won't be there much longer.

Richard Tuttle - I Don't Know. The Weave of Textile Language - Tate Modern

 

Richard Tuttle - Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London

Currently exhibiting in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London, Richard Tuttle is an Amercan artist for whom art is an adventure.  He is also a collector of textiles from around the world and is fascinated by weaving. He is interested in the different techniques and technologies that different cultures use to create their textiles.
 

Richard Tuttle - Detail of central section

This hanging structure is the largest sculpture Tuttle has ever made.  It uses about 2,500 sq metres of fabric hanging from a plywood frame 24 metres long and 12 metres high.  It looks like two wings separated by a large red covered structure.

Richard Tuttle

It is supposed to relate to Tuttle's memories of the Vietnam war (he had wanted to be a pilot until he realised his role would be to drop bombs) and to raise the issue of genocide in the 20th Century and to comment on the separation of the mechanical (e.g. large scale industrial textile production) and the human (e.g. "art-making").
 

Richard Tuttle

The three fabrics were woven by Garden Silks Mills Ltd in Surat, India.  They are a combination of natural and man-made fibres, dyed to the bright colours & textures specified by Tuttle.  I could see the red and orange/yellow fabric quite clearly.  I read there was some midnight blue too but I couldn't see it.

Richard Tuttle - Holes in the red fabric

When close up you can see that the red fabric has a pattern of small holes at regular intervals.

On until 6 April 2015, you can read more here.  I think, unusually, it's better in the photos than in real life.  Not quite as exciting as some of the other Turbine Hall exhibits but if you are in the vicinity, then take a look!

Treasure from Yorkshire

Vintage mother of pearl buttons

This week I have been the lucky recipient of treasure.  It was presented to me in a bag & having spent some time looking through it all I thought I would share it with you ...

Spare buttons from many sources

Green buttons

Knitting needles, crochet hooks and other paraphernalia

Vintage tins

There was also some yarn and felt which will go to this year's yarnstorming project - planning underway - more later! (Did you spot the 18 count Aida in the background in some of the pics?)  And this was just some of the treasure.  It was such a lovely surprise and do you know what else - when Rosalie told me she had this for me, she was wearing one of my brooches. Thank you very much, Rosalie! 

Vintage Spools

Spool colours

I have also had some good finds at my local charity shop this week with some vintage threads and a sewing box - which inspired me to sort out my sewing things.  Hooray!

Sewing box

And inside ...

Happy New Year - Welcome to 2015

So... welcome to 2015 - a new year with 365 new opportunities to create.   I'm looking forward to sharing some of my creative adventures with you this year.  Let's hope 2015 is a good one!

And yes, I did get some magnetic letters for Christmas!