Snow memories

Artistic nature

Hannah 2005-6 (detail) by Claire Heathcote. Hand and machine stitch on wool, hand cut applique and screen print 130x110 cms

The latest issue of Embroidery Magazine is out. It features the work of Claire Heathcote and her portraits in thread. They are stunning works of art. Embroidery magazine, if you do not know it, is a great publication but it is not easy to find - as far as I know no shops in London stock it and the only way to get hold of it is by mail order or by visiting the Embroiderers Guild bookshop. If you are planning to do this I would telephone first to make sure the shop is open.
Mistletoe growing on a tree at Hampton Court Palace.

I went to the Embroiderers Guild bookshop at Hampton Court Palace to pick up a copy yesterday and saw this amazing tree with mistletoe growing all over it. Mistletoe is a parasite which grows off other trees. Nature does it again !

Signature 1999 by El Anatsui, photograph by Martin Barlow for Oriel Mostyn, Wales.

And here is another wonderful piece of work by El Anatsui, again featuring my favourite material - the tree. El Anatsui who is showing work in London at the moment, as I mentioned last month, also has a show in California at The Fowler Museum in Los Angeles until 26 August, this is a touring show organised by Oriel Mostyn Gallery in Wales.

Natural resource

' April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.'

excerpt from The Waste Land by TS Eliot

My Mum brought me lilac from her garden - it smells sensational !

Walking through the local park on Tuesday, I spotted this lovely big branch and could not help but drag it home and up the stairs (getting stuck half-way) - it was twice as long as this and I had to saw the branches off before I could go any further. I do have a tendency to pick stuff up from the street - small twigs and abandoned chairs are some of my regular finds !! When my Mum came over to see me with the lilac she didn't spot the tree in my room straight away but when she did I think it made her jump ! I love trees and stuff made of wood - always have. I am not sure what I am going to use it for yet - I do like to work on a grand scale and may continue my theme of papier-mache and drawing onto it - or maybe make some wire and paper hybrids growing from it ....

Symbiotic associations.

Twig, covered with pages from the yearbook of the US Dept. of Agriculture 1904, glued and drawn on with ink pen.

Lichen on the dead gooseberry bush.

Twig, book pages glue and ink.

Apple tree with lichen.

I have been visiting my sister's allotment this month and it has been a huge source of new ideas, with everything starting to bloom and even the dead wood has life growing still. I have been taking photographs of the amazing forms of the lichen on the branches, it has a symbiotic relationship with the plant that it grows on.

Then this week I started a new project with twigs, papier-mache and drawing combined. I had not seen the relationship with what I had been studying intently on the allotment until I started constructing this post for the blog - then I suddenly saw the symbiotic relationship of this new work with the natural forms I had been taking pictures of. In the last 2 years my work has become more spontaneous, the materials suggest the form and as I construct new work I begin to find associations within it. Making art has become such an integral part of my life that I don't even think about it - the art just evolves. Meanings reveal themselves as part of the process.

Tree of Torment

Gouache, watercolour and indian ink on canvas board. 1991 14x10inches.

I never really came to terms with losing my Grandmother, we were very close and when she died I found it hard to continue painting, this was one of my last paintings from that time.

Tree of Life

Gouache, watercolour and indian ink on canvas board. 1991 10x8inches.

This is one of a series of paintings I was working on 16 years ago. Trees have always been a favourite theme in my work.

Green reflection

Snow !

This was the view out of the kitchen window this morning - first proper snow in London for a very long time.