Miniatures in Bloom

A final selection is shown here, this time of small works by Carolyn Sibbald (the first two) and Carla Mines (the third), before our exhibition at The Arts Centre at The Meeting House in Ilminster, Somerset, closes on Saturday.

If you live locally and have not yet been, general opening times for the gallery are given on the Art Centre website via link above or by clicking on the poster in the side bar of this blog. 

Please note: Closing time for the Gallery this coming Saturday (31 October) will be at 12 noon because our exhibition is ending and our work has to be taken down ready for the next exhibition. 

Margaret Robbie

A glimpse of Bloom In Ilminster

We've recieved a small selection of images of our exhibition from the Ilminster gallery. These give a taster to whet the appetite!

I will be visiting sometime next week and will go armed with my camera so I can take a full record of our work. I will post more images following that visit. 

Bloom can be viewed from now until Saturday 31st October. Further details are given in the poster in the side bar of this blog or on the gallery website. 

Owing to the Covid restrictions, the opening hours are a little reduced and liable to change as events unfold. It would be wise to check on the gallery website before visiting. 

Margaret Robbie

Symbolism in the gardens of Chenonceau

Our exhibition in The Arts Centre at the Meeting House in Ilminster is now open to view. You will find a warm welcome in the gallery and in the café which is open during the centre's opening hours.

Much of the work I am showing this time is a continuation of work begun last year following a visit to the Chateau at Chenonceau in France in July 2019. The series explores the history of the Chateau and its famous occupants through the life of Catherine de Medici (wife of Henry II of France) who lived there in the mid 1500s.

This time, there are several new pieces. I have extended my thoughts with a fresh look at the use of colour to suggest further the dark history of Catherine's life - of dark deeds and perhaps blood spilt. 

This theme of evil deeds contrasts strongly in my memory with the formal beauty and apparent peace of the gardens as I saw them and I hope to suggest this contrast in my work. I have also explored the shapes (both positive and negative) generated by the overlapping of images. 

Throughout, I developed my response in Adobe Photoshop Elements from the photographs I took during my visit. The imagery which resulted was discussed at length (here and here). 

Covid restrictions notwithstanding, the exhibition runs in the gallery until Saturday 31 October. In view of current restrictions, it would be wise to consult the Art Centre's website before visiting to check the opening times of the gallery.

Margaret Robbie 

Small stitched gems

Carolyn is showing a variety of work in our exhibition entitled Bloom, in Ilminster from next week. It is always delicate, precise and, mostly, small in scale. This is just a taster of her many pieces. 

There is a series of tiny hand embroidered houses, barely three inches tall, each with its own garden. 

Then there are groups of small books, often displayed as collections on a backing. Some are bound in paper with intricately-worked spines and others are leather bound.  

By contrast, there is a sculptural book more than two feet long which can be twisted over on itself, snake-like. It has a multitude of pages, and a cynotype cover in bright blue. 

Details of the exhibition can be found either by clicking on the link above or refering to the poster in the side bar of this blog. Clicking on the poster image will also open up a link to the website giving futher information. 

Carolyn Sibbald

Corinne's Pot Plants

In our exhibition at the Arts Centre and Meeting house in Ilminster which opens next week, Corinne is showing a series of small turned edge appliqués exploring the relationship we have with the plants we bring into our homes. 

She explores pattern, colour and form in this varied and colourful series of pieces. 

Our work can be seen at the gallery from Tuesday 13 to Saturday 31 October. Further details can be found in the side bar of this blog and by clicking on the link above. 

Corinne Renow-Clarke

Carla's Bloom

As always, we have interpreted the theme for our exhibition at the Arts Centre at the Meeting House in Ilminster in our own individual ways. 

Carla frequently explores the effects of man on the natural world in her work. Her pieces this time are no exception. She considers the effects of pollution, taking the word bloom as it applies to the minute creatures that live in water and which produce 'blooms' when growth accelerates suddenly. 

In particular, she machine stitched the outlines of dozens of tiny plankton that live in their billions in our seas and oceans using gold and silver thread on disolvable fabric to produce a beautiful series of pieces. 

She comments also on the effects of the plastics that we throw away and which inevitably end up in water courses around the globe causing incalculable damage to the environment. 

Carla Mines