Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Unbelievable! One of my life ambitions is about to come true thanks to Light Artist, Bruce Monro.

I happended to come across this BBC news item about Bruce's CD Sea . Using hundreds of thousands of old CDs, Bruce and a team of volunteers have turned an ordinary field of grass into an amazing sea of shimmering light. CDs are a great medium for this project, creating an ever-changing effect of light and colour on a huge scale. Plus, it's a great way to recycle old discs.

For the past fifteen years or so, I have been hanging on to old CDs, collecting unwanted music, computer and Internet discs. I imagined I could produce interesting, unusual and colourful sculptures or framed arrangements. But I was never brave enough to actually do anything with them as I wasn't sure if it would really be a valid way of producing art. Now Bruce has led the way, I have artistic validation for my plans.

I don't have enough CDs to create a sea, not even a pond, but now I have the justification to start working on this art. The next step is to dig out all the sketches and notes I have made over the years and start putting these into practice.

Love Your Art,
Vince

Name That Sheep

By the way, did I ever mention that we collect sheep?

One of our sheep has pride of place high up on the bookshelves in our living room. It's a hand-made pottery ram that we have owned for a few months. It has a quite individual personality and we felt it was crying out for a name. We often give names to pieces in our art collection. In fact pottery firms sometimes do this too, for example the whimsical "Ewe And Me" sheep characters produced by Border Fine Arts. So how do you go about choosing a name for a ram?

We began by trying, unsuccessfully, to find out more about the ram. The sticker on the base suggested it might be a studio piece or possibly sold in a shop. We Googled but failed to find any information on the internet. If you've come across Trinity Pottery or Stuart Taylor, please let us know as we'd love to find out more about this sheep.

The spirally horns and long thin nose are its most distinctive features. The wavy wool coat is represented by spaghetti-like strands of clay built up on the main body of the sheep. It is finished roughly and unglazed giving a rustic texture that helps to create its interesting personality. Our lack of information about this ram gave us the opportunity to create our own story about his origins. His long, thick, brown, curly coat and his imposing horns evoke an image of an upland sheep in a cold, harsh, mountainous environment like the Scottish Highlands. We can just imagine him sheltering from a snowy blizzard behind the wall of a ruined castle.

After looking through a list of boys' names in a dictionary we drew up a shortlist of those with a Scottish origin. We toyed with Hamish, Angus, Fraser and others but finally settled on Alistair as his name and we think it suits him very well!

Love Your Art
Vicky

If Toucan You Can Too

We've been back to Croft village hall where Fran Connelly and Petra Lloyd were exhibiting their artwork as part of the North Yorkshire Open Studios event. For a couple of weekends, artists across North Yorkshire are throwing open the doors of their studios or holding exhibitions and demonstrations of their work. These open studio events are a great way to meet up with your favourite artists or get to know about some new ones. We were able to chat with Fran and Petra about their work and see a broader range of the things they do.

We mentioned Petra's toucans in a previous blog and were delighted to see an even wider selection to choose from than last time. Petra was half way through making one of her ceramic toucans. She explained to us about the clay, how she shaped and carved it and how it was fired using a process called Raku. The Raku firing is a technique, developed in the Far East, that extracts oxygen from the glaze, allowing the metals within it to form unique and distinctive colours such as blues, greens, copper and bronze. As we listened to her explanations, Petra thrust the half finished toucan into Vicky's hands, encouraging her to work at some of the carved detail around the eyes. This kind of interaction with the artists makes these events really interesting and fun. We were so impressed with the way the toucans were made and the wonderful end results that we just had to buy one. We look forward to it landing on on top of our display shelves next week.

The way that Petra's toucans and other ceramics were displayed alongside Fran's gorgeous, dramatically-coloured pastel skyscapes (yes, we bought one of those too) created an attractive display. The mix of different styles worked very well together.

Unfortunately we were not able to visit any of the other open studios last weekend but if we are free next weekend, look out for us.

Find out more at http://www.nyos.org.uk.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

Buy Me!

"That looks unusual", said Vicky, pointing to a rather strange looking picture cowering in a corner, half hidden by a rack of ladies jackets. Vince pushed the jackets aside to the annoyance of a little old lady who was rummaging through them. He rapidly scanned the piece, making disdainful grunts as he digested the brown colouring and the angular lines of the landscape.

"It looks a bit dull," he suggested. Then he noticed the markings along the bottom edge. "Ah, it's a signed, limited edition. Look 4 of 36, Souel - Vines, D M Patterson. It might be worth a bit!" So we bought it because of its unusual style and the fact that it was a limited edition.

That happened on Saturday. On Sunday we cleaned the picture up and and tried to find a suitable location for it. We failed completely! It didn't hang happily on any of our walls. Perhaps it was the harsh, jagged angles of the brush strokes, the monochrome brown colouring or the wholly inappropriate lime-washed grey frame it was in. Our interest in the picture rapidly turned to disappointment. Now, the only reason we had to keep it was if it had some value.

We spent several hours discussing how much it may be worth as a piece of serious art. A thorough search on the Internet revealed nothing about the picture or the artist. Vince claimed that its unique and distinctive style, and the fact that the artist thought that it was worth producing a limited edition, suggests that it did have some value above a basic print. Vicky argued that the frame reduced its value significantly and the dull, jagged lines of the landscape would appeal to only a very few art lovers. Our conclusion was that if we sold it, we would be unlikely to be able to retire to the Caribbean.

We both regret this impulse buy. Were our expectations too high? Are we becoming over-confident and buying without thinking things through first? Whatever went wrong, we are now left with an unloved, unwanted picture. eBay here we come!

Love Your Art,
Vicky and Vince

Serving Our Apprenticeship

Watching episode 4 "A Work of Art" of the BBC's Junior Apprentice programme provided an insight into the difficulties of buying and selling art. The teams were given a shortlist of contemporary artists from which they had to select two to represent and sell their art at a special gallery sale. Easy? No, it was harder than it looked!

The first problem was which two artists to choose for the team to represent. Was the bottom-line, as Kirsty from Team Instinct focused on, money and whether the artist had a range of prices. Or was it, as Zoe from Team Revolution showed, the concepts behind the art backed up with some schmoozing and flattery of the artist. In the end both teams wanted the same artist, Tom Lewis, as he had a range of affordable and expensive prints and originals that would appeal to a range of buyers. The losing team were stuck with the more expensive artists like Sarah Kate Wilson who's pieces were up to £4000. Although both teams drummed up buyers, most of those preferred to pay in the hundreds rather than thousands of pounds.

What could we learn from this? Despite professional artists trying to push the conceptual boundaries, the majority of buyers wanted something attractive and decorative to put on the walls; neon lights spelling out words or phrases didn't cut it for the average buyer. Price is also important. When buying pieces for our walls we've bought originals by unknown artists from charity shops, or bid on eBay for more well known artists and tried to get value for money. In the end art is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

Vicky,
Love Your Art

Spring In Amsterdam

A few days away in Amsterdam gave us a great opportunity to look at some 'proper' art for a change! We visited two museums, the Van Loon; a traditional family-owned canal house and the Rijksmuseum, the main museum in the city.

The Van Loon house, built in 1671, had artistic connections from the time it was built: its first tennant being Ferdinand Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt. The rooms remain decorated as they were near the end of the eighteenth century. We were delighted to discover that one of the bedrooms was decorated with a sheep print - walls, curtains and bedding. We may give that a try at home! The walls throughout the house are adorned with family portraits, dating from 1600 to the present day, painted by many artists.

In contrast, the Rijksmuseum is a typical large museum with displays of paintings, ceramics, silver and furniture. There were dozens of paintings, some of which we had heard of: The Night Watch by Rembrandt, The Milkmaid by Vermeer, The Toilet by Jan Steen and Portrait of a Young Couple by Frans Hals. Sadly, none of these were for sale, so it's back to the charity shops to find something to fill that gap on the stairs.

Seeing all these original old paintings puts our little collection of prints to shame. Never mind, we like what we have. And besides, The Night Watch is just a bit too big to go through the front door.

Love Your Art,

Vicky and Vince