You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2009.
I’ve been reading this lately. What an inspiring, unsung hero she was.
Every painting appeals to me because of her use of subject matter and colour.
She pursued her art with quiet perseverance and had great humility.
Her lifestyle resonated with me; she painted around her families needs and quickly so that she could finish. She put her painting aside for a few years in order to be a carer.
Her art and her family were intermeshed and when asked why she continued to paint flower still lives and not something more adventurous, her answer was because it was part of family life and it enabled family life to continue to happen around her painting.
She pioneered this style of still life painting, where the foreground and background become one scene as if the flowers were actually in the landscape. She was never credited for it now or then, but her influence can be seen everywhere. Think of the work of Mary Fedden, Debbie George and Sarah Bowman.
She adored colour and sought to capture light in every painting. She painted in snow light, moon light and during the dark.
To the very end of her life she continued to travel, learn from others, love fun and humour and seek to be intellectually stimulated.
I don’t often read art books, preferring to be inspired by the eye candy instead. But other people’s life stories can help us along our journeys in ways not foreseen. Winifred painted out of a compulsion to do so, not competitively but quietly and steadfastly because she wanted to, she was pursuing something she had not yet discovered. And at the heart of who she was were her family and her art.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends – have a lovely food and family filled weekend. I think Thanksgiving is a wonderful tradition that we Brits could well do with adopting. Time to take stock, reflect and keep gratitude at the center of our hearts. I could knock out a really long list of thanks for things large and small. But it’s keeping contentment alive each day that is a harder trick to master isn’t it? Food for thought, literally, if your celebrating this weekend.
© Claire Leggett
Just popped in to say hello. Not got much to say for a change! Feeling in a post virus/ life overwhelm stupor. This picture sums it up for me at the moment; wanting a sense of tranquility, some sunlight, some nature and to fly away.
I was perusing my fave blogs and saw a link on Jane Brocket’s blog for Talking Threads. There are quite a few episodes to watch back already. It’s worth a look if you like making textiles. I did have to faff around disabling Cookies and installing Silverlight to play it on, but it was worth it.
Trying to keep things simple as the antidote to a crazy week so far. Life feels chaotic, over whelming and out of my control at the moment. And I’m not well. So today’s painting was small, manageable and definitely within my control.
© Claire Leggett
Talking of fair’s…today was going to be a lovely family day out in the Cotswold’s taking in the Vintage and Handmade Fair. But..
First all the three cash till’s in our local town wouldn’t work….went down the road to the next, same thing…”well lets get going anyway” we said and drove for one and a half hours to our first destination Chipping Sodbury. Jumped out in the wind and rain and tried another two cash till’s. Hum…same thing. After a little headscratching the cash till queue began to share and we discovered that all the Halifax/Intelligent Finance customers couldn’t get cash out. Once we got through on the phone it appeared that their whole system had hit ‘technical’ trouble – no cash, no pin use, nadda!
So to cut a long story short I had to look round all this with only the money we could cobble together between us, less petrol money and lunch. Torture…all this loveliness and no money to spend! Nicky from The Vintage Magpie saved the day by letting us pay by post and there was enough for tea and cakes, so all was not lost.
© Claire Leggett
This painting has had a life of it’s own from the very beginning. As I said yesterday it wanted to be painted and got it’s own way. Then today it insisted that I didn’t go running errands but finished it off instead.
© Claire Leggett
It made me layer, scratch, scrape and print until I had this highly patterned beauty. It seems to be both Autumn and Christmas all at once. Have a great weekend.
I went up to my room this morning to start a painting and the desk needed a bit of shuffling around so that new things could begin. It was then that this picture actually spoke to me – really! It said “Don’t put me away! I know you’ve got some half hearted idea about sketching shells again but I think I’m much better – look at my lovely blackberry colours! You know you love to paint figs and teapots…try me”. (For those of you who are interested it spoke with a lilting Scottish accent). ((Have I gone a little crazy today?))
So I raided the cupboards and the freezer and nearly wasted time going to a china shop to set up a replica when good sense prevailed. In my cupboard is a beautiful Indian embroidered quilt bought from a stall at Greenbelt that I haven’t yet painted (don’t tell Mr L – it was a year old purchase – it will ruin my “I need this to paint” shopping strategy).
So my intention was to put together something small and simple. In reality I always go for the pattern – the more complex the better – and layer on more pattern and texture and end up with a medium size complex painting to complete! But I love it! The light has been truly awful today, so here are a few yellow photos to show what’s developing.
© Claire Leggett
The other evening I went to see the film Bright Star which chronicles the love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. It makes me so proud to be British! I know Jane Campion the director is from New Zealand but the landscape is British, the characters were British, the culture was British! The whole film is just so British! If only I could have had a cup of tea from a china teacup whilst watching it and then perhaps made a few comments about the weather when I came out (I did actually!) the whole evening would have been totally Britfantastic.
It was beautifully filmed and although the soundtrack had very little actual music the incorporation of natural sounds like bird calls made it a very relaxing film to watch. The costumes were jaw droppingly simple but so stylish. I love my jeans but do feel like I missed out a little not having a full length grey linen smock and silk slippers! The costume designer was Janet Patterson but she had commissioned some Sophie Digarde cardigans, wraps and shawls. Given that a scarf is upwards of £200 I was a little distracted by how much this cardigan would have cost!
There is a beautiful website here with lots more information and links but go and see it if you can – I’m planning a second trip so I’ll come with you!
I know strictly speaking this is my crafting blog but I just saw this on my daughter’s desk and had to feature it today because it’s super cute and I’m a proud Mum!
This is her D & T (Design and Technology) project for school which is to design and make a cuddly toy. I adore this little French cat design drawing. I then fell about oohhing and aahhing when I heard that she had dreamed up the name of Bonjclaws (Bonj from Bonjour and claws for a cat – smart eh?!) But I’m most excited about the making part of it and must admit that I’m having to sit on my hands not to run up a little prototype myself it’s so damned cute!
I’ll be certain to return one day with the real thing once she’s made it. In fact I might just go and write my letter to Santa…
Yesterday I went to visit I new friend I’d made on the acrylic painting course that I went on recently. She paints in a delightful little ‘hut’ at a craft center. We happily passed a couple of hours chatting about art, techniques, selling, blogging, etc, etc. It was great. And I had egg and chips at the cafe on site – an important feature in my day that you have to know about!
Then on the way home I had to pass my favourite fabric shop The Cotton Patch and tucked away in a basket I found these delightful scrappy bundles of delicious Kaffe Fassett fabrics.
Did I already mention maybe a hundred times how in love with Kaffe Fassett’s paintings and fabrics I am? Well I am. I bought these for the laughingly small price of £1 (50 cents for my new Stateside friends 
) I thought they would make a great piece of reference material when I thinking about colour and design. But when I unpacked them there was way more than there looked, so maybe a little stitchy project will come of them too at sometime.
The Kaffe rainbow certainly brightens these horrible dark nights.
