Anne Griffiths :: Contemporary Textile Art

y new monthly newsletter follows, if you would like to sign up to receive it by email then please use the form at the bottom of the page.

It has occurred to me though that some of the programmes and exhibitions I refer to may be finishing by the time you get the newsletters. I do usually try and put links to them on my Facebook page if you would like to hear about them earlier.

Old newletters may be viewed by clicking on the archive list below.

Of course I am always glad of any news or comments that you would like to make so please do email me.

Newsletter :: March

arly in the month I was teaching City & Guilds Machine Embroidery at Denman College a beautiful Georgian building near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. It is great that Denman are now offering these courses as they have become less and less available since the funding cuts.

The 3 day course was the the first part of the Level One certificate in which a combination of design (mark making, colour and texture) and machine embroidery is taught.   Techniques covered include free machining, applique, layer and cut back and working with soluble fabric. Here are some samples of what was achieved by the students.

Denman college of the is part of the WI however you do not need to be a member to attend their course, contact me or the college if you are interested in more information about the course.

I am offering two new dayschools at The Courthill Centre these are "Three-Dimensional Tassels" on 11th June and "In the Style of Klimt"  on 18th July.

The Courthill Centre is located in a beautiful setting on the Ridgway in South Oxfordshire and has a cafe selling delicious lunches and cakes, or you can bring your own food. I love holding courses here, each season brings a different view of the landscape.

In the first workshop you will make a simple tassel and an origami style folded tassel, on the second you will design and begin to stitch your own small panel using experimental goldwork materials. You could use hand or machine embroidery in both classes whichever you prefer.

The cost of each course is £28 which can be paid via paypal or posted to 4 Gabriel House, Wantage, Oxfordshire OX12 8DJ.

The Residential Courses in Cornwall will be advertised in “Stitch” and “World of Embroidery” over the next couple of months, so if you are intending to come please let me have your deposit as I need to confirm the bookings for the studio.

Finally on the subject of courses, I have some new samples for Distance Learning Unit One from Isabelle Davis and Gill McBride and am hopeful that there may even be a Unit Two parcel on its way in the not too distant future!

Alice in Wonderland is still enchanting the country, the ballet is currently sold out at the Royal Opera House and of course I didn't get tickets. Instead I was lucky to get a seat in a wonderful production by a travelling UK Ballet company Ballet Theatre UK in Newbury. Their cast was small and every dancer had to play many different roles. Check out this video and look out for the costumes worn by the dancing tables in the tea party scene they are fabulous.

I just managed to catch Portraying Life at the Royal Academy and shuffled around the packed exhibition.

Manet (1832–1883) has often been described as the “Man who Invented Modern Art’, however he was often ridiculed during his own lifetime. Many of these paintings are so familiar to us today that we forget that as he began his career in the 1850’s. The artistic genres important at this time were Romanticism, represented by Eugène Delacroix, Classicism by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Realism by Gustave Courbet. Manet combined the influences from these movements and took traditional themes from history, such as the nude, relocating them into scenes and portraits of contemporary Parisian life.

Music in the Tuileries Gardens (left), has been compared to Corbet’s 1854 painting The Artist’s Studio (below).

Both works include family members and friends of the artists together with self portraits. However, while Courbet takes centre stage in his painting, Manet is merely a bit player in his.

Courbet wrote about The Artist’s Studio ‘It is the whole world coming to me to be painted…’, highlighting a fundamental difference between the two artists: the world came to Courbet to be painted, whereas Manet went into Paris to paint the world.

Although Manet met regularly with Degas, Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Pissarro, and Sisley at the Café Guerbois, considered the birthplace of Impressionism, he never exhibited with them due to their rejection of the Salon. The Salon was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and from 1748 - 1890 was the greatest art event in the Western world. For Manet, this was the only event that ever mattered, in spite of the often-hostile critical reception he received there.

So, from the Salon and Paris to Oxfordshire Artweeks, preparations are well underway and if you are in the area, then do come over to the Loyd Lindsay Rooms where I will be exhibiting from 11th-19th May.

Best wishes,

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Newsletter Archive

• March 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• July 2012
• June 2012
• May 2012