Coming Home

This is the time of year when coming home to a warm house and comfort is welcome after a walk or cycle in the cold. For many today, this is also a time when the hard weather bites deeper and harder when they have no home or for whom home feels far away. Maidstone Museum in their exhibition Coming Home, Conflict and Care reflects the First World War with an array of items, sounds and images based on two paintings in the museum’s collections by the artist Frank Hyde.

The ‘Arrival of a Convoy of Wounded Soldiers at Maidstone East’ (above) tells the story of the home front. Images and objects such as prosthetic limbs, medical uniforms and equipment, and even a wedding dress reveal the lives of the injured returning home and of the people who remained at home. I am delighted to have 'Rouge Remembrance' included in this exhibition.

As we mark the last month of the Battle of the Somme, standing Sentinal, this piece marks the friendship hard won between European Nations and our nearest neighbour France. People re-tell their own stories in small cards clipped above a hospital bed.

Nurses uniforms and embroidered handkerchiefs reminds us of the individual and personal cost of conflict and no less so today when millions are still seeking to cross borders to escape than it was 100 years ago. Will we ever learn?

I promised this would not be a 'preachy' blog. I know only to well I can 'bang-on' about the things I care about. I leave that to a soldier serving on the front line whose words have startling resonance today.

The second painting by Frank Hyde, ‘Trones Wood’ is accompanied by an array of items, sounds and images from the conflict. Uniform and military equipment used by the soldiers are shown, including a Lewis gun (which enabled the 7th Queen’s Own to hold Trones Wood). The exhibition continues until 7th January 2017 and is well worth a visit.

Thankyou to all the visitors who came to see my exhibition at Tyland Barn and who contributed to Tea Flora Tales.  Delighted that several small pieces sold including Canterbury Bells featured above.

I am planning projects, workshops and events well into 2018 and will update as they progress.  (please note, my course in December at West Dean is full. Another is scheduled for February.)
Meanwhile you can see further information on the exhibitions and workshops section of this blog including a return to Norfolk, Wales and the Netherlands,  as well as workshops in France and Switzerland in late summer.