Wildlife, Landscape and Reflection

I spent a very wet Saturday morning installing a small exhibition 'Textile Landscape'  with a focus on wild places and wildlife at Kent Wildlife Trust, Tyland Barn  near Maidstone. This is a sister exhibition to Painting with Cloth held at  Rochester Art Gallery earlier in the year.   

Dutch Blue

Summer Grasses and Sedge Warbler

Opening times  11.00-4.00 Wednesday to Sunday. (There is a wonderful little cafe serving light lunches and the reserve is a delight to visit.)

'Collecting found materials as she goes, Cas Holmes creates marks with cloth, paint and stitch with a disregard of the divisions of medium usage and application that often define the world of painting and textiles.  Drawing inspiration from the world in front of her, Cas thrives on the challenges of the unforeseen and unexpected. The work on show is as much guided by the materials she works with as it is to her connection to her ideas about landscape and nature. She is fascinated by objects with a story to tell, cast-off sheets and clothing, handwritten papers, and the history of what we do with them and the familiarity they have in our own life.

Rice Freeman Zachery

I am also participating in the Embroiderer's Guild 'Home' exhibition at the Knitting and Stitching Shows in Harrogate 28th Nov-1 Dec

Lest We Forget

Finally, as we mark the time for remembrance I reflect back on my visit to Washington a little over a month ago I visited the Korean Veterans Memorial in Washington. I remember my father who proudly served alongside American serviceman as part of his National Service as part of the Royal Norfolk Regiment with the United Nations. This memorial (as will all memorials) reminds us of the shocking number of lives lost, both soldiers and civilians. 

My fathers own memoirs (which I have had cause to read recently for another project I am working on) testifies to his individual experience where winter became a welcome break from hostilities. Many were about great kindness (on both sides during this time) but also about great sorrow and hardship. I leave the last in his own handwriting.