New Gardening with Morris tableau at the Laing arts gallery

Plant arrangements

Gardening with Morris tableau has been adapted for a new space in the 
Arts&Crafts exhibition showing at the Laing art gallery in Newcastle till 30 Jan 2016

Final installation - 8.5 metre tableau

Detail- Alium , glass eye and blue organ  with  fruits, birds and pomegranates

Detail - Glass corollas and ceramic organs on daisy and Chrysanthemums

Indoor Gardening with Morris at Compton Verney

Day 1. Ground laying the wall paper for Gardening with Morris with professional help from Graham and Steve. The dark grey night panels with Morris&Co designs of Willow Bough, Chrysanthemum and Marigold are the 1st to go up. 

Very excited to finally see all the paper up. Night and day panels  from left to right incorporating William Morris designs   Chrysanthemum, Daisy, Marigold, Bird & Pomegranate, Fruit, Compton, Willow bough, Marigold, Chrysanthemum, Willow Bough.

Day 2. The garden beginning to take shape with ceramics and the latest glass forms - Corolla bulbs and root bulbs.

Day 3. Adding plantations including Sunflowers, Aliums, Dandelion stem, Achinacea, Poppy seed heads, Black leaved elder stalk, Yellow yarrow, Blade grass, Cow parsley.

Installation assistants Jack, Jo and JP viewing at the end of a hard days work. Thanks guys!

Impressive views outside the Compton Verney gallery - Faye Claridge's giant Kern baby commission accompanied by a  small show of her photographs by the cafe. 

And one of the glorious Lebanese cypress trees!

Small plot

A small plot studio installation with some of the new glass pieces made with Jochen last week. The 9 meter 'Gardening with Morris' installation  will be up at  Compton Verney for the 'Arts and Craft House' e by the 26th June.

Printing at Sonsoles studio

Now a member of the vibrant Sonsoles print studio in Peckham where I have been screen printing onto Morris's designs. The whole process of  reconfiguring and making 'Space' among the fully charged repetition of pattern is akin to weeding, pruning, dividing and landscaping. The garden elements I want to return Morris's plants to are the ground , what happens underneath and way above  in the sky. 

Stencilling panels on studio floor

Working so closely and physically with the wallpapers certainly increased both my appreciation of the complexity and beauty of William Morris's designs as well as knee and back pain!

Organic designs - plots of earth, seeds, couch grass

Print on Pomegranate and bird

Daylight panels on Daisy

For anyone who wants to understand the aesthetic of space this book is a must.

Beautiful day!

Views from my daily walk to studio through Burgess park, another London inner city oasis.Today everything looks more alive and intense enhanced by the glorious light and the good news of ACE funding towards latest commission 'Gardening with Morris' 

Gardening with Morris

Beginning studio sketches, digging around Morris's designs. 
I can't help wanting to return these designs back to the soil. 

With Winter months approaching rapidly it seems a good plan to prepare the ground for this new project. The studio floor is covered with fruit and flowers and beginning to feel like an unkept allotment.                                                                         

Morris's choice of simple meadow flowers in Daisy and more exotic pomegranate and lemon trees in Fruit have become 2 of my favourites.

William Morris wall papers

Today a very exciting visit to wallpaper manufacturers for Sandersons and Morris & Co. I have been treated to visit the original block print archive and shop floor production where some of Morris's designs are still laboriously hand block printed while hundreds of meters of his and today's designers are machine printed per day.

Morris & Co are very generously donating Morris's wall papers for this next commission.

Arts and Crafts House, Then and Now

Discussing with curator Antonia Harrison my new installation for exhibition 'Arts and Crafts House, Then and Now' at Compton Verney. The exhibition traces the origins, legacy and enduring appeal of the historic Arts & Crafts Movement and its fascination with the creation of the home and link to the garden. The commission will consist of a new living wall tableau including William Morris botanical designs, new glass and ceramic pieces and a new collection of painted plants. This is my 1st visit to the wonderful grounds and gallery at Compton Verney. Their permanent collections include a great collection of British folk art and  magnificent trees which grace the surrounding landscape designed by Capability Brown.

LIFE AROUND THE FOLLY AT THE GARDEN MUSEUM

Detail of porcelain pool and plants

Peanut form with Widows bonnet

Bead vessel on moss with weed

Bird vessel with red headed weed

Balancing bead vessel with moss and branch

Porcelain pool with grass

Porcelain roots and Cow parsley

Black form and bone branch

Last few days of Folly with a Cercis at the Lambeth Garden museum. The tree goes back into the studio on the 19 June and will be pruned into sections. Branches will be available for purchase from beginning of July.