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

Gardened Morris wallpapers

Print on Bird and Pomegranate, Fruit and Compton

Final layout of wall paper prints for Gardening with Morris installation. 2 distinct colour parts, light sunlight yellow and dark dusk grey.

Print on Willow bough

Row of green patches on the pavement this morning along with the last blossom shower.

New glass for Gardening with Morris

A day working on new glass forms with Jochen for 'Gardening with Morris' installation.

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Trying out some new opaque colours with some success and some failures!The whole process of lamp work is quite organic and fluid like drawing.

In the studio. Collection of stick work and ageing potatoes

Glass pieces, Winged and tailed forms and Corollas

http://www.comptonverney.org.uk/events/414/the_arts_and_crafts_house_then_and_now.aspx

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.

Winter indoor gardening

Preparing for new installation ' Sanctuary' at Touchstones in Rochdale Sep 2014

Pop up clay garden, The big draw at the Garden museum , London Oct 2014

Participant on the Tea(m) event at the Gerald Moore Gallery Feb 2014

Between September and Xmas my studio activities are increasingly involved with aspects of indoor gardening.