Exhibition coming up at the beginning of August

Kindred Spirits is a small group of four, and we have our third Exhibition coming up at RHS Rosemoor in Devon, at the beginning of August.  We have each made five pieces, inspired by our chosen theme 'Following the Footsteps ...' .  Vinnie chose 'pattern in glass'; Dot chose 'still life'; Sarah originally chose 'pattern in old lace' but has digressed I think (!) and I chose 'fantasy' (obvious choice really!)  I love the Art Nouveau with the lovely natural flowing lines, did some research into illustrators of childrens fairy stories, and came up with several brilliant artists, but was struck by two in particular, Kay Nielsen and Edmund Dulac.

Both of them were influenced by Japanese art of the time, and both created beautiful fantasy trees.  I have been greatly influenced by both of them in the fve pieces I have created for our Exhibition, and thought I would share pictures with you over the next couple of weeks.  All my pieces are 20" x 30" and are mounted over wooden frames.

This is a closeup of the middle section, showing the castle ruin.  I actually took a photo of the concrete outside my back door, changed the colour in Photoshop Elements, and printed it out on fabric, to use for the stones.  I also took a photo of some ice on a window, edited it and used it for the wall beneath the steps, to denote brambles!

This is the whole piece.  There are an awful lot of french knots on the top of the tree - of which I am very proud, as I don't do a lot of hand stitching!  The rambling rose creeping over the ruin is embellished (with the embellisher machine) hand dyed strips of silk, and the roses are free machine stitching.   All the fabrics I have hand dyed or painted.
If you click on the picture you should get a better view, hopefully!
Till next time ......