Friday 4 May 2012

Trip to Wales

On Monday myself and some textile friends drove to Wales to visit two exhibitions in three different venues. We drove over in rain and cloud but by lunch it was beautiful, warm and blue skies, the weather is so unpredictable at present. Anyway back to exhibitions.
We visited a John Piper exhibition in Cardiff Museum of his paintings of Wales. All extraordinary, his use of colour, line and light is amazing.
Cardiff Museum is well worth visiting, we didn't have long but it has an excellent collection of modern art and contemporary ceramics, and also does a good lunch.
We also visited an international touring exhibition of felt makers titled 'The Climate is Changing'. This was spread over two venues. The first we visited was the Llantarnam Grange Art Centre in Cwmbran, a beautiful gallery space that needs better signage. The second venue was Crafts in the Bay in Cardiff, by the time we arrived here it was warm enough for ice cream, tea and cakes outside.
Both galleries where filled with the most amazing pieces of felt, some I felt had a rather loose interpretation of the title and one or two could have been better presented but on the whole it was an excellent exhibition. Several pieces really stood out for me Mollie Littlejohn's Winter weeds, portraying a jacket expressing aspects of drought in South Australia in the future. Fiona Rainford's 900,000 tonnes, the amount of textiles sent to landfill in the UK each year, and Empty Vessels by Lyn Griffiths portraying Freeze, Flood and Famine. Many more deserve a mention but that could take forever.
Again no camera with me. However I bought myself a smaller piece by Jenny Pepper who was a guest maker at Craft in the Bay. I love anything with pebbly features in it. The contrast between the background felt and the pebbles is greater than it looks here.
Anyway must dash going out for tea and cake.

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