The countdown continues with just a week to go now before the residency exhibition. I've spent most of this week quietly stitching away on Spurn Cloth #1 in my studio at home. This 4.7 metre long piece is a patchwork of rust-dyed silk and I've used stitch to add further texture to the marks already there. Some parts I've left without stitches: this space is important. The stitches confirm the creases in the cloth giving movement, like ripples on the ever-moving water out there, or the ripples set in the sand each time the tide comes in and then out again.
In the lamp room this will be hung in a curved form so you can't ever see all of the piece at once. The visitor will walk round it on their way to the platform to look at the view. This piece quietly reflects that view, with a horizon of sorts along the whole length of it. Soon it will be time to roll it up in my studio ready to go back to the lighthouse.
Time marches on and deadlines are getting tighter. The little book I'm publishing to document my residency is almost ready for the printers thanks to the wonderful Ruth. In between entertaining holidaying children I've managed to get a batch of rust prints over-printed with collagraphs that will hopefully dry in time to get to the framers...
Meanwhile, I'm waiting to hear when the BBC Look North feature will be aired (in the eastern part of the region I understand) and when the article in the Journal Magazine (a publication in Hull) will be out...
I had a very enthusiastic audience for my talk 'To the point' this afternoon. We just managed to squeeze everyone into my studio here amongst all the fabric and samples. It was lovely to meet some new people (and see some familiar faces) and share what I'm doing with such an appreciative bunch. There was even a 'Blue Peter' moment where I unwrapped a bundle of silk wrapped round a piece of rusty metal, accompanied by suitable expressions of delight at the marks that were being revealed.
I've stitched fairly solidly today, apart from doing a phone interview for a press article. Progress is slow but steady. People come in to the studio every now and then to see what I'm doing and I have a welcome little break to chat to them. Most people are wowed by the scale of what I'm doing. I'm fairly daunted by it too at the moment, but I will persevere as it is right for the space it will be seen in.
I'm spending this week at Farfield Mill in Cumbria. I am artist in residence here during that time. Yes I know, surely I can't be 'in residence' in two places at once... But I've brought a bit of Spurn here with me (images, sketches, notes, memories) and I am very much there in spirit. I am using this week to work in a concentrated way on my two big textile pieces, currently called Spurn cloth #1 and Spurn cloth #2... these unromantic titles may change with time but for now they will do.
I have a clean, light space here where I can spread out and work away from the distractions of my home studio. It would be tricky to do this in the lighthouse and while I work here I have people popping in to see what I'm doing so I can tell a different bunch of people about the project.
My first job yesterday, after unpacking my things, was to lay out the roll of felt In using as the base for cloth #1. This is industrial wool felt and will give a strong but flexible base to the piece that is beautiful to stitch into. My roomy studio floor was perfect for laying it out, measuring and cutting it to the size I need. I could then start to arrange my dyed silk on top of it. There then followed a great deal of fiddling, moving, rearranging, considering etc. until I was happy with the arrangement.
I could then begin to pin the pieces in place. This cloth is to hang in the lamp room in the lighthouse, where there is good light and visitors will be able to see the detail of the surface very close. There is a suggestion of a horizon and this work will almost be reflecting back the 360 degree view you get from the top of the lighthouse. But I'm not trying to represent it directly, rather I aim to capture something of the changing tones and marks in sky, sea and sand.
I will be giving an illustrated talk here at Farfield Mill on Friday at 2pm, all about the project.
Another grey day and lots of layers are needed to keep out the relentless wind. But at least it's dry.
The space I set up yesterday on the second floor of the lighthouse (in front of the big window in the middle) has been really useful as a place to spread things out and do some experiments in wet media. The room is painted black, as is the room below. I'm not sure what the significance of the darkness is. It has a large window which gives enough light to work by.
I decided on Friday's drive over here that this trip must be about collecting textures. So that is what I've tried to concentrate on. I've drawn a lot, using pens and charcoal when I'm outside and started to play with making marks from some rusty metal found on the beach. I tried working on a larger scale yesterday but nothing seemed to work so I've gone back to working on small sketchbook pages, removed carefully from the book to work on so that I can put them back together once things have dried.
