Food and Other Delights - an exhibition at The Old Passage Inn, Arlingham

Another delightful exhibition is currently on at The Old Passage Inn, Arlingham, on the banks of the River Severn, featuring work by artists who are part of the Walking the Land group.  Click on the link for The Old Passage Inn, to read about the restaurant and follow the link for Food and Other Delights to see some of the work currently on display www.theoldpassage.com

Strawberry Heart, a collage I made using US Stamps showing  fruit including strawberries has already sold, but limited edition prints are also available  - framed or unframed -   Please get in touch for further details..

Christmas Open Studio Sale on 7th December 10 - 5 - I Saw Three Ships

Another  opportunity to visit my studio before Christmas will be on Sunday 7th December from 10 - 5 and I will have a variety of Christmas cards on sale, as well as prints and original work both framed and unframed.

The title of my Christmas exhibition is I Saw Three Ships to tie in with the well known carol but it also has a very personal link.

The first stamp collages I made were the three ships featured in the poem Cargoes by John Masefield, the Quinquiremen, the Stately Spanish Galleon and the Dirty British Coaster.   I have prints available of all these three  but for sentimental reasons will never part with the originals!   Ships seem to have become a recurring theme for my stamp collage work over the years and I've produced quite a few!

Inspired by visits to the banks of the River Severn at Purton - known as the Ships' Graveyard, I made The Dispatch and the Severn Trow Norah, just two of the many ships' hulks now resting there. It's a great place to visit.  Britain's last remaining coastal steamer, the S S Robin, now restored and shortly to be opened a s museum and ehibition centre in the Royal London dock was another subject for a stamp collage, and recently I've also made my version of the S S Great Britain. Two clipper ships, the Sower (La Semeuse) and The Blue Lady have been named for the French stamps used in their sails .. there is a whole collecting area dedicated to this little definitive stamp and a book has also been written about it.

"I Saw Three Ships" is a Christmas Carol and each year I make a Christmas card to send to friends and  family. These have included an angel, a Christmas tree, a Christmas wreath, a robin and a dove of peace, and Saint Nicholas, whose own story as Saint Nicholas of Myra, a town in Turkey, included his performing several miracles, one of which featured using the wheat cargoes of three ships to save the starving people of the town.  

From Russia with love

As a member of Postcrossing.com, I regularly send and receive postcards.  Today this beautiful card arrived from Russia, from a lady called Natalia.  On careful examination, I found it is painted on birch bark - look closely at the background.  You can see more examples of this on www.artbirch.ru.  The website is in Russian but I think the painting is by Alexander and Tatiana Noryk.  The title of this picture is Chapel, Kizhi, 18th century.  

 Natalia thoughtfully put some interesting stamps on it and tells me that the wrought iron shown on one of them is an example of Kaslinko casting made in the town of Kasli in Chelyadinsk region of Russia.

Another card  from Russia shows a modern design but unfortunately the postmark has covered the artist's name - Rita ?? 

And my third piece of mail from Russia today  was from my friend Olesya who sent me a nice card with a Rose in an envelope  along with some interesting stamps for my growing collection

Stroud Open Studios November 2014 - 1st and 2nd November

 
Yes, my collages are all made of stamps and related materials such as the little signal flags taken from a Smilers sheet as shown on a previous blog from last month. I have also used some interiors of envelopes which have been sent through the post to create the seas and rivers in my pictures.
The hills in the background of this picture of the S S Great Britain,  are made from stamps issued by Guernsey post office and the crowds of people  are  cut out from stamps from all over the world, not just Great Britain.

Come along to Open Studios to see the full sized picture! Prints and cards available of this and many more stamp collages.

Commissions .. and some newly available cards

The Barbados flag was recently commissioned and is shown here as a canvas print ready to hang! You can see from my Flags page that I've made many countries' flags and am happy to attempt others if anyone has a special request. Prices vary according to availability of stamps and this one took a while to put together as I had to find suitable stamps and subjects to include from various sources. Also shown are some new cards including one with the Barbados flag - possibly not a potentially  huge seller but I have had a few printed and these will be available at my next Open Studio on 1st and 2nd November - see previous blog post for full details.   Also shown here are the flag of Germany, The Blue Lady, Flower Heart and Christmas Robin.

I saw three ships .. exhibition and Open Studio here on 1st and 2nd November

Fujisan - Japan's beautiful Mount Fuji in stamps

This may be the collage which has taken the longest to complete .. I started it in March and we are now in October! The time it's taken was partly due to other more urgent projects coming along and partly due to lack of particular stamps to complete it.

There are many paintings, woodblock prints and photographs of Mount Fuji and I've been lucky to receive a lovely selection of  postcards from Japanese members of Postcrossing, since I joined last year.  These have all helped me with inspiration for this picture.