Unframed Prints available

Voyages of Discovery, my exhibition of Stamp Collages at the National Waterways Museum continues on until September, and there has already  been a lot of interest in the ships which are the subjects of most of the pictures.on show.

Staff and visitors at the exhibition in the National Waterways Museum May 2019

  You can read the ships' stories on previous blog posts, and information is also available in the museum display.  During the summer months the museum is open every day from 10 - 5.
Pictures can  be supplied as unframed prints, and in various sizes. Print quality is excellent and colour is guaranteed fast for 70 years + although I may not be around by then to check on it!! Take a look at my website www.rachelmarkwick.co.uk  to see all the pictures.   

Tall Ships and tall stories at the Tall Ships Festival in Gloucester Docks this week-end

This week-end will see  magnificent tall ships sailing into Gloucester Docks for the bi-annual Tall Ships Festival.  Several have inspired stamp collages in past years, and I have 20 pictures on display now until September in the National Waterways Museum on the dockside, including a few or the  vessels that were here last time.  I'll be visiting the festival to see some newcomers, take some photos and hopefully eventually make some more pictures. La Malouine is back again this year, and features in one of my collages. I'm looking forward to seeing the Vilma, and the Grayhound as well as regular visitor the Matthew!

As well as the pictures on display on Floor No 2 of the National Waterways museum, you can read stories about the ships and other pictures, from previous blog posts, explaining how they came about, inspiration and interesting facts the ships and the stamps. I've also compiled two new  Stamp Search Quizzes for children( and adults).These have always gone down well in my own Open Studio.
This week-end, the entrance fee to the Tall Ships Festival also includes free entry to the National Waterways Museum and the tall ships visiting! 

COMING SOON! : Tall Ships Festival May 24th - 27th and my exhibition open from 16th May onwards ...

The Tall Ships Festival will be coming to Gloucester again this year from  24th - 27th May - Spring Bank Holiday week-end.

The Atyla in Gloucester Docks 

It's always a great event and I'm particularly excited about it this year as an exhibition of my Stamp Collage pictures of Ships will also be on show in  Gloucester Waterways Museum  from 16th May, through the Festival period and then on for several months - dates still to be finalised.  Several of the collages depict some of the tall ships which visited in 2017  including La Malouine, the Johanna Lucretia and the Atyla.  The White Heather has been undergoing a refit, and I'm not sure if she's finished, but my  picture of her, as she was two years ago, will be on show.
You will find the exhibition upstairs next to the new Museum Library.  There is so much to see in the museum, located right on the dockside, and with its own shop and cafe.  It's well worth the entrance fee which entitles you to return any number of times for a whole year.
My work includes originals and prints, which can be purchased by contacting me direct.  Cards will be available to buy from the museum shop. 

The White Heather - Stamp Collage Original and Prints on show

Currently on show at The Old Passage Arlingham is the exhibition "Between Seeing and Dreaming", featuring work by  artists working in a variety of media including painting, photography, jewellery, sculpture, ceramics and not forgetting my own stamp collages, of which The White Heather is one. At the Old Passage I've included a framed print, and the original can shortly be seen in my new exhibition, Stamping Ground 2, at Gloucester Guildhall from 2nd October,  until 30th October. in the exhibition hall.

The White Heather is a Cornish Lugger built in 1926, originally operating out of Mevagissy and fishing from Falmouth before being laid up on the River Fal for many years.  From 1988 she was running sailing trips from Fowey in Cornwall.  I was pleased to go on board this beautiful old lugger, one of only a dozen still surviving, when she was in Gloucester Docks in 2017 for the bi-annual Tall Ships Festival. We heard that she has sailed to Morocco and Brazil before returning to Britain via the Caribbean, but is now undergoing refitting in the docks.
In this picture I've used stamps, envelopes, thread for the rigging and even words from an old stamp album.

How long does it take?

How long does it take you to make a picture? That's a question artists are often asked.  A good answer is, "A lifetime of experimenting", or in the case of this particular piece, almost a year!

Not that I've been physically working on it for all that time, but I went with a good friend to the wonderful Tall Ships festival last May, and La Malouine was moored by the Warehouses in Gloucester docks.d We climbed aboard and were given a tour by one of the crew.

We asked what the name meant and were told that the ship came from St Malo in France.  Using photos taken at the time, and having sorted out suitable stamps I got started a few months later, but have only recently completed the picture .. the brickwork of the warehouses and the windows were a challenge but very absorbing.

For the first time, I've used cotton dipped in acrylic paint to sew in the rigging and am quite pleased with the effect!   And I saw several  beautiful ships that day ... so watch this space!