A Bit of Peace and Happiness

Interesting that the dove is seen as a symbol of peace whereas it's actually a quarrelsome, territorial bird. Remind you of anyone who's now trying to come across as reasonable and conciliatory despite the vitriol he's been spouting over the last few months. However, after the events of yesterday I think we'll all just settle for whatever reminds us of peace and hope.

Here's Ruth's dove in progress and completed. The bottom two pictures show how it glows with the light behind it.

Doesn't Time Fly?

I can't believe it's now only 23 days until the Open House begins. Now is when things really start getting a bit frantic. I've spent the day mounting photos and bottling up fruit liqueurs so at least I feel like I've actually done something constructive with my day. The flyers arrived yesterday so I need to start getting them out. Please come along to see our work - all the same artists as May but with lots of new art and crafts to look at.

Black Cat Day

Slugger Mayzie 5th May 1998 - 7th March 2016

Poppies Are Not Just For Remembrance

They are also for eternal sleep, imagination, consolation, pleasure and fantastic extravagance - take your pick - and that's just the red ones. But I do like it that such a showy flower blooms with such abandon in the fields and the roadside. And there are few flowers (except Honesty with its stunning papery seed pod) that look so beautiful at so many stages of their life cycle. Here's a series of photos I took this summer.

45 Days to Go

So the countdown to the next Open House has started... 45 days to go. It's at this point that most of us start thinking "must get on with some work".  Not so Ruth Mullan who has been super busy and creative with lots of new stained and fused glass on the go.  Here is an owl in various stages of construction. Can't wait to see it in real life.

Stormy Weather With Some Rays of Sunshine

As anyone who's ever hosted an Open House will tell you, the hardest part is setting up the house to start with. So much to sort out and so much to rearrange. But in the midst of all this chaos, a few rays of sunshine are starting to shine through. One of the things I love most is the opportunity to have some beautiful works of art in my house for the next month and it's beginning to take shape.

Leonor Berdichevsky (watercolours), Margaret McGregor Betts (watercolours, etchings and collagraphs), Alexis Rayner (painting and crafts) and Del Thorpe (illustration) are all set up and my photographs are on the walls. Margaret's work is bringing some welcome colour to these grey autumn days

and Alexis's flower pictures are a beautiful reminder of summer.

Amongst Del's new work are a couple of film posters - I don't have a picture yet of "A Passage to India" to share with you with its gorgeous shades of orange but I love the detail of his "Brazil" poster which you can see below.

Before my summer went a bit pear-shaped (and I don't just mean the weather), I managed to get some new photos with the intense colours we need to get us through these gloomy weeks.

And here's one of Vicky Scott's new prints.

Three days to we open - look forward to seeing you soon.

That Time Of Year Again

Yes, it is that time of year again - the run up to the Christmas Open Houses except this year the lucky visitors get an extra weekend to visit and I have one fewer weeks to try and get the house ready for inspection.

This Christmas, I am happy to welcome a new artist to the house - Georgia Elliott. Georgia is an illustrator who was shortlisted for The AOI Illustration Awards 2013: (Books, New Talent Category). She will be displaying her books along with a selection of prints and greeting cards, including Christmas cards.

I will also be welcoming back most of the artists who were with me last Christmas although we all have new work so there will always be something you haven't seen before. I'll be posting sneak previews over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime here's one of Vicky Scott's new card designs

and one of Ruth Mullan's new fused glass pieces

So... make a date in your diary and come along and meet the artists at 45 Westbourne Gardens, Hove, BN3 5PN. We are open 11am-5pm each weekend from 21st November until 13th December.