Vidya Wolton

Hello, from the roof tops of Cowes for some festive cheer. This winter wonderland looked quite magical from the Co-op car park. It just goes to show what a transformation takes place at this time of year.

News from the studio is that I seem to be having a bit of a breakthrough on the painting front. After the constraints of making my many small art boxes over the past year painting on a grander scale has taken second place. It was something of a revelation to be painting on canvas again and extending my palette back to conventional acrylic to supplement pots of household paint, with which I had become rather too cosy. Colour has become more of a challenge, as has the subject matter, which is ever changing, so let me not bore you with something that seems impossible to pin down at the present time. I hope there is a freshness to my painting which will become evident in my next Solo show at Quay Arts at the end of April. More about that closer to the time. However, for now, let me leave you with Cowes at Christmas on a chilly evening in December and offer my festive best wishes. For any out there wanting to offer a festive toast, my tipple of preference for the Season is Baileys on the rocks. Plenty of ice please!

And finally. . . . . . are we heading for a white Christmas? The bookies are looking to have a big pay out. Keep warm out there in cyberspace. More ramblings in 2010.

Requiring some fresh air inspite of heavy showers, hubbie and I were well placed at lunchtime for a walk along the coast at Seaview with a brief excursion to the nearby birdhide. There is the welcome presence of Brent Geese feeding at the water’s edge and even within a deluge of heavy rain and hail stones we are able to get this shot of the Brents with the Spinnaker Tower of Portsmouth in the background. The light was actually quite interesting for photography and colour in the gloom seemed heightened after a morning stint of photo manipulation in Photoshop.

For the past few weeks I have been attending a course on photomanipulation using Photoshop. I have enjoyed refreshing my knowledge and at the same time am aware of my desire to go back in time to ‘old technology’. To this end I am now the proud owner of a second-hand electric typewriter. I relish this experience in a different and contrasting way to Photoshop. I see my Fine Art practice as embracing the new alongside the old and to this end  am definitely keeping all my options open as well as annoying all around with that relentless tapping of the keys in keeping with traditional forms of communication.

Here is an example of what I did today at the class, based on some photos at the allotment when we were a bit keener to get our hands in the soil.

These Autumn days can be deceptive. The promise of blue sky gave way to cloud by lunchtime. This in turn gave way to some heavy showers. We decided to brave it and headed down to Sandown in search of a new artists’ venture involving the transformation of a shop on the High Street to the rather more fashionable ‘Boojam and Snark’. Unfortunately our timing was not good as it was closed and to add to it all the heavens decided to open upon returning to the car. I was consoled by a trip to the local garden centre for an excellent slice of fresh cream Victoria Sandwich. This rather saved the day in the ‘teddy cafe’ together with a browse around some rather fine, if pricey specimens of Bromeliad. This is a plant I find needs very little attention and is one I have managed to foster for a few years now. Anyway I digress. The drive home was inspiring as the sky cleared and gave way to a mellow light which precedes sunset. I am at present absconding from the studio, having had a break in Barcelona and then spent time getting ready for ‘Art in Woodstock’. I look forward to giving more ramblings from the studio and those all-important ‘away from the studio’ visits which make living on the Isle of Wight worthwhile.

Felt-making is practical, hands-on and I have to say, at times unpredictable! I managed to produce a rather multi-coloured version of the Isle of Wight map, re-drawing certain boundaries and leave a big hole in the middle. Could the later be an environmental degradation? The other piece here is entitled ‘healing of the land’  and I have also shown the earlier stage of development known as pre-felt. I have come away from the workshop with a felt-making starter kit, so it remains to be seen how I will progress. Several years ago, on a textiles course I did a bit of felt-making but found it incredibly chancy. Hopefully now there is more control on my part and a learning from having seen the process through stage by stage

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First attempt!

Today I was part of a group embarking on some experimental feltmaking with tutor Jeanette Appleton, who is currently showing a major body of work at Quay Arts. Jeanette is truely international in her themes, drawing on impressions of the landscape in Spain where she lives and driving home a message on environmental issues through the most subtle and delicate of means. This is an exhibition not to be missed as it pushes the boundaries of feltmaking beyond the purely decorative to challenge the viewer concerning the meaning behind the work. The works are beautiful, well-crafted, yet potent as a means of comment on environment and tourism issues with their associated politics.

The festival ‘Art in Woodstock’ is currently running in Oxfordshire until 31st October and provides venues for 39 artists’ work around the village. I’m showing an assemblage of artboxes and wall-based work at the Marlborough Grill, which provides the main venue for the festival. Upon arrival to set up I leapt at the opportunity to show my boxes in the recess, providing yet another permutation for how they could be grouped. I hope to  follow the trail to seek out others of the 39 exhibitors when returning next sunday.

I may have to leave my artboxes behind for now and give way to painting in earnest. Possibilities are opening up with some oil painting today, all quite abstract and actually re-working some older pieces from last year and before. It’s been some time since I’ve worked in oils, favouring the immediacy of acrylic and household emulsion more recently. I also dipped into some graphic works, drawings based on the figure mainly, with a strange take on fashion. I’m now moving between portraiture and pure abstraction in the usual state of unpredictability that constitutes my studio practice.

A teaparty atmosphere was developing this week outside the Methodist Church in Cowes as part of Cowes Week for an event hosted by the churhes entitled ‘Holy Cowes’! I was enlisted for the art activity and came up with the idea of decorating bunting. It was so good to involve children in some messy art which can no longer be taken for granted as part of the curriculum in schools. Look out next year for the party atmosphere and copious amounts of free tea and cake (always going to be a draw).

Thanks Christian (yes, that really is his name) for the photograph! Thanks also to the team of helpers who enabled my activity to happen.