Vidya Wolton

My exhibition continues in the Rope Store at Quay Arts and today I witnessed a sudden influx of visitors, much to my delight. Firstly, youngsters with behavioural and medical problems were having a session with one of the gallery educators. They were then joined by a group of adults with learning difficulties who were guiding one another around the gallery. I looked on in wonder and await further feedback from those who were there. It would be gratifying to find that some profound learning was taking place for these most marginalised of groups. Bar the Private View, for which quite a lot of planning took place and was well attended, this has to be the next best thing – a public viewing en masse!

Yesterday’s visit to Quarr Abbey was rewarded by a couple of prime photo opportunities. Firstly, there is the demonstrative and persistent cat which causes great concern as it follows visitors along the path. It turns out not to be missing (as indicated by helpful poster). The other great feature at the nearby cafe has to be the birdlife, including a limping Pheasant and the cheeky Robins coming as close as they dare. I was able to do a few quick sketches of the Robin and am very much centering on bird images at the moment back at the studio. It seems to be a time for consolidating on past work in the run-up to my exhibition at Quay Arts at the end of April.

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.

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 past month has been a fruitful time for pursuing the landscape themes as mentioned previously. There is definitely something that has stayed with me which I can pursue through landscape but which is an amalgam of a number of experiences. I’m painting in earnest with a view to submitting for the Quay Arts Open in about a month’s time. It’s good to have a short-term focus as so often exhibitions are one or two years ahead and can be difficult to work towards without other goals along the way.