Richelieu's Big Day!

It was all happening in Richelieu today!

The Parc de Richelieu was venue for the Courses Hippique and out in the garden we could hear the commentary from the races over the public address system. It sounded like a cross between the Grand National and Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde!

However, as we are not particularly "horsey" folk, (and we didn't want to pay the entry fee) we chose to attend another event in the town. The Comité des Fêtes et des Loisirs de Richelieu is hosting the 11th Salon Artistique de Richelieu, a two day event usually held in Les Halles. This year, due to the restoration of Les Halles, a marquee had been erected on the square..

The exhibition was a real mixed bag! Artists from quite a wide area were exhibiting and the range of talent was equally wide................

Exhibits included all manner of art work from glass painting and sculptures made from roots, to oils, watercolours and acrylics..

We particularly liked the title of the piece below:

Convoi Exceptionnel

In many cases we felt it was run on the "think of a price and double it" principle. 


I asked about exhibiting next year but as soon as I'd opened my mouth I began to see all the pitfalls of doing so. 

I'm not sure I could bear two whole days in a tent full of art work - particularly my own!!

She Sticks Sea-shells on the Sea Wall....

Well, not quite the sea wall; on the house walls to be precise....

Whilst we were at the coast last week we visited the Ile Penotte area of Les Sables de l'Orlonne. The exterior walls of the houses in this fascinating area are decorated with mosaics made using shells.

And for the ahhh.. factor...

These are the creation of 'La Dame aux Coquillages', Dan Arnaud Aubin, a local artist who, with the blessing of the authorities and of her neighbours, has been working on these tableaux since 1997. More can be read about Dan here

The mosaics, like everything else, need to be cared for and it is good to see that work is taking place to keep them looking their best.

They certainly make a bright and cheerful addition to the town and if you are in the area it is worth taking the time to go and see them for yourself. They're wonderful!

Etsy shop goes live

When I mentioned in an earlier posting that I wanted an outlet for some art and craft work I've been doing, our friend, Susan, suggested the website "Etsy.com". At the time I hadn't heard of it but after some research I decided to give it a go!

So here are the first listings I've submitted to my Etsy 'shop' - Spangledust.... Clicking on the individual pictures will take you to the listing on the site.




I am in the process of uploading items, so there will be more to follow.

If you'd like to take an overall look at my Etsy shop, follow the link http://www.etsy.com/shop/Spangledust

I only hope you like what you see... and any comments (good or worse) would be appreciated, as I'm a novice and it's very much a case of 'suck it and see'!!

Festive Decorations

Elizabeth's handiwork...

Mice and more mice!!

This is a plea for help...

Having found Mondial Tissus, and thus a supply of felt and pipecleaners, Elizabeth's passion for creating miniature mouse figures has re-awakened with alarming consequences.

Today it reached epic proportions. The two of them (she's got me at it now!!) were out in the garden on a "photo-shoot"!!

If we don't find an outlet where she can dispose of these creatures for some small remuneration to feed her habit, then goodness knows where it will all end.

As we all know: where there's one mouse, sure as eggs is eggs, there'll be many, many more.......

So my plea is, can anyone out there suggest an outlet for these little people?? Please???

Stone polishing

On our visit to the coast I collected my usual quota of pebbles from the beach. This is usually determined by the weight on the back axle!

I put them in my stone polisher and today they reached the end of Stage 2, having had two weeks in the polisher with carbide grit to grind them.

Opening the drum is a very messy business! I have ruined more tops than I care to mention.

However once the stones have been carefully rinsed you can begin to see their potential.

Bear in mind that these stones have only undergone two of the three stages of grinding and have then to be polished.

Already they are looking good. I'll just have to be patient for a couple of weeks to see the finished result!

If you'd like to see more on stone-polishing go to my page Art and All that Stuff

A Patchwork...... (I've started so I'll finish..)

I've been looking through my craft and sewing things recently and it's brought back not only many happy memories but also some despair at the number of things started and not finished. These range from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The most notable is the Patchwork Quilt....

My design features six hexagons arranged around a central one to give the appearance of flowers. These were then joined together to create the quilt. It was going to be king-sized...

I say "was" because it is still unfinished, despite a tell-tale date which rather gives the game away.

 

Perhaps I would have fared a little better if I'd made the hexagons bigger... They were only 1" across so the work was bound to take an age to complete.

I made a habit of working to a small scale as the following creations show.

These little mice were crafted from pipe-cleaners and the clothes made to fit. If you look closely at the 'man' you'll see that his waist-coat is actually knitted cotton thread, knit by using dress making pins instead of knitting needles.

The 'lady' mouse is shown knitting in the same way.

I think all this came from a background of never being allowed to waste time. So much so that years ago when my car broke down about 20 minutes from home, my mother brought my knitting down for me to do whilst I waited for the breakdown services to arrive!!

Perhaps that's why I've never ever actually finish the patchwork quilt???

The snake and the unfortunate frog

Another of our favorite walks is around the Etang du Louroux a large man made lake in the village of La Louroux. When the water level is lower in the summer it is possible to walk all the way around the etang but at this time of year some of the paths are underwater. There is also a good bird watching hide on the eastern side.

Etang du Louroux

Great Crested Grebe photographed from the bird hide

In the summer whilst walking around the lake I encountered a once in a while photographic opportunity. I turned onto a stoney access and there in the sun enjoying its lunch was a large grass snake.

He just finished up his frog and slithered off into the water but not before I got some magnificent photographs. Poor unfortunate frog !!

The multi-talented Elizabeth!

One of Elizabeth's many talents is creating artworks from what I have found to be the most unlikely raw materials. The first of these is seaweed art.

The seaweed is collected, backbreakingly I can say after scouring the rocks and beaches of Northumberland at low tide. The weed is dried and mounted on watercolour paper. A simple process but the results are quite impressive.

A selection of some of the scanned images of seaweed Elizabeth has prepared can be found using the link- Seaweed Art. The images are scanned and do  not do justice to the actual seaweed.

Another of her talents, for which I am responsible in a way, is stone polishing, I bought her the polisher as a present. The peebles are collected, again backbreakingly I can say after scouring the beaches of Normandy and The Vendee picking up suitable samples. These are then rotated with various grits for weeks and weeks to produce incredible results!

The Polisher!!

Once polished Elizabeth creates 'objects of desire' from these. A very talented woman to say the least.

It is anticipated that, at some point in the future, these and other items of Elizabeths work will be for sale and with this in mind we have added a page to the blog 'Art and all that stuff'. Why not take a look and let us know if anything takes your fancy.

The bird nest mystery?

Back in October when we started (and we will finish!!) taking down the leylandii trees we came across several old birds nests located in the dense foliage at the tops of the trees. One of them contained two eggs --

How long they had been there or what they were we had no idea. We did wonder at the time if because there were two different, one could be a cuckoo.

The smaller of the two we best guessed to be that of the Nuthatch ....

Nuthatch eggs

As for the second egg, our internet research determined that cuckoo eggs become more like the hosts eggs both in colour and markings and that certain features of the host bird eggs, such as shape, colour and markings undergo specific changes during cuckoo parasitism to help the bird distinguish them from those of the cuckoo’s.  The phenomenon is called egg mimicry. There is no sign of this in the nest we found.

Could it be that the nest has been used twice? We are not ornithological experts and never likely to be so. If you can solve this mystery or have any other thoughts please leave your comments. In the meantime it remains unsolved.

Art lessons...

I'd like to think I have a bit of an artistic flair.... But in truth, it's more of a smudge than a flair...

My ex art mistress at the very Catholic all-girls convent school I attended offered little in the way of encouragement, but at the start of our GCE O level she stood behind me and said: "Let there be light; Genesis, Chapter 1; verse 3. as I set brush to paper.

Lark Hill House School Preston circa 1920

Ever since I've been acutely aware of the importance and impact the quality of light gives to a painting or photograph. So in an obscure way, Miss Noblett sowed the seeds for my love of both art forms.

Years later, when the fear of being late for our weekly art lesson (at the far end of the building and on the top floor) had subsided, I went voluntarily to an evening art class. The teaching methods had changed beyond recognition but the criticism was still implicit.

I prefer to do small. It's what I'm comfortable with and what I enjoy. However this was at odds with the art teacher who wanted me to think big. "Fill the paper; use a larger brush..." The brush in question was the sort used to apply masonry paint to the gable end of a large building... And so once again I found myself at odds with my art teacher.

Teacher's brush

My brush!

Why mention this now?? Well, things changed in the art class. I gave up trying and failing to think big and went back to doing small. I painted snowdrops.

There was to be an open exhibition and I entered my snowdrop painting (not the one I've done above, I hasten to add!) and lo and behold, it sold! Not only did it sell, but it was the first painting in the exhibition to sell!!

I was vindicated at last. I became well-known (in the art class, at least!) for painting snowdrops.

So every spring when the snowdrops appear I'm taken back to that art class I attended all those years ago...

Perce-neige (Galanthus nivalis) by the roadside in Braye-sous-Faye