La Fabula at la Finca 28 September 2014

On Wednesday it was time for me to wave a jolly good farewell to English shores. As I watched the docks at Portsmouth and HMS Victory disappear from view, I was filled with a good feeling. There was no sadness, just a strange type of openness which filled my heart. I have been living out of rucksacks for so long now, I have become accustomed to the life of a nomad and nothing appears to frighten me or make me feel unstable. I seemed to have learnt how to ground oneself without using the ground. 

View from our cabin on Brittany Ferries. Farewell Pompey!

So much of Wednesday was rather unproductive and I decided to catch up on much needed sleep whilst indulging in Leonard Cohen songs and some delicious vintage wine. I got the top bunk in what was a rather roomy cabin.

 

The sea was a millpond and we all slept rather well that night. There certainly is nothing better than being gently rocked to sleep in an air of delicious scent (I went a bit mad at the perfume counter before bed). Breakfast was fantastic (thank you Brittany Ferries) and fuelled with a full English breakfast, half a dozen chocolate croissants and a pot of tea we drove down from Bilbao to Granada in a day (well actually Andrew did. Mum was in charge of regular CD changes and I did sweet FA). We disembarked the ferry at Bilbao with a flock of Hells Angels at around 1pm and arrived in Granada at 11pm. Granada greeted us with an electrical storm of epic proportions. It was very dramatic and terribly exciting. In fact, one could almost describe the experience as Biblical, as by this time we were all indulging in a bit of Leonard Cohen and he was belting out the many verses of Hallelujah during this part of the journey in the middle of the night. God it gets dark here.

After dropping off all of our things in the new office on Friday, my mum and Andrew had to deliver the van back to its depo in Malaga, while I hitched a ride to our house in the mountains with all of the things we needed for our exhibition on Sunday. I'd just like to say a quick thing on van hire here, as its the only appropriate place. If you are planning a move similar to this one, I can say that we all think that using Way to Go van hire is a very good way of doing the move. It is much cheaper (£550.00 for 5 days) and the company was very helpful throughout. 

The entrance leading to the new 'Browse' office and the studios of both Kitty Shepherd and Inky Leaves. Santa Fe, Granada

My new place of work has the most amazing garden complete with an Indian Bean Tree (one if my favourite trees), a Magnolia grandiflora, a Horse Chestnut laden with conkers, two intact Canary Palms, Dahlias, Roses, Jasmine, Wisteria, Cycad and LAWN (as rare as hen's teeth down here) etc. The list of plants is endless...

Saturday was a bit of a nightmare... Prepping for an exhibition always is rather mad isn't it? And let me tell you, it's even worse when moving house... Word of practical advice, don't exhibit if moving house. So, with our labels printed and mounted onto foam board, our plinths primed and statements written we hiked over to the Finca del Castillo Arabe in the Valle de Lecrín on Sunday and set up. Yes, we are totally bonkers. Mum and I were going to hang our work on Saturday afternoon in preparation, but we had another storm and there was too much fog over the National Park for us to actually get through. We also experienced 6 power cuts. I think this is how we have to roll here in Spain...

Tables set up for lunch, art work on the walls. La Fabula at la Finca, La Finca del Castillo Arabe, September 2014

It was a fabulous day in the valley and an experience I will never forget. We had an eight course lunch by a top Granadian chef, Ismael Delagado Lopez, from La Fabula, which was utterly delicious and satisfied (what has recently become) my overwhelming need for posh nosh (London appears to have turned me into a food snob).  You can see some superb photographs of the dishes taken by Barbara Taylor-Harris here. 

Posh nosh, and VERY tasty too!

Throughout the day, Ophelia got to show off in her new frame which was very carefully constructed by the brilliant firm Bond-a-Frame in Chichester. I'm very grateful to them for not only mounting her in record time, but for exploring such bizarre framing options on my behalf. I am very much aware of what an unreasonable, picky customer I can be in framing shops and they were so tolerant of my demands! Thank you Bond-a-Frame, you did a superb job. I opted for the magic glass with Ophelia too, which is non reflective, UV filtered and is very special in that it doesn't alter the light and colours of the piece in the way normal glass does. Something to do with the composition or ratio of the silicon in it I think... Anyway, Ophelia is delighted with her special, slip mounted, box frame. 

Guests enjoying their Spanish nosh

Mum had a good show and managed to raise €210 for the local charity Acompalia through the sale of her mugs. I was sad to say farewell to this little tree, which also found a new home on that day. It's called The Magic Tree and it's magic.

Mum's magic tree

Picture, Painter, Printer, Framer

Yesterday I didn't manage to do any painting. This is because I was officially exhausted. I've been overdoing it again, what with the garden needing a 'good old dig', the seeds needing a 'good old sow' and the bamboo needing a 'good old removal'. Plus it's been very busy at work and my other half has been poorly. I felt like I had been riding a wave and I pushed it just a little bit too much last week. It was time for a break and today I feel much better for it.

So on my day off I went off to the printers to drop off Monstera problema and Chelsea Tulips. I don't think I will offer these two pieces as prints, but I like to have a scan as a record. Neither of these are as finished as I'd hoped, but I am keen to move on with new work. At least Monstera is alright not being perfect as that was the whole point. I painted this one at a time when I had an ovarian health issue going on and felt 'imperfect' and like I was missing something. I painted it because the leaf has egg-shaped holes and is itself missing bits... Problem was, I was in a fit of absolute upset when I started it. You know how it goes - you got to get what ever it is out of your system with a brush... I just had to paint there and THEN, but I had no paper big enough, so I grabbed some Intaglio printing stuff I bought a while back from the bottom of my wardrobe. What a mistake that was - this paper is great for Intaglio - but completely unsuitable for botanical art. The paint didn't really stay on the paper very well and the masking fluid took bits of the paper off. It was a nightmare. So this is an unfinished painting of an imperfect leaf on imperfect paper by an imperfect artist. It's finished - as an unfinished piece.

Then I went to the framer to check on my latest frames... "Hey nice going there framer - you did a good job!" - I am really pleased with the job so far. I see a lot of frames in my other line of work and this really helps me to see what shapes a piece well and what doesn't. Over the past year I have seen a lot of David Nash's work and he seems to have the same taste as me when it comes to framing. He uses either no mount at all or a floating one. What I like about this is it looks modern and gives a contemporary feel to botanical art. I'd like to think that customers feel like they are getting a present in a box. 

Changes at the Gallery

 One of Rory McEwen's Leaves * 

(I want to know which shade of green he used to get this colour - ideas anyone?)

So it's all change here in the gallery this week! At 8am this morning I witnessed two of our David Nash sculptures leaving on the back of a lorry - The Sliced Cedars. A sad moment in the morning drizzle (below), and the end of a season. I am glad that the exhibition closed during Spring though, as it's a time of new leaves and colour and that makes me feel more hopeful.

So less about what is going on outside the gallery and more about what's happening indoors! Like a chrysalis, there is a lot going on inside our walls. We've been having lots of deliveries... all paintings. The Rory McEwen show is starting to take shape as we get work from Kew, the family and from private collections. It's really exciting to be part of this. The paintings arrive all wrapped up in white opaque bubble wrap and we have no idea what's in them. Unwrapping each one if like unwrapping a very expensive and delicate chocolate truffle. It's a million Christmas' all at once. I have never seen so many beautiful pieces of work in such a short space of time. I felt like crying.  It's going to be an extraordinary show - real food for the eyes and soul.

Laying out the paintings for the Rory McEwen show

As a point of interest, I feel that now is a good time to talk about frames. Many of the frames around Rory McEwen's work are now roughly 40-60 years old. Some are amazing - my favourite one is a bamboo piece which looks very 1970s! However, what I really wanted to talk to you all about is how frames deteriorate over time and what we can do as artists to prevent this.

 A close up on one of Rory's Fritillarias*

*Please note that these pieces might not be in the exhibition. We are still selecting work. This is how we work - we select a whole collection of work, and then lay them all out and decide which paintings work well together in each gallery space.

Now I know all us good artists invest in proper frames with acid free boards and mounts and a proper seal at the back. Rory probably did too. But something I have discovered since working in this show is what happens to frames over time and how badly they can age. I had a chat with a conservator about frames as I was interested to know more about them and how damage occurs. Apparently, the biggest killer is just neglect on the owners part. Even acid free materials don't last forever. This brought back memories of me working in a museum and the fact that we have to repackage objects every few years because acid free tissue paper loses its effectiveness. I guess the same goes for frames. 

So apparently we need to check our frames every 5 years for damage and bugs. We need to pay particular attention to the seal at the back, the state of the mount and for rusty nails etc. Even if acid free board has been used, this still needs replacing roughly every ten years. So, if anyone owns a piece of artwork which they love and value, like a classic car - you need to maintain it. I think there is a bit of a mentality in many of us that once you have parted with your hard earned cash for a piece of art, one feels that they don't need to pay anymore. They own it and it's theirs, but like a classic car or a house - you need to keep injecting the cash now and then to keep it looking good and structurally sound.

 

Bugs are the worst problem - they get in all sorts of ways, but it's especially bad if the taped seal at the back is broken. Acid boards are pretty bad too, as are woods that emit a lot of acidic gas. Apparently pear wood is the best wood you can use as it emits less gas and lignins and isn't on a CITES list unlike other woods.

A close up on one of Rory's decaying leaves*

*Please note that these pieces might not be in the exhibition. We are still selecting work. This is how we work - we select a whole collection of work, and then lay them all out and decide which paintings work well together in each gallery space.