Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn
Changing Seasons
The season has really changed here in the Lakes. We have been fortunate to have had some lovely weather the past couple of weeks and are now really noticing autumn with its colder mornings, a temperature drop when swimming in the tarns and lakes and the beautiful changing colours of the leaves. How wonderful !
So here are a few things I have been up to over the last couple of weeks.
The Witherslack Group of Artist and Makers Exhibition
Held from mid September to the first week of October, this exhibition always marks the turning of the season for me. I think this year may be my 22nd year exhibiting with this amazing group. The location, the village of Witherslack, is magical with its many woods and trees full of apples. This years show has been so successful and there is still a week to go so if you haven’t had time to visit yet you still have 6 days! It finishes on Sunday 6th October and open daily 10am - 5pm. These photos are from the start of the show so many items are now sold however we are all trying hard to re stock where possible and it still looks great!
Selection of work below by exhibitors : Jane Bradley, (baskets), Fiona Clucas, (painter), Hans Ullrich, (potter), Ian Parker (painter), Owen Jones (oak swill baskets), Rebecca Callis (porcelain), Pip Hall (letter carver), and Jo Vincent (kiln formed glass).
Art Trail Open Studio Weekend
It was the Green Door Art Trail this weekend and so busy that I didn’t have much time to write this at the start of the event as planned. So thanks so much to everyone who came, chatted, bought work and commissioned projects.
This was my first time taking part in the trail but my history with the Green Door goes way back to the beginnings of the group and its first studio complex in Kendal. Known as ‘The Green Door Studios’, I had a shared studio space there in the mid 1990s before I left the UK to train in Italy.
My fellow artists were Jill Pemberton, founder of the group, (https://www.jillpemberton.com) , Catherine MacDiarmid (https://catherinemacdiarmid.co.uk), Fiona Clucas (https://www.fiona-clucas.co.uk) and Thuline (https://www.thuline.com). All still painting here in Kendal and Windermere. Happy times! https://www.greendoor.org.uk
If you visited the studio at the weekend and couldn’t speak to me or have any questions or enquires, please feel free to do so by clicking here.
Here is a peak inside my studio if you missed the trail.
Revisiting a Project
It is so lovely when clients commission me again to make work for their home. A couple of weeks ago I went over to Stainmore to install a bespoke glass splash back for clients that I made a lighting feature for 6 years ago. Back then I delivered the light but did not see it installed so I was really pleased to be able to see it occupying the double height entrance of the property.
The brief for this lighting feature was an ‘autumnal cascade of leaves’, so very apt for this changing seasons post. The glass leaves are each individually made using combinations of glass powders. Each leaf form is cast onto a mould and then in a second firing, bent into a gentle curve. Each is then connected to a fitting housing 2 LEDs which fire light directly through the glass. They are suspended from a copper coloured fitting. It sits so well against the bespoke timber balustrading.
New Sculpture in Kendal
Last week I took a lovely stroll down the river from my studio to see this fantastic sculpture by local friend and woodsman James Mitchell which was installed in the summer. It is truly amazing and so tactile you cant stop running your hands over it. It sits outside the Parish Church and both are well worth visiting. Here’s what James had to say about the work - “It’s based on the 17th century map made by John Speed (in which calls Kendal ‘Kendale’). It is made from an Oak tree that came down during storm Arwen which was kindly donated by Bill and Ali Lloyd and came from there farm in the Upper Kent Valley. This 170yr old tree was a vital part of the ecosystem and helped slow the flow and nourish our landscape. The map shows Kendal as it was then and is populated with parts of that history and wildlife. It shows the valley and is headed with the hills of the Kentmere horseshoe. The other side of the tree is an abstract form that represents the flow of the river, the contours and texture of the landscape and the stunning beauty of the wood itself”
Well worth following him and reading more here https://www.instagram.com/jmitchellwoodcraft/
James Mitchel
Adventures in the Great Weather
Finally, I’ve managed to get back to some longer running recently. I haven’t done much running since March due to various reasons and so I have really enjoyed being out in better weather over the last few weeks with some great evening and weekend outings. Hope to continue to get my fitness back and be posting more visual gems from adventures in the Lakes!
1. Descending from Potters Fell in the evening sunshine. 2. The Ullswater Way, a 20 mile circular route. 3. Limestone Features on Whitbarrow Scar near Witherslack.
Thanks for reading
Jo x