SNOWDROP AND HEART WINDOW WINS A PRIZE!

Last weekend was the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival and Storm Dennis!  Despite this, it was a huge success and the festival goes from strength to strength.  At the gallery we had put together a hearts and snowdrop window to celebrate both the snowdrops and Valentine's Day. Our window won the prize for best dressed window at the festival, due in part, I am sure, to the enormous snowdrop and gorgeous cushions made by Liz Oliva - see top left pic.  Liz is a member of the gallery who makes fantastic hats...

OUR WINDOW WAS HIGHLY COMMENDED!

The Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival 2019 has taken place.  It was a great success with the town buzzing!  I was right about the winner of the Best Dressed Window - it was Anna's Attic (see last post).  Incidentally, the trophy, which can be seen in the top left pic, was made by Fran Davies, a local stain glass artist and one of our members at the One Craft Gallery.

We, at the One Craft Gallery had a highly commended certificate - see our window in the previous post, as did the Opticians in the High Street, Christopher Young.  Their window can be seen in the bottom three photographs above...

SNOWDROP WINDOWS FOR THE FESTIVAL!

At the One Craft Gallery, we have just done a 'WE LOVE SNOWDROPS' window for the Shepton Snowdrop Festival, which is taking place this coming weekend.  My 'Dancing Snowdrops', a mixed media painting, features in the side window - see above bottom right.

This fabulously romantic snowdrop window is our competition!  Anna of Anna's Attic won the prize for the best dressed window last year, and looks all set to win it again!

SNOWDROP CARDS FOR THE GALLERY!

This is what my garden looked like last Friday!  We don't have snow very often in Shepton, so it was quite a shock!  Perhaps it was appropriate that at the time, I was working in the studio on finishing some snowdrop cards - as seen below.

I used the painted backgrounds that I had made when doing my urban valentine cards.  On top of them I painted stems and leaves with various shades of green acrylic, and then collaged on paper petals.  A few details were added with a black marker pen before they were mounted onto 6 inch square textured card stock.

The cards are for sale in the One Craft Gallery and are part of my contribution to the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival 2019 which is taking place on the 16th and 17th February.

SNOWDROPS AT NIGHT!

I decorated these wooden hearts with 'snowdrops at night' design, to sell in the One Craft Gallery and contribute to our snowdrop window dressing.  As I have used snowdrops many times as a motif, I decided that it would be good to show them at night.  White flowers always glow and look special in low light!

I started by painting the bare wood with black gesso.  When this was dry, acrylic paint was used for the night sky and foliage.  I then used painted papers to cut out shapes, which were collaged on with matt medium. The hearts were finished off with white paint splattered on with an old toothbrush and matt varnish.

I used the same techniques to produce this design (see above left), for a handmade birthday card for my mother!  

SNOWDROP FESTIVAL IS IN TOWN!

This weekend it was the Snowdrop Festival in Shepton.  It is run by the local horticultural society and the first one was last year.  It is now an annual event with many events in town.  I dressed the window at the gallery for the window dressing competition - see above.  It was won by Anna's Attic who used snowdrops to represent hair in an imaginative way - see large photograph below...

SHEPTON'S SNOWDROP FESTIVAL

This weekend it was Shepton's first Snowdrop Festival, which has been organised by the local Horticultural Society.  It is in honour of James Allen (1830 - 1906), who lived in the town and was the first person to breed snowdrops from wild varieties.  Above, is the window at the One Craft Gallery, that I and a fellow maker, put together for the event.  Members of our co-operative had contributed by producing artworks, and wares inspired by snowdrops.  We were given a special award by the organisers for our efforts!

All the images above and below, were taken last Friday at Shepton Market, when the festival started.  The town was awash with snowdrop images - from stencilled pavements to colourful planters.  There were also the plants for sale - I never knew there were so many varieties!  Each had its own name and special features.



A large empty shop space had been taken over as Snowdrop HQ.  Here there were refreshments, artwork, cakes, cards, related stalls, and the results of a photographic and poetry writing competition.  Over the weekend there were other events, including a parade to Jams Allen's grave to plant some snowdrops, and a ramble in a local wood.  It was great to see so many people gathering in the town on Friday.  I hope the whole weekend was a success as the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival is planned to be an annual event...

DANCING SNOWDROPS!

'Dancing Snowdrops' - mixed media on board (23ins x12ins)

As snowdrops were on my mind, I decided to do a mixed media artwork using the subject- see above, (close-up details on the top).  I used a similar method described in the previous post, but there were more layers of paint and papers collaged on to some flower heads and to form extra leaves. I also splattered gold and white acrylic paint, using an old toothbrush, as a finishing touch.

I tried to give the flowers plenty of movement  - so much so, that when I looked at it finished, it looked as though they were dancing!  On one of my early morning walks, I have just seen my first snowdrops of the year - a welcome sight as the first sign of Spring...

Sometimes I photocopy my artwork and use it in collages.  Today I needed to make a valentine card quickly, so I cut three heart shapes from copies of my snowdrop picture and collaged them onto a painted background, left over from another project.  I outlined each heart and the background with a black marker pen.  This was signed and then glued to cream card stock - a quick solution!    

SNOWDROPS AS INSPIRATION

I have been working on snowdrops as inspiration, as there is a Snowdrop Festival in Shepton in February.  The gallery has been asked to do a window in celebration of the festival, so I have been making bunting, cards, bookmarks and gift bags - all with the snowdrop theme.

These were all done in a similar way - the brown paper background was crumbled and treated with paint.  I sketched out the snowdrops and leaves onto white tissue with alcohol markers and attached to the background with matt medium.  Once fully dried, I added further details with marker pens and some glitter glue to give extra sparkle! 

SNOWDROP CARDS

I used the same idea and method as the snowdrop gift bags (see recent post), but first made a background of text - all about Spring.  I also added dressmaking tissue to give it a bit more depth.  When I sponged gesso onto to the flower heads, I sprinkled them with white glitter to give extra texture and sparkle.  Just taken them into the gallery today and have sold one already!

 

SNOWDROPS AS INSPIRATION!

I have just seen some beautiful snowdrops on one of my early morning walks.  This is a subject that I have just used to decorate some gift bags for the gallery.

As I am decorating ready made bags, there is not a firm surface to do free painting.  To help get round this problem, I put in a foam block.  For the above bags, I drew the stems, leaves and outlines with felt tips onto white tissue and stuck them on with matt medium.  I then stamped white paint on with a small shaped piece of foam to form textured petals, and then finished off with some more outlines and extra leaves.  The luggage label gift tags were treated in exactly the same way to match.