Photograph courtesy of Alison Gaskell Photography, Guernsey.

Hello and welcome to the latest newsletter from Bella Bee;

a quick update of what's been going on with the artistic side of life including other artists I've met along the way.

Frome Art Society

It goes without saying that it is easy to get on with people who share an interest or passion, and so it was no surprise to feel instantly at home.  I also met an artist I'd not seen in a while, Elizabeth Barnes. 

Elizabeth works mainly in water colours. She set up a watercolour group in 1994 in Bath and went to Widcombe Studios in 1997 where she was invited to teach watercolour painting. She ran three courses there until 2001 but more recently she ran classes in Limpley Stoke.  Now she prefers things a little quieter with more individual lessons. Passionate about the transparency and glow that watercolours can achieve, she loves to experiment with colour and wet-into-wet washes. Elizabeth has exhibited frequently in the Bath area and in The Summer Exhibition of the Bath Society of Artists. Her work is now in Australia, the U.S.A. and Canada as well as the UK.

Pictured (below), this is how I think of Elizabeth, sitting with a hat on in a pretty, quiet spot, painting.

Many artists from the society painted very beautiful flowery watercolour scenes, but it was the bee hives at the back which caught my attention most.  Hayley and I chose to sketch rather than paint one single piece, as our intention is to use the meetings as a get-together for our B4 group as well as the Society itself.

Maybe our hive sketches will be popping up again in some future guise?

Guernsey

Magical Island

Alison, a photographer friend, moved out to Guernsey recently.

Why I had not visited this beautiful island before, I'll never know.

Quiet soft sandy beaches, friendly people and good food.

These photographs are mine but I really should include hers as they are superior.

Alison specialises in street and people photography.  Her wedding albums are sought after for their informal human approach and she has won competitons and gained recogition for her images of often happy, or busy people going about their day.

This is what she has to say about her work.

Over the course of the year I have developed a passion for taking photos on the street . Unstaged photographs showing the funny, sad, or heart-warming in everyday life. The undeniable uniqueness of people. This is what drives me. To capture little bits and pieces of everyday life which are fleeting and once they disappear, they are gone forever.It is about community, even if it pictures solitude. It can be ironic, but never offending. To me, everyday life is fascinating. The routines, the surprises, the mountains of new things we all experience every day. Walk down any given street and thousands of individual stories are being played . Sometimes when I push the button, and I hear the click, I know. I just know that I’ve recorded something special, and my stomach flutters.

I seek candid moments – ordinary people at ordinary places … just acting the way they are …the way we all are

Small Island (below)

Collagraph with chine colle detail

on 300 gsm Snowdon.

Alex Nash

Alex is part of the workshop in Wiltshire which meets every term time Wednesday.

Specialising in screenprint, she is represented by a few galleries including

The Rostra Gallery in Bath.

Alex's work has a strong narrative of bold colour and line, her recent pieces influenced by the spice colours of her trip to India.

The two picures above show her working on her latest inspired by reams of fabric piled in a market ready to be made into saris.  Alex makes holes in paper ready to screenprint using water to soften the newsprint paper first, thus avoiding harsh edges.

Rebecca Wordsworth

Anyone who knows Frome will be aware of the many artists and galleries are to be found within its pretty cobbled streets.

The Owl is a gallery / shop which is run by the artists themselves.  I was pleased to see Rebecca Wordsworth was taking her stint at the helm because I bought one of her pieces a while back and was keen to meet her.

Rebecca builds her vases from slabs of porcelain.  Often, as is the case in the picture above, she rolls the clay onto dried seed heads and keeps the embossed pattern intact as she rolls the slab around a cylinder (mould) to hold it in place.  I asked how she manages to stop the clay from slumping as I know porcelain is noitorously tricky to keep in shape.  Rebecca replied that ensuring the clay is leather-hard before-hand is important. But of course, I can see she has been doing this for a while and has developed the necessary skill and slight of hand.  Once the bisque-fired stage is done, the pattern is coloured and a transparent glaze is applied with hand-painted gold lustre rim to finish. 

The vases you see to the left with circular flower designs have been hand-painted after bisque firing.  I like the vases very much for their organic slightly imperfect wobble, each one is finished off at the back with a deliberate overlap of the clay which I think is very appealing.

Rebecca also makes plaques which can be framed or hung just as they are, and takes commissions.  Her work is also found in galleries in London.  Just back from a trip to deliver more work, the Knightsbridge gallery had completely sold out of stock after one woman came in and bought the lot.

Amanda Bee

Amanda's studios are at The Silk Mills in Frome, an award-winning project turning what was a derelict pile into a stunning artists' workshop and gallery space.

Amanda's studio was open as part of the Frome open Studios art trail in July, so I popped up to say hello.

Working in painting, print and mixed media, Amanda's work is influenced by the Wiltshire / Somerset countryside and Cornwall where she likes to settle - when possible - with a sketchbook to soak up the atmosphere. 

Apologies for the poor photographs - light bouncing off glass et cetera. 

The Lavender Fields

at Faulkland

Isn't it often the case that when there is a well-known attraction on the doorstep, one never goes?  (I didn't take the children to Stonehenge / Avebury until they were teens).

The Lavender Farm just a 10 minute drive away is just such a place. Of course it is important to time the visit as there are some months when it won't be seen at its best. It is a farm after all so the harvest is taken leaving no flowers for late in the season.

The first two photos here have been lightended; the third darker shot shows the fields in their true light - which was actually quite dark.

I made some pretty poor sketches.  To be honest I'd purposely bought a limited selection of really dark colours with the intention of not creating anything too blousy.  However, a bad workman blames his tools just as a rubbish artist blames their materials.

When home, I managed to make something I felt better able to work with.

Mind you, looking at the lavender itself and the recedding tree-line, the actual field is a fairly dark place.

Here's what the others did.  I was not alone!

There were quite a few sketchers and a few painters.  We all found a similar problem in that there was very little structure to the landscape, so it could all look rather flat and featureless.  Some got over that by drawing by some electricity cables, others took away the colour and stripped it back to see what lay there.

Using tape is a favourite trick for me when out in the field.  It gives instant structure, shown on the left.

When at home, watercolours (keeping the darkish theme) were used for the sketch on the right.  It was this one which was used to go one and start printmaking with.

Printmaking

The last session

The brilliant thing about attending sessions such as this is meeting many interesting people who have influenced me, helped make me see things differently and travelled on a creative journey in a field I was expecting only a short run for.  The lunch breaks have often been as informative as the work.

Here are just a few of the friends I made at the workshop, you know who you are.  If you're not pictured, it is because you are mentioned elsewhere and / or I didn't want to overdo it! :)  Pictured or not, I will miss you all. X

Hele Bay

Hele Bay is in North Devon.

It's a beautiful place with striking rock formations and a beach which welcomes dogs.

Tilly (my elderly-but-doesn't-know-it spaniel) loved it there, which is unusual because she often spends any rare time at the coast looking to returning home.

The visit was not only a taster session for Tilly.  It was to orientate myself with sunrises, wind direction and the like.  There is a great deal of work to be done before re-locating, but it looks as if the new chapter is going to start off well.

Staying the night was a good thing, even if it did mean sleeping on the floor.  The sun rose in a different quadrant to that I expected and the night saw electric storms which we slept through entirely.  It will be interesting to see winter when the south west coast path at the back purportedly becomes a slick of mud. 

It is around that time Tilly and I shall be moving in, all being well around November.

Of course, being at the coast means there is plenty of inspiration for art.

Just look at these fantastic strata.

Jenny Barton

at the

Enigma School of Pottery

Thanks to them both for a lovely day and providing me with food served on a hand-made plate, of course! :)

HARVEST

Hauser & Wirth, Somerset.

We are so lucky to have a place such as this on our doorstep.  I've been with my daughter, Ellen, but  my son, Jack had not visited before.

The exhibiton explored identity; what appears to be a common theme right now which is ironic in the age of social medi.  Maybe our 'villages' have become too big and we are losing our sense of self in a sea of people?

Rashid Johnson: Stranger

Heads made from shea butter mouted in skyscraper-esque houses for plants.  I have seen a programme on Rashid's work before, set in a street, designed to slowly melt in the summer heat.  This section of the exhibition caught my eye for the bright light.  It was off-set in the following room by stark monochrome abstracts; hinting at faces, one on top of the other, explored further with the used of tar on tile.

When we came to this section of the River Brue, I had to admit I was worried.  The stepping stones were spaced wide and one looked as if it had been shifted and was sitting at an odd angle.

I was therefore pleased to see a bridge just further along, but recognising a photo opportunity, told Jack he had to step up; and he did!

I think the skywalker picture above was a gift. :)

If you have enjoyed reading this newsletter, please don't forget to leave a message or just say 'hello'. It's always good to hear from you.