Thursday 22 March 2012

Julie Arkell - I've Dusted the Farmyard




This month I was lucky enough to be invited to the Private View of Julie Arkell's solo exhibition 'I've Dusted The Farmyard' at Liverpool's Blue Coat Gallery.

It was lovely to catch up with Julie again, and what a joy to see so much of her work - it filled half the gallery space - there must have been getting on for 100 pieces.  I urge all fans of Julie's work to visit if they can, the exhibition runs until 12 May.

For a very long time I've wanted to own one of Julie's paper mache pieces, the range and quality of this work is remarkable, and, having taken her paper mache workshop at West Dean twice, I begin to understand just how difficult it actually is to create the pieces and then dress them! 

Whilst at West Dean this year, and, in order to avoid 'dressing' my creations, I made a couple of donkeys - me being a beach hut person!  I will show you my makes in a future post.  Julie was telling me she'd just done some donkeys herself.  I was delighted to see the donkeys were in Julies exhibition - and needless to say, I now own not 1 but 3 pieces of Julie's paper mache!!! 

Here they are .................

Little Donkey

A Gentle Stillness

And, a little person to look after them .............

I Love Donkeys

I decided whilst I was at the exhibition that I would like to inhabit the world that Julie makes, a gentle whimsical world where life is full of simple pleasures and interesting fragments of fabric and phrases .... what a joy that would be.  

You can see more photos from the exhibition on pantryviolets.blogspot.com 

I have a backlog of blogging to do - future posts will include Ellie Evans Workshop, West Dean - Julie Arkell paper mache workshop and Hens Teeth - Viv's first workshop.

All comments welcome - thanks for coming by.

xxDi