12 x 12 Exhibition in Hendaye

I'm busily working away on another folding book for which I painted the papers using the gelli plate last week, and now the folding has started as you can see above. 

Today is the opening day of the 12 x 12 exhibition in the Acces Espace Culturel Mendi Zolan in Hendaye in France. Thiis exhibition has already been shown in Spain and now it's France's turn. It will run from today till the 14th March 2015. Should you find yourself in the area (I should be so lucky!) it's open between 10 and 1, and then from 3 till 7pm. The official preview is this coming Friday evening.

As I explained in a previous post the whole idea is that all art shown is 12 x 12 cm (so quite petite!) and you can see the two pieces I entered above. More about them can be found here.

12 x 12 exhibition and the icy weather

Photograph by Michael Mathieson

The 12 x 12 cm exhibition I'm participating in (read my previous post about the pieces I made here) opened yesterday and thanks to photographer Angela Mejias who originally asked me to participate you can see my pieces above hanging third from the right one above the other. This is the show in Spain, at Udal Aretoa, Pasaia, San Pedro, and it runs there till the 11 January 2015. Then it will go on to the Espace Cultural, Mendi Zolan, Hendaye, France from the 24th February  - 14th March.2015

In the meantime we have the power (back) and even though I regularly curse the lines as they interfere with my early morning sunrise pictures I'm still very grateful they are operational once again and normal life can resume.

There was no more snow overnight but the snow that was already present has frozen solid and it's very icy everywhere. Time to get the snow boots out to get a firm grip. The slipperiness never seems to bother the dogs and Rueben specially loves the snow, whipping it up with his nose and throwing it about. The greyhound is far less keen!

 While the sun was busy rising the moon was still in the sky.

The day started very promisingly and I thought during the dog walk that we might be blessed with one of those stunning sunny but cold winter's days but sadly after a brief appearance the sun has retreated behind the clouds and all is grey and white at the moment.

I had some company on the old railway line this morning although they weren't keen to make my acquaintance or maybe they took exception to sweet Rueben who ignored them completely. Good thing the greyhound wasn't with us although I always keep her on a lead.

I lost most of yesterday to power problems and signing VAT petitions (and many thanks to those who signed too, much appreciated!) and have decided to forget about it all for the moment and get down to some serious stitching business. It's after all what I love to do most and everything else is incidental. I'm lucky enough not to have to make my living entirely from my art but I sincerely hope a sensible and workable solution can be found so that we can all continue to sell digital and other work without cumbersome government intervention and complicated administration. Should that be the case I will re-install my digital downloads.

12 x 12

You may remember that back at the end of August during the Peebles Arts Festival I met a French photographer called Angela Mejias who had an exhibition of her photographs there. She also popped in to have a look at my 52 Journals exhibition and invited me to take part in an exhibition called 12 x 12. This signifies that all entries including frames, mounts etc. have to be 12 x 12 cm (approx. 5" square). Here are my 2 pieces that will be going in the mail to France very soon. They are both dominated by circles as that is the shape I'm most known for. You will also see that they are closely related to The Documented Life Project page I did for this week. These are just smaller versions. You can read up about the technique there.

Amazingly enough (synchronicity at it's best) I was watching a video this week that used the same straight stitch with beads as you can see in the detail above. I picked it up during my City and Guilds Embroidery course some 20 years ago and love the sense of movement it gives as the beads can move along the thread. Clearly I'm not the only one that likes the idea. 

You will have seen a detail of this piece earlier this week when I was stitching this one. Here I've used reverse appliqué while the piece seen at the top uses straight forward applique.

The exhibition will take place between the 12th December and the 11th January 2015 at Udal Aretoa, Pasaia, (note this website is in Basque) San Pedro, Spain and then between the 24th February and the 14th March 2015 at the Espace Cultural, Mendi Zolan, Hendaye, France. Hendaye is the town twinned with Peebles. This is already the 19th time the exhibition has been taking place, although it's a first for me. I wish I was closer so I could pay a visit but should you be in the area it's worth having a look. As far as I know most if not all pieces will be for sale. Mine are, anyway.