a day with friends

along with the rest of the country

St. Ives has been enjoying a week of glorious sunshine
the most wonderful blue skies and very warm spring breezes

this was the view as I walked down to St. Ives
to meet Andrea, a blog friend from Switzerland
and my friend Lesley from Art Space

Andrea last came to St. Ives five years ago
but always had a yearning to return as soon as possible
and so she planned her trip to coincide with my exhibition
and the opportunity to meet up with Lesley and myself

we had lunch at Ocean Grill overlooking the harbour
some yummy butternut squash and coconut soup
slurp ;o)

Lesley gave me this beautiful oil painting of a beach scene
in our fave St. Ives blues and wintry greys
I am delighted with it as I love St. Ives all year round
and sometimes in winter I love it the most

"wintry sea and break in the clouds"

it was a very low tide so after lunch we did
some beachcombing ... you know ... any chance I get ;o)

Andrea and Lesley

while the girls were going the long way around the beach streams
I just waded right in and up close to the pier

I'm really drawn to this pier at the moment
(the lifeboat launch pier)

with it's gently worn steps
full of character

the pier walls are covered in mussel shells
some of which were dark red and brown

alive alive o



and there were some pretty interesting barnacles too



we explored rock pools

and admired the diversity of natural colour
to be found in the little pools of sea water

I found a pink shell for Andrea

and some very interesting bits and bobs
but my most interesting find was this ...


can

you

guess

what

it

is

yet?

yes ... it's a roll of brown parcel tape
sea washed ... in and out with the tide
with wonderful peely bits

that I most probably will use to add texture in paintings
... the rest of my finds I will save for another day

later we watched these cute little sea birds
scampering about on the rocks
a nice end to a lovely day with friends

either side of my "day off" I worked on new art cards
which I took down to the exhibition on Tuesday
(and which ends on Saturday morning - 31 March)

and I made some new textile art hearts

this heart is a harp back to my global warming work
and represents melting polar ice and rising sea levels
which is a theme that still interests me enormously

melted textured chiffons (shimmering water)
were layered over white fur (melting ice)

an attempt to stitch the polar ice caps back together again

although a delicate subject matter
I've prettied it up with soft aqua and turquoise watery tones

decorated with free motion machine stitching

and a little hand stitching
it's scattered with seed beads and finished with
a beaded dangly with silver coloured fish charm

my online etsy shop
will open again on Sunday 1st April

and this shimmering heart will be available
along with four other new heart designs
lots of new beads, art cards, prints and
my newest collaged and stitched pictures
(original artwork)

thank you for visiting
may I wish you a wonderful weekend coming up
enjoy the continued sunshine
Carolyn ♥


ps.

hello to Francesca and Mum who came all the way from Bude to see our work. I'll talk about the new project we discussed in a separate post quite soon and will probably start showing that work from 1st May as have other things to share first. That will give you time to get your books together and think of themes etc.

hello and big thanks to Lesley's mum for the lovely bits and bobs

hello to Gilli and thanks for showing so much interest in my Brooklyn Sketchbook Projects
- will be showing my book for 2012 quite soon

and huge thanks for all the lovely comments
on my blog and emails - thank you ♥