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Newsletter - March 2008

Well it was touch and go as to whether this March Newsletter was actually going to reach you in March, but here it is with 48 hours to spare!

Coming up:

Events
Beaches as Inspiration
Mussels and Scrim Video
High Resolution Image for you to Download

Events

The Spring Fling Taster Exhibition at Gracefield Studios, Dumfries is still on until Saturday 19th April.

The Spring Fling Open Studio Event, itself takes place from Saturday 24th to Monday 26th May. I'm on the Red Route.

From 27th July to 28th August I will be exhibiting at The Mill on the Fleet, Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Do come along if you can.

Beaches as inspiration

Beaches are wondrous places on which to walk, search and think. While the starting point for my work is always founded in emotional experience, one of the strongest visual inspirations is the powerful, physical nature of the seashore.

Here there is endless movement and change - an infinite resource, I suppose, as the elements shift and delineate contours of sand, rocks, sea and sky. Natural shapes of the shoreline that cannot help but excite and send ideas flying around.

Camera and sketchbook are necessary accompaniments on such outings to the seashore. There is always some meeting of sky and rock or sea and sand to be captured. It is at these junctions that points of tension arise, giving a different context and perspective to the whole. Such tensions give rise to interesting and beautiful lines and forms that I can't wait to bring to my work.

While I do not consciously try to reproduce these seashore images in my art, inevitably, I suppose, something of them creeps in. It might be the line of rivulets formed in the sand, flashes of embedded pebbles in a glittery pool or the gatherings of mussel shells on barnacled rocks. And then there are the colours!

The inspirational theme is continued with the occasional addition of material picked up on the beach: salt-washed sea-glass in watery aqua and highly prized blue, worn, sea-bleached driftwood twists and rusty shards of used metal. All imbue my work with a sense of long-worn down experience.

Mussels and Scrim

How a trip to the beach inspired an artwork with silk fibres, muslin, scrim and stitching.

Download a free high-resolution image for your own wall or computer desktop

Following on from the theme of the video above, here is an image I used for silk screen printing. Using a photograph of the artwork then manipulating it to remove all colour and greyscale, I was left with a purely black and white image. I was delighted with the effect which really gives such a sense of the texture of the piece.

Right-click on the image and select Save Target As. You can then save the image on your computer and print it off on photographic or watercolour paper at up to A4 size without losing any quality, or use it as a desktop background for your computer.

Be advised that the image is approximately 2MB big, so might take a little while to download

If you run into any difficulties then please let me know.

Questions and Comments:

I would very much like to hear from you. Please email me with any questions about my artwork, or with ideas of things you'd like to see and read in future editions of this newsletter.

And finally, if you know of anyone who you think might be interested in receiving this newsletter, please point them to http://www.maggieayres.co.uk/newsletter.htm to sign up.

Wishing you all the best until next time,

Maggie

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