New Prints

Two new screenprints created in response to a day at Moorbank Botanical Gardens in Newcastle University in the very creative company of poets and visual artists.
We were all invited by writer in residence Linda France
Some of the work forms part of  'Through the Garden Gate' at the Robinson Gay Gallery, Hexham from the 14th April and Linda will be reading some of her work from her new collection 'Through the Garden Gate' as part of the Hexham Book Festival

Cabinet

Furniture maker Nick James has designed and made this lovely cabinet. He invited me to design for the screenprinted Formica door panels, which was such a treat. Drawings of an early jet engine at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle inspired my design, which fits perfectly with Nick's mid-20th century inspired pieces.
And if you peek inside the drawers there are matching drawer liners.

Hanbury Hall

These glass panels are in the sitooteries at Hanbury Hall in the West Midlands. The cast faceted clear glass is set in an iron fretwork. I've seen similar in Greece.

Serendipity

I was photographing my new commission at Jurys Inn on Gateshead Quays and spotted this view.
View the whole commission on my website

The Capable Gardener

Tucked away in a sheltered spot at Kirkharle Courtyard near Wallington in Northumberland is a lovely little nursery run by Philippa Hodkinson, a National Trust gardener who is responsible for Gertrude Jekyll's garden at Lindesfarne. She sells locally grown plants, and has a shed with a great range of proper gardening tools and accesories picked by a gardener for gardeners. Everything has been carefully sourced from the UK and the sturdy gardening aprons, in a range of fabrics, are designed and made exclusively for the Capable Cardener.
There are secondhand gardening books to browse and buy, planters inspired by sheep troughs and peat free conpost.

A pot of flowers show what your plant will grow into!

Garden Day Poem

And this was Cynthia Fuller's poem


Moorbank


Take refuge here. The garden is

a cup of breathing green

rimmed by the city’s noise –

the swell and drone of cars,

the lost dogs barking to go home.

It is a living habitat

for urban birds – a nest of song.

Roots are pushing deep below

concrete and tarmac.

Time could slow here to the pace

of ancient trees, or quicken

to keep step with the sudden poppy

whose orange tissue flares

and crumples in a day.

Garden Day

Linda France, poet and writer is currently Leverhulme Artist in Residence at Moorbank, Newcastle University’s Botanic Garden.
I spent an inspiring day there last week with several poets and visual artists invited to make work in response to the space.
It is always difficult to switch off and to find something to say on the spot, but after a few false starts, I found that each plant had its own calligraphy.