Wednesday 30 November 2011

Smiths Row

Smiths Row

I popped in here at lunchtime today, to see the exhibition and to browse in the shop. The gallery is lovely:  a huge, light and white space. It has a little comfy reading room (where we've been for Knitting In Public day in the past), but sadly no cafe. The shop has quirky, cute stuff - textile buttons with little dresses, cupcakes and cups on them, as well as lovely block-printed, unusual cards. I had been told that there were knitted things, too, though I couldn't see any.  I saw some fantastic oil paintings by Lucy Crick. She (apparently!) is heavily influenced by the Dutch still life painters so she chooses the same dark background and sombre array of objects - no people.  But the objects she chooses to paint are modern kitsch - fondant fancies, fairy cases with old-fashioned china tea cups and - best picture of all - a 70s ceramic tea caddy with one of those pale blue tea cups with ridges on, still beloved of WI tea parties and church functions. Somehow the painting was really beautiful: the poignancy of these dated objects in the quite familiar style of the still life. Sadly this painting was over £500; it was quite striking.

A satisfying picture to add:


This shows some of my knitted scarves on display in Cuckoo. It felt rather arrogant taking a picture of them, but I wanted to get one to publish on here! Am I the only person who does this?!




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