Sunday 14 March 2010

Stoles

Here are the stoles! They are made of cotton and sewn by a friend in Somerset. I then take them and paint them in oils. All the designs are inspired by the created world around us. I do mean created rather than natural, partly because so much of our world, even in the wildest of places, has been heavily influenced by humanity; and partly because there is amazing beauty in what we have created, most of the time. I paint outside, or at least in our conservatory with the door wide open, not least because turpentine makes my head explode, which doesn't have the greatest effect on the design.

They are painted [loosely] in the four liturgical colours - although it has been commented that one of mine could cover all four seasons of the year. The colours and seasons are:

White/Gold for Christmas, Easter, Baptisms, Weddings and other celebrations.
Purple for Lent and Advent and Funerals [on the whole].
Red for Pentecost.
Green for growth, through the rest of the year.

There are particular places that are connected with particular stoles. My purple stoles will always be influenced by Dunkery Beacon [on Exmoor] while the ling heather is in full bloom. My green stoles will likewise always remind me of Parc and the Croesor valley in July.

The stoles come in the relevant lengths [depending on your height] and although there are recurring themes, some are rather more figurative, some softer, each stole is completely unique. That's about as much as I want to write, mainly because each work of art re-invents itself each time a new person looks at it. As an example, one person saw my white stole [above], inspired by the sea and sand, and saw in it stars and moon.

There is also this. Richard Hughes in his excellent forward to William Faulkner's amazing novel The Sound and the Fury writes: There is a story told of a celebrated Russian dancer, who was asked by someone what she meant by a certain dance. She answered with some exasperation, 'If I could say it in so many words, do you think I should take the very great trouble of dancing it?'

If you are interested in getting a stole please contact me and let me know what length colour and design [give or take] you would like.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Michael, love the stoles, especially the red and orange one. What do you have to do if you want wash them? I wonder if you can use your painting to make the fabric and then get them made up into stoles? How are you all doing? All settled? Hope the kids are doing well, they take a little bit of time to adjust but usually make lots of new friends and settle down in time, at least ours did. They still miss Wales though. We're back from 23rd June to 14th July and would love to catch up at some point. Love, Sally x

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  2. Hi Mike! Long time I know... Sent you an email too. I was really really pleased to catch up with you on here and I have blogged about you too here: http://rectorymusings.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-another-note.html.

    Go well!

    Simon

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