Star Fish

On a recent visit to my parents in Lincolnshire, we went for Sunday lunch to Norfolk and on the way home stopped for a walk on the beach in Hunstanton.  It was a cold and rainy day, but we managed to dodge the rain drops to get on the beach.  The tide was just starting to come in when we arrived, and there were loads of starfish stranded on the beach.  They were very beautiful, though many of them were already dead.

And some lovely ripples in the sand.

From table to wall

Last year I was commissioned to design some wall plates by the company Nons Sans Raison who produce the finest Limoges porcelain.  It took a long time to design the plate and was one of the hardest things I've done.

The plates are currently in an exhibition, From table to Wall at Flow Gallery, here in London until September.

I don't have any proper photos yet, but here are a couple of shots I took at the opening party.  There were rather too many people to get a proper view.  I will be back soon to take some better photos and will post them when I do.

Flourish

I saw this recently and it felt like someone was sending me a message.

White Horse

This chap appeared in my neighbourhood recently and disappeared just as quickly.  I'm glad I got a couple of photos, while he was visiting.

Mind the Map part 2 - the big reveal

Here is my piece that will be in the 'Mind The Map' exhibition.  I have blogged about this before and indeed if you hop over to my website you will see the piece.  I thought it would be nice to show the piece in a bit more detail here.

The piece is made out of London Tube maps dating from 1987.  When I was commissioned by The London Transport Museum I was given a pile of old tube maps to work with.  As I went through them I realised there were several printed in 1987.  That was the year I moved to London to go to university.  My first time living away from home as well as my first time living in London.  It was a time of great adventure and change and was also sometimes lonely and a bit sad.

Seeing the tube maps from that time it took me back to that time, it was an almost proustian moment, the maps were like a conduit back to that time. As you can imagine my friends and I spent a lot of time exploring all that London had to offer and I usually had a tube map tucked into my bag to help me get around.  You can see me talking more about the piece here.

(c) Claire Brewster 2011: From a time when everything seemed possible, detail

I chose flowers and plants as the subject matter as I like the way nature takes over in the city when humans are not looking.

(c) Claire Brewster 2011: From a time when everything seemed possible, detail

And finally the full piece

(c) Claire Brewster 2011: From a time when everything seemed possible

I designed some plates

Last year I was commissioned by Non Sans Raison who make Limoges Porcelain.  They produce what they call wall plates.  I don't have any photos yet but here is a drawing of my design.

I can safely say it was one of the hardest things I have done in a long time.  It was way out of my comfort zone and a very different way of working, it also took a lot longer than I imagined. I worked on a lot of variations before I was happy with the result.  I haven't seen the plates made up yet, but they are on show at Flow Gallery right now, so I'll get to see them next week as they are having an opening party.  It would be lovely to see anyone who fancied coming along.

Mind The Map

I'm lucky enough to have some work in this exhibition at the the London Transport Museum.  There is a special VIP private view on Friday 18 May,  if you would like to come please RSVP today to info@tagfinearts.com.

Save the Bees - new paper cut

I was reading an article about bees recently, which highlighted the problems with certain pesticides and how the numbers of bees are in rapid decline and the problems that this will create.  It is so saddening that we could loose this amazing natural resource if we don't change our use of pesticides.

Anyway, this is all by way of getting round to posting about a piece I made, coincidentally about bees, which I named 'Save Us' after reading about the plight of the bees.

The piece is hand cut out of a map of the British Isles.

Save Us - © Claire Brewster 2012

Save Us (detail) - © Claire Brewster 2012