Madrid - my very vague sort of guide

The BF and I were lucky enough to be in Madrid for Easter or Semana Santa (it was thankfully a lot warmer than the UK, though not warm enough!).  We had a lot of fun, ate a lot of amazing food and walked over 30 miles. I have a lot of love for Madrid, I lived there for a year, in the early 90's (20 years ago eek!), so am always happy to go there for a holiday.

Our trip didn't really start until we had been to our favourite sherry bar La Venencia for an Oloroso and a Fino and some slices of mojama (air dried tuna).  It's a very famous place, but don't be put off, it's properly Spanish and has great sherry.

As it was Semana Santa,  the saints are taken out for amazing processions around Madrid.  It's an amazing thing to experience, I will post more later but here is one of the saints all dressed up and ready to go. So many people were out on the streets the atmosphere was amazing, well worth heading to Spain to experience it.

And here's a lovely butterfly that I saw as we were walking.

A beautiful shop display

Love this display of gloves, though it was hard to photograph because of the light.

This is a slightly more wintery scene than I would have liked!

Next up my post on the Semana Santa processions.

I'd love to hear about your favourite City destinations and any interesting experiences you've had during your travels.

Don't forget if you enjoyed reading this, please share it.

Claire

I've made a limited edition

Exciting news I am launching a limited edition at The London Print Fair.


I am exhibiting there for the first time with TAG Fine Arts.  The piece is called 'It's all for you', and it's available from TAG Fine Arts.

London Original Print Fair | 25 – 28 April 2013 | Royal Academy, Piccadilly, click here for more information

If you would like to visit the fair then click here for a free ticket, all you need to do is print it off and take it along for free entry.

Here are some images of the piece

It's all for you © Claire Brewster 2013

It's all for you © Claire Brewster 2013

It's all for you © Claire Brewster 2013

It is an edition of 20, all hand cut by me, so even though the map is the same each one will slight differences due to their hand made nature.  I used a 1930's map of the Piccadilly area of London, which I had printed on matt heavy weight paper and framed in a beautiful white box frame.

I'd love to hear what you think of my lovely new edition, do share your thoughts below.

And please share if you know anyone who might be interested.

Claire

Do you plan or do you wander?

I'm definitely a wanderer when I'm in a museum.  I'm sure it probably drives other people mad, which is why I mostly go to exhibitions on my own.  As I tend to go around really quickly, stopping when I see something I like and when I get to the end go round again.  I don't try to look at everything, just the things that appeal to me on that day at that moment.

I was recently wandering around the V & A Museum (one of the best museums in London in my opinion) with my parents and we came across these faces.  The V&A has been spending a lot of money of refurbishing it's galleries over the past few years and whilst I sort of preferred it when it was a bit dark and dusty in places, there has been much improvement.  The area where these heads are is one of the improved bits.

I fell in love with them, their colour and the way they catch the light is so beautiful.  The way they are hung on the bare brick is very effective as it really brings out the colour of the stone.

Another maddening habit (for me and for you) is not writing down what things are! So I have no idea where these are from, but somehow they seem French to me, maybe it is more fun to make up a story about them.

This is my favourite one, she looks so serene, what is she thinking I wonder?

I'd love to hear your strategies for visiting museums or perhaps you want to make up a story about these characters.  I'd love to hear it if you do, leave it in the comments below.

And don't forget you can join my mailing list here or I am always happy to hear from you via email if you have something you want to ask me, mail@clairebrewster.co.uk

And the winner is....

In the sprit of creating a little suspense I made you wait to know who the winner of the inaugural Perrier-Jouet Art prize is.

And without further a do the winner is Hitomi Hosono.

Hitomi is inspired by the natural beauty of plants and flowers, combining dramatic form and movement with sensitively refined details. Her captivating and intricate creations draw upon botanical shapes that she studies in her garden, and recollects from memories of nature during her childhood in Japan.

Here are a few images of Hitomi's work.

I love her work and she was my absolute favourite from the beginning so I was glad that everyone else thought the same.

You can find out more information on her website.

There will be an exhibition of her work at the St Pancras Hotel in June, I will let you have more details nearer the time.

What do you think about her work, is she a worthy winner? Leave me a comment below.

If you enjoyed this post, I'd love it if you could share it.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

Judgment time - Perrier-Jouet Arts Salon

The Perrier-Jouet Arts Salon had their second meeting at the end of March, this time for the judging of the prize

It was really great to see everyone again, and catch up with what everyone had been up to. It was also nice to meet our other friends the lovely team from Perrier-Jouet and of course the Champagne.

We started with a group photo, suitably under the Queen, as were in the Royal Suite at St Pancras International Hotel, which was amazing.

We did make time to enjoy plenty of this

The tree holding the champagne flutes is the recently released  by Tord Boontje, perfect for holding all those champagne flutes.

There was time for plenty of chatting

But there was serious business to get down to, we had to award the prize to one of the 11 nominees.

So after the ceremonial flower placing

There were some speeches

And then we got down to the business of the evening, deciding who should win the prize.  It was really interesting to hear everyones views and more than a little intimidating to share mine infront of such an amazing group, but I plucked up my courage and did.

We talked about all the candidates, but one, was a clear favourite with everyone from the start and once we reached the point of voting it was unanimous, and with great excitement we had our winner of the inaugural prize.

And the winner is.....

Well you're going to have to wait until my next post to find out.

Don't forget you can sign up for my newsletter here for more information and insights into my work and I always love to hear your comments, so please leave one below.

Until next time.

Claire

Are you a bird lover?

No not those kinds of birds, the feathery kind!.  You've probably guessed by now that I have a bit of a thing about birds, I would probably be described as a bird lover.

Does that have geeky connotations to you? it does to me, I get visions of people in anoraks with binoculars obsessively counting all the different types they see a bit like a train spotter.

I think it's time to reclaim the love of birds let's celebrate rather than count and set free rather than contain.

My latest piece of work entitled Love Birds.  I hand cut parakeets combined with a japanese textile pattern from a geological map of Great Britain. My aim was to capture the frenzy of a group of birds in a tree.  And yes those really are the colours of the map, geological maps are great for crazy bright colours.

© Claire Brewster - Love Birds 2013

© Claire Brewster - Love Birds 2013

© Claire Brewster - Love Birds 2013

© Claire Brewster - Love Birds 2013

© Claire Brewster - Love Birds 2013

This is hot off the press and it's not on my website yet, so if you would like to know more or just want to say Hi leave a comment below or email me on mail@clairebrewster.co.uk

 I would love to hear from you.

You can also join my mailing list here to get more insights in my art, exhibition invites and free tickets to art fairs.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon xx

A very belated post about Art 13

A new art fair took place in London at the beginning of March, which I'm only just getting round to post about.  It was interesting because they had a lot on international galleries particularly from countries that we don't often see in London.  Here are my favourite works.  I foolishly didn't write down the artists, must try harder.

The photos a bit blurry, but I couldn't resist posting, it's taxidermy and birds, heaven as far as I'm concerned.

An amazing paper sculpture, you could walk through the middle of it.

Love the power and texture of this piece, it's like an explosion, so beautiful

Love the texture of this, it's like the paint is crumbling, so many textures going on.

An amazing piece made out of beads, I did't really capture the beauty of it, but it really was really lovely.

An amazing mozaic, I love the way the artist has subverted the traditional and created something amazing

Couldn't resist this chap, it's made from metal.

A skull made from layering maps, good to see some paper art in the show

And finally an amazing piece by El Anatsui.  I first saw his work at the Venice Biennale a few years ago, it's hard to capture just how amazing and huge his work is and it's all made from old bottle tops, you can see more of his work here