Does "Tu-whit tu-who" mean "I love you" ?

We're nearing the end of January and this is my first blog post of 2016! Too late to wish you a Happy New Year, so I'll plunge straight in with a new linocut . . .

Tu-whit tu-who, a merry note

As with all my prints it starts in my head while I'm walking or, as in this case, while I'm busy working on other things. Then, when I get a moment, I'll make a sketch of it before other ideas pile on top of it like magazines and catalogues that arrive in the post.

Sometimes, on dark winter evenings, I can hear the local Tawny Owls hooting to each other in the looming dense dark Yew trees outside my studio. Ter-whitt! Hooo-hooooo! or as Shakespeare puts it in the Winter Song at the end of Love's Labour's Lost, "Tu-whit tu-who".

This is how the song is printed in my precious 1714 edition of the play. This year, 2016, is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 1616; which means my two tired and battered volumes of Nicholas Rowe's multi-volume edition of Shakespeare's works, were printed only 102 years later. That's like looking back at works by WWI poets today, the person who first owned these books could have known someone who saw Shakespeare perform, or bumped into him in the pub.

Here's the inked lino and a freshly pulled print; it's on Japanese Kizuki Kozo, which is a thin but very strong and satisfyingly crisp paper to work on.

As you probably know, "Tu-whit tu-who" is a conversation between two owls, most likely a male and female (but not necessarily). They are probably saying, "It's me!" "Who are you!" "Get off my tree" "You! You!"; but just maybe they're saying "I love you!"

On Friday I delivered work, including this new print, to The Robin's Nest Gallery in the village of Wargrave near Reading. If you live nearby I can recommend you visit, the gallery is airy and bright and full of lovely things.

I try to combine a delivery to a gallery with a day out, this time Cliff and I met a friend for lunch and also visited Reading Museum. While we waiting for our friend to arrive, we wandered into the gallery displaying a replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. This was surprisingly fascinating, partly because of the clear and interesting way it's displayed - with translations of the text and snippets of background information; but mostly because the ladies who did the work, embroidered their names under their section. There are little differences in styles of stitching which seem to hint at their characters.

After lunch at Wagamama and a little tour around the town with our friend, we returned to the Museum to see the exhibition I'd been looking forward to seeing, A Sense of Place. The exhibitions brings together paintings form the Museum's own collection, by some of the best British artists of the 20th Century, these include John Piper, Eric Raviliious and Christopher Nevinson along with many more. What makes the exhibition multi-layered is that there are also new poems inspired by the paintings and craft works. It's the sort of exhibition that would be lovely to dip into once a week, I had barely an hour, so skipped reading most of the poems and enjoyed looking at the paintings and some of the crafts - such as a beautiful pair of 'artist's fingerless mittens' by Suzanne Stallard inspired by the colours of Duncan Grant's 'Snow at Charleston'; or an exquisite leather purse by Vicky Baker inspired Christopher Nevinson's 'View of the Sussex Weald' (a painting I would very much love to have hanging on my wall to enjoy every day).

A Sense of Place continues until 8 May, and is well worth seeing.

This morning I've listed the 'Tu-whit tu-who, a merry note' original linocut in my online shop, as well as new cards based on the design.

Thank you if you drop in to read my blog, it's always enjoyable to read your comments.

And if you're reading this from the other side of the Atlantic, in the eastern half of the US which is now deep in snow, I hope you are safe and warm.

Celia

xx

Making Winter brighter . . . and my illustration for November's Gardens Illustrated

It was back August that I received Frank Ronan's article for the November edition of Gardens Illustrated magazine, Frank is writing about plants to enliven a winter garden, a subject that has been covered in many TV programmes, books and articles  . . . but interestingly he takes a different perspective - and it's one I'll share with you for the Making Winter blog hop organised by Emma aka Silverpebble - so if you crave ideas to brighten gloomy days, hop on over!

But first, I'll quickly tell you my inspiration for the composition of my illustration . . .

I had only a few days to come up with an idea for my linocut illustration, before I headed off for almost 3 weeks in the south of France. As usual, I sat down, carefully read Frank's words and looked up reference for all the plants he mentions - feathery yellow grasses, shiny red thorns, scented winter flowering shrubs, etc. But the editor had specifically requested "something atmospheric"

"you want to be drawn outdoors in the winter; to go and look for things and see and smell whether they are doing what they should"

Frank Ronan

I'd just visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the much aclaimed exhibition of Eric Ravilious paintings and there were two that I'd spent a long time looking at, intrigued by how the subtle marks and textures  – they were full of light and atmosphere . . . 

"Interior at Furlongs"

 "Wet Afternoon"

The memory of these to Ravilious paintings was floating in the back of my mind as I worked on this linocut. And to continue the 'Bardfield Group' homage, when I needed a focus in the foreground I added a cat – in the spirit of all the cats that inhabit many of, Ravilious's friend, Edward Bawden's domestic pictures.

Re-reading Frank's thoughts in the gloom of an overcast and foggy November day this week, I decided to take his advice:

"the weather always seems so much worse from inside than it is when you emerge, so you might be stuck there until March were it not for a few judiciously placed things that can catch the momentary light and make you drop your work and draw you out"

Frank Ronan

From the bedroom window I'd spotted some vibrant pinky-gold leaves – outside they shone even brighter!

Miscanthus grass

I then saw some newly opened pink flowers and remembered that Su had given us some Nerine bulbs from her Mum's Norfolk garden – what a lovely surprise!

 Nerine

After being outside for a few minutes the light really did seem as brighter! A patch of vivid yellow drew me further into the garden - our small Witch Hazel bush's leaves had turned sulphur yellow edged with copper. Looking closely I could see lots of tiny round flower buds which will open early in the New Year and fill the air with their fragrance.

I hope I've convinced you to venture outside on even the dullest of days – it really does make winter brighter

Celia

xx

St Agnes' Eve - Ah, bitter chill...

I've just been reminded by a Twitter friend that today, 20th January, is St Agnes' Eve.

St. Agnes' Eve — Ah, bitter chill
it was!

The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;

The hare limp'd trembling through
the frozen grass,

And silent was the flock in woolly fold.

(you can read the full text of John Keats' poem here)

Night Flight, linocut

This morning the landscape around my studio was a perfect illustration for the opening lines of the poem... I was out early taking my car to a garage for its MOT/Service and then taking Cliff to work and driving home. A hard frost, -5C, made the views look muted in shades of grey and sage green. The trees dark and lit with a low sun, glowed red and purple and cast shadows that striped the full width of the fields.

I enjoy reading about the traditional feast days and customs that mark the changing seasons. Already we have passed Twelfth Night and Plough Monday, soon it will be Candlemas on 2nd February. One of my favourite web sites for festivals and special days is Project Britain set up by Woodlands Junior School.

My linocut edition 'Night Flight' has sold out but is still available as a card from my online shop, remember to use the discount code HappyNewYear2015 at checkout, valid until the end of January 2015 to get 15% off anything in the shop.

This week's news headlines from my studio

• I have designed a new trade catalogue for my greetings cards (click on the cover to view it) if you own a shop or gallery or know somewhere that might like to stock my cards, please drop me a line in the comments or email: studio at celiahart dot co dot uk.

• I'm busy working on some lovely commissions, but have been sworn to secrecy.

• my Ginger Studio Assistant is having the week off to convalesce from having a huge abscess, on his cheek, lanced by the vet yesterday. Don't even think about thinking about the vast sea of pus! He was very very brave and sat still and quiet without a sedative, the vet was most impressed and said he was 'a lovely little man'.


Stay warm
I'll be back soon
Celia
xx