Feed aggregator

We all love to have a beautiful home.  Don’t spend your savings trying to decorate your space.  This post has 31 upgrades you can make to your existing furniture, or a great thrifted piece, that not only look expensive and … Read More...

photo credit: The Gourmet Gourmand

I’m a big fan of sandwiches, but not when going out to restaurants and having them overloading with everything. This simple sandwich from Sarah at The Gourmet Gourmand is perfect. This sandwich would be perfect … Read More...

A beautiful necklace doesn’t always have to be made from a lot of large and eye-catching items.  This crystal bar necklace is perfectly dainty and adds a beautiful touch to anyone’s wardrobe.  Take a look at the tutorial from the … Read More...

This bag or tote is made using oversized Granny squares. It is perfect for Large scraps and perfect for keeping your crochet work in.

I love how colorful this bag is but you could tone it down with muted hues.… Read More...

Free pattern: Tiered summer tank

This tiered tank is perfect for summer days!  Jess from The Sewing Rabbit shares a free pattern for making one.  Her free pattern fits a size 34-36 bust. If you need another size, you should … Read More...

If you LOVE the mid century modern look, here are 12 great ways to get a bit of Orla Kiely magic into to your home. Claire from Pillar Box Blue rounded up these great DIY projects based on the designs … Read More...

Add some sparkle to your next hand made card. Learn how to make your own shimmery water color paints using Perfect Pearls Powders and just water. This beautiful paint is perfect for coloring your stamped and heat embossed images on … Read More...

Wave stitching compliments new fabric line, *Pandalicious. Created by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics, the accompanying quilt pattern and video is the latest in the AGF Stitched with Kimberly series. Need more visuals? Here’s the list of participating quilters, … Read More...

It’s grilling season!  One of my favorite times of the year.  Not just because of the yummy food, but because in our house, my husband is in charge of the grilling so it kind of gives me a night off … Read More...

An Amsterdam exhibition on Vincent van Goghs medical problems will include the revolver which he used to kill himself in 1890. Teio Meedendorp, a researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, believes it is highly probable that the corroded Lefaucheux revolver found in a field was the suicide weapon.

Although the pocket revolver was unearthed by a farmer in around 1960, the facts were only revealed four years ago, in a little-publicised booklet by the researcher Alain Rohan. The unidentified owner of the gun has now lent it to the exhibition, On the Verge of Insanity: Van Gogh and his Illness, which opens on Friday (15 July-25 September).

Meedendorp cites several reasons for believing the weapon was the one used by Van Gogh. It was discovered behind the chteau of Auvers-sur-Oise, where the artist is said to have shot himself. Experts believe that its corroded condition suggests it had lain buried for over 50 years, making it pre-1910. The gun had been in production until 1893. Tellingly, the trigger had corroded in the unlocked position, which means it was probably fired just before it being lost or abandoned.

Identifying the gun helps explain why Van Gogh was not immediately killed after the shooting. The Lefaucheux revolver has limited firepower, explaining why the bullet ricocheted off his ribs and became embedded in his chest, rather than going through his heart. On 29 July 1890, two days after the shooting, the artist died of his wound.

The ear
The exhibition also reveals new evidence discovered by the writer Bernadette Murphy, as revealed in her book Van Goghs Ear: The True Story (Chatto & Windus). Murphy found a note and diagram from Dr Flix Rey, who had treated Van Gogh in Arles after he had mutilated his ear. This note was written on 18 August 1930 for the American novelist Irving Stone, author of Lust for Life (the document has been lent to the Amsterdam museum by the Bancroft Library at the University of California).

Reys diagram shows that virtually the entire ear was cut off, with a caption stating it showed what remained of the lobe. However, another document in the exhibition tells a slightly different story. Gustave Coquiot, a Van Gogh specialist, wrote after meeting Rey on 4 May 1922 that the doctor had told him the ear had been removed leaving only the tragus (part of the central area of the outer ear).

The evidence of exactly what was left of Van Goghs ear is therefore unclear, but Rey clearly believed that most of it had been lost. This suggests that Van Gogh mutilated himself with ruthless determination.

The exhibition presents key documents from the municipal archive of Arles, including the 1889 petition by local residents asking Van Gogh to be required to leave his home, the Yellow House. This petition has never been displayed before. Also included in the show are 25 paintings and drawings from the last year or so of the artists life. The star loan is the Portrait of Dr Rey from Moscows Pushkin Museum, which is being shown for the first time in Amsterdam.

Nienke Bakker, a curator of the exhibition, stresses that Van Goghs art should not be viewed as a product of his illness, but rather he painted in spite of his condition. The show proposes a number of possible medical diagnoses, although it does not reach a conclusion. Medical experts will discuss the diagnoses at a symposium in Amsterdam on 14-15 September.

Murphys book
Murphys major contribution to Van Gogh scholarship has been her meticulous research in the archives of Arles, where Van Gogh lived from March 1888 until he retreated to the asylum in St-Rmy de Provence fifteen months later. Over many years she built up a database of the citizens of Arles, uncovering links between the people whom Van Gogh encountered.

This has enabled her to name two of the previously unidentified sitters in Van Goghs portraits. She says the young girl in an Arles portrait was probably 12-year-old Thrse Catherine Mistral, who lived five minutes walk from the Yellow House. Murphy identifies the peasant painted twice by Van Gogh as Franois Casimir Escalier, who died a few months after the artists departure (Van Gogh named him as Patience, but Murphy believes that this was a nickname, describing his character).

Most importantly, Murphy says she has identified the young woman at the brothel to whom Van Gogh presented his ear, who has long been known to have been named Gabrielle. Murphy has traced her descendants, but has not revealed the surname, at their request. She says that Gabrielle was not a prostitutebut worked as a maid in the brothel.

Martin Bailey is a Van Gogh specialist and author of The Sunflowers are Mine: The Story of Van Goghs Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln, 2013)

Don’t buy envelopes for those special cards and invitations, make your own! A collection of templates and tutorials on how to make paper envelopes.

Use them for sending snail mail, or for adding to scrapbook pages to hold journaling or … Read More...

I love some of the ready made molds out there available to glass folks. Write about Colour de Verre all the time and love and use their products. There are other manufacturers of similar products and here’s a tutorial involving … Read More...

Inspiring a city in love with art and culture, Hunter Street in the city centre will host live art activation transforming the street into a bustling art space and exhibition.

In a dynamic pop-up style installation, two large shipping containers will take over Hunter Street and form a blank canvas as eight renowned urban artists permeate their unique artistic flare. The artists, including Nadia Hernandez and Shannon Crees, will be dazzling passers-by at various times over a two week period, ending 22 July, with the installation on display for a further week until 31 July.

Workers, shoppers and visitors are encouraged to come down and explore the Hunter Street Urban Art Intervention, meet the artists and take in the creativity at every angle. Tables and seating will be available, allowing visitors to sit back and watch the art pop to life.

The Hunter Street activation is part of the Transport for NSW’s business activation program supporting local businesses during light rail construction by reminding Sydneysiders and tourists that the city centre is still open for business.

For daily artists schedule please see our Facebook page.

This adorable felt pug pillow could be your first sewing project!!  (Or a quick afternoon project if you already know how to sew.)  Wendy from Woo Jr. shares a free pattern and tutorial.

Click below for the pattern and tutorial:… Read More...

Violet Laporte has a good tip for how to get those perfect, thin slices you want from your mokume gane stacks. Instead of curving your blade (which I have done and broken, oops), trying curving your stack by placing it … Read More...

Do you hate the adult coloring book craze? Well, so does Grumpy Cat! And here he is to prove it with his very own coloring pages. You can download this fun page featuring everyone’s favorite Internet cat for free from … Read More...

photo credit: Kim’s Cravings

Here is a quick and easy snack that you can make for the kids this summer and even add it to their lunch boxes when school starts up again. These treats are gluten-free and uses store … Read More...

photo credit: The Slow Roasted Italian

I think I’ll have salad for dinner and it will be this berry cheesecake salad. I might even have it for dessert too. Unfortunately, I don’t have all the ingredients, but it will be … Read More...

The 43rd edition of the Fiac fair (Foire Internationale dArt Contemporain), which launches this autumn (20-23 October) at the Grand Palais in Paris, is expanding into two new spaces. A new section of the fair, called On Site, will take place in the Petit Palais opposite which, like the Grand Palais, was built for the Exposition Universelle (Worlds Fair) in 1900.

On Site will assemble around 20 works that will [fill] the spaces of the Galerie Sud, the Pavillon Sud and the Jardin du Petit Palais, as well as the esplanade in front of the building. This sector enables Fiac galleries to exhibit in unique conditions, in direct proximity to their stands at the Grand Palais, within the remarkable context of the historic Petit Palais, says a statement on the Fiac website. 

Back in the Grand Palais, nine galleries including P420 from Italy and London-based Richard Saltoun, will show works dating from the 1970s in Le Salon Jean Perrin, a new exhibition space located on the first floor between le Salon dHonneur and the Square Jean Perrin entrance. 

This years fair at the Grand Palais will include 185 galleries, compared to 173 participants in 2015, with 42 newcomers. French dealers, 52 in total, make up 28% of this years fair roster; the US contingent, which numbers 35 galleries, includes Andrea Rosen and Metro Pictures, while 25 German galleries are due to take part.

Fiacs parallel fair Officielle, which was held across Paris at the Docks-Cit de la Mode et du Design, has been postponed after only two editions. The new fair was billed as a platform for emerging art but in an interview with our sister paper Le Journal des Arts earlier this year, Fiacs director Jennifer Flay said that the organisers, Reed Exhibitions, decided to put the fair on hold because of the perceived remoteness of the Cit de la Mode et du design, and the high cost of the stands. While some galleries worked well, many did not make back their costs, she said.

Meanwhile, the organisers of Frieze London and Frieze Masters have decided to move both fairs earlier in the month this year, to avoid a clash with the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, which falls on 11 October. Both fairs VIP openings will be on 5 October, with the events running until the weekend of 8 and 9 October. Fiac is due to run from 20 to 23 October, leaving nine days in between.

Although sometimes thought of as the gallery equivalent of a gone fishin sign for an art world that largely shuts down after Art Basel in June, summer group shows, ranging from the serious to the irreverent, can prove lucrative for some galleries during the usually dry months of July and August. 

London's Ibid gallery may have playfully called its summer show Holiday (until 6 August), but it has works by major names, such as Francis Picabia, Alberto Giacometti, David Hockney, Allen Jones, Yayoi Kusama and Henri Matisse. These summer shows are just as important as any other because everyone's around Europe for Basel this year," says Chelsea Zaharczuk, the gallerys associate director. "Also, we have Manifesta11 [in Zurich, until 18 September], and there's the Tate Modern opening [of the Switch House extension]."

The independent curator and writer Neville Wakefield is curating the show Mount Analogue (16 July-14 August), at Performance Ski in Aspen, Colorado. "Housed in the resort towns premier ski shop that has been specifically redesigned for the exhibition, Mount Analogue brings together a wide range of contemporary artists who examine the cultural history of the mountainsbe they spiritual, sublime, or the sites of luxury vacation," a press statement says. With works on view by artists including Dan Colen, Doug Aitken, Gerhard Richter, Richard Prince, and Sterling Ruby, asking prices are hitting the seven-figure mark. The show is organised by the New York-based art consultancy, Darrow Contemporary.

These holiday shows are made to sell. New Yorks Team Gallery has a summer group show wishfully titled Golden Eggs (until 5 August), which borrows its title from Karl Marxs Das Kapital, and features artist such as Barbara Kruger and Hans Haacke. Meanwhile, Untitled gallery hosted a 2013 summer show called Jew York, featuring only Jewish artists, which, said the gallerys owner Joel Mesler, sold well. People kind of give dealers more leeway in terms of the consignments and the possibilities of working with different artists [in summer shows]," Mesler says. "Having Sherrie Levine, Darren Bader and Jennifer Rubell in the same room togetherthat only would have happened in the summer, especially on the Lower East Side."

But summer shows can sometimes defy expectations. The provocative curator Tom Eccles put together As Long As It Lasts, at Marian Goodman's New York space, in 2009. It featured works by artists including William Kentridge, Gerhard Richter, Lawrence Weiner and Tacita Dean, who took on the themes of transience and death.

"I thought: all these guest curators have beach balls or sunny beach scenes or boats, so I ran in the other direction," Eccles says. Still, it seems you can't do just anything in the summer. The New York Times review, he noted, included the line: "It's all a bit heavy for August."