• A Midsummer Dream Workshop

    A Midsummer Dream Workshop
    A Midsummer Dream Workshop…

    Join Caroline on Saturday 10th June for a magical day bringing together some of her favourite things; home-grown flowers to pick and to play with, delicious food with new friends, beautiful walks, and an afternoon of scribbling, and fine fizz with cake to finish...
    For more information and to book your ticket, please click here...


    Our venue, Mountfield Court, is one of the most beautiful private houses in England, set in acres of rolling Sussex fields and woodlands that seem untouched by modern times. Within the grounds is an old walled garden, now tended by florist and gardener, Isobel How, who grows seasonal cut flowers, fruit and vegetables in its charming, crumbling walls.
     
    In the morning... After coffee & home baked biscuits, Isobel will talk you through the basics of creating your own cutting garden, and you’ll be let loose in the sweet shop to snip bucketfuls of flowers. She will then teach you to arrange these in a simple hand-tied posy or vase arrangement for you to keep.
     
    After a delicious lunch made from walled garden produce, and a chance to explore your surroundings, Caroline will introduce you to the technique of drawing with a traditional dip pen and ink, before taking the morning’s floral creations as our subject to make sets of illustrated floral notecards. 
     

    Absolutely no experience is necessary, this will be a fun and friendly day, with the emphasis on enjoying Summer’s bounty and learning simple new skills.  

    You will be rewarded for all your hard work with a generous slice of homemade cake and a glass of Mountfield Winery’s own award-winning English sparkling wine before carrying home your flowers and box of cards, dip pen and ink for future scribbling.

    Saturday 10 June, 2023 from 10am-5pm

    Tickets are £185 per person - click here to book your place...  

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  • Studio Style: What Artists Wear to Work...



    My studio attire is far from adventurous, but interestingly at odds with the elegant and colourful illustrations I am known for. Perhaps best described as seventies scruff, my working wardrobe consists of high-waisted jeans (recently these on repeat), French workmen's trousers, skinny t-shirts and an assortment of beautiful knitwear. It rarely varies, but there is a comfort in the uniformity, and in that, I am not alone.

    Potter Lucie Rie - rather bravely given her profession - almost exclusively wore white, while Bridget Riley fairly consistently mimicked her paintings in black and white. Legendary New York street photographer Bill Cunningham was seldom seen without his blue French sanitation workers' jacket, while Francesca Woodman (above) floated around her studio in diaphanous vintage dresses. What artists choose to wear to work is endlessly fascinating and inspiring, and there are a few recurring themes: here are some reliable favourites, and a few things on my wardrobe wish-list inspired by them...


    Stripes
    I have had this photograph of Lee Miller (taken by Miller) on the wall of my studio for years, and no item of clothing is more associated with artistic life than Picasso's iconic striped Breton by classic French brand Armor Lux (though personally I prefer this checked shirt he wore to entertain Bardot in his studio!). And Helen Frankenthaler's subtle stripes here are perfection...

    Frankenthaler in her New York City studio, in 1964, with “Interior Landscape.” Photograph by Alexander Liberman / © 2014 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / ARS, NY / The Getty Research Institute (2000.R.19)


    A-line top & shorts, £89 / £75 Caramel


    Jeans & Jumper
    Everyone from Constantin Brancusi to Bridget Riley can be found in some iteration of this eternal combination. Find high-waisted jeans and denim of dreams from Jesse Kamm & Seventy Mochi, and see Freight and &Daughter for beautiful quality and timeless knits.




    French Workwear
    Life can be messy, whether you're throwing paint around a studio or having pasta thrown at you by a toddler. French company Le Laboureur have been making classic workwear for the past 50 years and it only gets better with wear and washing. Find Bill's jacket here at Wood and Meadow where you'll also find these excellent trousers, and The French Workwear company is a treasure trove.
     

    Barbara Hepworth at Trewyn Studio, 1961. Photograph by Rosemary Mathews, Courtesy Bowness, Hepworth Estate
    Overalls
    Practical beyond reproach, overalls are the ultimate outfit of creative endeavour and somehow always look cool - particularly if you're the kind of person who can get away with pairing maribou slippers with yours, like artist Polly Morgan. Try this one from The French Workwear Company, or for something a little less utilitarian, see Sezane and Anthropologie. And if you want to break with the blue, how about Wrangler's candy floss pink!

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  • M is for...

    M is for...
    ...March, and for Mother's, and a few Marvellous gift ideas truffled from the depths of the internet just for you...
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