Islington Mill's Contemporary Christmas Craft Fair

Thursday 1st December 2011, 4pm-9pm.  FREE Entry.  Salford, M3 5HW.

I will be selling my work at the annual Islington Mill's Christmas Fair. There will be other craftspeople selling ceramics, prints, jewellery and photos too.  Food and mulled wine will be available.  Music by members of the BBC Philharmonic.  Why not come down and start your Christmas shopping whilst supporting local contemporary crafts?

Beverley Gee

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Revisited

Rachel Goodyear

Rachel Goodyear

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Henry Moore

Birch trees at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Andy Goldsworthy

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa

I had a lovely day out on Saturday at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The weather was crisp, dry and bright perfect for a walk around the grounds.

One of the current exhibitions is new work by Rachel Goodyear.  I think Rachel is a fantastic artist.  Her pencil drawings of wildlife and lonesome people have great skill and imagination.  I was interested to see that she is moving into animation and even clay.  The exhibition is on until 3rd January 2012 and well worth a visit.

I also got chance to see the Jaume Plensa exhibition that I saw being installed back in April.  I was impressed with the scale, skill and ideas around his work.  One of the highlights was a curtain of words that tinkled delightfully in the autumn sun.  Another was the deep drones from huge inscribed gongs.

My goodness . . .

I've recently visited The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.  It is a great example of a quality product, history, marketing and branding coming together in an interesting visitor experience.  Well worth a visit.  And yes, it does taste better over there.