From Rags to Riches: Recycled Textile Art - City Screen, York

Tuscan Hillside - Frances Owen

Ebor Ruggers currently have their 20th Anniversary Exhibition of rag rug art at City Screen in York.  It's on till 24 February 2015 so you'll have to get there quickly.  There are lots of great pieces.  You can see my selection in this blogpost ...

Heather - Angela Gray

Inspired by the dome of an Iranian mosque - Hazel Parker

Goat in Winter - Louisa Creed

Green Man - Maggie Hague

A country walk - Margaret Ramsbottom

Rag rug making is a great example of recycling and upcycling.  If you want to find out more, click on Ebor Ruggers.  Dedicated to the craft of rag rug making, they welcome visitors and new members.  If you want to join them, they meet once a month in Dunnington near York at the Reading Rooms.  

I hear there's always tea and cake available!

e-Luminating Cambridge

Colouful Fitzwilliam Museum

It just so happens that the e-Luminate Festival was on in Cambridge when I was there.  Apparently 2015 is the UN International Year of Light!  It was fun to see the City's amazing architecture lit up in weird and wonderful ways!  It's over for this year now but here's a flavour of that city's bright lights ...

King's College Chapel

Peterhouse

Senate House

Senate House

Senate House

A date for your diary next year perhaps!

Kettle's Yard House, Cambridge

Kettle's Yard House - Entrance

I discovered this little gem on a recent trip to Cambridge.  I can't believe I've never found it before especially as I used to live in Cambridge.  On the edge of the city centre, it is tucked away behind Kettle's Yard gallery which has changing exhibitions throughout the year.
 

View of Kettle's Yard House from the Gallery

Now owned by Cambridge University, it was the home of Jim Ede from the late 50s until the early 70s.  Jim was a curator at the Tate Gallery, London in the 1920s & 1930s and as a result met and befriended many artists.  Over the years he amassed an astonishing collection of 20th century art.  I've never seen so many paintings by Alfred Wallis (a personal favourite)!  They are displayed without labels throughout his house amongst his collections of natural objects and other works of applied art.  It is kept largely as it was when he lived there with his wife, Helen.  You are encouraged to sit in the chairs and see the art as he would have viewed it. It is a personal curation of his taste over a particular period displayed how he wished it to be experienced.  There are works by Ben & Winifred Nicholson, Christoper Wood, Willian Congdon, Joan Miro, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Italo Valenti, Henri Moore, Barbara Hepworth & others.  

There's also an amazing spiral of almost spherical pebbles that came from a beach in Norfolk - I want to go there too!

It's fantastic, it's free and on Fridays one of the grand pianos is used for lunchtime concerts.

Kettle's Yard Gallery

If that's not enough you can pop across the courtyard and take a look in Kettle's Yard Gallery and shop.  The current exhibition is Beauty and Revolution: The Poetry and Art of Ian Hamilton Finlay

This place is a gem - go see!

Granary Square - Kings Cross, London

Granary Square + Winter Sun Project

Next time you are near Kings Cross with a bit of time to spare go and take a look at Granary Square.  You'll find the House of Illustration (a gallery of illustration), Central St Martins (part of University of the Arts, London), Word on the Water (a book shop on a barge), Winter Sun (a light installation & social space) and lots of restaurants.

You get the view above from the viewing platform just opposite Granary Square where you can also see back down to Kings Cross ...

View to Kings Cross

read a poem ...

Steel Birds by Kathy Henderson

read about the Winter Sun project ...

Winter Sun Info

 Then you can check out the bookbarge ...

Word on the Water Bookbarge

Word on the Water Bookbarge

before going to Winter Sun to make some ghostly images on the screens ...

Ghostly images at Winter Sun

More ghostly images at Winter Sun

and then whatever takes your fancy - worth a look!