Midland Hotel

The Midland Hotel 1930. Oliver Hill architect and lover of life.

 

The iconic Art Deco hotel as it is today. My view is, when they upgraded
the hotel they spoilt the look by putting another building on top of the roof, see picture above.
This has ruined the linear of the building from when it was first built. See top picture.

 

The staircase.

The staircase relief by Eric Gill.

Another view of the staircase.

This is a wall relief in the ballroom. Again by Eric Gill.

 

 

 The curved corridor with the walnut veneered doors.

Seating area in cocktail.

 

 

Another view of the cocktail area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cocktail bar. The fabulous chandelier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Close-up of the chandelier. 

 

 

 

 

A small seating area in the cocktail bar. 

 

 

View from the window of the cocktail bar. 

 

 

 

Outside round the back. 

 

 

 

 

Again at the back of the hotel.

 

  

 

 

The seating area overlooking the sea and the spectacular view

across the bay towards the mountains. 

 

 

 

 

 

A view

 to the south of the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking onto the old stone jetty. 

 

 

 

 

 

The old stone jetty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the side of the Midland hotel, the lifeboat building and the

stunning views over the Morecambe bay.  

 

 

On a beautiful day went to Morecambe. I often walk along the promenade looking at the view across the bay

and stop for a coffee at the iconic hotel in the cocktail bar. Today I asked if I could

photograph inside the hotel ...... as you can see, I did.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lolly Stick Sculpture

While I've been off University have spent the time photographing my sculpture in different settings.
One day in my sister's and my own garden (at night. ) Down to the riverside a ten minute walk from home..... white with frost and very, very cold.

 

 

The garden.

 

At night using flash.

 

 

 

The riverside

Then I found some dead leaves and some evergreen.

 

Saw this fabulous tree ..............

........and the shadows......
 

Really enjoyed my morning of taking photographs. The light was excellent, the sky clear blue, river smooth as a pond and so quiet.

Whitworth Art Gallery

I visited Whitworth Gallery to see the Africans textiles on display. Love the colours and history of these fabric's. America exported cotton to Manchester mills to be spun, dyed and woven, it would be sent back to America for the slaves working on the cotton plantations to wear. Also cotton made dyed and embroidered in Mali are featured in the showcases.

Olympic Flame made for West African market. Manufactured by Elson & Neil. Manchester. 

 

Fulani blanket 1970's . Warrior's tunic late 1900C. Warrior's hat late 1900C all made in Mali.

 

 

This robe is from Mali. The  sleeves of the garment remain unsewn to indicate the garment is unworn to future buyers.High ranking Sonink'e men would embroider a garment like this.

 

Strip woven and indigo-dyed cotton with embroidery in white thread. Late 1900c

Aisha Khalid

  While I was there also saw Aisha Khalid exhibition " Larger Than Life." I thought the hand embroidered roses on the wall along with the running video of a machine making roses very good and appealing to the eye. The rest of the show left me cold. I thought they were dark and uninteresting and wondered how they fitted in with the rest of the exhibition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hockney & Hogarth

 

Another exhibition called " Hockney to Hogarth A Rake's Progress" Of course I preferred  Hogarth's work to Hockney's far more interesting to view as an artist. The meticulous details in his work completely over shadow Hockney's work.    

Not that I dislike all Hockney's work because I don't. Some I really like and some I love !  

 

 

 

 

Jane and Louise Wilson

 

An interesting exhibition is Jane and Louise Wilson " The Toxic Camera" photographs based on 1986

Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union. Large scale photographs showing deserted interiors from the nearly abandoned city of Pipyat situated within the 30km the exclusion zone. The picture above of a decayed swimming pool. This exhibition made me feel sad for the loss of lives, health and homes where folk would have brought their up families.          

 

Embroidery Evaluation

My first textile option was embroidery for this we used machine and hand stitching. First I used machine stitch, this I found to be very quick but isolating as one sits at the machine concentrating on what you are doing. The big mistake I made while working on the machine was over embroidering some of my black and white squares. I felt I must use all the stitches I been shown at once !! Lesson learnt, less is more. Mind you, not all my squares were over embroidered just a few. I did enjoy the machine part of the option and felt, I learnt more about different presser feet and their uses and the stitches they can create. I can see how this knowledge can be developed in future work.

The hand embroidery was very different option from using the sewing machine, as it was far more sociable and  leisurely. I loved doing the insertion stitch and as you can see above I used it in a lot in my work.There were errors in my hand stitching ideas. I used some woven metal fabric to sew into but do not think it was very successful, but it would not stop me from using it again as I can see uses for it in the future. What I really enjoyed was making the sculpture of my wooden lolly sticks tied together using garden twine. I am now in the process of moving this piece of work into a sculpture in it's own right using photography, drawings and moving it away from my journey.
Artiste research in its self is very useful for several reason's Seeing other artist's works helps with the development of ones own idea's, assess ones own work and monitor the progress of the work. 
I like using the studio with other people around me as it creates a good thinking and working atmosphere which I do enjoy. At home I check moodle for any changes or new information.Catch up with my sketchbook. Do my artist research in book form or on-line. Download my photographs from my camera and put them onto the computer and sort into folders for future reference. Last but not lest, update my blog.