Living an artful life in full colour
I was going to visit the Mummy exhibition in Edinburgh today but the weather was much too wonderful to spend time indoors. The mummies can wait (after all, they have done so for thousands of years already!) and I went off to Dawyck for a walk. I was trying to think of ideas for the new theme on the Sketchbook Challenge site which for this month is: Flowers. Not hard you would think but it's such a broad subject that narrowing it down proved to be difficult for me. At such time a walk can do wonders! As I was by myself it also served as an Artist Date.
In Dawyck, as in Kailzie Gardens yesterday, the snowdrops are now mainly over and the daffodils not yet out. There was no fully flowering rhododendron to be seen yet, although plenty of them were in bud and promised delights yet to come. Only this pink one very close to the entrance has luscious pink on show already, it's a Rhododendron Oreodoxa according to the label.
You can see what a splendid day it was, with a blue sky plus the occasional fluffy white cloud. I walked without a coat (although I was silly enough to carry it around with me, just in case!). If you look closely you can see the amazing amount of lichen clinging to the trees.
Although the views in Dawyck are beautiful wherever you walk, I can never get enough of the details either, such as this shining rhododendron leaf.
Finally here is the entire plant of which the picture at the top (also my blip for today) is a detail. The name tag in the garden described it as: Lysichiton americanus, but my RHS encyclopaedia tell me the common name for this bloom is: yellow skunk cabbage. Somehow the Latin version sounds a lot more upmarket. This part of the plant is known as the spathe. It's a bog plant that needs to grow near water in order to thrive.
No, I have no plans to retreat from the world and live a life of abstinence and restraint (who, me??!!!). I have simply handed over the above quilt to its new owner today and then went off to indulge in one of my favourite earthly pleasures and enjoyed a gorgeous bit of retail therapy. I bought the beautiful fabric collection as seen below, Oakshott fabrics from Karelia House at the quilt show in Ingliston. I'm planning a visit to this shop later on in the spring, but will have to make sure my credit card is fully charged! So many temptations! I won't mention all the other earthly pleasures I partake of, but rest assured, I intend to make the very most of them till my time is up.
It's wonderful to find someone loves your work enough to buy it and the new owner of Earthly Pleasures shares my taste for skulls, skeletons and the like. It's one of a set of 4 quilts (all sized 17 x 22") with the theme of the Four Elements which were part of my colour - quilts - collage exhibition. Two have now been sold (In Deep Water and Earthly Pleasures). I've decided to hold on the Flames of Passion myself and Up in the Air is still available!
We ventured out on what was in fact my Artist's Date for the week, although contrary to Julia Cameron's instructions John came with me (Artist's Dates are meant to be solitary undertakings). I wanted to visit yet another graveyard as it seemed like quite some time since I was in one last other than the West Linton one. Can you suffer from withdrawal symptoms re graveyard visits? Whatever it was, something inside was urging me forth and it proved to be a very worthwhile exercise and soothing to the soul. Once inside we wandered around separately as I take ages to photograph, have a very close look, and write down any inscriptions I find of interest while John is more fascinated by the church buildings and the surrounding landscape. Crichton Graveyard is only about 40 minutes away and was a real treat to see.
The church itself is decorated with these amazing heads too, all in a row around the entire building. I can only relate them back to gargoyles although they look more like masks and are all different. They were very high up but the camera managed to capture quite a lot of detail of these heads as well as the other decorations. I did get nice and dizzy though, looking up continually to see them all. They made quite a pagan impression.
Here is one side of the pedastal of the Rutherfoord family. Their grave obelisk topped with urn dates back to 1799 and there is carving on all sides. At first this image mystyfied me. On the left there is a Winged Soul but what could that be on the left? Romantically my mind strayed to the Devil being represented in the shape of a goat, but the truth was more mundane. The Rutherfoords were large farmers in the area and the images on their pedestal show farming implements, as well as symbols of mortality and this is quite simply a sheep's head representing their flock. You can see the sheep in detail at the top of this blog and it's also my blip for today.
What is going on here? Is it a case of whispering sweet nothings? That's certainly what it looks like at first sight. But no, on the right is a Angel of the Resurrection blowing its trumpet to wake up the dead on the day of the resurrection, whereas on the left is the dead person himself who will start that auspicious day with a severe case of earache! This stone dates back to the late 17th Century according to Islay Donaldson's book Midlothian Gravestones.
This is an overview of the graveyard and you can see the church which was started in 1440 and is dedicated to St. Mary and St. Kentigern. It's a Collegiate Church which is the term applied to churches where priest and singing were recruited to pray daily for the souls of the great families who built and owned them. In this case the family in question is the Crichton one, who were one of the 3 greatest Scottish families of the fifteenth Century.
And finally a view over the graveyard wall in the direction of Crichton Castle. It's a ruin as you can see and run by Historic Scotland. We were tempted to walk along to see it but decided to save it for a later occasion in the summer as it's worth longer time on than we had available today, and there is apparently also a walk from there to Borthwick Castle (now a hotel). So we'll be back again.
As it was such a beautiful day I decided to take an Artist Date and made my way to the Dawyck Botanical Gardens where I was the only visitor till about half an hour before I left. The garden re-0pened again on the 1st February after its winter closure. Sadly many trees suffered damage during the winter gales we've had, resulting in either entire trees being lost or many branches fallen down. The staff was in the process of clearing it all up. But I walked on the frosty paths entirely by myself, lost in thought apart from stopping to take pictures.
And it struck me how often I take pictures of the details rather than the whole. The macro setting of my camera is almost permanently in use whereas the landscape one hardly gets a look in. I must love detail and that must be why I'm prepared to spend hours, days and yes, even months, handsewing, stitching on thousands of beads and adorning with lots of buttons. I like to know that my quilts are of interest, even when you stand with your nose on top of them! And somehow this is part of my nature and comes out when I'm taking photographs too. But who could resist the wonderful old sculptured pots like the one at the top, or the fantastic lichen shapes on the trees.
And finally, just to prove that occasionally I can take the bigger picture too, above is Dawyck chapel and graveyard. How could I resist taking in a graveyard during my Artist's Date although sadly you can't get inside this burial ground. 
I started with a piece of calico (muslin in US) which was spray painted with acrylic paints and then dribbled on with acrylic inks. This was layered up with wadding (batting) and a backing fabric and I then used my favourite free-machining doodling quilting stitch on top. The hand was printed out onto canvas and the original doodling was hand-stitched with matching threads, embellishments were sown onto the centre where the heart stamp had been originally (see below). That produced a quite raised surface as you can see above. 
I took this image and scanned it into the computer and then used the My Craft Studio program to play with the colours, finally ending up with the image below, which was then printed out for the JQ.
I also enlarged it to fit better within the 10" square size of the Journal Quilt I wanted to make. 
It was time for an Artist Date this week and despite a cold I took the car and went for a drive, just aimlessly driving and at every turning taking the direction that instinct dictated (mine, not the car's!). Along the A701 on my way down South and my thoughts told me that I wanted to find Kilbucho Graveyard. I found the one-track road along which I know it must be but there was absolutely no visual sign of it to be seen and a visit to that particular graveyard will have to wait till I get the Ordnance Survey co-ordinates and take John with me. I have the feeling it will entail expeditions through fields to get there.
I know it was probably not the most sensible thing to do for someone who's still suffering from a cold but I kneeled down on the wet and icy ground in order to photograph this stone. It's leaning over at an angle and I wanted to make sure I got it in all its magnificence and splendour. It became my blip for today, of course. What a stone. This can only be the Winged Soul, but what can be seen behind it? Flames were my first thought but a crown of thorns is also a possibility. And the wings seem to continue under the chin in the form of leaf-life shapes. And there are also flower/leaf decorations to either side, probably continueing all the way down the side of the stone, but sadly part of it is now underground. Is this winged soul burning in hell? Sadly we will probably never know. It's interesting to think that we may be way more educated than people in the past, but they would have known immediately what this stone signifies, despite being mostly both illiterate and uneducated. But they were very well versed in christian symbolism.
Here is a close-up detail of the face. The carving is exquisite and every detail can still be seen despite the fact that I think this gravestone must date back to the early part of the 18th Century. Sadly the text on the other side of the stone was far less deeply engraved and can now no longer be read.
As you can see Cutler graveyard is set yet again (as most every graveyard I've been to) beautifully into the surrounding landscape and the graveyard itself is full of ancient stones leaning this way and that. A very stereotypical old graveyard, just as I like them best. By the way, it's truely amazing just how often of late graveyards have been popping up on the television as well as in books I'm reading. A great example of synchronicity, althought it's also true to say that I'm simply noticing them more and more as my interest in them has grown. One of these days I have promised myself a nocturnal visit to one of them (probably accompanied by John, just in case! And it's not the dead I'm afraid of, but the living).
There was more fascinating imagery. I found this little person, just before her stone sinks into the ground, never to be seen again. As this is all I have there is no saying what she (I really think it can only be a she!) represents. It seems a very worldly image for a gravestone but sowers and reapers (which can frequently be found on gravestones) as well as angels are mostly representated naked although not often so very distinctively female.
Finally another amazing skull I found on the side of a tablestone. It looks both ancient and unnervingly modern. I really wish I could find out more about this beautiful graveyard and the grave monuments contained therein, but so far my internet searches haven't revealed a lot and my books about Scottish graveyards have proved to be equally uninformative. But I do have more pictures to share which will come in the shape of another post in the next few days. 
Time for my Artist's Date this week! The snow has melted and the Scottish Borders are mainly brown and grey striped with green rather than gloriously white. I went to the most southerly graveyard in Peeblesshire and was lucky enough to be able to ask for directions from a Mobile Library van as I very much doubt I would have found it without that assistance. Tweedsmuir Graveyard is tucked away at the end of a dead-end road. It's right by the river Tweed which is probably why the church is high up on a hill so as to avoid flooding.
Most of the oldest stones are near the church and the graves then are positioned on the slope down to the river with the modern ones at the very bottom. The graveyard is still in use as is the church. I've never come across a graveyard so overcome with moss and lichen. Most stones are completely unreadable due to the growth covering them.
But by crouching on the ground and having a close-up look I did find some treasure such as the side of the above table grave adorned with a very strange skull, crossbones and hourglass.
A very strange winged soul which seems to be smirking out at the world with underneath an impressive set of wings
and a much more cheerful one, smiling out. She's probably very pleased with her hairdo! A real one off.
The biggest claim to fame for this graveyard is this grave of a Covenanter. If you want to know about the Covenanters have a read here. It's one of the many religious conflicts in Scottish history (and one of the bloodiest!) and was also part of the wars between England and Scotland, Another case of many lives lost in the name of religion and a very far from uplifting tale. 
On the other side of the originally gravestone you can see the above inscription. It is very hard to read due not only to the lichen but also to the use of strange (Scottish?) spelling and words. It's reputed to be by the mason Robert Paterson of "Old Mortality" fame. 
