November 2007

"...the hand of time rested on the half-hour mark, and all along that old front line of the English there came a whistling and a crying. The men of the first wave climbed up the parapets, in tumult, darkness, and the presence of death, and having done with all pleasant things, advanced across No Man's Land to begin the Battle of the Somme."

—John Masefield, (The Old Front Line, 1917)

On the walls beneath the colonnades at the back of the cemetery were inscribed thousands of names of soldiers who had fallen nearby. And that was just one cemetery.

Last week we went to see War Horse at the National Theatre. This is a phenomenally imaginative and theatrical adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's story about a horse taken from a Devon village to France in the Great War. Read about it and see a review here.

I have read that eight million horses died in the Great War, nearly as many horses as people.

Opposite is Ateliers Créatifs, the shop in Rue du Garet in Lyon where my Kniazeff dyes originate. I have always wanted to know where they come from. I have been buying them for twenty years from a supplier who imports them into the UK.

Another visit in Lyon was to the Musée de Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs. Their collection of Coptic textiles is stunning but if they ever decide they don't want it any more, I'll be queueing up for their second century Fish Tapestry from Antinoe in Middle Egypt. If you want to see it, search their Coptic collections on the website, but the image doesn't do justice to the freshness of the colour and design and the delicacy of the work.

Memories of a friend

The beauty of the Provençale autumn will always be associated with the recent loss of a very dear friend. Among images below are the blazing cherry trees and vineyards; the ochre pits at Roussillon and the hill town of Gordes.

November 26th

During my visit to Atelier Créatifs in Lyon, (see further up this page) I learned that they will shortly discontinue the production and sale of their own brand spirit-based gutta. This is because of the Health and Safety issues in its use and the consequent high costs involved in manufacture, transit and storage. I had heard rumours that this might happen many years ago, and tried to plan ahead. I also wanted to try to eliminate the need for dry-cleaning in my work.

Water-based resists normally blob, bleed and spread; they won't make a fine line, and they don't hold up to multiple layers of dye. That's why spirit-based gutta has been such a good and useful product. But you can't wash it out, and unless you are prepared to do a smelly and unpleasant wash-out with white spirit after steaming, you have to dry-clean.

On one of the online groups I belong to, an Australian-based artist mentioned and recommended a water-based resist that WORKED called Resistad. Through her I tracked it down from Pro Colour of New Zealand and ordered some. I was impressed by its quality and it is described on my techniques page here. My work has taken me more in the direction of wax and so I don't use Resistad very often but I do know it is attracting a large following with other painters- despite the resist-miles it has to travel.

However, Ateliers Créatifs are now offering their own water-based resist called Cern'o. It looks a little like Resistad, has to be diluted with water, and before dye is applied, it must be heated with a hair-dryer. They say they have been making and supplying it to African outlets for may years.

I am starting some tests using a sample bottle of Cern'o I bought in Lyon. I am also starting some rather more rigorous testing / study of the dye extracts I've been using.