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Annual August treat

Artists Pauline Burbidge and Charlie Poulsen opened their studios once again over the weekend.  (https://www.allanbankmillsteading.co.uk)  Four days when they invite the public to enjoy their brilliant work, and to wander around their interesting and quirky property, where attention to detail is their modus operandi.  It is a delight and an annual treat, and one we enter into the new diary at the beginning of every year!  The first weekend in August.

I particularly love Pauline's work.  She is a quilt maker and her studio is full of beautiful images.  Her inspiration comes from simple things and without losing any of their integrity, she transforms them into things of enhanced beauty.  A very clever, and delightful, lady.

And then into the garden where some of Charlie's sculptural works, both static and growing, adorn the steading grounds.
I love the clever use of colour in this garden.  Here there are burgundy coloured apples teaming up with the deep dark colours of a copper beech hedge.  
Every year Pauline and Charlie invite another artist to exhibit alongside them.  This year it is Dorothy Caldwell.  Using textiles to describe her travels in far flung, remote empty places, where she collects fragments of plants, pigment from soil and rocks, colours, and textures, she stitches them into wonderful wall hangings.  I particularly love the muted colours she uses.  
 And then it is time to leave!  Until next year.



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