An Inspirational Day! (Part Two....and a Loo!)

Sorry I had to cut our visit to The Welbeck Estate and The Harley Gallery in two, but there were just too many photos to show you in one sitting!

Now then, where was I?

After visiting Louise at the wonderful Hope and Elvis studio, we ventured to The Harley Gallery.

It was chucking it down, but fortunately it was a very short walk and the Welbeck Estate is beautiful.

We were fortunate to see a beautiful and haunting exhibition by Claire Curneen, entitled 'To This I Put My Name'.

We all sketched away like good'uns.

It was so inspiring I had to get the old sketchbook out myself too!

After a fabulous dinner at the cafe we all had a good old look around the Open Studios.

There was so much to see that unfortunately we didn't get to visit all of them, but the artists and designers we met were really generous with their time and knowledge.

Phil Neal's sculpture studio was the stuff of dreams and amazed all of us.

It was Tardis - like when you stepped inside ( which is quite ironic as Phil has worked on film and TV, including Doctor Who!)

Stanley wanted a biscuit!

Thanks Phil for all your wonderful stories and for showing us your amazing work!

The poor students had actually got on the bus and I pulled them out because I perchanced upon the beautiful work of Hilary Bower.

It's beauty, simplicity and wabi sabi influences were just perfect for our next Unit.

Hilary was so kind and let us descend like a plague of locusts, asking questions and looking at her wonderful work.

As time was a ticking I felt very guilty as we were like a crazed mob trying to cram in as much information gathering as we could!

Thanks Hilary!

PS: Now you might be thinking ' was there a mention of a loo in the title?'

Well, yes, I couldn't blog about a trip to Hope and Elvis and not mention the famous loo!

It's like a little gallery in itself and I had to take yet another selfie in this most famous of powder rooms!

Ha!

Even the loo is a work of art!

(Hope you don't mind me blogging about the facilities again Louise!)

So a big, big thank you to Dayle for all your help and for running such a fantastic event, Louise, Phil, Hilary, Maggie and all the artists and staff at The Harley Gallery and The Welbeck Estate for their generosity and inspiration.

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