Creativity with Threads and Needle / September 12, 2020 by Jeannine Cook

Well over two years of patient embroidering, stitch by stitch, to create a wonderful needlework panel about medieval pilgrims crossing the south of France on their way to Santiago de Compostela: that is Alain Dodier’s recent achievement. A true work of art, it is well worth enjoying on YouTube.

Using Art to Remind / January 16, 2019 by Jeannine Cook

Symbols of past glory, of empire and and global reach, caravels and carracks still sail in Lisbon, woven in Persian 17th century carpets, painted on Japanese screens or even depicted in pavement cobblestones. All reminders of nearly six centuries of empire, for good or for bad. Seeing these emblematic ships at a moment when the Brexit furore is reaching a crescendo in England made me ponder the parallels of the erstwhile Portuguese and British Empires.

Oak Matters and Art in Derbyshire, England / November 14, 2018 by Jeannine Cook

Haddon Hall, in the Derbyshire Peak District National Park, is a celebration of oaks. Its construction, contents, history and present day lands are hallmarked by oaks. It was thus an extraordinary place in which to be able to draw in metalpoint and prepare an exhibition for September 2019 about oaks and their future. Linking my passions for art and the environment are “Oak Matters”.

When Art and Embroidery United - Part 2 / October 20, 2018 by Jeannine Cook

Visiting master embroiderer Alain Dodier in Sainte Valiere, Southern France, was like straying into a medieval scriptorium, save that Alain is very much of our time Nonetheless, as he creates intricate vivid scenes in silk embroidery threads, using Bayeux stitching that harks back to the 11th century, his passion and dedication to historical detail and fidelity reminded me of the slow and painstaking creation of illuminated manuscripts that tell stories of great import to Western culture. His seven-meter panel about the Pilgrims’ Route to Santiago de Compostela is one such work.

When Art and Embroidery Unite - Part 1 / October 19, 2018 by Jeannine Cook

When art meets embroidery in a dark, complex historical tale of Southern France and takes five thousand hours to tell the story, this implies passion, skill, dedication and a deep sense of our need, in today’s world, not to indulge in such destruction. It is an amazing feat of story-telling.

Tiles that tell Tales / July 15, 2018 by Jeannine Cook

Medieval and Renaissance tiles from the Champagne-Aube regions of France tell a great deal about early French society. The wonderful tile collection at the Musée des beaux-arts or the Musée Saint Loup, in Troyes allows one to peep into earlier worlds. Even though this world was underfoot!

Of Japan / February 5, 2018 by Jeannine Cook

Scanning a set of Japanese woodcuts inherited from my grandfather led me to reflect on the parallels and differences between traditional images and those captured in photographs, when all were created or re-created after the 1923 Earthquake in Japan.

Basel's Paper Museum: an Artist's Delight / September 22, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Basel's Paper Museum is a small, extremely well-presented museum that takes one from paper-making to the history of writing, printing, book-binding and many other facets of the world of paper. As an artist, I was enthralled and found the paper they Museum still makes most tempting and beautiful.

Plein Air Art - Looking Back (Part 1) / May 16, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

As plein air artists, we are standing on the shoulders of artists who were lovers and orbservers of nature from many centuries ago. This is a celebration of some of these artists in their depictions of the landscape.

Silk / February 12, 2017 by Jeannine Cook

Silk has always been my favourite material, sensuous to wear yet so practical and comfortable in all weathers. It is always beautiful, whether patterned, plain, embroidered or subtly woven with textures in it. Even its names - shantung, habutai, tussore, chiffon, taffeta, dupioni, tussah - sound exotic and alluring. One of my earliest connections with silk was the realisation that mulberry leaves, from a tree that I loved and knew well at my home in East Africa, were what feed the silk worms for 35 days, before they are ready to spin a cocoon with their continuous fine silken thread that eventually measures over a mile when it is carefully unwound, prior to being woven into cloth.