mclees-fiona.bsky.social
Paper conservator in Wales. Manuscripts, drawings, artists’ materials, studios, sideline interests in holy wells, roodscreens, and all manner of heritage at the end of long country lanes. Colour-related Instagram posts @chromatic_dispatches
1,744 posts
2,499 followers
628 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
📌
comment in response to
post
Maybe leeks were smaller back then? At least, that’s what he says…
comment in response to
post
“This is the earliest known portrait of a Welshman holding a leek”. If that doesn’t draw you in to take a look, you must be abnormally devoid of curiousity. Monochrome stylings ✅ flowing silver locks ✅ pointy beard ✅ limp mini-leek ✅ #WelshArt...
comment in response to
post
Too harsh? I couldn’t make a wooden beast of any sort! Anyway it’s a nice little fellow
comment in response to
post
I mean… this is a great lead, surely? I’m hooked…
comment in response to
post
It’s open all year round, owned by Cadw. Though the adjoining house is privately owned which may be part of the confusion. There were signs of fairly significant work going on in the church itself when we were there but I can’t find any information about it online cadw.gov.wales/visit/places...
comment in response to
post
Surely it’s equally weighted! Like dumplings also, it’s the textural combination of having loose stew-like fillings parcelled up inside something more resilient (and the convenience of it, of course). With pies and pasties perhaps it’s the dry flakiness as a foil to wetter fillings…
comment in response to
post
When I visited Ewenny last year work was taking place inside (as evidenced by the blue tarp in the photo above). Another change since Turner’s time is the creation of a lapidarium in one of the archways - beautifully mounted fragments of carved Romanesque stone features and gravestone pieces
comment in response to
post
Yes, thank you!
comment in response to
post
Having read that, this then stuck out in the following: ““Coupled with his innately beautiful handwriting,” Ms. Smith wrote, those materials gave his spatial and philosophical explorations “a wry and engaging visual life that undermined traditional notions of artistic permanence, craft and value””
comment in response to
post
…from marsh to ditch. Then came forget-me-nots and fragrant cowslips, purple campion, ragged-robin and etched orchis, ladylike mauve cuckoo-pint, bold dandelions and all the pied blossoms and feathered grasses of fields put up for hay.” What a glorious bucolic vision, was it ever real?
comment in response to
post
… after them, violets, without scent, on every bank, and daisies, sprinkling the pastures white. Later, the woods sloping down to the valley were sweet with bluebells that spread like pools of water reflecting a cloudless sky. The windflowers trembled among them & brazen glossy kingcups flaunted…
comment in response to
post
We discussed how rooted in place the book actually is, or whether it’s more of a generic vision of a countryside. However there’s beautiful description of wildflowers and trees in the valley in springtime - “Primroses came first in sheltered hollows where young oak leaves fluttered yellow-green: …
comment in response to
post
I love that a man with such a distinctive voice could have so many facets to his output. Black Pudding a current favourite in my studio, but really there’s something from his discography for every day…
comment in response to
post
No! On my to-read list now…
comment in response to
post
Oh yes! I hadn’t thought of lice!
comment in response to
post
The cast room is magnificent - possibly my favourite part of the V&A! The contents are spectacular, both in replicating the beauty of the original artworks but also in the skills and engineering necessary to do so - especially the large architectural pieces.
comment in response to
post
…the filmmaker (an American with the wonderful very American name of Birt Acres) went on public record to defend the Prince and testify that he was just brushing a fly away (presumably an acceptable action in public at the time, unlike scratching)
comment in response to
post
It’s very endearing, the writer earnestly assumes that you will be interested in the same pieces of local trivia that caught his eye. Some might be fairly inconsequential but the passage of time makes them significant - just looked up a church he visited to find only an estate agent’s listing now
comment in response to
post
Thank you! Yes was vaguely aware and I use Cameo’s materials database a lot but actually haven’t properly explored the dye database - this is a good prompt!
comment in response to
post
…with illustrations to match, @severnpiscator.bsky.social might like this:
comment in response to
post
It’s a lovely book - full of interesting details, of ways life on the cusp of being lost and heritage that has now been lost - for example an interview with a 71 year old fishery worker at Goldcliff who’d made salmon putchers from withy for 37 years.
comment in response to
post
Oh that paper history book looks delightful!
comment in response to
post
Ugh wrong it’s/its
comment in response to
post
Did you see Amgueddfa Cymru’s tiny Coast of Asia Minor seen from Rhodes? I usually walk past it at work every day and am missing it! I covet it and it’s letterbox-format, it would be just right for a domestic suburban house… museum.wales/collections/...
comment in response to
post
She’s so very compelling!
comment in response to
post
It’s Maerz & Paul’s 1930 Dictionary of Color. Even better it has a nice bookplate & inscriptions in it and seems to have had a previous life in a litho studio!
comment in response to
post
I need to get it under the microscope really and look at it with raking light to see if there are indentations - although it was pressed flat adhered to another work for over a century so it’s possible such evidence might’ve been flattened away