Wool is the New Paint!

 Wool is the New Paint!

Fine art felt artist Bridget Bernadette Karn is on a mission to get wool recognised as an artistic medium. No longer can the world of art say ‘felting is just a weekend craft!’ and dismiss it from their galleries.

Felting has a rich and ancient history, you only have to look at ‘the Pazyryk felt’ wall hanging from 500BC in The Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia to see this.

Bridget’s exhibition of figurative style art demonstrates what an amazing artistic medium wool is, the detail, textures and colours are extraordinary. She challenges you to see the painting and then to recognise that it is a felt.

Bridget Bernadette Karn’s Fine Art Felt exhibition is on at Blossom Street Gallery, Micklegate, York until Sunday 30^th November. She is demonstrating her felt picture technique and answering questions.

If you are interested in learning more, Bridget offers workshops in Felt Picture making, details can be found on her website www.bridgetbernadettekarn.com and vouchers for these are also available if you are looking for gift ideas for the creative people in your life.

All Among the Blooming Heather

All Among the Blooming Heather

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There are some places in this world that are full of hidden treasures and this place is one of them.

As a very young child I played for hours here with my cousins in fairy palaces. 

Later on I heard the story of how my granny before she died wrapped her wedding rings up and buried them somewhere in this vicinity, I can only guess that she couldn't decide who of her 11 children to give them too.

Apparently, there are also some bottles of wine made by my Aunty Ennie buried in there too. I like to think the fairies found the lot and had a wild party!

The real treasures buried here are all the wonderful memories that my family have shared in this amazing place.

Stubb Wood: The Making Of

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to this music 'Lady Marion' by Clannad

An Introduction to felt picture making - 13 hours squashed down to 2 mins!
I decided to make this video for my solo exhibitions to demonstrate briefly how I build my pictures - as it is easier showing through a time lapse video than trying to explain, especially to those who have no experience of felting. www.bridgetbernadettekarn.com www.facebook.com/MyGallerySPACE

Water Lilies

Water Lilies

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We flew into Amsterdam on a mission to visit as many Art Galleries as we could (for my daughter Erin's GCSE course), experience the amazing place Amsterdam is, architecture, flowers, canals and culture, plus do all this in 4 days!!!

We bought the Amsterdam Card that allows you access into most venues and as much use of the travel facilities as you wish. We planned our days to get as much in as possible. 

By day 3 we were exhausted!!!

So, a change of plan to just go to the Zoo and Horticultural gardens and maybe the Tropen museum was decided upon.

Well, we all fell out with each other in the Zoo and we lost Erin in the horticultural gardens, we found her after 20mins of frantic searching - she'd found somewhere to sit and sketch! 

Feeling the relief I sat myself down to come round and found myself staring into this amazing pond of Water Lilies - a place of total Tranquility, exactly what I needed.....

The Inspiration behind Stubble Field

Stubble Field

Is part of my field series of work. 

I am very fortunate to live surrounded by countryside where I regularly walk my dog Liza. Every day is different according to the weather, in particularly the sky. 

On this August afternoon in 2013 the golden colours of the cut straw seemed luminous in contrast with the drama of the clouds and bright blue of the sky.

I wanted to capture the texture of the stubble and straw patterns on the field and the grandeur of the trees in the hedgerow.

To see more of my work follow these links:

www.bridgetbernadettekarn.com 

www.facebook.com/MyGallerySPACE 

Inspiration behind Kim & Jimmy's Geese

Kim & Jimmy's Geese

Kim is my sister and she lives in an amazing place with her husband Jimmy and their miniature free range farm on the coast in Donegal, Ireland. 

Everything about their home is welcoming and full of personality. They have chickens, 3 goats, 2 cats, a dog called Rosie and of course 2 geese. Jimmy is a genealogist and Kim is an artist presently researching animation and folklore. Visiting Kim and Jimmy is always a treat!

On this particular day we were sat outside in the glorious sunshine, to use a term my relatives use to describe such a day 'the Sun was splitting the rocks' anyone who knows Donegal's weather will tell you how unusual this is, so anyone who can makes the most of it. 

Needless to say all the animals were too, including the geese, their white plumage glowed and their crystal like blue eyes really stood out in the sunshine - with their proud full on characters they were Majestic!

To see more of my work or get up to date information on my workshops, click on the following links:

www.bridgetbernadettekarn.com 

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Poppies

Poppies

You know when nature throws a wild card into your garden and despite all the careful planting you've done the wild card steals the show, that's exactly what happened in my cut flower garden in 2012. There must have been a shower of purple poppy seeds at some point, they filled my flower bed and were Stunning!

So of course I took lots of photos and felt inspired to recreate the Show....

Chickens at Colton

Chickens at Colton 

A sunny July lunchtime at Ye Old Sun Inn in 2012 

- having a celebratory lunch with my son, sitting out on the decking area, as it turned out a great place to watch their free range chickens strutting around.