Venet à Versailles

On my recent jaunt to la belle France on a twinning visit we stopped off at Versailles on the long trip down to the Loire Valley where our twin town is.  Starting that very week was a new sculpture exhibition by French artist, Bernar Venet. 

Outside the palace was a HUGE piece of work, very akin (to me anyway!) to a whale's rib cage. 

These massive steel structures, 22m high, frame the statue of Louis XIV and offer a completely new perspective on the palace itself. 

Visitors can walk among the arcs, get really really close to them and experience their grandeur.

Sadly we didn't have enough time to see the full exhibition in the gardens but from what I've seen online since I came home, it is most certainly worth a visit if you're in the Versailles neck of the woods over the summer.

Collage

Have you been a good girl, Jane?

Collage: corrugated cardboard with dried paint, papers, stickers, crayon

The Family Bible

Many moons ago you may remember me posting about being commissioned to alter a family bible.  You can see the original post here.  The bible is with it's new owner now so I can share a few pics of it.  ;o)

It would be fair to say that this commission has been something of a challenge!  The sheer size and weight of this beast of a book made it difficult to work with at times and it didn't behave how I expected it to alot of the time.  The ideas I had for the piece originally evolved as I worked and the finished piece is quite a way from how I envisaged but that's the nature of my work and an aspect I love about it!  ;o)    The basic premise of the bible is that of life's journey. 

Here we go with some pics....

The first spread... 

 

The second spread...

The third spread...

The last spread...

And the drawers...

Throughout the piece I used Brusho Crystal Colour watercolour ink powders to colour the pages and also incorporated crayon, pencil and gesso.  The twice repeated T S Eliot quote, "In my beginning is my end", and all the words on the spreads are inkjet acetate transfers (using Ecover All Purpose Cleaner).  The little tin drawers represent mind, body and spirit.  The leaves in niches on the last spread and the lock of hair in the tin representing body were both found between the pages of the bible and it seemed appropriate that they were incorporated back into the piece, connecting old and new and completing the journey.