Tessa Spanton SWA Artist, tutor, writer



TESSA SPANTON SWA ARTIST, WRITER AND TUTOR

Welcome to my blog.
This is where I write about some of the things that inspire my work,
news of exhibitions and works in progress

Friday 30 September 2016

Visions of Venice


Hélène Kuhn Ferruzzi with some of her lovely painted textiles at her bottega in Venice on a canal not far from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

https://www.heleneferruzzi.it/

Just before my first visit to Venice in the Spring I saw an article in the Financial Times called Venice mills: fruit of the Loom 
As I paint on silks and love textiles I dreamed of visiting. 

On our last day in Venice we crossed the shimmering Grand Canal by traghetto, a gondola ferry, to the Dorsodouro area of Venice. 


We threaded our way along narrow canals and passageways, lingered at a sunlit square where artists painted to the gentle accompaniment of a baroque lute and made detours into some interesting shops 








.....until we finally found Hélène's bottega and were delighted to meet her, see her work and talk with her about what inspires her work. This was an encounter made possible by a shared love of painted textiles and one of the many highlights of the visit.

Hélène works on silk, cotton, linen and velvet and is inspired by the colours and patterns of Venice and her visits to the Alps. as well as block printing she paints the fabrics with geometric shapes, lines like the waves or ripples on the lagoon, bold calligraphic brushstrokes and gold embellishments.

Her works of abstract art become scarves or beautifully made jackets with little covered buttons and pin tucks or take the form of wall hangings or lampshades.

I would echo some poetic words from the FT article, the writer says

That Mandarin jacket lingers in my memory long after I leave the shop. Shall I buy it? Or shall I just bask in the warp and weft of this remarkable city?

When Yeats wrote of the ''heavens' embroided cloths enrought with silver and golden light'', he could have been thinking of Venice. 
Or in my case, Hélène's fabrics.





PS In reply to Marilee's question
I didn't buy the jacket but I did bask in the weft and warp of beautiful Venice for a little longer, on the Grand Canal then back over the lagoon to collect our cases from our hotel, the Molino Stucky on the island of Guidecca. We left by Alilaguna as sunset gave way to darkness then on to the bus station to be whisked through the darkness to the airport. On my case I had found a book about Venice, left for me as a gift from Constance, of customer relations at the hotel. What a lovely surprise, I was glued to it for most of the way back to Gatwick. Another story, maybe for another post.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

How beautifully you write about Venice. Your images are lovely as well.
I found you via a comment you made on Anna's blog regarding her lovely floral booties. You talked about using permanent markers to draw on fabric and leather. I couldn't believe my good fortune because I've been contemplating doing this on a pair of leather booties!! Have you completed a project of this type?
Please tell me more about this idea.

One more thing... did you buy the lovely Mandarin jacket?
Thankyou for your consideration Tessa.

Colours and Textures said...

Hi Marilee, thanks for your lovely comments on my post, I so enjoyed writing it.I have updated the post to answer your question. Sorry for my slow reply.
I bought the Sharpie pens some time ago to decorate some shoes as well as a lampshade but have not done either project yet. I got a set of colours, gold, silver and black. If/when I do I will write a post on it.
Tessa xx