Southwell Workhouse Bicentenary Banner - installation Aug 2024

 And delighted to be able to show you the Southwell Workhouse Bicentenary Banner up an on permanent display in the exhibition area of the Workhouse. Do visit and see it in person!

Details to visit are here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/nottinghamshire-lincolnshire/the-workhouse-and-infirmary

Southwell Bicentenary Banner July 2024

Back earlier in 2024, after the residency at the National Civil War Centre in Newark on Trent, I was commissioned by the National Trust at Southwell Workhouse in Nottinghamshire to design a large cotton participatory cotton banner to celebrate the iconic buildings 200th anniversary. The Bicentenary banner featured a large black and white line drawing that I had digitally printed onto 100% cotton. It pictured the whole of the Workhouse and productive gardens too. The banner was intended to celebrate all the life and colour that has passed through it in that long history, and to express too how we can relate to it in our times too. 

On a sunny day in July, over 200 visitors of all ages came to help me colour in the banner and it turned from black and white into a riot of colour with lots of patterns, animals, nature, birds and people added. See the next post to see the finished banner! 

The banner was printed by the wonderful Prinfab in Kent and fabric pens used to colour the banner were Italian pens bought from Dryad Educational in Leicester. 

 

My very first Drawing Retreat!

I am delighted to share the photos from my very first Drawing Retreat at the marvellous Priory House in Long Bennington. The home of fashion designer Carole Lee and sculptor Roger Lee is an amazing place, filled with a huge range of fascinating objects collected over many decades. Their home oozes theatrical flair and colour and the Drawing Retreat-ers could spend time drawing in the house and the garden during the retreat. I supplied sketchbooks, pencils and rubbers for each person to take home, as well as supplying a wide range of drawing materials to use. And refreshments were included too - delicious cakes, biscuits and hot drinks to suit different dietary needs. 

This really was a retreat for each person: time to sit together and chat and time to be alone to quietly draw. We all live busy lives and I have been so keen to get an event like this going. Not online, but in real life. It felt a real privilege to bring this lovely set of people together! 

 Would you like to join in a retreat? 

Simply contact me via my website: www.vanessastoneartist.com to be added to my email list. 

Changes ahead due to Ai!

Good morning everyone & thank you for looking at my little blog! 

There are some changes I have to make now that Ai is scraping everything and I want to protect my work as much as I can. Instead of seeing so many examples of my archive, I've this blog right down to the bare minimum and then will be writing a lot more articles and having free things to share too so that I can have your lovely company still.