tapestry treats

This week it suddenly became winter here and most of us have been feeling the cold. Polly has discovered the benefits of chairs near radiators and has hardly stirred out of doors. On the other hand, Phoebus is seldom deterred from patrolling his territory no matter what the weather. Even in pouring rain he heads outdoors — sticking close to the wall of the house where there is a narrow dry strip — then he settles himself on a windowsill, huddled up against the glass, and surveys his demesne from there. Of course it makes us feel terribly guilty, and we imagine all the people walking by thinking that this poor cat has such heartless owners who leave him out in the rain all day….

Anyway, that is just preamble to the fact that today has been a beautiful autumn/winter day with glorious blue skies and wispy clouds.  The perfect weather for setting off your crow-stepping and your turrets.

We headed to Stirling Castle because I was determined not to miss this exhibition of the British Tapestry Group and today was the last day.  I have missed a lot of exhibitions this year through letting work overwhelm me, but not this time! Half the exhibition was on display at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and half at the Castle. It was rather nice that several artists had two tapestries on display (the maximum permitted) and any “pairs” were split between the two sites.  If you were only able to visit one place then you would see a good representation of the exhibition overall but if, like us, you had time to enjoy both, then the second site gives you a feeling of recognising old friends: Oh look, that’s the one who….! Unfortunately, photography was not permitted so I can’t show you the work or even refer you to the exhibition (which has been over since 5 pm), but if you were to look at the Tapestry 08 website or get hold of the catalogue then you would see a lot of the same artists.  Not, however, my former Bradford classmate, Heather Seddon, who was exhibiting for the first time this year. Her work was beautiful and I felt very proud to know such a talented weaver.

Fortunately, there were no injunctions against photographing the Stirling tapestries, of which four have now been completed. As most weavers will probably know by now, work is underway at Stirling Castle to restore the Palace of James V and Mary of Guise to the way it looked in the 1550s. One of the most ambitious parts of the project is the weaving of a set of seven unicorn tapestries to hang in the Queen’s chambers. They are being woven two at a time — one in Stirling and one at the West Dean Tapestry Studio — and are due to be finished in 2013. We had a quick peek at the work in progress in the Castle studio before the weaver went to have her well-earned lunch, and then went to see the finished tapestries, which are hanging in the Chapel for the time being.

Wow. Last time we went only “The Unicorn in Captivity” had been completed. Now he is joined by “The Start of the Hunt”, “The Unicorn is Found” and (sadly) “The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle”. Thank goodness for resurrection imagery!! The following are all quite big pics, so do click on them.

And here’s a bit of detail – I particularly like the velvety jacket on the chap leading the horse.

“tapestry treats” was posted by Cally on 8 Nov 2009 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com