Juliette Orton

I do love textures! I often take lots of photos of surfaces that excite me and some get filed away and sadly never see the light of day (as happens with so many of our photos these days) but others do get used as inspiration in my artworks.  I love the fabulous French stone that is used in so many of their older properties   Layering and markings created by peeling plaster and left by climbing plants Fantastic stonework around the portail and facade of the Saint-Jacques church in  Aubeterre-sur-Dronne  The door to the church has great ironwork around the lock. My imagination is now buzzing with different ways these textures could be represented with a range of mixed media so watch this space! julietteodesigns.co.uk julietteorton.blogspot.co.uk facebook.com/julietteodesigns twitter.com/julietteorton 

  So finally this summer (after a challenging couple of months health-wise) I managed to relax and kick back.....in France.  My parents bought a property in south-west France in the late eighties to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and their love of all things French. When I say 'a property' it was more like a stone cattle shed with a new roof. There were no stairs or sanitary wear but there was running water and electricity, what more could you want?! My father was a structural engineer and my mother fluent in French (having lived and worked there in her early twenties) a perfect combination for the job in hand. With 3 children in their twenties, they were looking for something that was both inexpensive and easy to maintain - a project that they could put their energies into and be used by friends and family alike. Now, some thirty years later, the 'cottage' as we refer to it (I'm really not sure why) has 2 flushing toilets, a shower, kitchen

  I have just finished teaching a 3-day 'Mixed media 3D Landscape' course at Missenden Abbey which was a great success and my wonderful students produced some amazing pieces. I started by showing my students examples of my work and how the landscape piece is built up using different layers and a variety of techniques and media. I then showed the ladies how to print to create textures and manipulate the materials in different ways to represent various types of landscapes.     Some amazing landscapes were created and students were then introduced to some other possibilities which they used to develop their ideas further.   Very well done Ladies, fantastic work! julietteodesigns.co.uk julietteorton.blogspot.co.uk facebook.com/julietteodesigns twitter.com/julietteorton 

Apologies for the delay in writing this but I have had to take a little time out recently. Sadly this was the last ever Art in Action after 40 years but it certainly did not disappoint and was a fitting way to say farewell to this event which was held in mid July. The wonderful thing about A in A is being able to see the artists at work and discuss their techniques and processes with them openly and in detail. Hannah Tounsend was very generous with her time and was happy to discuss her gorgeous ceramics with me. She had just finished exhibiting at New Designers in the 'One year on' section and is clearly going from strength to strength with her ceramic work. Sarah Morpeth's work was as wonderful as ever and it was lovely to catch up with her again and have a chat. I have been so inspired by her work over the years. In the International Tent it was the Polish paper cutting (Wycinanki) that amazed me. On the wall was a discreet newspaper cutting that e