The other day I wrote about buying art that makes you happy . So let me tell you about Flo the Fox.
Flo is an actual fox who lives at the British Wildlife Centre. She was captured first on camera then in a painting by a friend from high school who is an artist named Robin Sears.
I was so excited when I first saw her because I have been looking for a little fox painting for a few years. But every fox I saw just wasn’t my fox.
But Flo is my fox, and she’s perfect. She’s just a little painting at 9″ x 12″ and she is acrylic on board.
The reason I like Flo so much is we have very funny foxes that I like to watch in our backyard. Each has a personality.
Anyway Flo is a perfect British fox sitting in her bed of blue bells and ferns and moss.
She will eventually make her way down to Framers Market Gallery in Malvern to be framed.
Anyway, just wanted to share Flo with everyone!
Have a great afternoon and thanks for stopping by
Circa 1976. Reader submitted photo.
Overnight I received an email from a friend:
I saw your post about Christmas. Sending you a converted slide (hence the poor quality) circa 1976. National Liberty Corp owned the Gunkle Mill in East Whiteland before it was donated to the township.
Arthur DeMoss opened up the small building adjacent to the Mill and created a manger scene. There were figures and real animals. In this photo, you can see a critter (goat, ram??) in the foreground, but there were bigger animals too. I remember a donkey who would come to the fence hoping you had food.
I think it lasted 5 or so years in the 1970s. Once we went over at midnight on Christmas Eve and it was snowing–it was magical.
Maybe others remember it too. And maybe they will have a better photo!
I think this is so cool and this is the first person to respond to the post I posted recently about my Christmas blogging idea.
It’s not complicated. In a time where so much of the day today world can be so ugly, I thought maybe we would throw back to holidays past in Chester County.
I have not lived here in Chester County long enough to know about all the celebrations continue today or are purely from the past. Parades, festivals, things that speak of the season and community.
So if you have memories of Christmas past and photos you would like to share. Please contact this blog via the blog’s Facebook page. Please tell me about the photos you’re sending and how you would like them attributed. I can attribute them simply “reader submitted” or put an entire name and so on. If you are sending things in for celebrations that still continue today and it something that requires public participation and donations, tell me who it is they are supposed to contact and when the event will occur.
And for those who love the historic mill, I do have a whole bunch of photos still to go through from Chester County Day which I promise I will post.
I found myself a small treasure today. “Society Hill” by Margery Niblock.
I have written before about family friend and artist Margery Niblock. She was a New York transplant who lived in Philadelphia for many, many years before heading north to Maine.
Margery has been a printmaker artist of woodcut and linoleum since 1958. The 1972 UNICEF Engagement Calendar had one of her woodcuts, “Fantasy,” chosen for inclusion, and her work was used as a cover and feature story in the then “Today Magazine” of the Philadelphia Inquirer She also taught private classes for both adults and children. (Yes, I was one of her students!)
Margery was commissioned by many organizations to do special pieces during her many years in Philadelphia — The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, Ars Moriendi, Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), American Friends Service Committee, Pearl S. Buck Foundation, Developmental Center for Autistic Children, and Support Center for Child Advocates.
In 1989 Margery moved to Maine, where she has had solo exhibits as well as illustrating quite a few books. In Maine, her drawings and woodcuts appeared in Greater Portland Magazine and the Maine Times. For a while she also produced beautiful jewelry made out of found beach objects – like shards of pottery and beach glass.
Margery, or Margie as I have grown up calling her, is a family friend. I have many memories of her and being in her home as a little girl which was across the street from St. Peter’s where I went to grade school. We are still connected today and I treasure her.
As I had already mentioned, she taught me how to do woodblock and linoleum cutting and printing. I still have the scar on my right wrist from when she warned me how to hold my tools when cutting and I did not listen. As a creative medium, I loved wood block and linoleum and I did some of it throughout high school.
To this day, Margery is still one of my favorite artists. If I see her work anywhere (and it’s affordable), I buy it. Her work represents very happy memories to me. (I see it and I smile.) I can still see her prints as well as the work of other artists fluttering on clotheslines held by clothes pins during the craft fairs of my childhood at Head House Square, known also as “the shambles”.
Circa 1974. That is me on the left watching a quilter at the Head House Square Craft Fair.
One time when we were little, Margie used my sister as a model. My sister was sitting on the beach in Avalon playing with my mother’s wide brimmed straw hat and playing in the sand.
And during the holidays, Margie would also create these fabulous Christmas-y wood cuts. I have several of those framed and hanging in my home now as an adult. My mother saved them for me and a few years ago I framed my favorites.
When I stumble across her work now, it is referred to as “mid-century modern” . This inexplicably makes me giggle and I wonder since a lot of what’s out there was created when I was growing up, I guess that make me mid-century modern too?
Art brokers and gallery owners alike probably wouldn’t like me saying art doesn’t have to be rare or priceless to hold value to us. But that is a very simple truth. Art should make us happy, evoke a memory, provoke a memory, cause a new memory to happen. Or when all else fails, you just like something. And no one else has to like it. Only you.
So many people love art yet live with blank walls. Sometimes I think it’s because they do not know what to buy. Or are afraid. To them I say: what do you like? What would make you happy?
Living in Chester County, we have so many amazing artists living here among us. And the art these artists create are at so many price points, so there is literally something for everyone’s budget.
In Chester County we not only have galleries and studio tours, we have the Chester County Art Association. Their gallery in West Chester and their outpost in the Exton Square Mall. (You can find some of my friend and artist Catherine Quillman’s work there, for example.)
Art is everywhere around us.
My friend Sherry Tillman who owns Past*Present*Future in Ardmore, PA started First Friday Main Line years ago to literally put art in unexpected places. The whole thing was about making art accessible to everyone, and to make the process less intimidating.
Sherry is so right. So many are intimidated to go into a traditional gallery setting even if they should not be. But because art is everywhere, you can find art at consignment boutiques, thrift stores, rummage sales, fairs, and so on.
Today I stumbled upon the wood block I opened the post with. It’s one right out of my childhood years and the location is also right out of my childhood years. It’s value is I like it. It made me smile as soon as I clapped eyes on it.
I am literally really lucky that I have quite a few friends who are artists. I feel connected to their work in part because I know them.
Yet on the flip side, there is art I feel connected to just for the subject matter. I don’t know the artists at all.
So here we are in the season of giving so why not something homemade? Like art? Buy a piece of art even if it’s just a little print for yourself. And if you need something framed I will gladly direct you to Framer’s Market Gallery in Malvern. (They also represent quite a few local artists, so make sure to check it all out!)
Thanks for stopping by.
My perfect Thanksgiving card from my friend and artist Catherine Quillman
We have this sort of unofficial supper club with some of our Chester County residing Shipley friends. Last night, we were treated to dinner at the home of one of these friends. We all went to France via Chester County because another guest at the table was renown local chef, (an actual honest to goodness amazing French Chef) Sylvie Ashby.
Chef Sylvie
Chef Sylvie lives in West Chester. She was born and raised in Normandy, France. She always wanted to share the love and passion for French cooking and comfort food the French traditional way by only using seasonal fresh produce and meats from the local markets.
Last evening’s dinner was one of my favorite meals ever. I grew up on bœuf bourguignon or beef Burgundy or bœuf à la Bourguignonne is not some ordinary stew, as delicious as they may beef. It is elevated far beyond that and if done properly like last night, the meat does not disintegrate but melts in your mouth. Last night, it was probably hands down the best I have ever had.
We started with hors d’oevres of belgian endive boats piped with a light and fluffy goat cheese, goat cheese toasts, and one of my favorite purely French treats I have never made, gougères!
Gougères are these fluffy puffs of warm pastry made with Gruyère cheese. (Check out this recipe for gougères from Alain Ducasse.)
After our main course of bœuf bourguignon we had a marvelous salad with fresh greens and a delightful vinaigrette with an amazing blood orange infused olive oil from a Taste of Olive in West Chester. And the bread? Amazing as always from La Baguette Magique in West Chester.
The beef and cheese were also locally sourced. I forget whose goat cheeses we had, and
Chef Sylvie Courtesy Photo
I do not know the farm name for the beef but for some reason I think it was from down near Landenberg.
And dessert? Channel your inner Julia Child, it was Floating Island! Floating Island is a light as a feather dessert consisting of meringue floating on crème anglaise. The crème anglaise is custardy and delicious. Chef Sylvie finished the dessert with a light caramel drizzle.
This dinner was a true mini vacation to France. I love when we get together to have dinner with our friends, and we loved being introduced to Chef Sylvie.
And guess what? You too can hire Chef Sylvie to bring the taste of France to your home for intimate gatherings. Chef Sylvie specializes in French country cooking, bringing France to the comfort of your own home for private dinner parties. And her prices are emminently reasonable. She also will cater events like birthday parties, Girls ‘night out, Crepes bar party, Book Clubs, Wine Clubs…her website is cuisinedesylvie.com . You can also find her on Facebook Cuisine de Sylvie.
One thing I did not ask her is if she teaches cooking classes. I think that would be super fun!
Stay safe in the snow and ice!
The farmhouse owned by Clews and Strawbridge in Malvern, East Whiteland Chester County. They must be immune to how sad this once marvelous Chester County Farmhouse looks, huh?
How about an adaptive reuse?
Or some day will it just cease to exist?
What is that old adage? Waste not,want not?
I have a kitchen tips for the holidays that I am going to share with you. And it’s very simple.
Everyone knows homemade stuffing tastes better. And the problem with using a pre-packaged stuffing mix is it’s loaded with sodium and preservatives.
So what I like to do is create a “staffing bag.”
Everyone always has bread that goes stale. Don’t waste it. Cut it up into little cubes put it in a Ziploc bag and put it in your freezer until you’re ready to make your stuffing.
When you are ready to make your stuffing pull the cubes out of the freezer and put them out on a sheet pan lined with parchment and let them thaw. Then pop them in to the oven (heated at 350°) for a few minutes to dry them out a little more. And by a few I literally me like five or six and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn if your oven runs hot.
This is an easy kitchen hack and it beats bread either getting so stale and going to waste OR turning moldy and going to waste.
