Dovecot Studios

Today was a very pleasant day spent with a couple of close friends. We spent the morning helping one of our friends get his head round the intricacies of Photoshop Elements. He had come back from a week up on the Assynt Peninsula a bit disappointed in the photographs he had taken, feeling that they did not do justice to the landscape, in particular he felt they lacked depth. We all know that feeling, particularly when the lighting is a bit flat, so we were showing him how he could breath life into his images in various ways.

As my other friend had recently had his 70th birthday we went out for a long celebratory lunch at Mother India's which was much enjoyed by all.

We finished off by a quick visit to the Dovecot Studios which are just down the road from Mother India's. There was an exhibition by Julie Brook called 'made, unmade' which was a film record of of simple structures created by her in the Namibian landscape and how they were affected and in some cases obliterated by the wind and constant movement of the sand. It was of particular interest to me as I have visited Namibia previously and was very taken by the patterns created in the dunes by the wind. The main difference was that I was utterly captivated by the sinuous curves of the sand dunes whereas Julie Brook had created simple lines or walls to some extent echoing the strata of the desert landscape, seeing how these were affected by the natural forces of wind and weather.

My blip also comes from Dovecot Studios. They have a permanent weaving workshop there and have created this loose weave hanging that spirals down their staircase.

One sour note to the days events was provided by my car which was in for a major service. The morning was punctuated by three calls from the garage advising me of further work that needed to be done (and the costs, of course) and then they told me that they were unable to complete my MOT because of a breakdown in their equipment and so I have ended up with a courtesy car !