'Utrecht, Caravaggio and Europe' presents 70 masterpieces at the Centraal Museum

At the start of the Dutch Golden Age, Rome was the centre of the world. Young painters from across Europe made their way to the Eternal City, where – so the rumour went – the painter Caravaggio had caused a revolution. A new realism in the art of painting, unparalleled drama, grand gestures and mysteries of light: everyone wanted to see it for themselves. Among them were the Utrecht painters Dirck van Baburen, Hendrick ter Brugghen and Gerard van Honthorst. During the heyday of European Caravaggism, between 1600-1630, some 2700 artists were listed in Rome, of which 572 were foreigners. They all visited the same churches and viewed the same collections. They conversed with each other, and of course they painted! And they painted the same themes, used the same sources of inspiration, but the works they produced were nonetheless very different. Utrecht, Caravaggio and Europe examines precisely these differences between the European followers of Caravaggio. By presenting the work

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Discover the elegance of Folk Art

Anne Kelly is a Kent based artist, author and tutor. She trained in Canada and at Goldsmiths College in London. She creates multilayered textile collages using vintage and reclaimed fabrics combined with machine and hand-stitching. She was an artist in residence at the Sussex Prairie Garden in West Sussex in 2014 and FIAF Abruzzo in 2018, an invited artist at the Prague Patchwork Meeting, World of Threads Festival in Canada for the past three events, Quilt en Beaujolais and Les Aiguilles en Luberon. She was a featured artist gallery at the Knitting and Stitching Shows in London Olympia and Alexandra Palace, Harrogate and Dublin.

Anne writes for ‘Workshop on the Web’, textileartist.org blog, and has had articles published in ‘Embroidery’, ‘Stitch’, ‘the Quilter’, ‘Pretty Patches’ and many other journals in the UK, Europe and the USA, including ‘Cloth, Paper, Scissors’ and ‘Fiber Art Now’.

Her books for Batsford press have been reprinted, the co-written ‘Connected Cloth’ and solo ‘Textile Nature’. ‘Textile Folk Art‘ was published in August 2018. Anne teaches and tutors throughout the UK and abroad for guilds and groups and private workshops. Her work was included on the GCSE Textile paper in 2016.

Anne believes in repurposing vintage and discarded textiles and uses techniques to collage and enhance these pieces of work in her practice and teaching. She produces commissions for private and public display. She is on the Crafts Council directory and member of the Society for Embroidered Work (S.E.W.) an international textile group.

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Mary Carson: How hand stitch can heal

2015 was very tough for Mary Carson. Early in the year, her beloved brother died from brain cancer and in December her mother passed away after suffering from Parkinson’s and dementia. Mary’s world was turned upside down and she struggled to escape her sad thoughts. That’s when she found sanctuary in stitching.

Mary had always been, in her own words, ‘a maker of sorts’ but hadn’t stitched in any dedicated fashion for nearly 40 years.

As a child, growing up in Milwaukee, Mary inherited a love of fabric from her seamstress grandmother. Then as a young woman in the 60s and 70s, Mary started sewing out of necessity; she is tall and at the time stores didn’t stock garments to fit her frame. But she started to resent having to make her own clothes and as soon as designs became available in her size, she walked away from sewing.

After a four-decade break, hand-stitching helped Mary find a sense of peace; the challenge of turning fabric and thread into visual stories provided a welcome distraction from her grief.

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Egyptian archaeologists unearth tomb of ancient high priest

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a priest dating back more than 4,400 years in the pyramid complex of Saqqara south of the capital Cairo, authorities said Saturday. “Today we are announcing the last discovery of the year 2018, it’s a new discovery, it’s a private tomb,” Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany told an audience of invited guests including reporters. “It is exceptionally well preserved, coloured, with sculpture inside. It belongs to a high official priest… (and) is more than 4,400 years old,” he said. The tomb belongs to “Wahtye”, a high priest who served during the fifth dynasty reign of King Neferirkare, the antiquities ministry said. His tomb is decorated with scenes showing the royal priest alongside his mother, wife and other members of his family, the ministry said in a statement.

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Museum devoted to magic of cinema to open in Los Angeles

Nearly a century after the idea was first floated, a museum dedicated to the magic of cinema is finally set to open in Los Angeles, with the first temporary exhibition devoted to Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, slated to open by the end of 2019, will be devoted to the past, present and future of film, offering visitors a look behind the screen and into how movies are made. “Los Angeles was at one time and still is to some degree one of the major capitals for the production of film… so it seems the natural place to have a major museum to ensure that the legacy of film lives on,” said Kerry Brougher, director of the museum, which is the brainchild of the Academy of Picture Arts and Sciences, the institution behind the Oscars. Dorothy’s famed ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” a copy of a script annotated by Gregory Peck for the 1962 drama “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the doors to Rick’s Cafe Americain from “Casablanca” or the typewriter used by

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