Second Turning Textiles: Painting the Town Red
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2023 - Sat, 30 Sep 2023
'Painting the town red' is in our vocabulary as a way of expressing having a good time. I'm not sure if everyone is familiar where the saying comes from? If you are a local and have been to the museum before then you may already know.
One of a handful of theories is that in 1837 the Marquis of Waterford with his friends went on a drunken spree through Melton Mowbray with pots of red paint. One of the buildings painted was the White Swan. When the town watchman tried to stop them, he was painted too. They were each fined £100.
We are a group of highly skilled creatives that work in textiles and mixed media. We like to have a challenge for our work and when the opportunity of exhibiting in the community showcase in Melton Museum, the title 'Painting the Town Red' was an obvious choice.
We all have individual ways of working and this has culminated in a diverse body work. Red decorated boxes, ladies embroidered evening gloves for that special night out.
One of us has used it to influence what their peg dolls are up too, with a palette of recycled red over dyed fabric and yarns.
There is an interpretation of red brick buildings in a concertina sketch book, and a sumptuous red collaged and machine embroidered book cover and images of Melton buildings painted and embroidered red.
We have also 'roller painted' a group project where the challenge was to sample in red from a paint roller. We very much hope you enjoy our exhibition!
