The formidable world of Justine Holt

One Sunday morning just before noon on the first day of summer, Alabamawhirly, Melarno, the formidable twins an I found ourselves eating strawberries and amaretti biscuits in the garden of the artist Justine Holt. Justine lives in a beautiful cottage in Pangbourne where she makes delicate beautiful paintings on blank gesso and exquisite pieces of sewing, stitching and embroidery. She shared a view into her world with warmth and generosity, into her studio which is filled with light, art work, books, fabrics, and pieces of crockery all arranged like a memory trail on a canvas painted in Farrow & Ball. The studio and cottage are surrounded by a magical garden where old tools have found a resting nest and an empty bottle of what used to be a Neal's Yard concoction is now used as a lighthouse for the fairies who gather to drink tea from the lettuce leaves, wearing knitted knee-high socks and ribbons that they've just purchased at Liberty's while they were looking for summer hats. And for those of us who are not fairies and were not amazingly lucky to view her work in person, Justine's art is available on
http://www.justineholt.co.uk/