Man and the Environment exhibition

I was surprised and thrilled to receive news this morning that two of the three pieces I submitted for the Man and the Environment exhibition at The Forum in Norwich have been selected!  To further my excitement one of my pieces can be seen on the home page of The Forum (see above) although you may need to refresh a few times to see it!  ;o) 

The two accepted pieces are Every Possible Mistake, the assemblage piece that was shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2008:

And, Tragedy, one of the pieces from my Washed Up collection where all the work was created from materials I found on beaches on the East coast of Scotland during a holiday there in the summer of 2008:

Sold!

I'm very pleased to report that I sold three pieces of jewellery - two pendants and  a brooch (see above) - at an art fair I put some work into last weekend.  Sales have been a bit slow of late so it was great news to hear on a wet dismal day today.  ;o)   

New Assemblage

Two new assemblage pieces, pretty incomprehensible to the rest of the world but I love them!  ;o)

My Life in Compartments 1

My Life in Compartments 2

FenVAC Art Day

Yesterday FenVAC held an art day at Meeks Cemetery in Chatteris.  Meeks was left to it's own devices for many years but is now managed and is a lovely haven of peacefulness with an abundance of wildlife and some great tombstones.  It was a lovely bright crisp morning yesterday and it was a very pleasant few hours of respite from normal life.  I took a few photos and did a little bit of scribbling with a Sharpie:

New Pendants

I thought I would share a couple of pendants that I made last week.  These are going to be exhibited, along with 9 more pieces, at the Cavell Centre, the new mental health unit at the Edith Cavell Hospital in Peterborough.  I have some prints (of some of my canvas assemblage work) hanging there and I've been asked if I'd like to exhibit some jewellery and small assemblage pieces in their newly acquired glass display cases in the spacious reception area. 

Cemetery Work

The joint exhibition I had planned for next month has been cancelled.  Topically, for November, it would have been on the theme of remembrance and I was vaguely planning pieces around Wilfred Owen poetry which I studied at college many moons ago. 

I have perceived much beauty
In the hoarse oaths that kept our courage straight;
Heard music in the silentness of duty;
Found peace where shell-storms spouted reddest spate.

from Apologia pro Poemate Meo Nov 1917

The college I went to was next door to a theatre where they had a special two tickets for the price of one offer every week if you were a member of a particular scheme and my mum and I used to go every week.  It was a fanatstic introduction to all manner of theatre experiences, I saw drama (Chekhov, Moliere  and Shakespeare as well as murder mystery and comedy),  ballet, opera, G & S, musicals, jazz bands, you name it we saw it!  In the tiny studio theatre above the main auditorium we saw a fantastic one man show based on the life of Wilfred Owen incorporating his poetry.  The end of the show was with just a spotlight on the chap's face, everything else in darkness, as he spoke some lines of Owen's poetry and the spot faded to darkness as some Chopin played.  It was moving stuff.  If you'd like to know more about Owen and his poetry The Wilfred Owen Association is a good place to go.  However,  I'm digressing....

The remembrance theme led me to thinking about my ongoing on and off exploration of cemeteries with a view to producing a body of work from it.  That, in turn, led me to looking at some of my photos and work from cemeteries I've visited and I thought I'd share a few on here.  ;o) 

A couple of sketchbook pages:

And some gravestone rubbings:

And, courtesy of my daughter, a few photos from a local cemetery:

Busy busy busy

Thought I'd best pop up with an update since I've not blogged for ages!  I've been beavering away work wise, spending loads of time in the studio.  It's great to be so work focused and engrossed with what I'm doing, I love it when my art is all encompassing and my passion for what I do reignites.  ;o)  I have some excellent opportunities coming up shortly and I'm working on new jewellery pieces (expanding my range so that I cover a wider range of prices), some small assemblage pieces, badges and a new zine.  This week I have the opportunity to have about a dozen pieces of jewellery at an art fair in a nicely affluent place so hoping so money will be changing hands!!  ;o)  I've also returned to exploring some personal themes in my art journaling as I prepare for a new workshop opportunity later this year or early next.  I co-teaching some children's art workshops during the upcoming half term week and am working on examples for those, how much fun is junk modelling?  LOL  On top of all that I'm also writing my next article on recycled arts/crafts for Smallholder magazine.  ;o)  Phew!  Pics will be forthcoming of work but don't have time this morning to take any so instead I thought I'd share a bit of life class work with you.... 

It's the same pencil and pastel drawing (original is first picture) and I indulged in a bit of digital tinkering.  ;o)  I don't play like this much but it was fun to fiddle about and see what happened.  I'm thinking I might try my hand at using black paper at class sometime, I love that blue on black look.

Ok, back to the grindstone...

Metal Stamps

Just a quickie!  At the local car boot sale on Sunday I found this little tub of assorted metal stamps looking very sad, manky and rusty but after a bit of a spruce up with a wire brush they're all great bar one.  ;o)  Particularly like the arrow shaped one, looking forward to whacking that into a piece of metal or three!

Cycling in the sunshine

It was a beautiful morning today so I pedalled off on my bike to enjoy the autumnal sun and fill my creative well. ;o) Come with me....

Petit Four Pendants

I've been having a play with Petit Four tins in the studio after I picked up three dozen at a car boot sale recently. I love their shape and thought they would be good for some simple metal pendants. I started off bending some in various ways using my trusty vice. This is a pendant made from two of them plus a copper sheet bead and copper wire:


I then settled down to getting some aggression out by beating the living daylights out of some of them! I attached them to a choker wire, no other additions:


More exploration is in the pipeline!

FenVAC Open Studios

Tomorrow sees the start of the Fenland Visual Arts Collective Open Studios event. I am sharing Rob's studio in Chatteris and exhibiting a variety of my artwork; assemblage, mixed media canvases and jewellery. Rob is exhibiting a wide range of his excellent framed prints and there are two more studios in Chatteris to enjoy as well. Everyone is more than welcome to come along!

The big studio re-jig is finally complete! And I have photos to prove it! LOL It's been several weeks in the doing, much longer than I had planned due to a variety of circumstances - none of which, you'll be pleased to hear, I'm going bore you with! I have a really great opportunity coming up that I need to make the most of and it's been stressing me out not being able to work towards it with the studio in such a state of flux so it's a great relief to have it done. I've rediscovered plenty of artistic enthusiasm amongst the physical detritus I've been sorting through and I'm ready to go, go, go! ;o) So, down to business....the before and after shots...

Before...

and after...

This is my new little office area, something I haven't had in my studio until now but it's definitely been needed!

Before...

and after...

The base cupboard here was badly underused where it was previously, pretty inaccessible due to mountains of crap in front of it and since I rarely ever wanted anything out of it most of it's contents has dispensed with. It now houses my metal stores.

Before...

and after...

The larder cupboard has shifted over a bit and is more accessible than it was. This is my tools and materials (like paint, pencils, mediums etc) cupboard.

Before...

and after...

and an extra pic of the desk itself...

My desk area was constantly overstuffed with everything imaginable! I've settled for just having some essentials in the box tray and nothing else on there so that I have some decent working space. I was tending to work in about six square inches previously! ;oD

Before...

and after...

and an extra shot looking straight on

This larder cupboard replaced the green cupboard and is crammed with all manner of work materials. The filing cabinets and map chest work much better in this alcove. The little trolley moves about and acts as an extra work surface when I need it.

Before...

and after...

Not much change here, just tidier and less clutter hanging on the back of the door!

And just an extra shot, from a different angle, of my little office area.


That concludes your guided tour for today! Now tell me how amazed you all are! LOL