The Artful Zebra

I'm going to DIE!

2011-11-25T23:09:00.001Z

Don't panic, folks, it's a mnemonic! Lol DIE = Do It Everyday! :o) I'm guessing you might have a passing interest in what the hell I'm talking about therefore I will define "it" for you so brace yourself for a rush of cheesiness....

"It" is...

making MY art, MY way, without apology
taking no prisoners
letting rip
breaking old habits, making new habits
not believing the doubters
taking risks
changing, growing, learning
embracing life NOW
celebrating the madness

Yeah, yeah, you get the picture... I make no apology. :o)

The Art of Display

2011-11-25T22:32:00.001Z

Very pleased with this...

...my new jewellery display case. ;o) In it's former life it was a cocktail cabinet but now it will be filled with my jewellery. I'm not certain how old the cabinet is, it looks Art Deco ish but I was placing it in the 50s. If anyone knows better please let me know!

I found the cabinet in a local charity shop where it had languished since the summer and been knocked down from it's original price of £80 to £60 and then to £40 when I entered the scene. ;o) It fitted the back of our estate perfectly until we got to the slightly curved legs which made it about half an inch too wide to go right in! We ended up relieving it of two legs for the journey and reuniting them when we got home.

The cabinet stands just over 4' tall and has a lovely striped mirror backed surround on the top.

Inside there are two glass shelves and the back of the cabinet is covered with a self patterned pale fabric.

The glass sliding doors have a mirrored pattern on them, slightly worn in places but all the better for it. :o)
The only modification made to the cabinet is to add a LED battery powered light strip which is just visible below the top of the doors.

The central section is five sexy glass tubes, loving them! :o)

The cabinet will form part of a permanent display at the studio of my artist friend, Richard Savage. Many thanks to him for the opportunity to share my work in this way. :o) The hanging display above the cabinet was a temporary measure for a recent exhibition but it will be replaced with a bigger, hopefully funkier, frame shortly to complete the display area.

I love this find, can't wait to fill it with jewellery! :o) Apologies for the amateur photos but I couldn't wait to share the news!

Dancing and crying

2011-11-04T23:15:00.001Z

I had a great day out in London earlier this week! Six of us went off to the big metropolis and our first port of call was to see the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement. The exhibition has 85 drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs and prints along with work and early film by some of his contemporaries.

I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of Degas but ballet, ballerinas and the world of theatre is a fascinating subject to me. I really enjoyed the earlier rooms with charcoal drawings as well as seeing the famous sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, I was struck by just how large the original is. It's odd how you form a picture in your mind of the size of a piece of artwork and then, on coming face to face with it, it's so not how you expected it to be! I had this experience at the Sir John Everett Millais exhibition at Tate Britain a few years ago when his painting, Mariana, turned out to be teeny in comparision to the version in my head! ;oD My friend, Neil, had the same experience with a piece of my work, The Internal Lexicon. He arrived at my exhibition earlier this year expecting to be able to walk into the piece and in reality it's about 6" x 4"! lol

The teeny weeny Internal Lexicon!

I digress, back to Degas... the Little Dancer Aged Fourteen display also included all the many drawings Degas produced in preparation for the piece, I do so love to see process. :o) I also very much enjoyed the rooms showing early film of human movement and Etienne-Jules Marey's bronze, Flight of a Gull, depicting the stages of bird wings in flight. There were, of course, many Degas paintings to delight in and in one of the last rooms I was seized by the compulsion to draw (always a pleasure to be seized by a compulsion!) and inspired by The Red Ballet Skirts I set to and had a scribble.

My Degas dabble!

I really enjoyed the exhibition and highly recommend it. It's on until 11th December so still time to bag yourself some tickets! ;o)

On our way into the Degas exhibition, a lovely lady caught my eye and I snapped a couple of photos of her...

In the evening we went to see War Horse at the New London Theatre. Over the summer I had listened to the audio book so I knew the plot and although the stage play doesn't mirror the book it was absolutely fantastic. The puppetry of the horses is brilliant, every tiny movement and nuance of equine behaviour is portrayed beautifully and is totally believable even though you can always see the puppeteers. The music is moving and powerful, the stage has an excellent back projection and the use of the auditorium by the cast is great. The cast are solid as a rock, the scene changes are seamless, it's just such an excellent production! Grab the chance to see it if you can BUT take plenty of tissues if you're anything like me, I cried for England! ;oD

Catching up, moving on...

2011-11-04T21:24:00.000Z

I was going to write about the tail end of September and the 30 Days of Getting Your Art On but... well, the moment has passed now! What I will say is that I didn't achieve 30 days but it was a great kick in the derriere for me so it did the job! ;o)

Moving on, I'm looking to revamp my blog (and website) so expect some crazy shenannigans while I tinker about with it all! ;o) If anyone has any comments about what to include (plenty of scope there as there's so little going on sidebar wise!) or changes to make I'm open to all feedback! :o) In the meantime, I will continue (ahem...) to blog and have a few excursions to report back on. ;o)

Blundering about in the dark...

2011-09-12T22:14:00.000Z

Today has been long and disheartening and without studio time. ;o( Well, no time in my own studio that is, although I have been at life class this evening so I am sneaking that in as my 30 Days of Get Your Art On time, ssssssh, no one will notice! ;o)

This evening's model was the lovely Clifford who I always enjoy drawing and who is always interesting to chat with. ;o) We had some great subdued lighting for the class tonight which gave some lovely shadows for tonal work. Mind you, I confess that my position in the class didn't afford me much light to draw by at all and by the time I'd finished drawing the first two poses I practically had my nose on the paper! ;oD So, after some judicious light bulb tinkering I had some light and swiftly whipped my early efforts off the easel and this was my next drawing...

Trust me, it's miles better than it's predecessors! ;o) I was relatively happy with this one, I think I'm improving (albeit at a snail's pace) on the shading front. I remembered the squinting technique to see tonal values this evening and spent alot of time peering out from behind the easel with half closed eyes, goodness only knows what sort of freaky sideshow appearance I have! lol After this pose we moved onto a standing pose to finish and I did a more scribbly tonal drawing...

And, no, he wasn't wearing knee pads! lol Another area to add to my To Improve On list me thinks...

Day 11 in the studio...

2011-09-11T16:40:00.000Z

Had to have an essential early night yesterday so catching up with blogworld for both days this afternoon. ;o)

So, I'll kick off with a little update on the metal tags. I decided to glue them together in pairs so that I can have text on both sides. There's not as many pairs as there might be because I was a bit slow gluing and, having put glue on all of the tags, by the time I got to the last ones the glue had gone off! I may do them again once I've decided what text I'll be using and have more of an idea how any I'll need. Here they are having a little trial run at being confined to a binding ring....

I devoted most of my studio time yesterday and today to getting some more sorting done, I have successfully emptied and sorted the biggest of my cupboards which had lots of bags of miscellaneous rubbish... ahem, I mean valuable art materials, filling it's shelves. Along the way I did actually do a fair degree of art journaling as I kept happening upon things I'd been meaning to use in journals but forgot about as they got shoved to the back of the cupboard so that was nicel serendipitous! ;o)

Today I find several things that I want to work on as I enter the second week of 30 Days of get Your Art On. I found a couple of old linen backed maps gathering dust in a corner and will be prepping them as bases for some collage work.

I've torn the maps (that's upset any cartographers in the vicinity!) into their individual sections of the maps which are roughly 3 ish inches by 6 ish inches with losts of nice dangly threads on the edges!

I'm loving the texture of the piueces and I'm looking forward to splashing some paint around on them tomorrow. ;o)

Another find, this time buried in a box of papers, is this poor lost soul...

It's part of the stubby bit of a book of raffle tickets, I say part because it was chewed by one of our lovely dogs who mistook it for a snack, and some of it was beyond saving and had to be laid to rest in the recycling bin. However the surviving stubbiness is destined to become certainly the narrowest, if not the smallest, book art project I've embarked on. ;o)

It has a glued spine of course so some reinforcement may be required once I get going on it otherwise it may not stand up to the rigours of it's transformation.

Size wise, it's about a quarter of an inch wide by about 5 or 6 inches (can you tell I didn't have the foresight to measure anything before I came to blog and now can't arsed to go back up to the studio and do it?!) so loads of room for textual play! ;oD

Lastly, yes, I know I'm harping on a bit today but I'm nearly there so bear with me a teeny tad longer... lastly, I came across these concertina books from a recent Fenland Arts event.

My fellow Fenland Arts artist in residence, Fred White, and I were at a local Cultural Olympiad event where we were encouraging folk to be creative with a selection of materials we had available. I had taken a stack of beer mats generously donated by my friend, Richard, (well, I say generously donated, what I really mean is fished out of his recycling bin in a strop because he didn't ask me if I wanted them first! lol) and in the few slack moments during the day I used them as bases for making concertina books.

I hadn't made any little books for a while before this event and would like to finish them off as samples for a prospective kid's workshop.

Ok, aaaand relaxxxxx, end of blog post! ;oD

2011-09-09T21:25:00.001Z

Soooo, the metal tags are progressing... yesterday I cut them all out, trimmed them to within an inch of their lives and swore my way through getting the holes perfectly finished.

This afternoon I wielded some colour and painted the little poppets, I wetted the watercolour paper first and then sprinkled over dry Brusho powder in brilliant red, black and turquoise.

In my usual thrifty way the mountboard I used to paint the tags on is destined for another project. ;o)

And, lastly, you can't beat a dirty artist's hand photo! ;o) Or do I mean the dirty hand of an artist? Lol

It's been nine days since the start of 30 Days of Get Your Art On and I've so enjoyed getting back in the studio, getting my head down and doing, yay! ;o) I do, however, feel that this week has just been about easing myself back into the regularity of daily doings so all I can say is roll on the next 21 days! ;o)

Pleasant pottering

2011-09-08T01:03:00.000Z

I seem to be blogging in retrospect every day! ;o) This afternoon (ah, that would be yesterday afternoon now, of course!) I spent a couple of hours engaged in some studio pottering. I have a habit of gathering things destined for the studio from other parts of the house into bags which then line up in the studio awaiting dispersal. ;oD So, this afternoon I was dispersing some bag's contents. Pottering is a pleasant occupation, especially so if you need to be in the studio but don't know what you want to be doing. I find some light pottering always prompts some creative action and gently carries you off on serendipitous adventures. ;o) And so it was this afternoon...

I wish I had been blessed with the foresight to photograph the bunch of metal tags I found before I started to play with them but unfortunately it passed me by! I do have photos of the process so far though. ;o) The tags came from my husband's old job; he used to do chemical etching and often brought home scrap metal shapes. The tags are a sort of elongated pear shape, stainless steel with a hole at the narrower end, about 2 inches long, and it struck me that they'd make a good book so I have set about the process of transforming them.

There are 26 tags in total and I've started off by gluing them all to watercolour paper with gel medium and then I weighted them down and left them to dry.

They'll need a bit of tidying up on the metal side as some of them got a bit gluey during the process.

This evening, once they were dried, I started cutting them out, 1 down 25 to go! ;o) The edges need some sanding just to round the corners nicely and then I plan to colour them all and add text.

I slapped some emerald green Brusho on this first one as an experiment and have left it to dry overnight. I'm thinking of using some poetry I've written as the text on them, possibly using dry letter transfers but I haven't really decided yet. In fact, I may not even use text, ah the excitement of what might be! ;o)

As an aside, some of you who knew me way back when will remember that it was my discovery of altered books which started me on my artistic path. ;o) I have a passion for books, reading and book arts. I have been asked many times over the years how I could "destroy" a book by altering it and also told that books aren't books unless they're two covers with text on paper between them! Yeah right! (insert raised eyebrows and a pout to accompany that!) I have a sudden urge to return to my altered book roots. ;o) I have had the privilege over the years to work with some fantastically talented artists in collaborative and round robin altered book projects. I have held in my hands altered books that are true works of art, books that were dying a slow death on a charity shop book shelf liberated and resuscitated with passion, patience and such imagination. I have seen artists go from being unable to make even the smallest mark in a book to producing amazing, freeing, beautifully expressive altered book artwork. If that's "destroying" a book then by all means call me destructive! ;oD Here endeth today's sermon! lol Oh, except to say, check out this link, book arts at it's best! ;o)

And just to finish, while I was pottering about the studio I rediscovered something I'd forgotten all about. Back in May I was in a local shop buying some cotton sheeting and, as the shop assistant unrolled the bolt of fabric to measure it, I was interested to see a length of printed paper tape attached to the fabric.

The assistant told me it's called truth tape and it's purpose is to help with stock taking. I asked if I could have some (they just throw it away) for artistic purposes and she rummaged in the bin and gave me a huge handful. ;o)

Who's nicked my passion?

2011-09-07T00:09:00.000Z

Passion
Mixed media canvas 2009

A conversation with a good friend this morning made me think about my artistic passion. It may not be obvious to alot of people, and that makes me really sad, but I am passionate about what I do, passionate about being an artist, passionate about giving others the opportunity to get creative, passionate about working in the creative sector, passionate about the arts and artists. Over the last couple of years I think my passion has become much less obvious, not lessened I hasten to add but more hidden from others. The reasons for this are probably inappropriate to share here (and a little yawn making if I'm honest!) so I won't trot them out but suffice to say I want to do something about this situation. Life is tough enough in the creative world as it is but if my passion for my work is obscured I'm unlikely to make sales, get commissions, generate interest, entice folk to workshops or anything and that is pants to put it bluntly! I need to make my passion visible, I need to put it out into the world, be loud and proud! ;o) Watch this space!!

More art journaling today, paint is drying so no pics yet but I was in there hard at it, seven days in a row, woohoo! ;o)

Doubt, doing and life drawing

2011-09-05T23:01:00.000Z

It's a funny thing... I love art journaling, I truly believe it's a creative force for self expression, emotional release, flights of imagination, capturing the minutiae of everyday life, exploring, playing and so much more, and yet...well, to be frank, at the moment I don't seem able to do it! Apart from a few moments of artistic looseness over the last few days, it all feels a bit contrived, a bit like I'm trying too hard, a bit like I have nothing to say even though I feel fit to burst. Yesterday I was inspired by the journaling books on my shelves, today I feel constrained by them. Self doubt is a regular experience for me, far too regular for my liking. I know the only way to overcome it is by doing. The last few days have opened me up, shifted something inside me, got my creative juices flowing again, and for it to be followed by self doubt is, I think, almost a natural progression for me, my muse is saying, "come on, let's fly downhill with the wind in our hair, be wild and spontaneous and create just for the hell of it" while my ever present inner critic is saying, "just a minute, I don't think we should rush into anything, whatever you create won't be up to much, let's stay home and brick up the front door just in case." I think I might just send inner critic to her room and wreak havoc with my muse! ;oD The moral of the story is you've just got to keep doing! Good plan.

Life class this evening and I thought I'd share one of my pencil efforts:

Obviously there's a facial problem and the left knee and right hand are a tad odd but overall I'm quite happy with the proportions and shading. :o) Progress is pretty slow for me on the life drawing front, chiefly because I rarely make time to do any figure drawing between classes and also because I stand in my own way all the time... "I can't do faces/hands/feet." is a regular cry of mine, often accompanied by huffing and puffing and woe is me faces! But I just have to keep doing. ;o)

Shouldering the work

2011-09-04T21:10:00.000Z

Due in part to the fact that I've hurt my shoulder and sitting at my desk is a tad painful, studio time today amounted mostly to browsing my book collection, revisiting old favourites, dipping into inspiring books, snaffling an idea here, an idea there. ;o) I'm never averse to spending time with books, I love spending time in book shops (new and secondhand) and libraries or ferreting about in the book sections in charity shops or in the boxes of unloved tomes under the tables at car boots. ;o) The bookshelves in my studio house mostly technique and inspiring books. My collection of books about journals and sketchbooks is growing and this evening's choice was Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art by Jennifer New which I can highly recommend. I'm currently obsessed with art journals/sketchbooks/visual diaries, whichever handle you prefer, I'm obsessed with them! I love seeing what others use their journals for, how they work in them, what form they take, where they carry them, how often they use them. I have several ideas for potential journal based projects that I'd like to set in motion in my capacity as artist in residence for Fenland Arts and I think I will use some of my new found studio time to expand my ideas into more cohesive plans. ;o) So, full of painkillers and pooped from lack of sleep a gentle, but nevertheless very enjoyable, evening in my studio. ;o) And, before I hit the sack, a quick pic of a page in the overdue 121 art journal I've been working in:

I have a necklace sitting on my desk, a blue
bling affair, that I have undefined plans for so
I drew it while waiting for my muse. ;o)

Easing in...

2011-09-03T22:49:00.000Z

Day 3 of the 30 Days of Get Your Art On and I feel like my whole being is exhaling and going ahhhhhhhhhh... ;o) I think my hiatus may be over, I cannot articulate it sufficiently but something is definitely shifting inside me and it's not indigestion! lol

So, as promised, some pics of the brooch experiment from yesterday...

Brooch of stretched video tape and red wire

Side view

Close up

Bit of digital manipulation!

And part of an art journal page from this evening...

Scottish journal

2011-09-02T22:40:00.001Z

I was working away from home most of today so didn't make it to the studio until after dinner this evening but then had a very pleasant time finishing some more pages in my overdue 121 art journal and then just spent some time playing about with some stretched video tape creating a sort of freeform brooch which could be mistaken for an unruly bow tie! ;oD Pics of that tomorrow!

While I was in the studio I came across my holiday journal from earlier this summer and remembering that I haven't blogged about it and desperate not to post twice in a row sans pictures, here are some edited highlights.... ;o)

On the journey up to our holiday cottage in north east
Scotland we stopped off at Killiecrankie.
Soldier's Leap is where reputedly, Donald MacBean,
jumped the18ft across the gorge in one leap
fleeing from the Jacobites in 1689.

I always keep a bird list in holiday journals, this year we
saw 60 different species during our fortnight stay.

A bit of Sunday afternoon fun!

Pen & watercolour pine cones

Quick pen sketch of my daughter applying
herself to a crossword.

A page of experiments in different media.

One of the rugs in the cottage got me thinking about tesselation.

Colour experiments with magazine scraps and Neocolors

One of several Haiku poems I wrote.

30 Days of Get Your Art On

2011-09-02T00:12:00.000Z

The eagle eyed among you will see that I have sprouted a new widget on my sidebar...eyes right...there it is! ;oD I've decided to do something about my recent lack of productivity so I'm joining Traci Bunkers, and a host of other folk, on a 30 day odyssey in my studio being creative everyday. ;o) Since my solo exhibition in May I've been remarkably unproductive in the studio, I've come to realise over the last couple of years that after finishing a piece of work or a particular project I need a bit of time and space to mooch about before getting back down to business. The exhibition, my first solo, was a major deal for me and it took alot out of me in a variety of ways but I never thought it would take this loooooooong for me to get back to some serious studio time. I've also been busy over the summer with projects in my capacity as artist in residence for the Fenland Arts Association but putting all that aside, it's time to get creatively jiggy again and have some fun studio time! My self imposed guidelines for the next 30 days (technically 29 since it's now the second day as I type this!) are:

to spend a minimum of 30 minutes everyday being creative in my studio (this includes making art (doh!), writing, playing with materials, brainstorming ideas, reading, researching, drawing, art journaling, staring out of the window, drinking coffee... no, maybe strike those last two off... ;oD but you get the picture!)
to not get hung up on finished pieces, there doesn't have to be an end result everyday!
having said that...I would like to complete 30 new pieces of jewellery over the 30 days! Hmm, that may be a tall order but I like a challenge and, what the heck, I'm aiming high! ;oD
to blog about said studio activities on a daily basis.

I was going to blog seperately for today (well, as we've established it's now tomorrow so I'm talking about yesterday! lol) but since I'm here anyway... this afternoon I spent some time working on a 121 art journaling project which is somewhat overdue. My art journaling exploits have been pretty thin on the ground and, at best, sporadic so it felt really good to ease back into some journal ju-ju! ;o) So, a low key start and no pics as my camera is being temperamental but I'm off and running so watch this space... ;o)

A place for everything and everything in it's place...

2011-08-31T15:24:00.000Z

... well, not really but I'm talking storage here! For the last few months my lack of storage space has really been hampering me but plans were afoot and they've been completed now to the effect that I am now the proud owner of an outdoor storage area converted from what our ex neightbour referred to as "the fruit hovel." The walls have been lined with hardboard and a variety of holes from previous little visitors have been blocked up, a lick of white paint, some lighting and an assortment of furniture and Bob's your uncle! ;o)

View from outside

This cupboard was in the fruit hovel originally.
All the black bags house my dismantled plinths from Beyond Convention.

You can't beat a groovy old sideboard!

Stuff is beginning to arrive in it's new home!

Adding this one for no reason other than I like the shape of the light on the floor!

All the above photos were from last week, yesterday I spent all day sorting and shifting stuff from the studio and spare room (aka overflow dumping ground! lol) to it's new home and it now looks like this...

Looking in from the door

Found this racking to add to the top of the sideboard

The big box houses my huge hanging video piece, nicknamed The Vortex ;oD

Space rapidly filling up!

The majority of what I wanted to move is there now, just need to spend some time sorting, organising and a drawing up a loose plan of what's where to aid my memory when I'm hunting for that certain something, darkly muttering "I know it's here somewhere..."

Walnut Tree Studio

2011-08-29T21:12:00.002Z

Is there any greater compliment for an artist than to inspire someone else? I recently had this experience and it's a lovely story that I'd like to share here. ;o)

At my exhibition, Beyond Convention, back in May I exhibited an installation piece called The Journaler's Retreat. For those who didn't see it in the flesh, it's a shed turned into a little haven for art journaling.

The Journaler's Retreat
Photo courtesy of Rob Morris

Inside, the shed has a workspace to sit at and is furnished with materials and equipment to be wildy artistic with! There is also a shelf of inspiring books and journals, fairy lights, a radio...everything you need to shut yourself away for some quality creative time! ;o)

The Journaler's Retreat, interior
Photo courtesy of Rob Morris

At the launch event for the exhibition the piece was really popular and particularly so for Neil & Rachel Blue and their children, Rane and Eran. Rane and Eran were so inspired that the family went home and decided to convert their garden shed into a creative zone! ;o) Neil and I are members of the same life drawing group at Savage Studios in Chatteris so over the last few months I've been hearing about the progress of their garden shed and then recently they asked if I would come and officially open the shed, by now renamed as the Walnut Tree Studio. ;o) So, a couple of weeks ago I went along on a Monday evening and performed in my debut opening ceremony! ;o)

It wasn't the sunniest of evenings so the pictures are a little dim but hopefully you can see how much fun it was!

All ready for the off!

Out in the rain fuelled by excellent pre ceremony tea, scones and biscuits!

Neil making his, obviously amusing, opening speech!

Wielding the scissors as I make my little speech.

Off we go!

Rane (back) and Eran in Walnut Tree Studio

A view of some of the decorations in the studio.

Neil and Rachel on the threshold.

Rane and Eran's fab welcome posters.

My thanks to Neil, Rachel, Rane and Eran for a delightful evening, I was so flattered to be asked to go along and perform the official duties and the studio itself has a lovely atmosphere, I'm sure it will get alot of use and I'm now eagerly awaiting the first exhibition at the studio which will hopefully be at the end of November (won't it, family Blue?). ;o) It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that a piece of my work has been so inspirational. ;o)

Venet à Versailles

2011-06-09T17:59:00.001Z

On my recent jaunt to la belle France on a twinning visit we stopped off at Versailles on the long trip down to the Loire Valley where our twin town is. Starting that very week was a new sculpture exhibition by French artist, Bernar Venet.

Outside the palace was a HUGE piece of work, very akin (to me anyway!) to a whale's rib cage.

These massive steel structures, 22m high, frame the statue of Louis XIV and offer a completely new perspective on the palace itself.

Visitors can walk among the arcs, get really really close to them and experience their grandeur.

Sadly we didn't have enough time to see the full exhibition in the gardens but from what I've seen online since I came home, it is most certainly worth a visit if you're in the Versailles neck of the woods over the summer.

Collage

2011-06-08T08:14:00.000Z

Have you been a good girl, Jane?

Collage: corrugated cardboard with dried paint, papers, stickers, crayon

The Family Bible

2011-06-03T21:59:00.000Z

Many moons ago you may remember me posting about being commissioned to alter a family bible. You can see the original post here. The bible is with it's new owner now so I can share a few pics of it. ;o)

It would be fair to say that this commission has been something of a challenge! The sheer size and weight of this beast of a book made it difficult to work with at times and it didn't behave how I expected it to alot of the time. The ideas I had for the piece originally evolved as I worked and the finished piece is quite a way from how I envisaged but that's the nature of my work and an aspect I love about it! ;o) The basic premise of the bible is that of life's journey.

Here we go with some pics....

The first spread...

The second spread...

The third spread...

The last spread...

And the drawers...

Throughout the piece I used Brusho Crystal Colour watercolour ink powders to colour the pages and also incorporated crayon, pencil and gesso. The twice repeated T S Eliot quote, "In my beginning is my end", and all the words on the spreads are inkjet acetate transfers (using Ecover All Purpose Cleaner). The little tin drawers represent mind, body and spirit. The leaves in niches on the last spread and the lock of hair in the tin representing body were both found between the pages of the bible and it seemed appropriate that they were incorporated back into the piece, connecting old and new and completing the journey.

Beyond Convention

2011-05-01T15:53:00.000Z

Summer Exhibition

2011-03-12T21:07:00.002Z

My entry form for the 2011 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition is winging it's way to the metropolis as I type so I thought I'd share the two pieces of work I've submitted this year.

Possessed by My Own Shadow

First up is a piece of work I made earlier this year for a local exhibition organised by the Fenland Visual Arts Collective and the Fenland Arts Association.
I'm a journaler, well, nowadays I'm more of an art journaler, but I've kept journals in various guises for most of my adult life. I kept written journals for years and never throw them out. I've burnt them, altered them, added to them and worked over them but never got rid of them. I rarely look at them, my purpose in writing was, and still is, to release feelings, to get stuff out of my head to free up space, to purge, to rant, to ramble. Recently while pottering about the studio waiting for inspiration to swoop in and slap me into action I came across a stack of old journals in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet. I flicked through a few of them, they were from a time when I was in an intense, stressful situation that was very much out of my control. It was a difficult and distressing time for me and the words are very uncomfortable to read even now. Shadows from that time still fall across me periodically, the experience shaped a part of who I am now.

An on the spot decision to use my old journals in a piece of work found me tearing pages from the A5 books in a manner bordering on frenzied! ;oD It was oddly satisfying to deconstruct and repurpose my journals into this piece of work. I wanted them to be tighly held in a vessel, open but inaccessible, visible but indiscernible words. The box is vintage, it was used by my former neighbour to house things he used for fretwork. I love knowing it's provenance, knowing the lovely gentlemen it belonged to and, in my mind's eye, I can see him at work with it sat beside his tools and materials on the workbench.

The cord tied around the box is stretched video tape. My work over the last year has featured alot of video tape and I continue to be excited and surprised by my experiments with it. I have been exploring the properties of stretched video tape and have another piece under construction at the moment using it.

I've exhibited the piece a couple of times since I made it and it has elicited some varied responses ranging from outright puzzlement to complete connection. Job done. ;o)

The Internal Lexicon

My second piece I made specifically to submit to the RA Summer Exhibition.

This is one of those pieces that started off in my mind as something completely disparate to the eventual finished piece! ;o) I love the evolution of my work. Contrary to what some people might think, it doesn't bother me when a piece becomes so utterly different from how I had initially planned, quite the opposite to be honest, it feels right, it feels like my mojo is home to roost, it feels like I'm doing what I was put on this earth to do. ;o)

My mind is usually fit to burst with words and phrases and, added to that, I am of the ilk that when I lay my head on the pillow of a night time my brain instantly clicks into overdrive and off I go on a jaunt through every whole and half formed thought, phrase and word lurking in the darkest corners of my mind! I wanted to construct a piece which reflected this in some way. All the words were written on the spur of the moment, just a stream of consciousness with no rhyme or reason.

I read a book recently which mentioned the phrase "internal lexicon" and it seemed to fit this piece perfectly.

The piece is constructed from a pliable metal mesh and roughly 150 food bag ties.

All I have to do now is wait...

All images courtesy of Rob Morris.

2010 Review

2011-01-01T00:15:00.002Z

So, here for your edification is some edited (be very pleased about that!) highlights from my 2010...

In January I was very excited to exhibit two pieces of work, Tragedy and Every Possible Mistake, at The Forum in Norwich in their exhibition, Man and the Environment. To add to the excitement my work was used on some of the publicity!

Me, viewing a giant sized poster featuring my piece, Tragedy.

In February, I became an internationally exhibited artist when I had three assemblage pieces exhibited in Putting-It-All-Together: Collage, Montage and Assemblage at Climate/Gallery in New York.

Separate Burden, one of the pieces exhibited in New York

During March I unleashed Real Maz on the world briefly! ;oD I went to see The Rocky Horror Show at Cambridge Corn Exchange, which afforded me the opportunity to wear my much beloved corset, ridiculously frilly skirt and back laced thigh boots! Bloody fantastic!

The outfit! Image by Rob Morris

In April, my friend, Katherine, and I had a fun filled day at Deepdale Farm in Norfolk taking part in their Scrap Heap Art Challenge, part of the North Norfolk Earth Day celebrations. The idea was that each artist(s) had to make a piece of art from a pile of junk and recyclable materials. The sun shone down on us and everyone there had a great day of creativity.

Screwdriver at the ready, pondering the job in hand...

In May, I was absolutely thrilled to exhibit in Out Yer Tree, a contemporary outdoor art exhibition, at Lickey Hills Country Park near Birmingham. I had become enamoured with video tape in the months leading up to the exhibition and it was the perfect opportunity to try the material in an outdoor arena. I was really excited to install the work, Suspended re:Purpose, and quite moved to see it in situ. I was very fortunate to exhibit with Out Yer Tree again in August where I also had pieces using cassette tape.

Me with Suspended re:Purpose at Lickey Hills

In June, a group of artists including myself completed a community project for Chatteris In Bloom, painting a huge mural populated by vintage movie stars in a marketplace setting, to improve the frontage of a local disused building. It was a great project to be involved with and, for myself, quite challenging as painting figures isn't really my bag. I'm brilliant at stripes though! lol

In front of the completed mural, artists Richard Savage, me, Yvonne Welsh and Heather Kinnear

In the summer of 2009 I took my grade 4 piano exam and failed by 5 points. In July this year, following relentless scales and exam practice, I retook the exam and passed with 7 marks to spare much to mine and my piano teacher's surprise!

Detail of Relentless Anthem from my Washed Up series

This August saw me taking part in the Fenland Visual Arts Collective (of which I am Vice Chair) Summer Open Studios event. I shared the studio of my friend Rob and we had a lovely week welcoming visitors, working and stuffing ourselves with my home made rock cakes! ;oD

Part of my display at Open Studios

In September, my lovely daughter and I started visiting wide flung parts of the UK to give the once over to a variety of prospective universities, we had some fabulously fun road trips and some delightful multiple circuits of some towns and cities whilst we were "temporarily unsure of our whereabouts"! lol

She won't thank me for sharing her Christmas morning bed hair with the world!

October saw me taking on a completely new challenge by making my directorial debut with the autumn production for MADAOS. I had long wanted to put on a 1940s revue style show and this was my opportunity. During the rehearsal period of eight weeks for Pack Up Your Troubles there was lots of challenges to be faced but overall it was a fantastic experience and one I'd love to repeat... I think! ;oD

Backstage fun!

In November, I started blipping! It's a fun thing to do and I've enjoyed sharing random photos from my everyday life as well as seeing the photos of other's lives.

One of my favourite blips so far

This month I heard that I have had a piece, A Deeper Incision, accepted for an assemblage exhibition, Spare Parts, at the Renaissance Centre in Tennessee in February. ;o) I'm delighted to be exhibiting in the US again, now I just need the funds to jet my piece over and deliver it in person! ;o)

Detail of A Deeper Incision

I'm very excited for what 2011 has in store, I love New Year, new beginnings, fresh slate, new FOCUS, new opportunities, ideas aplenty! Bring it on! ;oD

Happy New Year to everyone!

Things I'm NOT going to do at life class in 2011!

2010-12-29T20:49:00.000Z

In my quest to improve my skills as an artist I will continue to go to life class in 2011 but changes are afoot...

I am not going to say "I can't do this!"

I am not going to huff and puff and tut when things don't go according to plan

I am not going to say "I can't draw feet/hands/faces"

I am not going to take different papers and not use them because I don't want to spoil them

I am not going to take different media and not use them because I think I will make a hash of it

I am not going to scribble ideas in my life class books and then forget where they are!

I am also not going to compare myself to the other artists in the class such as Ric and Neil.

Wish me luck! ;oD

Who the hell is looking anyway??

2010-12-28T00:09:00.000Z

Art journal spread

Advent-urous Artists Day 24

2010-12-24T22:41:00.000Z

Day 24 is upon us and our Advent-urous blogathon has drawn to a close. It's been fun and good practice to post on a daily basis, I am very good at slacking off in the blog department so enforced daily posting has done me alot of good. ;o) I am planning to try and keep the momentum and blog on...

This evening Michael Nobbs' Get Your Important Work Done dropped into my Inbox. In it he talks about looking back at your achievements for 2010 and I have found time inbetween Christmas Eve preparations to have a little think about what I have achieved this year. I started off thinking "well, it hasn't been a rip roaringly successful year" but one thought led to another and I have something of a list now. ;o) I shall be blogging about it in more detail over the Christmas period but I would encourage you all to look back and celebrate your achievements, however big or small. Big it up, people, we all rock! ;o)

Wishing you all a warm and peaceful Christmas!

See Rob and Ric's last Advent-urous Artists blog posts too.

Advent-urous Artists Day 22 & 23

2010-12-23T20:58:00.000Z

Oops, I did it again.... so, another double whammy for you! ;o)

I have a love of cemeteries. ;o) I think it began when, in my late teens, I began researching my family history and investigations led me to a cemetery or two! Even when they are in the centre of busy towns and cities they are still places of tranquility and havens of wildlife. On holiday in Scotland earlier this year we came across a tiny remote village cemetery which had beautiful huge headstones but had suffered in storms with lots of trees coming down and breaking headstones and tombs. None of the trees had been cleared at the time either.

On a completely different subject, books....

My library book shelf

I love to read, I love books. ;o) This year I have been trying to read more, particularly more fiction as I tend to read alot of biographies (nothing wrong with that but I just want to expand my literary horizons) and I wanted to beat my orevious best total of books read ~ a very poor 24! I dip in and out of alot of books but I only include books that I've read (or listened to) cover to cover. I just hit book 26 of 2010 and look set to get to 28 by the end of the year. ;o) It's not about racking up a huge number, it's just about feeding the well and keeping count is just something fun to do. For the record, the 26 books to date are:

Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam by MC Beaton
Panic Snap by Laura Reese
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
Topping from Below by Laura Reese
Confessions of a London Spank Daddy by Peter Smith
For One More Day by Mitch Albom
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell by MC Beaton
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
All Balls and Glitter by Craig Revel Horwood
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Howard's End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington
Anything Goes by John Barrowman
Varjak Paw by SJ Said
Cocktail Time by PG Wodehouse
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Spanked by Richard Savage, Cara Bristol & Starla Kaye
Last of the Few by Max Arthur
Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
The To Do List by Mike Gayle

I recently read this blog post about reading a book a week and I read the last book on the list in 9 days by enjoying reading time first thing after breakfast every morning. :o) Very much looking forward to a good year of reading in 2011. Feel free to give me some book recommendations to add to my "to read" list! ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 20 and 21

2010-12-21T23:08:00.000Z

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that I didn't post yesterday so it's a double whammy today!

Life drawing by Richard Savage

Occasionally I stand in (although I much prefer sitting or reclining!) at life class when the models can't make it or are snowed in as was the case with last night! It's a surreal experience at times...there I am, on the other side of the drawing board, in front of friends I know well, in the buff with just a wisp of fabric between me and my dignity... my thoughts, while modelling, range from "what's on my to do list for tomorrow?" to "why the fuck am I doing this?" and everything in between! It all smacks of a serious split personality defect as I whack between feeling empowered and liberated to feeling fat, hideous and a waste of any ink/paint/pencil/pastel expended in drawing me! Weird. Overall, I enjoy it though and try to squash the negative, insecure shit swimming through my mind.

Moving on...lists! I'm an inveterate list maker. Some folk who know me will be surprised to hear that I used to put "organised" on my CV and job application forms. Honestly, I did! I don't when I became the rather less organised individual that I am now. So, lists are important to me, very important. I make lists on my phone, on scrap paper, envelopes, serviettes, in Word documents, in art journals, you name it I've probably made a list on it! Does it help? Well, yes, my head is so crammed full of stuff that I forget things all the time but if it's on a list it's out of my head and made real. ;o) The spiral bound journal you can see in the photo is a journal I began on my birthday earlier this year, all the lists in it have 44 items on them (I was 44 this year, go figure!) and are many and various, some useful, some thoughtful, some ridiculous. The hand written list is my ongoing pre-Christmas to do list, it's nearing the end of it's useful life and will probably be replaced tomorrow with a brand spanking new version! Lists in art journals are often work related or, as in the glimpse of the one above, self exploratory. In addition I also love using mind maps, both on paper and with some software I have. Life with lists.... ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 19

2010-12-19T18:45:00.000Z

Image by Ellie Savill

My daughter, Eleanor, is a talented young thing! Yes, I'm completely biased and I make no apology for that! Yesterday she performed with Noted, the St John Fisher Catholic High School Choir, alongside the Gildenburgh Choir at their Christmas concert at St Andrews Church, Netherton, Peterborough. This afternoon she was at dress rehearsal as techie for The Steph & Luci Christmas Spectacular at March Town Hall. Tomorow we will be singing together with MADAOS at the Wisbech Christmas Market. Ellie has decided to have a gap year after she finishes her A levels next summer and it will be excellent to have her at home for an extra year before she goes off to uni to follow her passion and study technical theatre. The photo above was taken and manipulated by her. She has many, many talents and, if you hadn't already realised, I am very proud of her and love her very much. She is my shiny star! And she's now probably thoroughly embarassed! lol

Check out Rob and Ric's blogs today.

Advent-urous Artists Day 18

2010-12-18T23:40:00.000Z

This is a close up shot of Rodin's John the Baptist sculpture which I took on holiday in Scotland earlier this year. In a similar vein to yesterday's post, I hadn't looked at the photos I took while we were away for months and looking through them this evening prompted all sorts of memories, not just from that holiday but from previous holidays too, leading to thoughts of my childhood holidays with my parents and grandparents, onto family Christmases...to silliness with kazoos... to the conception of my daughter... to being in plaster and finally to menu planning! lol It's like visual word association! Earlier this week I was thinking about word association as a vehicle for helping me brainstorm ideas for an exhibition I'm involved in during January and I'm now thinking a visual version is an excellent idea...

Check out what Ric and Rob are blogging about today...

Advent-urous Artists Day 17

2010-12-18T00:57:00.000Z

Miss June 2011

Over on Ric's blog today he is talking about his experience of being on the "wrong" side of the camera for a charity calendar raising funds for the Chatteris Christmas Lights charity. I was also involved in the calendar and after reading his piece I went to look at my picture as it's a good while since I have seen it. The photo was taken in April 2009 shortly after I came out of hospital after my Achilles tendon/pulmonary embolism drama and looking at it with fresh eyes today after a long time evoked some strong memories for me. You can't see in the picture (thanks to Rob's left a bit, right a bit approach to positioning my arms!) but my stomach was a mass of purple bruises from the injections I had been having whilst in hospital. I was still wearing the hideously hampering surgical boot on my leg at this point and had to schlump into position and then remove it and squeeze into the more aesthetic shoes I'm wearing! Without making it sound too over dramatic, my brush with blood clots bobbing about my lungs forced me to face my mortality and it changed my life in alot of ways. One of the changes I decided to make was to lose some weight to improve my health and since this photo was taken I have lost 4 stone but there are so many more invisible changes. My month doesn't roll round until next June (it's an 18 month calendar and I'm last in line!) and although I love the photo, very much enjoyed taking part in the project and have absolutely no regrets about doing it, it is still strange to look at myself then and look at myself now and know that those two women are the same and yet very different. Looking at that photo has reminded once more of how very transient life can be, how very powerful the effect that period of my life had on me, how life has to be embraced and lived out loud. ;o)

Have a look at Rob and Ric's blog posts for today.

Advent-urous Artists Day 16

2010-12-16T22:43:00.000Z

I was recently pointed in the direction of Blipfoto by my lovely friend, Elizabeth and have been posting my daily (well, ok, not quite daily but there are only a few days I've missed so far!) photo for a couple of weeks now. It's a lovely place to waste a few hours of your life away and I love catching up with what folk are blipping about. Today I blipped the above photo of a book I started reading this morning inspired by this blog post. I love books and reading and of late have been trying to read a bit more but a book a week?? Wow! I'm a Goodreads person too so if you knock about on there too, do come and find me, I'm sadly lacking in friends on there! lol I plan to read more in 2011 but whether I'll manage a book a week remains to be seen! ;oD

Check out Rob and Ric on their blogs today!

Advent-urous Artists Day 15

2010-12-15T22:26:00.000Z

What a thrilling image I hear you cry! ;oD Well, a shot of carpet may not be very interesting to the outside world but for me yesterday was a red letter day! After twenty two years of marriage this is the first time we have bought brand new carpet! It has been a long time coming and prior to the arrival of said carpet yesterday we have been living with floorboards for what seems like eons! We are now snug and fluffy underfoot! ;o) And Floss is pretty happy about it too...

The carpet laying has led me once again to thoughts of new beginnings, progress, moving forward, there's lots to look forward to in 2011. ;o)

Have a look at Rob and Ric's posts for today too.

Advent-urous Artists Day 14

2010-12-14T22:26:00.000Z

There's seventeen days left of 2010 (yep, I just counted!) but today my thoughts fell to next year. A few years ago a friend pointed me in the direction of Christine Kane's Resolution Revolution blog post. Since then I've chosen a word at the beginning of each year as an alternative to making resolutions. I've been idly pondering what I might choose as my word for 2011 over the last week or so but today I was thinking about what I want to achieve in 2011 and the perfect word popped into my head as it usually does when I go through this process. FOCUS. ;o)

See what Rob and Ric are posting about today.

Advent-urous Artists Day 13

2010-12-13T23:24:00.000Z

I have no reason for posting this image of a statue atop a clock in Newcastle other than the fact that I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her! I'd forgotten all about the photos I took on a weekend visit to the city earlier this year until I came across them while idling about looking through old albums searching for some inspiration for a blog post. ;o) I knew nothing about her so I've just had a little Googlette and discovered that the clocks and figures (there were two originally, I don't know if both still exist but I assume so) were commissioned by Northern Goldsmiths in 1932. The figures are based on Venus and the outstretched arms symbolise progress. One of the clocks (not sure if it's the one I snapped) was a popular place for servicemen and their sweethearts to meet during the Second World War. I love her lines, she has a beautiful naked sweep, as Miranda Hart would say. ;o)

Check out Rob and Ric's posts for today!

Advent-urous Artists Day 12

2010-12-12T20:10:00.000Z

No, I haven't taken up smoking, I just wanted to show you my groovy vintage cigarette machine! ;o) I'm sure you may have heard of Art-O-Mat, the US movement with over 90 converted cigarette vending machines which now vend original works of art. ;o) I totally adore the ethos of the project and have long wanted to do something similar. I bagged this vintage machine on eBay a couple of years ago, it's for packs of ten cigarettes so smaller than the Art-O-Mat version but even so I still think it has potential. It is currently mounted on the wall in my dining room operating as my daughter's Advent calendar. ;o) Unfortunately 24 boxes, divided between the three columns, only just peep above the windows so they aren't now visible. I would love to see the whole machine filled to the brim and delivering artful joy in little boxes. ;o)
See what Rob and Ric are blogging about today.

Advent-urous Artists Day 11

2010-12-11T11:43:00.000Z

I am posting remotely today as I'm in the great metropolis for the weekend. ;o) The last time I was in London I had a brief visit to the Natural History Museum where I took a few photos including the above one in the Earth Hall. I have to say though that probably my most favourite museum is the Victoria and Albert. I have spent many happy hours amongst the galleries gleaning inspiration, drawing and just soaking it all up. ;o) I particularly like the jewellery galleries but there is so much to enjoy. Museums so often get a bad press... borrrrrrring... but, honestly, even the worst museums I've visited over the years always provide a nugget of inspiration however small. ;o)

Check out Rob and Ric's blogginess today!

Advent-urous Artists Day 10

2010-12-10T20:11:00.000Z

Tomorrow morning the Friends of March Station are putting on an event to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the platforms at the station. As part of the celebrations the Fenland Visual Arts Collective is having a railway/train travel themed art exhibition in one of the rooms that's being restored on one of the disused platforms. Although it's a small exhibition there is some lovely work, a nice variety on display. As the event tomorrow is only for the morning we have arranged for the exhibition to go back on display at The Boathouse in Wisbech during January so that more folk can have a look at the work. If you're local do pop along tomorrow, there's lots of other attractions at the event so there'll be plenty to see and do. If you fancy an early morning, there's a steam train passing through the station at 7.50am! ;o)
I've always loved train travel, as a child my family used to travel by train to visit my paternal grandparents and it was always carriages with compartments which I loved! On our recent FenVAC art day to the Nene Valley Railway the trains in steam were pulling carriages with compartments "just like in Harry Potter" as my daughter pointed out! ;o) I always find railway stations fascinating places, not just some of the glorious architecture but also as fabulous places to people watch!

Have a look at Ric and Rob's blog posts for today!

Advent-urous Artists Day 9

2010-12-09T22:44:00.000Z

A Deeper Incision by Marian Savill

I had some exciting news yesterday! ;o) I have had a piece of work (see above) selected for an assemblage exhibition called Spare Parts at The Renaissance Center in Tennessee, USA in February 2011. It's always fantastic to have work chosen for an exhibition, the validation I feel every time it happens is like an internal rosy glow. ;o)

On the subject of rosy glows, see Ric's post today about his new woodburner and Rob's post about a personal project he completed recently. ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 8

2010-12-08T19:13:00.001Z

Photo courtesy of Rob Morris

unconventional

but with

her open heart

her soulful eyes

the way she moves

the smile she shares

her little kindnesses

her gentle touch

her beauty burns

within
and without

Catch up with today's posts from Rob and Ric.

Advent-urous Artists Day 7

2010-12-07T19:01:00.000Z

Don't you love those days that become special for the simplest of reasons? This morning the world was a winter wonderland, the landscape was breathtakingly beautiful in places as I drove from March to Downham Market via a back route to avoid a road closure on my usual route. The trees were magnificent against the clear blue sky, dark trunks and frosted foliage. As I drove alongside the bank that runs beside the Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust I noticed the barbed wire fence was all encrusted with frost too and I couldn't resist the opportunity to hop out the car with my camera, revelling in my mission to get an interesting pic for Blipfoto! As I stood there taking a few shots the silence was wonderful, only broken by the muted honking of geese on the reserve. It was a perfect moment. ;o) On my way home, I had just turned onto a bridge across the river when a pair of magnificent Whooper swans that had just taken off from the river flew in front of me about a car's length ahead and only about 10 feet off the ground, it was a beautiful sight. Happy days! ;o)

Have a look at Rob and Ric's posts for today. ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 6

2010-12-06T22:56:00.000Z

This evening I modelled for the regular life class I attend at Savage Studios and even though the heating was on my extremeties were a tad on the cold side! My feet, people, my feet! lol As I sat there, with my toes slowly turning a delicate shade of blue, the conversation turned to food. I love talking about food, some of you may know that I also have a (currently woefully neglected!) foodie blog and I do love to bake and try out new flavours and share my modest culinary adventures. ;o) Tonight we covered making real gravy, good roast potatoes, mincemeat and some less than favourable and memorable for the wrong reasons meals of the past! I also got to thinking about one of my favourite new recipes from this summer ~ Baba Ghanoush. I discovered a new passion for all things aubergine and this became one of my regular makes. For those of you who are so inclined, the recipe is below. It's warmed me up thinking of the warm summer days I spent eating Baba Ghanoush for lunch out in the garden. ;o)

Check out what Rob and Ric are blogging about today too! ;o)

Baba Ghanoush (smoked aubergine dip)

This creamy dip can be served as part of a selection of little dishes or a simple appetizer/starter. Normally the dish is made from vegetables that have been roasted whole and the flesh scooped out. In this version, they are peeled, then sliced and roasted, so the result is much more mellow.

2lbs aubergine
about 2/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tbsp tahini
freshly squeezed juice of 1 – 2 lemons or to taste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
1 tbsp sweet paprika
3 tbsp oilve oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
toasted pitta bread or other flatbread, to serve

Serves 4 - 6

Preheat over to 200C/Gas mark 6

Trim the aubergines, peel then slice thickly. Arrange the slices on a baking sheet and brush both sides with olive oil. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, until browning and soft, turning them once.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.Transfer to a food processor and add the garlic, tahini and the juice of 1 lemon. Process until creamy, then taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and more lemon juice.

Pour or spoon into a shallow dish. Mix the paprika with the 3 tbsp olive oil and trickle it over the top of the baba ghanoush. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with strips of toasted pitta bread for dipping.

Note: For a softer garlic flavour, roast the garlic cloves whole and unpeeled with the aubergines then squeeze the soft flesh out of the skins and blend with aubergines.

Advent-urous Artists Day 5

2010-12-05T22:01:00.000Z

I suppose I will have to relent and acknowledge that Christmas will soon be upon us! ;o) Anyone who knows me will know that I loathe the fact that Christmas, and all it's attendant trashy consumerism and gross commercialism, is thrust upon us before the summer has breathed it's last. Some people seem to labour under the impression that I dislike Christmas which just isn't true, what I dislike is what Christmas has become. ;o(
I took the Christmas tree pic above is one I took last year when playing about with a photographic technique that I'm sure Rob would disapprove of! ;oD The basic idea is to press the shutter and then quickly throw the camera in the air (just a gentle throw not an Olympic javelin effort!) and catch it. Hey presto, wacky shot! ;o) It was fun and I gleaned some quirky shots! ;o)

Today, Rob is blogging about a great charity event his daughter is organising and Ric is blogging about what viewers of erotic art consider erotic, please do hop over and have a look.

Advent-urous Artists Day 4

2010-12-04T06:33:00.000Z

And Lovely is the Rose by Marian Savill
Photo by Rob Morris

Yesterday saw me selling my wares for the last time at Lakenheath Air Base. I sold the piece pictured above while I was there. Rob and I have been concessionaires on the base for a year now but our contracts aren't being renewed for next year. It's certainly been an interesting experience! It's always good to get out and about and meet folk, get their reactions and comments on my work. Mostly I've met some lovely people who have been very complimentary and I've sold a fair bit of jewellery as well as some wall hanging assemblage pieces. I'm glad I gave it a shot but I don't think it's the place for me. I'm looking forward to moving forward looking for new venues to sell my work at. Any suggestions welcome! ;o)

Hop over to Rob's blog for some horsey talk and to Ric's blog for some audio book talk. ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 3

2010-12-03T21:36:00.000Z

Our lovely new logo, designed by Richard Savage

I am Vice Chair of the Fenland Visual Arts Collective. ;o) We have been in existence since 2004 and I have been involved for three years now. You can read about our aims on our (work in progress!) website but briefly, we work to give artists across Fenland opportunities to exhibit their work, meet socially, venture out on art days and more! We have been involved in a wide range of exhibitions over the years, have permanent exhibiting venues and work hard to promote the visual arts in the Fens and beyond. I enjoy being Vice Chair and think I give alot to the Collective, it can be hard work and is sometimes disappointing when events are poorly supported or participated in but I still think it's hugely worthwhile. ;o) I'm very excited at the moment as, in conjunction with the Fenland Arts Association, we hosting our first open art exhibition in January which I hope will be a fantastic event for everyone. If you are local(ish) and fancy submitting some work email me for a submission form! Before all that though is our one day exhibition tomorrow to coincide with the Chatteris Christmas Lights Switch On event. If you're in the vivinity of Chatteris Museum tomorrow do pop in and see us! And the artwork of course! lol

More FenVAC talk on Rob and Ric's blogs today. ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 2

2010-12-02T23:34:00.001Z

Sewn by Marian Savill

Am I the only person in the northern hemisphere who is sick to death of hearing about the UK being in the grip of this "terrible weather"??? It's winter, it's cold, you get snow! It's just weather, not good weather or bad weather, just weather! We grind to a halt because we do not have the resources to put measures in place like countries which are more used to regular snowfall in winter. If we used money to to do that no doubt the people moaning about how terribly unprepared we are would then moan about how much money we have wasted on equipment which stands idle for 99% of the year! Stop whining, build a snowman, make yourself a hot chocolate with marshmallows and CHILL OUT! ;oD See above picture for an antidote to all the snow scenes! Fiery, bright reds and oranges, that's more like it! ;o)

Check out my fellow bloggers much less ranting posts for day 2, here for Rob and here for Ric! Enjoy! ;o)

Advent-urous Artists Day 1

2010-12-01T21:52:00.001Z

Fire buckets on the platform at Wansford Station, Nene Valley Railway by Marian Savill

Welcome to the first post of this new collaborative blog project! Along with fellow artists and friends, Richard Savage and Rob Morris, I am going to blog on a daily basis every day leading up to Christmas. Why? All three of us have blogs and would like to use them more to show our work, share news of forthcoming events, exhibitions and what we're up to, views, opinions, rants, raise our online profiles and indulge in some, frankly, blatant self promotion! ;oD

For those of you who don't know us, some short intros....

Marian Savill: I am a professional mixed media artist based at my studio in Cambridgeshire, UK. I work mainly with used materials and found objects to create my unique assemblage pieces and jewellery. I am excited by the discarded, the unloved, the unwanted. The textures, colours, patina and condition of the materials inspire me to passionately transform the life worn objects into distinctive individual artwork. These materials hold a fascination for me; they have an aged beauty which I try to enhance and celebrate in my work. My work can be raw and passionate, quirky and lighthearted, deeply personal and ethically challenging but at the heart of it lies my passion to show that art and beauty exist in the found, the throwaway, the everyday and the long forgotten. More of my work can be seen on my website.

Rob Morris: I am a freelance photographer based in East Anglia. I have 30 years of experience and am a Licentiate of The Royal Photographic Society and a member of The Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers and The Society of International Media & Press Photographers. I work locally, nationally and internationally providing a wide range of images for a variety of clients. More of my work can be seen on my website.

Richard Savage: I am a fine artist, illustrator and writer. In the last twenty years as a fine artist I have covered a wide variety of subjects such as figurative, wildlife and aviation. As an illustrator, my work has been equally diverse and has included 50 book covers, magazine illustrations, a series of line drawings, fantasy art and pictures for children's stories. I am comfortable working in a variety of media; oils, acrylics, pastels, line and wash, watercolour and mixed media. My inspiration comes from a great number of sources the world around, but also classical art, and the styles of the contemporary artists Boris Vallejo and Jack Vettriano. More of my work can be seen on my website.

Every day we will all share a picture (or pictures) each, with accompanying text, on a multitude of subjects! I hope you'll all visit us regularly on our pre-Christmas blog Advent-ure. ;o)

Art journaling again

2010-11-14T15:13:00.000Z

I've played in art journals for a long while now, sometimes it's a daily thing for me, sometimes less frequent. There was a time when I pretty much always had a journal (and portable art kit) with me wherever I went. I don't remember when I stopped doing that but it's been floating in and out of my mind recently and I want to recapture the habit. ;o)

The only regular art journaling I have indulged in this year has been a 121 project with my lovely friend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a member of my altered art Yahoo group, Alter-NativeUK, and was an active player in many of the group swaps we had on there, happy days! ;o) Since the demise of the group Elizabeth and I were in touch pretty infrequently sadly so we decided to embark on the 121 project as a way to keep in touch more regularly and in a way that we both love - art journaling! It has been a lovely way to stay in contact and be a part of each other's lives and I highly recommend it!

This week I have reacquainted myself with various art journals in my studio, happily playing about with half started spreads and looking back over previous work, some funny, some factual, some just because and some very emotive. It has sparked my art journaling enthusiasm and I am planning to dive back in to some regular play in a variety of journals ~ you didn't think I could just have one on the go, did you?! So, for your viewing pleasure here's a spread in a journal that I used for some trial art journaling workshops with NACRO last year, there are plenty of empty pages begging to be filled still and, like this one, plenty of half started pages. I added more layers and used Sharpies and chinograph pencil. The poem is Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou.

A Bible Story

2010-11-09T01:15:00.000Z

Ok, it's 1.15am and I drank too much strong coffee at life class this evening so I'm going have a little ramble about one of my latest projects....

I have been asked to alter a family Bible! It's one beast of a book, it weighs a ton! Here it is in all it's glory...

It's a fair old age I would say, not sure quite how old, but it has certainly lost alot of it's gold tooling from the covers although the spine has retained rather more of it's golden loveliness...

Inside the Bible the pages are well preserved, good quality paper, nice text, very little age spotting....

...and there's illustrations and maps every so often throughout the text...

The spec for the work is very open, apart from the requirement of it being suitable for display both open and closed I pretty much have free rein to alter it as I see fit. ;o) What I want for the finished piece is for it to celebrate family roots, connections and beliefs, spiritually, emotionally and physically but not with any particular religious reference. My current thinking is leaning towards a tunnel book of sorts, varying sizes of apertures viewable from both sides, individually, in groups and all together.

Earlier this week, whilst looking through the Bible, thinking about what I would do and where I would start I was delighted to discover a lock of hair...

No one knows who it belonged to but I have permission to use it in the work and I fully intend to. ;o)

I'm very excited about the project and, to be honest, more than a little apprehensive! I have never been commissioned to make a piece of work from such an item, such a personal item, and with such a wide open remit. It will certainly be a challenge and there's no guarantee that the recipient won't hate it when I'm done but I don't plan on holding back, I'm hardly an artist in the "playing it safe" category now, am I, dear reader? lol

Art journal snippets

2010-11-01T01:04:00.001Z

This evening I was trolling through some images looking for something in particular and came across a collection of art journal snippets that I obviously photographed for some pertinent reason and then never used! So, I thought I would share a few here. ;o) I haven't indulged in any altered text work for a while now but it pulls at me when I see old work. Some of you die hard followers may recall I started altering a New Testament a few years ago, it's gathering dust in my studio but I think it may be time to drag it off the shelf!

One of the themes I'd like to (finally!) look at in more depth next year is self image. It's an age old theme that has accompanied me through my life from my mid teens to the present day. This year I contributed to Beauty in Every Form, forthcoming publication on the subject, by my friend, Richard Savage, and it is a deeply personal topic that I would very much like to explore more through my work.

I believe cross writing, whereby you write both horizontally and vertically on a page, was originally used years ago when writing letters to save paper but it is a technique I often employ when art journaling. I favour Sharpie pens and a fast, frantic, stream of thought approach!

I very often use my art journals for list making (there's a whole blog post or three in me on that topic me thinks! lol), brainstorming and planning. I always used to carry an art journal wherever I went but I realised the other day that I seem to have got out of that habit. ;o( That's something that needs rectifying!

Sitting under my desk in the studio on top of a little chest of drawers there are two books: The Roadmender by Michael Fairless (a pseudonymn for the author, Margaret Barber, who wrote it in 1902) and The Works of Longfellow. They are both depleted, have pages hanging out and many a gap in them where I have used text from them in my artwork. Another art journal technique I employ is, if I have the urge to add text to a page but not sure what, I will get one of the books out, randomly flick to a page and find what I'm looking for, even if I don't know what it is I'm looking for until I find it! ;o)

Yes, I do believe a return to some regular art journaling is required right now! ;o)

FenVAC Art Day

2010-10-30T08:23:00.000Z

On Wednesday I hopped over to the Nene Valley Railway at Wansford, north of Peterborough, for the latest Fenland Visual Arts Collective art day. We often arrange these events for members to come along and get together to draw, paint, photograph etc. We have a forthcoming railway/train travel exhibition at March Railway Station as part of the celebrations for the 125th anniversary of the opening of the platforms there, hence the visit to NVR.

The good thing about these events is that they usually take me out of my artistic comfort zone. Usually I'm found in my studio tinkering about with bits of rusty metal and I can hardly take a bootful of that about with me! ;oD So, I use these occasions as an opportunity for me to draw.

There was certainly plenty to choose from in the drawing stakes! There were, of course, plenty of engines and carriages in various states of repair and the trains were in steam too. There's all manner of interesting paraphernalia on the platforms and round about as well.

The station buildings themselves are of the beautiful honey coloured stone so common in the area and there are some gorgeous doors with fabulous peeling paint if that floats your boat ~ it works for me!! ;o)

There are some lovely quirky objects to draw but I chose to have a stab at the section between two old Royal Mail carriages. The line from Peterborough to Rugby used to be a very important mail route in days gone by.

There was a little artistic licence involved with my drawing but I have to say I really enjoyed zoning out as I drew this, being in that head space where time and everything around you passes without notice. ;o) The last few weeks have been a little stressful (albeit very enjoyable too) as I raced towards the opening of the production I've been directing (Pack Up Your Troubles, a compilation of war times songs, dances and monologues) and this time spent focused on drawing was blissful for me. ;o)

We all need time out and I heartily agree with author of The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron, when she recommends "artist dates" and daily walks to fill the creative well. It most certainly hit the spot!

The folk at NVR were very welcoming to us and my friend, and chair of FenVAC, Rob, even got to visit some of the sheds that the public don't have access to and got some great shots of a chappie welding, sparks flying everywhere. ;o) Although this art day was poorly attended by FenVAC members it was a personally fulfilling and successful outing for me. Roll on next time! ;o)

Out Yer Tree Walk and Talk

2010-08-29T15:04:00.000Z

Yesterday saw me at the Walk and Talk event for the Out Yer Tree contemporary art exhibition at Coombe Abbey Country Park near Coventry where I have three pieces of work installed. Come with me as I drag you round my work....

Following on from my original Suspended re:Purpose work at the Out Yer Tree art exhibition at Lickey Hills earlier this year I started working on similar pieces using cassette tape. The same friend who gave me the massive stash of video tapes gave me a goodly amount of cassettes too so I set to dismantling them and claiming the tape. One of the good things about cassette tape is that it comes in both black and brown, the brown yields a good variety of shades too. The cassette pieces are constructed in the same way as the video but I used a variety of found objects to attach the tape to. I had two old style metal doodads that cover the top of stench pipes which are a great shape, a plastic drip tray from a bar, part of a decorative copper dish, a metal bangle and two random metal rings unearthed from the debris on my studio workspace!

On installation day I wanted a smaller more intimate place for Suspended re:Purpose 2 (yep, I named that uniquely didn't I? lol) and I chose a lovely cedar tree facing a large open grassed area containing three other artworks. The cedar had a ready made aperture with beautiful criss crossing branches and I hung some of the smaller pieces outside of that area, hopefully leading the eye into the pieces hung in the interior.

On reflection I wish I had created more than the seven pieces I used but I was happy with the placement and the way the work looked. When we checked the work before the Walk and Talk yesterday I was disappointed to find one of the pieces had disappeared. One of the others had been tied in a not too. In the 40 minutes between checking the work and getting back there to talk about it another of the pieces had been tied in a knot too!

I have to admit I really don't mind the knotting (although we did later unknot them before we left), the pieces are there to be interacted with so I have no complaints but it's disappointing when the work is just ripped down. One of the exhibition organisers, Taz Lovejoy, had one of her pieces pulled down and thrown in the lake within three hours of it being installed and it was hung 5m up in a tree, they're very determined artwork wreckers apparently! It's the risk you take hanging work in a public space though and it won't deter me from exhibiting again although I'm considering creating a piece using barbed wire! lol

Suspended re:Purpose 2 was the first of my pieces that I had to speak about at the Walk and Talk. It would be fair to say I was so nervous at the prospect of talking to the crowd of 40+ people that I wanted to turn tail and run away! I have no idea what I said and I think I probably gabbled my way through it somewhat but I did it! ;o)

Next up was my original Suspended re:Purpose piece which I rehung for his exhibition. I chose a lovely plane tree to hang the piece in this time, it has nicely overhanging branches and the pieces are hung relatively low so they can be got amongst and interacted with. Taz told me a lovely story yesterday and I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you... on Friday when Taz was at the park a lady with a new born baby was in amongst my work and was moving her baby in and out of the video tape. ;o) If all the pieces get yanked down and wrecked it will all have been worth it just for that moment.

Two of the pieces had to be rehung since installation day and on our pre check run yesterday we discovered one had been pulled so hard it was hanging on by a thread so that was rehung too but none have yet disappeared as they did at Lickey Hills. There's evidence that several have been seriously hung on ~ stretched video tape rolls itself into a fine tube, I was quite pleased to discover this and am planning some pieces with purely stretched tape so I can at least thank the wee vandals for that if nothing else! ;o)

I took a video of Suspended re:Purpose on installation day and, ably assisted by my lovely daughter, have edited it and added some music. The work doesn't look like this now because of the rehung pieces but this is what it originally looked like.

I think it's a great idea to video work in situ like this especially if it transpires to be the only record of how the work looked when first installed! I will definitely try to remember to capture any future work hung in public spaces.

My third piece in the exhibition is Pods re:Versed. I got quite caught up in the idea of constructing natural forms from unnatural materials recently and decided to create some cocoon/pod like structures to hang at Coombe Abbey. These babies are a little more unfriendly than the other pieces in that they have some pretty sharp edges so I wanted to choose a location where they wouldn't be too accessible as I didn't really relish the prospect of anyone lacerating their hands on them! I eventually settled on hanging them in a beech tree overhanging the edge of a lake which is behind a sturdy fence. On installation day I had my poor husband with one side of the ladder in the water reaching as high as he could whilst wobbling about looking in danger of plunging in at any second! Meanwhile I stood behind the fence giving him "Left a bit, right a bit" style instructions! ;oD

This location is quite gloomy which to my mind suited the whole concept of the piece. I will definitely continue to explore this theme, I'd like to experiment with more open pods. Nests also appeal to me, I can just picture a massive video tape nest structure high up in the trees. ;o)

At the end of the afternoon, as we trolled back to the visitor centre, the heavens opened and we got absolutely soaked!

Even the downpour didn't dampen our spirits though! ;o) Despite my nerves I really enjoyed the Walk and Talk. It was great to hear some of the other artists talk about their work and I think it was a very successful event. There's a great variety of excellent work in the exhibition and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. The exhibition runs until 17th September, please do visit if you can!

Out Yer Tree Installation Day

2010-05-26T07:54:00.003Z

Saturday saw me and my long suffering husband installing my video tape extravaganza at Lickey Hills Country Park near Birmingham for the Out Yer Tree outdoor contemporary art exhibition which starts this weekend. It was a glorious day and the park is a lovely place with fabulous views over the surrounding countryside. We met at the visitor centre and then set off to walk the route of planned exhibition area to choose where we would all like to exhibit our work. The park is mixed woodland but has alot of pines with tall straight trunks and I was looking for a tree with more horizontal branches for my work. Quite early on I spotted an oak tree that I thought would be ideal.

On the way round the park I spotted several other possible trees but they were in the more open areas of the park and I wanted a location which was more enclosed and my first tree remained the front runner! None of the other artists favoured "my" tree so no fisty cuffs was required to secure it! lol So, we set to and started to install. There was a smaller oak next to my tree and I initially thought I would hang in both of them so we started by hanging a few in the smaller tree but ultimately I decided I wanted them all in the one tree.

The hanging itself was pretty straightforward, not knowing in advance what size branches we would be hanging the work from we had taken two methods of suspension, bike spokes and chain! The majority of the pieces were hung using the bike spokes. This heavy metal could be successfully bent around the branches and through the swivel hooks of the baskets. The chain was only needed for the branches which were too thicker to use the spoke method on. Each of the baskets hangs from their original chains attached to a swivel hook which I added so they turn freely and without tangling the chains up. The position of the branches meant a few of them needed some minor adjustments to the chain length.

It really was a two man job as most of the branches were higher than could be comfortably reached and required a ladder and a nimble husband to hop about the tree! I think my husband heard "Can you reach a bit further? Just a bit more...?" a few more times than he wanted to! lol After lots of adjustment and readjustment all of the pieces were in place securely and my husband was still in one piece too!

During the time I've been making these I've only had one or two hanging in the garden and seeing all 10 hung in the tree exceeded my expectations, the light playing on them through the trees and the sound of all of them rustling in the breeze was fantastic. It's really difficult to capture moving video tape in a photo though!

I hope these images give you an impression of the piece but, of course, the best way to experience the work is to go and enjoy it in the flesh as it were! ;o) Most of the pieces hang low enough to be interacted with by visitors and I hope they will get amongst them and really enjoy them.

The exhibition runs for three weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing how much the pieces evolve over that time. The process will be dictated by nature and I have no real idea of what will happen which is a very exciting part of the work.

The exhibition opens this Saturday (29th May) with a Walk and Talk event at 2pm where all the artists will walk the route and each talk about their work. Alot of the artists were still installing when we left on Saturday so I'm really looking forward to seeing and hearing about all the other artwork, it should be another exciting day.

Now you see me, now you don't

2010-05-18T17:13:00.000Z

Having completed the last of my hanging pieces for Suspended re:Purpose this afternoon I set about tidying the studio, and yes, I can actually see the floor again now! ;o) I'm selling at Mildenhall air base tomorrow, Thursday and Friday so I spent the afternoon organising jewellery and display stands and rounding up all the assorted paraphenalia I need to take. I have some pendants to finish this evening to add to my display tomorrow. As I was finishing my last basket my eyes lighted on a half completed assemblage piece on my desk and inspiration on completing struck me. ;o) All the time I was on Warfarin last year after my PE I diligently collected the blister packs from my tablets and by the time I got the all clear to stop taking them I had a carrier bag full and an urge to make some art with them. ;o) This is the resulting piece:

"Now you see me, now you don't"

The blister packs are attached to board from a fabric sample book cover with brass drawing pins and acrylic paint applied over the top. The video tape is my trial run of the text for my RA Summer Exhibition submission, Her Honesty and Her Pain. I was playing with my heat gun to see how the tape reacted. ;o)

Caught on Tape

2010-05-16T09:02:00.000Z

Heading into a busy week and thought I'd share some images of my progress on my assemblage pieces for the Out Yer Tree outdoor art exhibition at Lickey Hills Country Park. My studio is slowly disappearing under video tape, tape reels and empty cassettes as I edge towards completion of the dozen hanging pieces!

I'm really enjoying working with the video tape although it can become a bit hard on your hands after a while and a video tape cut is akin to a paper cut, ooooooooouch! I'm progressing well with the dozen pieces though and only have two to complete in readiness for installation day next weekend.

The piece is entitled Suspended re:Purpose and comprises the 12 pieces all constructed from used and, in some cases VERY well used, hanging baskets and copious amounts of video tape. I wanted to explore the idea of intentionally placing a man made material in the natural environment in a constructed form. The video tape will inevitably deteriorate and "evolve" over time with nature dictating the process. Once hung the tape creates ever changing fluid forms which reflect the light beautifully. I have had one hanging in my garden all week and it is a constant source of interest, watching the movement, changing colours and patterns in the light of different times of day is very absorbing. I love the contrast of seeing what I consider a beautiful object in a lovely setting but it's made from a material that will challenge alot of people's acceptance of artwork made with, to say the least, non traditional art materials! Like them or loathe them, I hope viewers of this work will find it thought provoking and worthy of discussion.

I want to continue to explore and experiment with video tape and, excitingly, I have been offered a solo exhibition in a local venue and my thoughts are all leading toward a body of work to exhibit using video tape. Watch this space!

Catching Up

2010-05-06T23:55:00.000Z

I've been a busy bee the last few weeks so lots to catch up on!

At the end of April I took part in the Scrap Heap Art Challenge as part of the North Norfolk Earth Day celebrations at Deepdale Farm, Burnham Deepdale on the Norfolk coast. The basic idea of the gig was to go along and spend the day creating art from scrap materials. My friend, Kath, and I arrived on the day in glorious sunshine (it stayed that way all day!) and met up with the event organiser, Andrea Bramhall, and the other artists, John Colahan, Sarah Caputo, Karen Harvey & Karen Fevyer from Atelier East and Karen Steadman, in the courtyard where we were to work. We drew lots out of the hat to decide who would work with which pile of materials and this was ours:

We weren't given any information in advance about the nature of the scrap materials we'd be working with and I have to confess that I was expecting smaller, more "domestic" items such as CDs, paper goods, packaging, textiles etc so wasn't quite prepared for barbecues and bike wheels! Tool wise, I'd gone prepared for smaller stuff but fortunately our nearest neighbours, John and Karen S, had a wide range of tools and were very generous with them. ;o) After period of perusal, deconstruction began....

Kath and I spent the morning working through our many and varied ideas, using the groovy old record player as the base for our piece. Sometime around lunchtime I had brain freeze and Kath had to removeme from the scene of the crime for some light relief in the form of a veggie sausage roll, salad and a hot chocolate! ;o) After this respite, with an accompanying discussion of what we wanted to convey with our artwork, we set to and romped through the afternoon constructing our piece, Portals to Future Past...

In brief, we wanted to create a piece that addressed the vital importance of recycling in today's world but also a piece that connected the past and future, showing that we can learn from the thrifty and resourceful ways of our forebears and apply them to our present to create a sustainable future. Portals to Future Past.

The day was a great success, all the artists created fantastic and very different pieces from their scrap. I found it challenging but fun to work with a restricted range of materials in a set timeframe and would certainly do it again. ;o) This is the winning piece, the fabulous Contemplating Colin, with his creator, Karen Steadman...

The work is on display at Deepdale Farm over the summer so if you're in the area do go along and take a look. Big thanks to Kath for sharing the day with me, it was a great experience and we had such a fun time creating together! ;o) Also, many thanks to Andrea and her helpers for a lovely day and here's to next year's Scrap Heap Challenge!

My next piece of news is that my proposal for an exhibit at the Out Yer Tree outdoor art exhibition at Lickey Hills Country Park at the end of May has been accepted! ;o) This is the first proposal I have made in my art career and I'm very excited to have been selected. I shall be creating a dozen large hanging assemblage "tassel" pieces constructed from used hanging baskets and video tape...

Other news....I am currently waiting to hear from the Royal Academy of Arts as to whether my artist book piece, Her Honesty and Her Pain, has been selected for this year's Summer Exhibition. This piece also involves video tape, can you see a theme developing? ;o) I am currently creating new jewellery pieces for another jaunt to Mildenhall air base in a couple of week's time and I am also working on a community project in conjunction with Chatteris In Bloom. We are painting a 40ft long hoarding with a market scene populated by legendary screen stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Laurel & Hardy and Carmen Miranda (on the fruit and veg stall, of course!).

Latest Studio Goings On

2010-04-06T00:03:00.000Z

Over the weekend I worked on a piece of art for a collaborative project I'm participating in with several friends for our friend, Becky. Becky is in the final year of her HND and is exploring visual dialogue as part of her final body of work. When she first broached the subject with us she said: "I've been thinking about how art is sometimes described as a visual language, and how that works. Because it's one thing to make a piece of art that has something to say, but how do you get into dialogue visually? People who critique art always do so in words. How could you critique it with another piece of visual language, and how could someone else pitch in, and the first person reply?" So, the four of us involved each created a folded strip of card or paper, any size we liked and folded any which way we fancied, created our first piece of "dialogue" on one of the sections and sent it on to one of the others. We have been working this way since January. It's been an interesting exercise which I've enjoyed although I have to confess that I haven't always understood my responses to the preceding artwork but I suppose that doesn't matter really and whatever I have responded with has been a true response to what was in front of me from the previous artist. This is my section in Becky's piece...

...and this is the whole piece so far...

...you will see that everyone else before me has worked landscape but I was moved to work portrait. I'm not sure if that was my artistic muse or my resistance to following the trend! ;o) I'm looking forward to seeing all the completed pieces and I'm hoping to get to Sheffield for Becky's degree show. ;o)

This week I'm over at Mildenhall air base for three days of selling along with my photographer/artist friend, Rob. We've been selling at Lakenheath air base for the few two months and are giving Mildenhall a try this month. The set up at Mildenhall is different to Lakenheath where I have a booth with wall hanging space as well as table display space. I won't have as much room at Mildenhall so I will concentrate on my jewellery with just a few small free standing assemblage pieces if space allows. My lovely friend, Kath, has loaned me these little torsos to add a bit of interest to my display:

Although I have been quite successful sales wise at Lakenheath I do think I need to work on how I display my work, make my displays more interesting and attention grabbing.

This is my latest pendant created from reclaimed necklace and earring parts with some vintage text and vintage copper wire:

"Perfect Harmony"

On Friday Kath and I are teaching a jewellery workshop locally for teenage girls. I love the workshops we do with kids, it's always a joy to see them getting stuck in, using their innate creativity and imagination to create fabulous work and have a fun time doing it. Working with Kath is the other joy of these workshops, we're a good team and our artistic and teaching styles, although quite different, compliment each other really well. We always have a good time and lots of laughs on the days we work together. ;o)

Reflecting

2010-04-02T22:04:00.001Z

It was my birthday two days ago, I'm a round number now... 44. ;o) I became somewhat reflective on the day following an occurrence which I won't bore you with but the reflection is still hanging about. A good friend of mine recently posted a really personal insight to their art blog and it made me think about the fact that blogs often just show one facet of a person, not the whole, and I think that my blog definitely doesn't reflect much about who I am, professionally, personally, emotionally, the whole nine yards. Nowadays I seem to fight shy of blogging about anything other than "hey, look what I did...", I don't record my process or thoughts and feelings behind work or hopes and plans or mistakes or work in progress or experiments and playtime or inspiration or lack of it . The blogs I love to visit have all of that in abundance. In blog land, I've become very one dimensional and boring, maybe I have in real life too for all I know. Time for a shake up. ;o)

Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2010

2010-03-14T23:46:00.000Z

At the eleventh hour I decided that I would submit some work to the RA Summer Exhibition again this year. With barely a fortnight between making the decision and the deadline for submissions I paid up and set to work! My current squeeze is video tape and I wanted to use it in both my pieces.

"Wound Up"

My first piece is a sphere constructed entirely from video tape and mounted on a vintage table mat. I used eight reels of video to make the ball which is just over 2 miles of tape! It's a simple piece, tactile and reflective, with a whimsical side to it.

"Her Honesty and Her Pain"

With my second piece I wanted to combine assemblage and writing in an artist book. I altered the book by creating one deep niche to house the writing and using acrylic paint and inks to change the appearance. The text is written on video tape with white chinograph pencil. The tape is affixed to the book at one end only and sits in the niche in a jumble. To read the text the tape must be handled and untangled. The text is my own words and reads:

"She felt her honesty and her pain. The honesty came first, crashing in unexpectedly, in the early hours of the morning, a tsunami of raw emotion. She laid very still in the vast bed, feeling utterly alone. The gentle breeze from the open window caressed her bare skin, the kiss of the outside world on an intensely private moment. The honesty weighed heavy, sank into every part of her, filling every pore, colouring her with pure truth. Her mind became crystal clear. The pain came later. It hovered menacingly for most of the day and then swooped in abruptly without warning. It crushed her, squeezing the breath from her lungs, leaving her gasping to be healed. The wounds opened easily under the pressure, fresh fierce pain forcing itself in against the flow. They had arrived now, her honesty and her pain, together as one, as surely as she had known they would."

Photos courtesy of Rob Morris.

Life Drawing

2010-03-07T20:34:00.000Z

I thought it was time I got back to some creative blogging!

I've been going to a local life drawing class for well over a year now and in that time I've tried different media such as pencil, pen, watercolour and pastels. When I started at the class my first favoured medium was charcoal and a fortnight ago I returned to using it after a lengthy gap and fell in love with it all over again. ;o) In terms of technique, I don't think I've made much progress over this past year which is probably due to the fact that I rarely find time to practice between classes (much as I'd like to!) but it's always good fun and I do enjoy being in the company of the rest of the class who all have very different styles. Here are two of the charcoal drawings from a fortnight ago:

For all these drawings I used charcoal and some white pastel and used a foam make up brush doodad to blend. I have no idea about charcoal techniques and really should have a punt about online for some ideas of what I should be doing! In the meantime I'll busk it and continue to have some fun with it! ;o) One good technique I have down pat is the application of copious amounts of charcoal to my face during the process of trying to get some of it on the paper!! lol

Man and the Environment Exhibition

2010-02-03T09:41:00.002Z

The Man and the Environment exhibition, for which I had two pieces of work selected, opened at The Forum in Norwich last Tuesday. On Monday evening there was a private preview event which I attended with my friend, Kath. Kath was responsible for initially forwarding me the email with details of the exhibition without which I wouldn't have submitted my work so she had to be my "plus one", of course. ;o) The excitement started before we even reached the exhibition though! On our way in to the underground car park at The Forum we were greeted with a big display board over the entrance featuring, among others, my piece, Tragedy!

Tragedy had already been featured on The Forum website and the flyers for the exhibition but seeing this large scale piece of promotion was fantastic! And it get's better! After we got out of the car, I was absolutely thrilled to see a huge wall poster for the exhibition featuring just my piece! Excitement overload! ;oD

The exhibition organisers have told me I am welcome to have the poster after the exhibition is over which will be a great keepsake even if I haven't got enough wall space anywhere to put it up! ;o) Upstairs in the exhibition itself my other piece of selected work, Every Possible Mistake, features on on of the display boards and Tragedy is on several digital screen displays!

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one artist to take, the day after the preview I discovered my Tragedy piece is featured in a news article on the BBC website! ;o)

The exhibition itself is full of fabulous contemporary artwork. I feel honoured to be included in such a great collection of work. It is all excellently presented in the space and well worth a visit although I am slightly biased!

All the images (apart from the two smaller ones) were taken by Rob Morris. Thanks, Rob! ;o)

This has been such a good experience and a great start to 2010 for me. ;o)

100 Sq Ft Exhibition

2010-01-25T15:19:00.002Z

Next month I have a piece of artwork being exhibiting in a novel art exhibition in London. It's called the 100 Sq Ft Exhibition and is made up of 100 pieces of artwork all a square foot in size. This is the second year the exhibition has been organised. You can find out more here. This is my piece:

It is entitled A Deeper Incision and is an assemblage of a found rusty nail, tiny bottle, vintage resistor and brass panel pins on recycled wooden board layered with acrylic paints and inks.

US Exhibition

2010-01-08T09:03:00.000Z

I'm very pleased to report that these three pieces of assemblage work will shortly be winging their way to the US to be part of an exhibition in a New York art gallery in February. ;o)

Man and the Environment exhibition

2009-12-22T22:00:00.003Z

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!

2009-11-13T23:07:00.000Z

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

2009-11-10T09:59:00.000Z

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

2009-11-08T21:08:00.000Z

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

2009-11-08T20:54:00.000Z

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

2009-10-14T23:45:00.002Z

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

2009-10-13T08:44:00.001Z

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

2009-09-30T21:43:00.000Z

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

2009-09-24T13:59:00.000Z

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

2009-09-16T19:59:00.004Z

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

2009-09-11T13:37:00.002Z

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!

2009-09-05T10:40:00.008Z

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

Studio

2009-08-27T02:06:00.003Z

After a few lovely days away I'm back home and catching up on lots of jobs, not least of which is my current studio re-jig. I'd felt for a good while that the space just wasn't working for me in the way I need it to so August became "re-jig the studio month"! I've dispensed with some rather shonky lightweight furniture, which frankly just wasn't man enough for the job, and have put another vintage kitchen larder cupboard in. I tinkered about with the lay out so that I could create a small office space which will be be a great boon I hope. With all the furniture moved about and the lay out settled I started putting stuff back in the studio and that's pretty much still the stage I'm at. It's not moving as fast as I would like but I'm grimly determined to have it sorted by the end of this coming weekend! There, now I've publicly declared myself I'll have to knuckle down and finish it now! ;oD There will be before and after pics when the deed is done but as a little taster....

This is taken from the hallway looking through doorway into the studio. Remember this, it's going to look soooooo different the next time you see this corner!

Henry Moore

2009-08-22T14:49:00.006Z

A couple of weeks ago I visited The Henry Moore Foundation at Perry Green in Herts for the second time. I really enjoyed seeing the sculptures again, the backdrop of the grounds they're set in is just lovely, also, touring Moore's house and his studios again were great. I loved discovering about Moore's technique and process last year when we visited and with that knowledge seeing his work again this year was even more enjoyable. I shared some of my photos last year but couldn't resist taking more this time so apologies if I'm repeating myself!

Working Model for Sundial. It was quite a showery day but I liked the different perspective the rain gave the sculptures.

Detail of King and Queen.

Close up of some textural detail on Large Figure in a Shelter.

Large Figure in a Shelter.

Three Piece Sculpture: Vertabrae

Three Piece Sculpture: Vertabrae

Roof detail of Hoglands.

Life Drawing

2009-08-19T17:22:00.004Z

I've been going to a local life drawing class run by my artist friend, Richard, at his studio since last November time and have been plodding along trying different media...charcoal, coloured pencil, pencil, pen and, most recently, PanPastels. I tried ordinary pastels way back before Christmas but didn't get on very well with them at all but these pastels are something else, they're really smooth and soft, easy to apply and I'm really enjoying using them. I'm no pastel artist nor am I much cop at the life drawing itself but I enjoy going and think I'm making a tiny bit of progress and I intend to plough on and try to keep improving little by little. These are three of my drawings using the pastels:

The Reiki Pendant

2009-08-08T07:53:00.005Z

I have alot of catching up to do and I thought I'd kick off with my latest pendant, now going by the name of The Reiki Pendant! ;o) For those of you who aren't knocking about on FB with me (feel free to join me if you're not!), a brief explanation...I made myself a new pendant, choker stylee, a couple of weeks ago, the base of which is a metal piece, think it might have been a napkin ring in it's former life. I wore it that evening to a complementary therapies workshop I've been attending. The subject that night was reiki. To cut a long story short, we did reiki share where everyone takes a turn to receive reiki from everyone else. During my turn I could feel my throat pulsating and getting really hot and when we'd finished the metal of my choker was almost too hot to touch! My throat chakra was chucking out some serious heat! So, here it is:

The main piece started life as a napkin ring or one of those things you hang on decanters maybe and I straightened it out and wielded my drill on it. The danglie is comprised of a vintage fishing piece wrapped with coloured wire and various beads and part of an earring. At the moment it's on black velvet cord which just ties at the back but I may change that for something else.

Close up of the metal piece.

Close up of the danglie.

Journeys

2009-07-25T15:13:00.003Z

My latest joint exhibition with the talented Rob has gone up today ready to welcome visitors from Monday. As ever, I'm relieved to have got to this point and to see it all in situ and ready to go! ;o) I've really enjoyed working on this theme. We originally planned the theme as travel but it transpired that neither of us were too enthused about that so we shifted the focus to journeys, a theme open to much wider interpretation. Rob has produced some fabulous work using not just photographic images but also some of his beautiful prose, there's a couple of pics here. For my part in the exhibition I decided to explore my ongoing artistic journey through my assemblage pieces. When I was in the ideas stage I thought aboutdoing something akin to the Stations of the Cross, shrines representing the different aspects of my journey. That idea evolved and has resulted in 16 assemblage pieces all reflecting different feelings that I experience as an artist. I had a long list of possibles and the 16 I worked with are hope, passion, frustration, procrastination, criticism, creation, doubt, belief, confusion, fun, determination, loneliness, revelation, evolution, growth and loss. All the pieces are quite raw and simple, some are quirky (although nearly all my work is quirky I think! LOL) and fun but with all of them I've tried to express my emotion as it presented itself in me. I'm not sure that makes much sense! ;o) To whet your appetite, here's Passion and Revelation:

"Passion" ~ glass & metal religious stoop, vintage poetry text (Longfellow), vintage copper sheet

"Revelation" ~ vintage camera, vintage text (not visible), metal coil, plaster moulding

Gateposts and Graffiti

2009-07-11T15:02:00.003Z

Last weekend we had a day out and about and went to Blickling Hall, a National Trust property in Norfolk. We took the dogs on the longest of their waymarked trails and along the way I was captivated by the patterns on an old gate post:

We finished our day out off with a stroll along the front at Sheringham where we happened upon this groovy piece of stencil graffiti:

Art Journaling Workshop

2009-06-29T13:23:00.005Z

Over the weekend FenVAC hosted an art exhibition as part of a local town's Medieval Festival festivities. During the exhibition we offered some free workshops and my contribution, with my lovely friend, Kath, was on the subject of art journaling. It would have been difficult to cover the entire topic in the two hour slot I had so it was more of an informal introduction to art journaling with lots of journals and journaling books to look at and plenty of different art materials to play with. We had lovely participants, adults and children, who all threw themselves into journaling, some for the first time, and had great fun! We used self portraits as our theme which proved a very popular choice. Here we all are getting down to arty business:

I started on a self portrait journal page of my own during the worskhop which I have since finished:

The night before the workshop I had been playing about with an inkjet photo transfer technique that I read about in Corey Moortgat's book, The Art of Personal Imagery, where you spray water onto the inkjet image, lay paper on top, burnish and hey presto, a transfer of your image. ;o) After making a couple of transfers the photo was still wet so I used the end of my spoon to idly add spirals (one of my favourite shapes and one I'm increasingly drawn to) and outline the figure. At the weekend I added some colour to the image with various pens and ink, taped it to my background (which is mount board with acrylic and gesso baby wiped on and pen added on the corners) with masking tape and added a variety of text.

Pollocking Good Fun!

2009-06-23T07:08:00.005Z

Last week I joined forces with my artist friend, Richard Savage, to produce a scarecrow for a local competition during June and July. This year's theme is famous people, real or fictional, and we, of course, chose an artist! This is Mr Jackson Pollock! ;oD

I have to admit I didn't have much of a hand in making the scarecrow, Richard made a fab job of the head and another friend made his body, I just helped slap a bit of paint on and get him decently dressed! ;oD

The most fun though was creating a Pollock style painting to stand alongside the figure to give folk a clue as to who he is!! We joined two life torn canvases together making one whole canvas of about 3' by 8' and covered them in more canvas before starting our drip and run extravaganza! We both now have more of an appreciation of Pollock's working method as it took forever to get the paint to the right consistency!! However, once we got the paint sorted we had great fun flicking it about! ;oD Don't even ask how much cleaning up it took afterwards! LOL

If you're local you can see our man outside the Honest John public house, South Park Street, Chatteris, PE16 6AR from this weekend until the end of July.

'Cos Dads are Special!

2009-06-05T07:19:00.004Z

My latest joint exhibition with Rob is all set to open on Monday. ;o) We're exhibiting a variety of work, some previously seen, some new. It would be fair to say that this one has be a challenge for a number of reasons but we're nearly there and it's time to celebrate so if you're in the vicinity on Tuesday evening, come along and meet us, peruse our work and partake of a nibble & drink! ;o)

There's worse ways to be rejected.....

2009-05-29T08:40:00.002Z

I've had the news from The Royal Academy of Art that they don't want my self portrait for this year's Summer Exhibition. I can't imagine why on earth not, there's no accounting for taste! LOL When I heard the news I was in Paris close to the Eiffel Tower so it wasn't all bad! ;oD

Beads, Bijou and Adventures in the Loire Valley

2009-05-28T18:55:00.010Z

I've just returned from a brief jaunt to France and have some updating to do! More of my French adventures later but first more recent news.

This is my latest piece of jewellery:

It's made from copper napkin ring, the copper based decorative oriental metal I used in my last piece, a vintage key, a bead and some wire. The beads that the pendant is attached were found a car boot a while ago.

Last Thursday I went along to RAF Wyton, with five other FenVAC members, to take part in a Learn at Work Day. There were all manner of interests represented from astronomy to composting and sugarcraft to metal detecting! It was good to meet lots of folk and chat about my work. I sometimes struggle to talk about my work in these situations but I know I have to get out there more and do some serious networking! It's also a good reminder of how isolating it can become to be beavering away on my own in my studio and forgetting the real world still exists outside!! During the day I worked on making beads from copper sheet reclaimed from the back of a shed! I managed to make 180 + beads and here they are:

So, my French adventure....
I went over to St Jean de Braye, the twin town of March, in the Loire Valley region. I was peforming in a show with MADAOS but we also got the chance to do a little gadding about so just a few photos to share with you...

How cool is this little fella? We visited a Medieval village, Yevre le Chatel, and there were several of these wild boar sculptures in the ruined castle. I'm not sure how they're made and couldn't find any details of who made them so can't credit them but they were delightul.

In the churchyard at Yevre le Chatel there was a lovely tomb with this glorious rusted wreath on the door.

Still in the churchyard, I spotted this unusual grave stone, more of a sculpture than a headstone but very interesting although it freaked my daughter out!

This was taken in Orleans, it's a shop in one of the main streets but I couldn't tell you which as the upper architecture was so much more interesting! I love French architecture and could have wandered about for hours getting a crick in my neck! LOL

I loved this sculpture which was close to the cathedral in Orleans. It's called La Beauce but, again, I can't tell you who the artist is despite doing a bit of research online.

More rust! This time, in the courtyard of a witchcraft museum we visited.

Given the name of my blog I couldn't resist snapping this chappie on the back of a coach in the car park at the Pont Canal de Briare! I earned myself a few odd looks but hey, what can I say? I'm a artist! LOL

Studio or Dumping Ground?

2009-04-23T17:52:00.003Z

Look at the state of my studio......

Self Portrait

2009-04-15T11:42:00.003Z

At last, here's some pics of the self portrait I've submitted for The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.

I have got some photos of the portrait on it's own but, well, these are my favourites! LOL

I have to admit it didn't really pan out how I expected it to, I obviously have more skill in the paint mixing department than I imagine because despite my best efforts I managed to not only match the joins pretty well but also the paint colours! I painted each canvas individually and mixed paint as I went but even so it all matches pretty well! Hey ho! I used just three colours of acrylic - turquoise, magenta and violet along with white. I'm pleased with the outcome even though it isn't at all what I had planned! The whole process was completed during some difficult times healthwise and the portrait is a very personal triumph even if it doesn't make it anywhere near a Royal Academy wall. ;o)

These shots were taken during a shoot for a local charity calendar I'm involved with. My artist friend, Richard Savage, has organised the calendar which will benefit a local charity, the Chatteris Christmas Lights. It will be launched in the summer. The theme for the calendar photos is for the participants to use a prop that pertains to their occupation to cover the essentials! I was photographed with various pieces of my work but my pic will definitely feature my self portrait which I'm pleased about. The images themselves will be black and white with just the prop in colour. Looking forward to seeing the finished calendars! ;o)

New Pendant

2009-03-24T16:19:00.004Z

I haven't made any jewellery for a while although I have lots of ideas for new pieces, my RA submissions have hijacked any artistic time I've had this month. However I'm seeing a friend this evening who celebrated her 50th birthday recently and I wanted to make her a piece as a gift. With time at a premium I wanted to add a pendant to a lovely three string necklace of mainly brown and amber coloured crystal beads that I found in the junk shop a while ago. On what was probably my last foray into a charity shop before tearing my tendon I picked up an etched metal picture in a wooden frame, quite popular a good few years ago, it has a floral design with birds and an Oriental bent to it. It's a little textured and mostly coloured with different golds and some black outlines. I thought it would compliment the beads nicely. Although it's quite thick it cuts easily and is fairly pliable so I cut a rectangle as a starter for my pendant. After some investigation, I discovered the metal is copper so I sanded it back to bring the copper through. I wanted softer edges for the piece so I rounded the corners and curved them in a little. I wanted to add some movement to the piece so used part of an old tarnished metal earring, the individual pieces all move independently. I added a bead using copper wire and used the same copper wire to attach the pendant to the necklace. The photo doesn't really do it justice - I didn't have my trusty professional photographer friend to hand! - but I wanted to share a pic as I have to part with it tonight!

Self Portrait Progress

2009-03-16T16:44:00.003Z

The race to complete my Royal Academy submission continues albeit slowly! :oD After some trial and error (on my husband's part!) the canvases are now all bolted together securely and are quite sturdy although I think the addition of a vertical baton on the back will definitely make them rock solid. I've now drawn on my outline and am ready to start painting the canvases once they've all been separated again. I seem to have given myself a little tiny face but it's only a guideline so I can fiddle with it as I go along.

I'm setting up home in the dining room temporarily to avoid having to go up and down the stairs to my studio on my crutches too often. I don't think I mentioned previously but I'm working with a magenta, violet and turquiose colour scheme rather like this previous painting:

Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition

2009-03-11T20:09:00.006Z

Some of you will know that a piece of my assemblage was shortlisted for last year's Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition and it was such a blast that I thought I would have another stab at it this year!

This year I thought I'd like to submit a sculpture and a painting (as opposed to two sculptures last year) and plans were all going relatively smoothly until the Achilles monster stuck it's oar in! LOL Having already paid for my entries (yep, just call me tight!) and after a degree of ponderance I decided I would go ahead notwithstanding the plaster cast.

So, here's my first piece, Helicoidal Impulse.

The base of the piece is a vintage brass bell, and yes, if you hold the piece up and thwack the bell it is very musical! :O) The spiral is made from vintage Paxolin circuit boards supported on a bolt through the centre of the bell.

A view looking at the underneathof the spiral.

And, a view looking down.

Bearing in mind that I have to post my entry form by this weekend it would make sense to have completed my second piece as well but nooooooo, that would be too easy wouldn't it now? LOL

My second piece is a self portrait based on this photo:

This year I'm working on a body image project and have recently had a naked photo shoot. Wandering off the point briefly, if you've ever had body acceptance issues I highly recommend having a naked photo shoot. It may sound a bizarre thing to be suggesting but it has been the single most empowering thing I have ever done for myself. If you're local to me (or even if you're not!) then I recommend my good friend, Rob, he's excellent at putting folk at their ease in these situations and takes fantastic photos! If you want to know more, email me.

So, back to the painting... I'm going to do a life size (ish!) portrait but not on a straightforward square canvas! I am using nine canvases of varying sizes which will be joined together like this:

I will do a basic drawing of the figure with the canvases connected but will then paint them seperately mixing paint for each as I go so the finished painting will be purposely imperfect and a little fragmented. Watch this space for progress updates!