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

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

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?

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

Self Portrait

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

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

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

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!

Studio Goings On

Determined not to be hampered by having my left leg encased in plaster for eight (count them....) weeks I'm still managing to haul myself up to the studio! ;oD My second joint exhibition with Rob, 'Cos Mothers are Special, begins on Saturday with a preview tomorrow evening from 5pm to 7pm. If you're local, do pop in and say hello, there's nibbles, soft drinks, great artwork and I might even let you have a doodle on my cast! LOL



To whet your appetite, this is one of my mixed media canvas pieces made for the exhibition:



And some detail:





Earlier this week I made a card for a friend's birthday yesterday. I wanted to make something quite simple and whilst pondering what I had within reach of where I was sitting ;oD I spotted this fab vintage French book I picked up some time ago in the local junk shop. The pages were all falling out anyway so I helped them on their way and used the cover as my card. Richard is an erotic artist and writer so I thought the addition of a vintage pencil was appropriate. Simple but effective I hope!

Graffiti

Whilst trolling past a boarded up shop near one of my favourite junk shop haunts the other day I spotted some Banksy style stencil graffiti sprayed on the wood and whipped out my camera to capture it! ;o)

Demons Will Charm You

This is the textured canvas piece I blogged about a few posts ago. Rob has done a great job of capturing the depth of the layers in the piece. I worked with acrylic paints and glazes, inks & textured gels (glass bead and sand), collaged on some shapes cut from Latin Bible pages and added some vintage green resistors. The title of the piece comes from a song lyric from Sweeney Todd and reflects the moods and emotions I went through whilst creating it.


Detail of canvas.


Detail of canvas with resistors.


Detail of collaged papers.

Valentine's Day Gift

Some husbands bring their wives red roses on Valentine's Day, or a box of chocolates or maybe some lingerie but what precious gift did my husband bestow upon me? See below....



Yes, my husband brought me a load of vintage capacitors and resistors that he found in the shed which are of no use to him! LOL Unromantic? Nooooooo, they are a much much more welcome gift than any of those boring traditional things! I've already used some of the green babies to finish off the mixed media canvas piece I shared a little snippet of recently. ;o) I should have some pictures to share of it soon once the lovely Rob has photographed it for me. Watch this space!

Treasure Hunting!

Once the snowy conditions improved earlier this week I had a jaunt to Dowhnam Market, a town about 20 miles from here just over the border into Norfolk. My paternal grandparents retired to this town (from Essex) when I was a baby and so I spent a fair bit of my childhood there little knowing I would end up living so close by as an adult. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Downham and always enjoy visiting. ;o) On Tuesday I popped into a little antique shop that I love to browse about in and found some delightful treasures! The shop is a series of little rooms run by a lovely, somewhat eccentric and always talkative, elderly lady. The rooms are packed to the gunnells with all manner of interesting fodder for a junkie of all things used like me! At the back of the shop is a room where all the less interesting (to others!) stuff is heaped on shelves and all over the floor. Rummaging about I found an ice cream box full of wooden pieces, covered in filth and long ignored, they were just desperate to be liberated! ;o)



The shop owner didn't remember where they came from but they look to me like they have come from a church. Any ideas? I haven't cleaned them up yet but alot of the pieces are painted gold in part. There was over 80 pieces in the box including some decorative brass upholstery pins and a sweet little trowel.

Also in the back room was a huge hanger, I estimated about 150, of different brass escutcheons, I would've loved to have bagged the whole lot (and may go back to bargain with her I think) but I couldn't afford her price so had to be content with these few babies:



I also found this lovely silver coloured piece amongst a heap of tins, I don't think it's real silver, it's certainly not hallmarked, and I'm not sure what it is, possibly a napkin ring, but I loved the pattern and think it'll be a base for a pendant. It's about 5 inches long now it's flattened out.



Whilst waiting for my haul to be wrapped it was pointed out to me that there were more shelves of goodies behind where I was standing so, of course, I found some more treasures to up my ever increasing bill! These keys are gorgeous:



There's 42 in the bunch, all different, and none of them are longer than an inch or so.

Last but not least, I found this set of rubber stamps:



They're all wood mounted and haven't seen much use by the look of them. Not really sure what they would've been for, connected with the weight of parcels maybe? They'll be fun to use in art journals and collage pieces. ;o)

I'm in the mood for more scavenging now....

Sexy Texture!

I'm working on a canvas in the studio, lots of delicious layers going on to it, acrylic paint, acrylic glazes, sand and glass bead textured gels and inks to date, all in deep purple and magenta tones with some blues thrown in. I have no idea where I'm going with it and I think there are lots more layers to be added yet but I thought I'd share a little pic of it in progress!

Inside and Out

So, this is what it's been doing most of this week! Not a sight we see that often in this neck of the woods! I'd like to say I've been warm and cosy in my studio but it's not much warmer in there than it has been outside! However I have been working on various things, at least until I lost all feeling in my fingers and toes when I'd retreat to the open fire to thaw out! LOL



This was the state of my desk after I'd finished getting ready for the exhibition last week! And the floor around it was pretty much the same so first task of the week was to reclaim some workspace. That job done, I've been working on a canvas, building layers with textured mediums, acrylic paint & glazes and ink. I'm undecided whether it will remain a painting or whether it will be a background that I attach an assemblage piece to. I have a few pics in the camera so will post some tomorrow.
Rob and I have talked about doing some collaborative work together involving his photographic images and I would create assemblage/collage frames. I've begun a frame to compliment this image of Rob's:



It's from a FenVAC art day visit to a spartan little church in a village near here. It just invokes tranquility to me and that's what I'm trying to convey with the frame as a compliment to the image. At the moment I have collaged Latin Bible pages to the frame as my base and I plan to add some stencilling in black before adding an assemblage piece, possibly incorporating a glass test tube. I'm trying to keep the frame monotone but I feel some accents of red may creep in!

Inspired by this post on Something Sublime, Deryn Mentock's blog, I've also started a jewellery art journal this week. I keep an ideas book but it's scrappy and all over the place so I'm going to use my new journal to record my many and varied jewellery ideas. ;o) I'm currently trying to work out some pieces that will appeal to men and finding it very difficult!