Journeys

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

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

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!

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!

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.....

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.