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Monday, July 31, 2006

Bad Mum!


I'm ashamed to say that poor Kamal has been waiting and waiting for me to scan his increasingly large pile of drawings to put on his blog and all I keep saying is 'I'll do it later'. It's been about 2 months later now so I have spent the whole of today and most of this evening making up for it. And I'm not even half way through. Serves me right!! But I have noticed just how his drawing has developed even in that small space of time, he's already got his own definate style appearing, and although it is still cartoony I've noticed quite a mature line. I even asked him if he had done a couple of them himself to which he just tutted as if I had said something really stupid - well, who else would have done them Mum? Dad? The baby? Ok, point taken. Need to pay a bit more attention me thinks!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Illustration Friday - Sacrifice

Another oldie from my darker college days! It was inspired by a musical piece by John Tavener and although the title escaped my poor old brain a long time ago I do remember it had something to do with religious sacrifice so I've added the quote from Yeats.

Looking at it now it has occured to me that in the last month I seem to have come full circle in my art work especially with the Whispers set, although the subject matter has changed (I'm not quite so gloomy now!) and the techniques has improved somewhat - if gel medium and photoshop existed when I was at college things could have been very different! I've also found old sketch books from back then with ideas, poetry and doodles that go somewhere to explain my obssession with windows amongst other things and the artistic muddle that I've been living in is finally beginning to unravel. There is one glaring large problem though. Although I am enjoying rediscovering image transfers and being nostalgic about where I come from blah blah blah it is not going to get me very far in the long run. The missing link? Drawing.

I turned to collage because my drawing style wasn't fashionable back in the early 90's. I loved pre-raphaelite and art nouveau and my art at the time reflected that but to my St Martin's trained illustration tutors at college it was naff and cliche (and they were probably right) and I struggled trying to fit into their idea of illustration. So I put down my coloured pencils and picked up the glue stick instead. Now however, I'm finding that collage doesn't always do the job and I need to get drawing again. But I'm still stuck with the same problem, I don't have a style, so it's my mission to find it. I've got a new sketchbook/journal and a new pen and I'm going to stop worrying about how awful everything is (which is the scaryiest bit for a controlling perfectionist like me) and see where it ends. I sacrificed my drawing for someone elses idea of style, now I'm going to get it back!

Monday, July 17, 2006

Inspire Me Thursday - Numeral Art


Part of the Whispers series, more here...
More Numeral Art here...

Saturday, July 15, 2006

NEW - Whispers Flickr Group



I've set up new Flickr group based around my Whispers project about hidden or secret messages - if you have a Flickr account please come and join in!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Latest Commission - nursery painting



Acrylic on canvas, 15.5 x 15.5 inches ready to hang. I will at some point put more of these on the website but if you want to commission one in the meantime - choose your own colours and motifs - just send me an email. This size shown is £50, or smaller 12 x 12 inches is £30.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Inspire Me Thursday - Image Transfers


Well this is timely, I've spent the last few days doing nothing else! You can see them all here and here. And if you want to have a go try the Inspire Me Thursday site for instructions and to see everyone else's wonderful creations.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Latest work


I've got another demo on the 15th July at the Gallery, this time it will be my own work and anyone can have a go so I am busy preparing. It's nice to have a whole 2 weeks to prepare (although the 1st week is nearly over already) instead of the usual last minute panic. I was excited to discover a jar of acrylic medium in the back of my cupboard so I've been experimenting with transfering vintage images onto paper already prepared with acrylic paint and the results are looking good! I've even managed a couple of pieces for the whispers series as the collaged ones just weren't working. Check the whispers blog for more.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Children's Art Day


Here are some of the photos from Saturday's demo and apart from having lots of fun we saw some really talented kids! Well done everyone and thanks to everyone who came!


Jill's printmaking demo...

Where do you live?...


Art dolls (fairies of course!)...

Create your own Matisse... Or Picasso...