AEM DAY 14

Sorry you're going to bored of all these but we are nearly finished! 2 sets of tree danglies.

AEM DAY 13

I'm not doing much art wise while I finish putting stock onto my website but here is a journal page I finished last night.

AEM DAY 12

More christmas danglies, this time tree decorations.

AEM DAY 11 - Learning to let go...

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable in my artistic skin these days, all my hard work seems to be paying off at last! I spent my years at college being told to forget the style I had then and I struggled to find a new one I was comfortable with, which is how the collage came about and I dropped my drawing altogether. It was a process I had to go through but it's taken over 10 years to realise that my drawing is an important part of who I am and instead of apologising for the fact I could draw I should embrace it and use it with my collage skills and loosen up and somewhere in the mess and confusion the real me will emerge. Scary thought.

Above is a doodle using one of my calligraphy pens. I year or two ago I bought the new pilot parallel pens with brand new nibs that you could write on the edge of the nibs without losing the lines and for an impatient calligrapher they are totally wonderful. I usually use them for wedding stationery as they have a traditional ink thingy (forgot the name!) so you can use your own ink, gouache or watercolour mixes as well as standard cartridges and they write on almost anything. Anyway I thought I would try and draw with them instead of my usual rotring and experiment with the different lines you get with the wide nib. Then I pasted on a piece of indian handmade paper and see what happened. The lines of the drawing underneath showed through and when dry I drew over the top. Yum. Don't know if the finished result is any good but I enjoyed the process. And I it occured to me I have bottles and bottles of ink in a box I haven't used in a while so I might get them out next! Just like being back at college but without the stress of the critiques!

AEM DAY 10

More christmassy things for the website, this time a beaded snowflake and a red star. These are quite big (between 4 and 5 inches diameter) and are gorgeous hung in the window. £8 each or £12 with added beads and mirrors on the line they hang from. The website itself will be open soon, busy busy busy!

Have also updated my portfolio site, if you look on the fine art page you will see a few paintings and collages for sale. Sorry about the sales pitch, normal service will resume shortly.

AEM DAY 9

A painting for my friends little girl, hope she likes it!

AEM DAY 8 (minus the 5 I've missed!)

Today has been a sorting out kind of day today, my card/wedding shop was finished last week and I've been sorting through boxes of stuff and trying to photograph everything I have for this site as well as ebay, etsy, and my main portfolio website. I did manage to create a new header for my blog this morning before I got started (as regulars will have noticed I hope!) which was inspired by the new look for my portfolio site I created late last night. I am itching to do another painting (already got the title in my head) but I must finish the more practical stuff first!

Go to Art Everyday Month for more participants.

Fireworks

This weeks art lesson for Kamal's friend Patrick was to paint fireworks - I got a large sheet of black card and we all had a go and made a lot of mess (I'll be sweeping up glitter for weeks) and had a lot of fun!

Winter Exhibition - Time to Unwind

My 2 victorian ladies are going to be in the Cambridge Open Studios Group Exhibition to be held on the 25th (10 am - 6 pm) and 26th of November (10 am - 4 pm) , The Camstead Room, Cambridge Rugby Union Football Club, Granchester Road, Cambridge CB39ED. They are both for sale so if you want to snap them up before they go let me know! £200 each, 16 x 20 inches, mixed media on canvas ready to hang. I am sorting out prints and cards too if you prefer, watch this space!

Art Everyday Month

Like I haven't got enough to do already but I've decided to join Art Everyday Month. I do usually attempt to create something or other everyday but either don't get it finished or don't necessarily blog about it. So the next month may be a lot of fun or completely stressful and I wish I hadn't bothered or as dull as dishwater. I'm a little late starting as I only found out about it yesterday, my painting Smoke being the first candidate. Today's efforts are the christmas decs and danglies I've been making that are soon to go on etsy or ebay. Photographing them though is proving difficult as my house is very dark and some of the lightcatchers are a metre long. I did capture the above image and am playing around with it for a christmas card design.

Illustration Friday - Smoke

Acrylic, collage and image transfer on canvas, 16 x 20 inches

You can see how this was created here

Out of the mouth of babes

My Mum by Kamal, age 7

She doesn't play chess,
not even hide and seek
She's never doen a puzzle
and her nose is like a beak!

She's always on the phone
She never gets enough
by the time she gets off it
my dad is in a huff!

She really is lovely
especially with the hugs
When me and my sister goes to bed
She wraps us up like Bugs.

Thanks son. love you too ;0)

Postcard Swap

Look what I got in the post this morning! These beautiful postcards are the returns of my first altered postcard swap via artezine. Below are my efforts that were sent to the USA, hope whoever ended up with them like them!

Happy Halloween!

Artist at work

We let Anya loose with a paint brush last night and I got it all on tape! I tried to embed the video from youtube into this post but it's not working so if you want to see it please click the link instead - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zm-c_or6sw

Illustration Friday - Wind

Both my kids love being outdoors but Anya especially loves the wind. When we visited Ely at the weekend we spent a good half an hour in the grounds of the cathedral while she ran around like a looney, (anyone who knows the area will know that Ely is a great place for wind) shaking her hair, arms outstretched embracing the wind and rolling around on the ground like a leaf. I've tried to capture the essence of it with my new found drawing skills but it doesn't really do it justice. Children are so carefree, shame they have to grow up.

Flying by

That's another half term been and gone, too quick as always but I feel rested and spurred on after my spell in the doldrums. Autumn, like Spring, seems to refresh me and I enjoy the change in the weather and the smells and the colours that come with it, and the promise of Christmas just around the corner. This usually starts in September when school goes back, there's that familiar chill in the air and a sense of nostalgia from when I was a child. But it was late this year with the milder weather and I have been unsettled and lost my way somewhere. But everything seem to snap back into place last week, all of us were home at the same time for a whole 7 days (a rare occurrence) and we made a conscious decision to do as little as possible and just enjoy being a family. We did visit friends in Ely (where the photo is from) and grandma and grandad made a surprise trip up to see us and I tried to make the effort to spend quality time with Kamal. As adorable as Anya is she takes up so much time and attention and I have to remember that Kamal is used to having me all to himself and needs me too. He's going to be 8 at Christmas so not much time left before he disappears into his bedroom and never comes out!

One-liners

Sarah over at Rustic Relics has been having a go at one line drawings, something I've never tried before and it's quite a good exercise in letting go for a control freak like myself - you can't take the pen off the paper until it's finished so there's no correcting mistakes - try it!

Busy busy

Sorry if I've been a bit quiet lately, I got hit by a virus last week that laid me up for 2 days, which in a strange way did me some good (not working for 2 days that is, not being ill) as I spent it reading magazines and doodling and lots of other stuff that I have been meaning to do for ages. I'm not really the lying in bed type so this for me was a badly needed rest, mentally and physically. I've been trying to work out which direction I am going in, things have been getting really muddled again, too many ideas and not enough focus. So focus is what I am trying to do. I know I need to draw more and use collage in a more unique way and develop my own personal style so I have got my sketch book out again and I'm doodling. Trying to get the brain stimulated. Stop being afraid of my own crapness. And yesterday, thanks to my other half being home this week (it's half term so we are all home together!) he took the kids out of my hair for the morning so I could actually concentrate without any interruptions, time like that is rare these days. I've been wanting to work on textures and patterns for collage backgounds for a while now and spent sometime yesterday working out how to do it on PS but realised it was a bit flat for the look I wanted so got the paints out and messed around on paper instead. I think a combination of the 2 techniques is where I'm heading. It'll be interesting to see where I end up with this, I'm not really sure myself!

Past and present

If you are as interested in history and timelines as me at the mo here are two things worth a look History Matters and the BBC family history photo gallery. The national trust's History Matters asks you to write about a day in your life (if you live in the UK) to record and keep for future generations, the BBC gallery shows photos the public have submitted of their family from wartime and before. Absolutely fascinating.

Illustration Friday - Ghost

Illustration Friday - Smitten

More young talent

No, this isn't mine, Kamal was watching me make my Trouble illustration and asked me to show him how I did it. Then he had a go with no help from me - pretty cool eh!? He's posted it on his blog too if you'd like to leave him a comment or two ;0)

World in a box

Well my first craft session went well last Saturday, so well in fact I don't really think I was even needed! We decided to do a world in a box, and the kids got into it right away with beautiful results!

Illustration Friday - Trouble

Back to school

I've been giving art lessons to Kamal and his friend Patrick and this week I decided to try a still life, something I know the boys haven't done before and something I haven't done since school. Patrick brought along a brand new set of Caran D'ache watercolour pencils he'd been given and although I've got the neo set, these were new to me and I think I will be getting some of my own. They are so easy to use and the colours so rich and vibrant - yum!! I'm not sure who got more out of the lesson this week, Patrick or me. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph Patrick's masterpiece before he left but you can see Kamal's on his blog.

Tomorrow (Friday) Kamal and I are going to see the exhibition we are both in for artistic families and Saturday we are doing the first craft workshop for the local kids in the next village I mentioned the other week so we have a fun weekend ahead. Working with children is so enjoyable and fulfilling and although I have no desire to be a teacher fulltime I am thinking about looking into the art therapy side of things. Learning for little ones is so intrinsically linked to art and creativity in general and can help them develop in so many different ways, also I was talking to another artist who teaches a 90 year old woman with short term memory loss and when she starts painting it seems to unlock part of her memory and she recalls parts of her life which she had otherwise forgotten. I find this really fascinating and I really feel it might be time to learn a bit more about it and put my own abilities to some practical use. How or what I haven't figured out yet but it will be an interesting journey.

Inspire Me Thursday - daily photo project

Um tricky one this, my camera and I do not have a very good relationship. I think I am still skinny and 22 and pale and interesting whereas my camera tells me otherwise, I have 12 years worth of additional lines, bags under the eyes and excess puffyness from 2 pregnancies. I am 34, tired and uninteresting. Don't get me wrong, I don't suffer from self loathing or anything like that, in fact I am happier in my skin now than I was ever was at 22, and I hated having my photo taken then. I just don't take a good picture and don't see the need to inflict it onto anyone else (ok, I admit it, I'm shy, self conscious and a tiny bit vain). So I bleached out the photos in the computer to remove the wear and tear from my features, printed it out and transfered them onto a board with my favourite matt medium and added a few little collaged embellishments. I'm not sure what I make of the end results or what I've gained out of it, other than telling myself to eat more greens and drink more water. As this project was inspired by a video of a guy who had taken a photo of himself every day for 6 years which I found totally captivating, 6 days doesn't really have the same impact. I will have a think - this is something I might come back to...

See the Inspire Me Thursday site to see the video and more

Illustration Friday - Quiet

'Quiet Contemplation'

Mixed media on canvas 16 x 20 inches

Exhibition

Kamal and I have been invited to show a couple of pics at an exhibition for artistic families by fellow COS member Sue Kafka-Ellis this coming weekend. I framed 2 of Kamal's pieces and they look great! I don't think he's quite taken in that is his work is going to be shown alongside those of real artists - as for me, I'm just a very proud mum!

Illustration Friday - Phobia

Claustrophobia

Paper collage digitally enhanced.

Drawing Grid

Over at the Drawing Club they've been having a go a drawing grids, so as my plan to get drawing more the other month flew out the window for one reason or another, I thought this might be a fairly easy but fun way to do some quick sketching from the comfort of my living room. Apart from the dodgy pic of my boy and my 18 month old bouncing up and down on the sofa next to me I was quite pleased with the results as I deliberately used my pen straight off with no pencil first. It was hard at first to resist my inner voice that was telling me the squares were too small and the drawings were, er, rubbish and kept with it. Turned out to be a lot of fun, and now I've seen how great the other group members (here, here, here and here) turned out I think I might do this more regularly.

Back to Business!

Yeah my computer problems are sorted (bought a new one), so things are finally getting back to normal. Above is my latest collage and if you want to see how I did it visit my new blog Art Tutorial. Off to go and reinstall all my software and see what this baby can do!

Present for Kamal

Kamal received this wonderful handmade bracelet from Toby who is the creative force behind Natural Atrill. This young man has real talent, you must go and see his stunning jewellery! Thanks Toby, Kamal loves it :0) You can see Kamal's post about it on his blog too.

Illustration Friday - Change

Untitled - acrylic, collage and ink on canvas

This is a little ambiguous I'm afraid but that's exactly how I'm feeling right now. I said in a previous post (or two) that things were changing and so they are. I can't say how exactly because apart from being flung into a technological no-man's land by my computer (at least the internet is still working!) nothing in a physical sense has changed. It's all in my head. After years of working and striving to make a living as a commercial artist I find myself in a position where I want to produce more of my own art and make a living from that instead, the commercial side of my career doesn't thrill me anymore. I've worked my behind off trying to update my design site but the nearer I get to completing it the more I want to run away from it. Now here's the problem - I've got a massive list of contacts and opportunities to persue were I to have a number of artworks I thought were worthy. But I am not there yet, nearly but not quite. I've got the techniques down but the paintings get lost half way through, I either leave them unfinished or force myself to finish them and take them where I don't want to go like the one picture above. Fear of discovering that really I have been a fraud along and I would be better off stacking shelves somewhere could be at the heart of it but I know I have to press forward and find out the truth one way or other. And at least I have my commercial work to fall back on. I want to change and I am changing, I'm just not sure how or where.

Moving home

Oh if only, but friends of mine have just moved so here is a card I whipped up for them. (Sorry about the quality of the pics over the next few days, I've no scanner and the computer will only do so much to adjust the photos. 10 more days and counting 'til we are back to normal, fingers and toes crossed)

Escape to the country

Well I said there was change in the air, but what I wasn't expecting was for the computer to pack up! I was in an absolute spin last Thursday but we decided to run away from everything and take a long weekend in gloucestershire. The photo here was taken on top of the Malvern Hills and really doesn't do it justice. It was nice to be as far away from technology as you can be, feel the wind through your hair and realise that there is a world out there. I rely on this damn machine far too much, but it is a necessary evil whilst I continue to make a living from it. Having said that in the few days I've not had it switched on I'm amazed at just how much I've got done as I'm not constantly checking emails or blogs to see if there is anything new. I think I've acquired a rather unhealthy addiction that needs breaking and this just might be the time to do it!

On a more positive note it looks like I will be helping with a craft group that a local village is setting up for the kids, once a month over the winter. It's voluntary but it sounds like a lot of fun (especially the christmas one) and good for the old C.V. I've got a couple of other things in the pipeline but nothing confirmed as yet so best keep quiet for now. I've also joined the Art and Craft Co-operative blog (come and join, it's a great site but still needs a few more members) and I've a pile of artwork waiting to be finished so lots to keep me busy until the computer is back to full health.

Out with the old...

...and in with the new. After a lot of deliberation nearly all of the designs on my wedding site (the old version that is) are being either being scrapped or refurbished for the new one and lots of new and exciting creations are being mocked up as we speak, including the wedding cake one here. Talk about making work for myself because the old designs were very popular but it's feels like putting on an old tatty pair of shoes that are just not me anymore. So in the bin they go!

Change is in the air

Well Kamal is back at school, year 3 no less. Watching all the little ones starting nursery class brought home just how grown up our lot look plus it's only another 18 months to go before Anya will be doing the same! Wish things would slow down a little. But hey, there's no time to be maudlin, I've got work to do.

With summer officially over (in our house anyway) I've got no choice but to start planning for the next 12 months. I'm starting next years list now rather than at the new year to get a head start on myself, especially as I made such a bad job of finishing the last one. My other half bought me a gorgeous leather bound A4 filofax last year in the hope it might turn me into a super-organised-business-woman type. Not worked so far but I'm going to try harder this time. Top of my new list is the last thing on my old one, yes you guessed it, the wedding/card website. I've done all the techie stuff so now it's just a case of putting all the stock back on it. Trouble is I've changed so much in the last 12 months I'm looking at my old designs and thinking 'yuk'. Time to do some new ones. Can it be done before October? We shall see.

Other things on my list? Filling out the application form to a teaching agency to be a visiting artist at local colleges. Looking into starting workshops (a dream of mine) - found a suitable, affordable location, just not got as far as doing anything about it. Sending illustration work off to publishers. Sending articles off to magazines. Joining a local art and craft fair. To name but a few. Deep breath...