A lovely walk today

I enjoyed a really nice walk today in the sunshine, taking lots of photos of things to inspire...

all for illustration research. No more words just pictures.

A couple of hours of printing...

I had to make a difficult decision yesterday.  I had to buy gelatin if I wanted to explore a new printing technique and as a vegetarian this didn't sit well with my ethics and VegeGel just wouldn't do.  However, my plan is to experiment with the gelatin plate and if I think I will be using it a lot, then I will invest in a Gelli Plate, a synthetic reusable version.

So to the horror of my children, yesterday saw me heating gelatin to make a printing plate, which this morning, I retrieved from the back of the fridge and had a play with with a roller and some acrylic paints.  I'm really happy with the results and feel that I now have a stock of printed cards to work into, over print and experiment with to make them really stand out.

Gelatin Plate.

Leaf prints from this mornings experiments.

I've really enjoyed making these this morning, a creative couple of hours with some interesting results, its the type I enjoy.  I used to really enjoy making collographs when I was at art college so this type of monoprinting is a return to a way of working that used to free my imagination.

I'm now planning how I can make these more individual, with designs from my own imagination.

Decision & Indecision

I've had an incredibly busy time the last couple of weeks.  From preparing for the Derbyshire Open Arts to going down to London to pick up my painting from the Vibe Gallery to helping organise an Arts Trail in my own town and make some work to show at for it.  I have also taken on the job of co-ordinating a Well Dressing design for another local festival. I'm also trying to get fit by running which is also producing some artwork.

This has left my head in a bit of a spin with the realisation of several things I don't like doing. 

My major discovery is that I don't like selling face to face to the public. I'm far too shy and introverted to enjoy approaching strangers, I can do it, but the emotional effort is just too much and leaves me feeling thoroughly exhausted.  I also find it disheartening and does not help my fragile self esteem.  Even though over the Open weekend, I had some fascinating conversations with people, I still find the overall anxiety too much.

I am not a confident person and am constantly plagued with self doubt, so having to sell directly to people does not do me any favours.  I'm aware that this is true of a lot of creative people.

So I decided to investigate another possible stream of income, by looking into the greetings cards industry.  I've been making doodley cards and have a friend who used to have an agent for selling her designs and I'm meeting her for coffee next week for some advice.

Another way could be to find some commercial galleries to sell my original paintings, the challenge being, having to contact them and talk to them. Again, emotionally challenging for me to get over that initial shyness.  This I find rather difficult.

I feel I have come to a point of making some decisions.  To continue trying to make a living within the creative industries or to get a job and just make for my own enjoyment and therapeutic needs.

I've been continuing with the One Drawing a Day book, so here is a couple of my latest drawings, just to relieve from the inner monologue which has just expressed itself.

Dye & Bamboo Pen with Ink.

Maybe Asleep, Oil Pastel & Onion Dye.

River Derwent, Oil Pastel & Bamboo Pen with Ink

Exhibition Opening for Desperate Artwives

Yesterday was spent travelling down to London to the private view of the Desperate Artwives exhibition which opened at The Vibe Gallery.

It was an exhausting 12 hour trip, we set off at 2pm, arriving at the gallery for 6, spending a few hours viewing the work and then returning, finally arriving home at 2am.  Needless to say, I am fairly exhausted today and tiredness is not a good state for me. 

The work at the Vibe Gallery was varied and curated beautifully.  The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, good wine and good food was available and later we were treated to some live music. 

I love how a group exhibition always has work that can be related to.  Speaking to one of the artists, I realised I had no connection at all with her piece of work, but could appreciate the power and symbolism that it involved.  I was totally drawn into the delicate drawings by Jasna Nikolic which were just beautiful, but reading her written word, I was left wanting more of an explanation.  But this is something I really enjoy as it leaves me the space to interpret the work how I wish to.

Lady and Ship, Mixed Media by Jasna Nikolic

Travellers, Mixed Media by Jasna Nikolic

Slavka Jovanovic's piece 'Broken' was a reconstucted dinner table and Jovanovic says, 'The piece encapsulates broken dreams and hopes dashed. An aggressive response to a hopeless situation, and yet a thing of beauty in its own right'  Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of this work which was exactly how the artists portrays in her words.

But personally, the piece of work that stood out wasn't one that I could actually stay with, I didn't listen to the whole soundpiece, it was too painful to listen too.  As you approached Chloe Bowles video and mixed media installation, it appears beautiful, a video of a baby lying under a sheet, happily playing and smiling but looking below the video was a darkly painted dolls house, with a single light shining on a miniature table & chairs, the house sat upon a small mat.  The immediacy of the scale comparison was powerful enough, but it only hinted at the full impact of the work, which was realised when you put the headphones on.  I have to admit I only stayed with the real recording of a domestic abuse event for a few minutes, but the impact of what the artist was conveying was immediate.  Every we do in our homes and our lives impacts elsewhere and these 'Ripples' can be long lasting.

'throw a stone into the middle of a lake and the resulting waves radiate outwards fromt he point of impact to the edges of the water, perhaps continuing beyond the shore, invisible and unspoken.' - Chloes Bowles

Ripples, Video and Mixed Media Installation by Chloe Bowles

Any work that has an emotional impact so strong, has to be a success.

Even if I wasn't part of this exhibition, I would have hated to have missed it.  It is definately worth a visit.

Belper Art Trail Submission - Schadenfreude

Even though I am an organiser of the Belper Art Trail, this year, I got to submit some work.

When we set up the theme of Recontextualisation, I didn't think I had anything I could work with, however, after picking up a book that has sat on my shelf for quite a while, quietly waiting for me to pick it up and read it, Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton has given me a revived interest.  I had made a whole body of work based around the emotion of fear, using symbolisms that encompassed that visceral feeling of repulsion.  So my submission for the Art Trail will be around Jealousy and Envy. 

The working title is Schadenfreude - Schaden = Harm nad Freude = Joy meaning the satisfaction or pleasure of seeing someone else's misfortune.

This is actually turning out to be quite a tricky emotion, not many people will admit to feeling it and I have come to realise it is one of our most secret emotions.

I can't post any pictures of the work in progress, because I am waiting for my new camera to arrive! Oh the excitement... I'm so looking forward to catching up with taking photos of all the glass eyeballs I have watching every move I make around the studio.  Feel free to feel jealous of the fact that I have a new toy to play with... I'm just hoping it will be here in time for the trip down to the Vibe Gallery in London for the Desperate Artwives opening night.

Not my eyeballs, but someone elses...

Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival, Day 1

I had a really lovely day yesterday at the Draycott Festival.

It's a very relaxed atmosphere at Draycott, its the second time I've taken part and have enjoyed the experience each time.  It feels very friendly and open with no pretensions.  In the garden Stevie Davis has hung some beautiul glasswork on the blossoming tree, looking as though these forms have almost mutated out of the branches.

Fuschia Glasswwork by Stevie Davis

Venue 2, Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival

I was sharing the space with a couple of jewellery makers of very fine and very delicate silverware, I have to admire such patience when making such a delicate item.  Karen Victoria, a mixture of self confessed 50's housewife accompanied by a fear of facepaint.  We were treated to a session by the Guerilla Drummers who set up for a set in the garden and just as we were starting to wind Sophie Snell turned up and told us a beautiful welsh story about ancestry, love and fish. 

I also said goodbye to a painting yesterday and happily sent it off to its new home, where I hope it will be very happy.  My new range of cards are also being well recieved too, having decided I should put my doodling to a good use and produced some cards which I'm pleased with.

So as I sit and listen to yesterday's Desert Island Discs and wait for my coffee to brew, I'm anticipating another lovely relaxed day, with good conversations with visitors and today I shall have to visit the lady at the end of the road who sells CAKE!

Titles of Paintings

I've just read the first part of an article on how the titles of paintings influence how the painting is interpreted. Lately, I've been thinking about how I title my paintings and come to the conclusion that they lack the personal element that guides the viewer to the meaning behind the image and that made them feel rather dull.

When I made sculpures, I would spend hours thinking about the meaning and how to title the work, mainly because they were so abstract, I felt I needed to give the viewer a clue as to what my work was about whilst leaving them enough room to develop their own interpretation.

For example, the images below were part of a body of work with the long and convoluted title of 'People Often Talk About Being Scared of Change But for Me I'm More Afraid of Things Being the Same'  Its so long, I have to get the catalogue out to remind myself of the title... But this work was the result of a year long research & devlopement process so perhaps the title reflects those long hard months of painful thought processes.

I think my now 'neutral' titles, such as 'View towards Belper' while being factual, give the viewer very little clue to the thought process or the visceral feeling I have towards that place.  I have got lazy with my thinking and perhaps in opposition to the longer titles, I have gone to the other extreme, which feels rather dull.

So when I dropped 3 paintings off at Crich this morning, I had retitled them, 'View Over Belper' has been renamed 'Where I Walk My Dog' because this is an area where I walk my own Shaggy Muse, Maybe.

I'm hoping this retitling will convey some of the sentiment & feeling behind each image I produce and this may even spill over into the art, making the work more exciting.