New Video - A Series of Postcards

Finally, I managed to get a new video filmed and edited. I'm working on a series of small postcard sized pieces here. I find that working on several pieces at the same time is helpful for quieting the inner critic and allows me to work more quickly and intuitively so it's something I like to do regularly if I can. Hope you enjoy the video!

Gellis Again!

So, I have been finding other things to do with my stash of Gelli prints and one thing I decided to do was add paint and collage to an 'unfinished' print. Follow along with me here as I show you what I did!

Be Happy Here

Just finished another video, this time it's a walk through one of my journals followed by a process piece as I make this page. You might be surprised by how it looked to start with when you see where it finished up, but that's part of the fun of creation. I often don't know where things are going until they get there, and that's ok once I let go of any preconceptions I might have and let things just happen!

Telling the Bees

Another video this week, this time of a journal page. I am doing a series of loose pages which I plan to bind together at a later date. 

It occurred to me the other day that I have seen virtually no bees so far this year and you may well be aware that bee populations are in decline all over the world. It looks like organo-phosphate insecticides could be playing a big part in this and it has potentially very serious repercussions for us all if numbers of pollinating bees keep falling, so if you have a garden make sure you do everything you can to welcome bees into it by planting the sorts of flowers they love and not using pesticides!

Folklore tidbit: there is an old superstition amongst beekeepers that you must tell the hive of any significant events - births, marriages or deaths for example - or they will swarm and you will lose your bees for good.

At Home

I forgot to share these earlier so thought I'd do so now. Another couple of 5x7 pieces with my cheery little houses which I made as New year's gifts. 

Playing House

Since my last blog post I have become a grandmother. Little Eben couldn't wait to meet the world and was born a month early. He is a beautiful, healthy boy and I feel blessed to know him. 

One of the things which this whole experience has brought to the fore is how much has changed in the baby world in the last 30-odd years since my daughter was born, by which I mean everything from attitudes to home birth, advice on pregnancy and beyond, and the range of 'stuff' available to care for mum and baby. To me, 36 years seems quite a short time, but I feel like a stranger in a strange land when I watch how my daughter equips and acquits herself when looking after his needs, and I marvel at it a little.

Of course, much is still the same as well, the basics never change and the most important things: security, warmth, food and shelter, remain. And, of course, love. A loving family and a happy home are surely what we all wish for our children, and their children too.

The pictures above are a couple of the happy houses I made as new year's gifts this year.

House Of The Spirits

More from the journal. The page didn't start off going in this direction, it just kind of happened along the way. I like it when things evolve and take on their own life!

A Little Extra Something

Sometimes I like to just stop in the middle of splashing ink and paint around and see if I can get some extra mileage out of what I'm doing. The page directly above started life as the right hand side of the spread in the top picture and when it got to this stage I put it into the computer so that I could play some more with it.

I like it as a potential background for other pieces just as it is, so now I have it in my picture files I can print it out whenever I want. I will probably also use Photoshop on it and it'll end up with a whole range of different looks by the time I'm done.

This is what I did with the eggs here. On the left is my original photograph of a stamped book page and opposite is how it looks after being manipulated a little. You don't always have to create brand new images and backgrounds - it can be fun to do a little recycling and reusing of what you already have! 

True Confessions

I have too much paper. There, I said it. My studio has several deep drawers and boxes stuffed full of interesting scraps - prints of my earlier artwork, book pages, painted book pages, scrapbooking papers that I've only partially used, little things that I've saved 'just because'. Then there are the junk shops books which I've collected because they had pretty illustrations or were in French or Chinese or wonderful gothic-fonted German. And don't get me started on old Ordnance Survey maps because yes, I have piles of those too!

I know I should part with a good chunk of it. There's enough there to last several arty lifetimes. But, like my fabric stash, I find it impossible to decide what I can really live without. And I know I'm not alone: I can almost see many of my fellow mixed media makers nodding in shifty-eyed agreement. There is, you see, so much possibility in these pieces of paper. They talk to each other, gathering together in pleasing combinations within their confined spaces so that when I pull out a seemingly random pile I discover that they are speaking to me too, including me in their conversation. It would feel rude to interrupt.

Occasionally I print copies of older pieces of work in various sizes so that I can reuse them. The tag and the journal page here have details from just such a piece. I like a bit of repetition sometimes.

Grow

So here we are: the first rose of summer. This is Ispahan, an old Persian damask which is always the first to bloom in my garden. Every year it astonishes me with its beauty and overwhelming perfume and really kick-starts my summer garden.

And now it's being joined by more early blooming lovelies. This is a little perennial viola called Etain, purchased at my local market and adding a big shot of sunshine on those grey days we always get in summer here.

Remember the tags I was working on in the post below? Well, inspired by my wee garden I made a bunch of blooms to decorate one of them and this is what I ended up with!

Currently available here

Tagging It

Some of my first ever collages, many years ago, were done on luggage tags. There's something about the quirkiness and informality of repurposed tags which I find irresistible. Add to that their small format and you have a perfect canvas with which to create little decorative objects. 

And what can you do with them? Well, obviously, you can frame them - a box frame is ideal - or use them in your journal, as bookmarks, or even as gift tags for a special present. I recently saw a whole collection of collaged tags which had been turned into a string of bunting for decorating a room, which I think is a fab idea and one I intend to try soon.

As for these two, you can find them in my Etsy shop if you want to start your own collection!

Journalling Again

Another page which is the other side of the spread from the previous post and carries on the sunflower theme I'm playing with. This journal I'm working in at the minute has 8"x8" pages but I'm thinking of making one with a larger area to mess about on.

In case you're interested here's what I used for this page:

Materials

• vintage book pages and sheet music
• commercial scrapbook papers
• acrylic paints - Liquitex and Golden
• various stencils
• Faber drawing pens
• Hybrid gel pen
• bee stamp with Stazon ink

More Journalling Fun

Another journal spread using some of my favourite colours and techniques but combined in ways I haven't necessarily done before. It's very freeing just to play with materials and see what happens without there needing to be 'art' at the end of it!

Just Playing

I recently joined Effy Wild's network on Ning and it has given me a bit of a kick start to keep up more with my journalling. It's a great group and whether you're a total novice or have been doing arty/crafty things for years you'll get a warm welcome and lots of encouragement (and who doesn't appreciate that?). One of the weekly journal prompts was all about patterning and this was my response to it. Lots of fun was had making this I can tell you!

The Sea, The Sea

I am having repair work on the house at the moment. The improvements are wonderful but I'm not getting much in the way of arty things done. It advances the Master Plan one step closer though so I'm rolling with it. The MP, in case you haven't guessed, involves me and the sea - but more of that later.

I have a wee Folksy exclusive to show you. These cards are all one of a kind and I don't have them available for sale anywhere else. They're all original collages and make unique note or greetings cards. Or you could pop them in a frame and put them on the wall!

   

Wax On, Wax Off

Three new encaustics which you can find in my Etsy store. I kind of like them all grouped together like this so I'm thinking I might do sets of six or nine which I could mount on mat board as a single piece. What do you think, good idea or no?

Ghosts of Naples

 

Here's a little something I started ages ago and have only just got around to finishing. There was something entirely different there before the ethereal young lady and I wasn't at all happy so I put it away. But then she came to the rescue and now I think it's one of my favourite pieces. That's how it goes sometimes.

Encaustic Love

 

It's been a busy week, lots of new encaustics and I'm so in love with making them! Have had to slow down a bit the last couple of days though thanks to a stinky cold which is wiping me out. So many ideas buzzing round my head and not enough energy to do them. Soon, soon.

Forty Years On

A new mixed media piece which was inspired by my memories of the first moon landing, the 40th anniversary of which was this July. How time has flown.

I was watching the very wonderful Alan Bennett the other night on TV. He was talking about the writing process and 'being a writer' and how one is only a writer when one is actually writing. Research, all the hours spent in contemplation and creation, are just postponing the actual act of writing. Having published a book merely shows that you were a writer, once, not that you are one now.

He was, of course, being ironic but also touching on something that most creative people either feel themselves at some time or other or have foisted upon them by those who would like them to get a 'proper' job and stop mucking about. My own feeling is that people who choose not to develop a creative path as a writer or artist which, by its very nature is most usually a solitary affair, do not understand - maybe do not care to - that not everything is achieved by being outwardly busy amongst lots of other busy people. And if you are engaged in creative endeavours it's also not uncommon to feel that the muse might, at a moment's notice, pack his or her bags and leave, never to be heard from again.

It's hardly a  new notion but one which, from time to time, bears restating I think.

RIP, Robert

Robert Rauschenberg was a revelation to me several years ago when I first discovered his art. He died on May 12th at the age of 82 and I will always treasure the sense of wonder his work gives me. There's a really nice obituary here.