'The place where inspiration hits the page running... A sketchbook to fail and reflect on my work and my process'

Sunday 19 June 2016

New Horizons

What a year 2016 has been already! Personally for me more than anything, but also I have put a lot of effort into nurturing the style of own, authorial work. It has been hard when I have been on deadline, but I set out to achieve a real sense of ownership over my life this year, with a more honest and fluid core. I am currently going through a huge personal transition, so my energy has been away from my work for a while now and hence no posts since Sept! I am looking forward to the time when my heart and mind are not distracted by the logistics of life, and I can get back into the studio and get out sketching again, find focus and get my creative life back on track.
So, partly inspired by my friend and fellow creative Jo Bradford of Green Island Studios,  I started by setting myself a goal of creating an image a day for a whole year. 365 days, (366 days for 2016). It started off with painting objects, but this became tricky when I wasn't inspired and really struggled with a sense of continuity, and interest, if I'm honest. So with my abstract, fine art work I constantly have paint pallets and bits of card with paint marks and lots of textures on, so I always feel as though that's not the end of the story for them, so I have started using them in my illustration and started cutting them up. Houses just came out of the scissors to paper, so I went with it and then made a print out of them, and that inspired the collage a day from then on.
After a couple of weeks of painting, I continued the task with just collage and so it continues today. I am on day 167 now and some nice bits have been coming out. It has been hard to create them while I have been away, or just having tricky times, but if I know I am away and have no way of doing any collages on location, I will cheat a little and do a couple more at one sitting and post later. I don't do that very often and find it very hard when I'm tired, and sometimes you can really tell, through quality and connection, but there are some nice bits coming out of the project, and I have a new body of coherent work for my website, which is very rewarding. I will have an exhibition somewhere fitting and may even try to get an agent with this work. in January 2017.
I have sold a few pieces to Instagram followers already and a piece at the Newlyn Art Gallery called New Horizons, which for me sends a message that it's all going in the right direction. I hope you enjoy them too and you can see the best of the bunch here and the whole works from the very beginning here and just collage here. Please do comment if you have anything to offer and share away if you feel so inclined as long as my copyright and name is next to it : ) Thanks for reading, I'm off to do day 168! More up to date posts to follow.

First mixed media illustration made from paint palettes

First collage print made from paint palettes

My Instagram account

160ish days in with a few faves

Website screen grab

One of my latest faves, day 135

Day 82
Day 138

My updated website

More recent work