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

Evening Course Loveliness

I have been running an evening course over ten weeks from Sept-Dec this year at Plymouth College of Art. I was signed up to do the whole year of beginners through to advanced but sadly living in Falmouth and teaching in Plymouth all day and night meant the journey home was too much and was impacting on my professional work, so I had to step away and let someone else take the mantle.

The students were incredible, in that they were all eyes open and ready to give anything a go. They turned up each week, showed their sketchbooks and homework tasks set each week and generally got stuck in. Some were more advanced in their practice and had more to show each week, but those who had less time and a less developed practice equally had so much to show, maybe not in quantity but in confidence as the weeks went on. It was like watching a caterpillar unravel into a beautiful fully fledged butterfly. Everyone showed so much more than I had imagined. There was vulnerability, laughter, sharing, caring, exploring and more than anything a curiosity and drive to create and be inspired.

It has been a learning curve for me also, as I have never crafted a 10 week course on my own and after a few misdirections and a few misunderstandings in the lead up, I met the students on the first night with a workshop from the previous course and promptly scrapped the schedule and started again, with only them,their abilities and needs in mind moving me forward. Knowing then that I had to teach what I knew and understood Illustration to be, from the ground up.

Each week was sketched out and then homework and workshop task sheets were designed and written up the week before in order to keep it fresh. I realised that it had to start with the basic development of what they had already. To encourage and enhance the foundation of their own individual practices with workshops that I thought would generally appeal to all, but offered them tools and new techniques to take home and develop into their own practice and in their own way of working. They did not disappoint. The results were brilliant.
Their homework was great, their sketchbooks full and their faces smiling.
I set them one homework to produce one black and white image in proportion to A5, so I could get them printed so we could bind them into our own books, helped by Mel Brown, who showed us a lovely Japanese stab bind. Below are some of my favourite pieces of work I managed to get photos of, inc the book we made. I will add more when I get a chance.

They all said they had nothing to offer, I beg to differ and I hope you do too.

Chez

Belita

Sandi

Tommie

Matheus

Jenni

Belita-I can't draw

Frances -never painted before

Susie -loves detail

Ethan

Marion

Marion

Ethan

Chez

Marion

Marion

Newlyn Gallery show.

The show in Newlyn is down. For those who missed the show, I have added a link to the video and have loaded up some photos. The private view was predominantly about the Midas Awards, of course and to be expected and was such a big deal for the Falmouth students and lecturers. The response I got from the people I saw on that evening, and the other times I was in and around, on twitter and from those who saw it in my absence, was incredibly positive and uplifting, some of the best comments I've had about my work, which is just lovely. It did look great and I loved that it was the work speaking for itself in its nice clean space. 

Here is a link to a video of the show, to get an idea of how it was hung. (I hope you don't get motion sickness). The clarity is better on the HD version here, but less close ups.