Those Extraordinary events when walking the dog!

I've decided to create a diary sketchbook. Everyday I walk Bo I see something that stands out from everything else. Whether it's a colourful leaf, dew dropped spiders webs or a rainbow on the horizon....soooo I've decided that I would do one illustration a day, and only one. From this hopefully after time, I will get some ideas for Bobo's book and the paintings can maybe inform my college work too...

I also like that they look a little vintage. I'm going to to try and retain this when I make a book from them.

My Finisterre Sastruga features in every one too!

moving forward...

....and some more college work. I feel like I've leapt a huge leap in the last couple of days and here's what's come out.. really enjoying these and can see them moving forward even more... applying the paint strokes to different content and seeing how I deal with the images.. for these I have used reference from photographs in Oh Comely Magazine, because it was too wet and cold outside to draw from life, but I simply picked out shapes and colours that I like and small details. Using the space and composition to give the shapes and colour weight.

some new sketchbook work

I've been out sketching from life a couple of times now and feel like I don't ever want to work from pictures again... It can be annoying when you get paint all over yourself and it's raining but the results are great. Even if you don't like what you've done immediately, bringing it back to the studio and scanning and messing around with them is fun! here are some of the results...bringing a few different sketches together is fun too!

also doing some work (in progress) with Bobo too...

V&A and a new Durge!

Here's another version of Durge and the finished book cover we printed for Lauras book! I'm soo chuffed with it. Really tactile and Steve has entered it for the V&A book prize!... fingers crossed...x

some new paintings....and trying to do what comes naturally

Well... I'm trying not to look around and just do what comes naturally for a week or so and see what comes out! I've enjoyed doing these and like the colours...I'm battling between two styles at the moment but maybe they'll come together or one will win the other over? or they could be two bodies of work showing the same thing but in two ways? they could alternate in a book format maybe? the one with the girl is the before I painted over it... the character was putting me off.. Now I look at it I quite like it? oh well! just felt a bit too twee and obvious? I like the ambiguity of the others for the moment!..

At the same time I'm working on my book for Bo...I like these images but not sure on the story yet.. and these would be sketches...

Phantom...the final stage of printing!...

...and they're looking great! these photos aren't so great though as taken on my iphone. I hope Laura likes it as much as I do!

I went to see a couple of shows recently..

I went to the Millenium Gallery in St Ives and saw Marcel Hansellar. It was a brief but great show. I am not so keen on the more explicit work, as it interferes with the pleasure of my eyes resting on the work. It makes my mind go on overdrive when I just want to sink into the painting. But anyway here's some of it and the beautiful colours!..A show I missed there back in July was Joy Wolfenden Brown. Her work is so intimate and soft but so strong. Very inspiring!. Thank you Millenium! I popped in to see my amazing friend Faye, who has a studio at Trewidden Studios in Penzance. It was lovely to see where she works as she's a hugely inspiring friend, artist and mother. Go see her work here.

some more inspiring work from Andrew Hem

...beautiful, loaded and inspiring!

It's inspired me to paint from life so I'm heading out in the next two weeks to see what I come up with. It is time!

some more scrummy work that you could eat if you could!

another great artist.... Olaf Hajek....I love this work ...

vibrant, delicious and scrummy!.....this makes me want to get in the studio and lay some paint down! He's got a nice apartment too and he's pretty cute!

julie Morstad

I really love Julie Morstad's work and here's her site!.. hope you like it too! ...

...simple, beautiful and exquisite.

Phantom!

Well... I've been at college all day printing!. Not for me, but for my placement. I've designed a book of illustrations by former MA student Laura Wady and screen printing the cover! It's looking good! I just hope it all fits together ok and I don't let everyone down!. I'm working hard on the small things so fingers crossed everything will be fine.. Here's work in progress with a dummy book I made to see how it may look...

The final count down...

UNIT 3... I've decided to do what I love doing and then work out what it's all about along the way.. I love collage and I love drawing well. I love exquisite work and I would love to be able to produce work that is described in such a way... A long way to go and this is a new piece along the lines I would like to work. The thing is I've seen this kind of work and know I am influenced by what I have seen soo I need to work on the different levels in my own way so i make it my own.. I'm hoping to draw animals from life, so that means going to a farm, the zoo, the museum and others so I'm looking forward to pushing myself and seeing what comes out!... this is something I stayed behind after work to do.. I haven't done any of my own drawings so I used Kiki Smiths drawing of a deer to show as an example.