Art Journaling Workshop

Over the weekend FenVAC hosted an art exhibition as part of a local town's Medieval Festival festivities. During the exhibition we offered some free workshops and my contribution, with my lovely friend, Kath, was on the subject of art journaling. It would have been difficult to cover the entire topic in the two hour slot I had so it was more of an informal introduction to art journaling with lots of journals and journaling books to look at and plenty of different art materials to play with. We had lovely participants, adults and children, who all threw themselves into journaling, some for the first time, and had great fun! We used self portraits as our theme which proved a very popular choice. Here we all are getting down to arty business:



I started on a self portrait journal page of my own during the worskhop which I have since finished:



The night before the workshop I had been playing about with an inkjet photo transfer technique that I read about in Corey Moortgat's book, The Art of Personal Imagery, where you spray water onto the inkjet image, lay paper on top, burnish and hey presto, a transfer of your image. ;o) After making a couple of transfers the photo was still wet so I used the end of my spoon to idly add spirals (one of my favourite shapes and one I'm increasingly drawn to) and outline the figure. At the weekend I added some colour to the image with various pens and ink, taped it to my background (which is mount board with acrylic and gesso baby wiped on and pen added on the corners) with masking tape and added a variety of text.

Pollocking Good Fun!

Last week I joined forces with my artist friend, Richard Savage, to produce a scarecrow for a local competition during June and July. This year's theme is famous people, real or fictional, and we, of course, chose an artist! This is Mr Jackson Pollock! ;oD





I have to admit I didn't have much of a hand in making the scarecrow, Richard made a fab job of the head and another friend made his body, I just helped slap a bit of paint on and get him decently dressed! ;oD

The most fun though was creating a Pollock style painting to stand alongside the figure to give folk a clue as to who he is!! We joined two life torn canvases together making one whole canvas of about 3' by 8' and covered them in more canvas before starting our drip and run extravaganza! We both now have more of an appreciation of Pollock's working method as it took forever to get the paint to the right consistency!! However, once we got the paint sorted we had great fun flicking it about! ;oD Don't even ask how much cleaning up it took afterwards! LOL





If you're local you can see our man outside the Honest John public house, South Park Street, Chatteris, PE16 6AR from this weekend until the end of July.

'Cos Dads are Special!

My latest joint exhibition with Rob is all set to open on Monday. ;o) We're exhibiting a variety of work, some previously seen, some new. It would be fair to say that this one has be a challenge for a number of reasons but we're nearly there and it's time to celebrate so if you're in the vicinity on Tuesday evening, come along and meet us, peruse our work and partake of a nibble & drink! ;o)

There's worse ways to be rejected.....

I've had the news from The Royal Academy of Art that they don't want my self portrait for this year's Summer Exhibition. I can't imagine why on earth not, there's no accounting for taste! LOL When I heard the news I was in Paris close to the Eiffel Tower so it wasn't all bad! ;oD

Beads, Bijou and Adventures in the Loire Valley

I've just returned from a brief jaunt to France and have some updating to do! More of my French adventures later but first more recent news.

This is my latest piece of jewellery:


It's made from copper napkin ring, the copper based decorative oriental metal I used in my last piece, a vintage key, a bead and some wire. The beads that the pendant is attached were found a car boot a while ago.

Last Thursday I went along to RAF Wyton, with five other FenVAC members, to take part in a Learn at Work Day. There were all manner of interests represented from astronomy to composting and sugarcraft to metal detecting! It was good to meet lots of folk and chat about my work. I sometimes struggle to talk about my work in these situations but I know I have to get out there more and do some serious networking! It's also a good reminder of how isolating it can become to be beavering away on my own in my studio and forgetting the real world still exists outside!! During the day I worked on making beads from copper sheet reclaimed from the back of a shed! I managed to make 180 + beads and here they are:




So, my French adventure....
I went over to St Jean de Braye, the twin town of March, in the Loire Valley region. I was peforming in a show with MADAOS but we also got the chance to do a little gadding about so just a few photos to share with you...


How cool is this little fella? We visited a Medieval village, Yevre le Chatel, and there were several of these wild boar sculptures in the ruined castle. I'm not sure how they're made and couldn't find any details of who made them so can't credit them but they were delightul.


In the churchyard at Yevre le Chatel there was a lovely tomb with this glorious rusted wreath on the door.


Still in the churchyard, I spotted this unusual grave stone, more of a sculpture than a headstone but very interesting although it freaked my daughter out!


This was taken in Orleans, it's a shop in one of the main streets but I couldn't tell you which as the upper architecture was so much more interesting! I love French architecture and could have wandered about for hours getting a crick in my neck! LOL


I loved this sculpture which was close to the cathedral in Orleans. It's called La Beauce but, again, I can't tell you who the artist is despite doing a bit of research online.


More rust! This time, in the courtyard of a witchcraft museum we visited.


Given the name of my blog I couldn't resist snapping this chappie on the back of a coach in the car park at the Pont Canal de Briare! I earned myself a few odd looks but hey, what can I say? I'm a artist! LOL

Studio or Dumping Ground?

Look at the state of my studio......

Self Portrait

At last, here's some pics of the self portrait I've submitted for The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.

I have got some photos of the portrait on it's own but, well, these are my favourites! LOL



I have to admit it didn't really pan out how I expected it to, I obviously have more skill in the paint mixing department than I imagine because despite my best efforts I managed to not only match the joins pretty well but also the paint colours! I painted each canvas individually and mixed paint as I went but even so it all matches pretty well! Hey ho! I used just three colours of acrylic - turquoise, magenta and violet along with white. I'm pleased with the outcome even though it isn't at all what I had planned! The whole process was completed during some difficult times healthwise and the portrait is a very personal triumph even if it doesn't make it anywhere near a Royal Academy wall. ;o)



These shots were taken during a shoot for a local charity calendar I'm involved with. My artist friend, Richard Savage, has organised the calendar which will benefit a local charity, the Chatteris Christmas Lights. It will be launched in the summer. The theme for the calendar photos is for the participants to use a prop that pertains to their occupation to cover the essentials! I was photographed with various pieces of my work but my pic will definitely feature my self portrait which I'm pleased about. The images themselves will be black and white with just the prop in colour. Looking forward to seeing the finished calendars! ;o)