As some of you may have seen from my recent blogging, I’ve been unsure about the direction in which my work is going – again. Develop has been a useful word for me over the past few months and I know that, despite my doubts, I have developed over the past year. I’ve tried and learned new techniques; read up on abstract and urban art; discovered more about other artists, especially Kandinsky; attempted to develop one area of my work – urban nature – fairly successfully.

However, I STILL have not come up with a clear artist statement. And over the last 2 or 3 months I confess that my work has veered away from the urban theme. In fact, I have a longing to explore new avenues and themes.

So much so, that over the last few days, I’ve been pretty convinced that I need to change the emphasis from develop to explore. I love these semi-conscious decisions that feel right – and this one does. In fact I feel that I’ve already slipped from one to the other.

Perhaps it’s the change of season, or a feeling of overkill with the urban themes, but my desire to explore has grown. And looking up the definition in Wiktionary has spurred me to change my word, even though the New Year hasn’t yet arrived. After all, as someone pointed out, Jan 1st is an arbitrary date. What matters, I believe, is the intuitive feeling that it’s time to move on.

I’ve already journaled a little about EXPLORE and listed a few themes and ideas that I wish to look at in more detail. With the help of Keri Smith’s “How to be an Explorer of the World” book, which includes great little guides, I hope to start exploring a few objects around my home within the next few days.

For a Christmas/Winter themed swap within Unlimited Textiles. A mix of needle felting, fabric and stitching. The snowman is a vintage clip art image, altered and printed onto fabric, then stitched into place.

Again, work that doesn’t ‘fit’ my main theme of Urban Nature, these 2 collages were done purely for ‘play’ and to get me into doing some art after a fairly long break. Apart from entries in my art journal, I’ve done very little art recently. Hopefully that will change soon.

The first collage has a vintage travel theme, and was inspired by the photograph of old suitcases that I took during a visit to a special 1940’s  weekend at a steam railway site in Derbyshire.

For the background I used various ephemera of maps and other old papers, which I coloured with distress inks. The quote “Every journey begins with a single step” was printed onto normal paper, and I finished it off by adding the shoes embellishment. Nothing special, but I rather like it.

The second is very different, and resulted from a ‘demo’ of my beeswax technique when my sister visited. There’s a certain abstraction in ‘Crumbs’, as well as some vintage elements and I confess that I rather like the whimsical feel and title.

However, I’m beginning to wonder, yet again, if my art has any direction or purpose, other than to allow my playful muse an outlet. Whilst still drawn to urban and ‘urban nature’ themes, neither are appearing in my actual work.

With the end of the year in sight, I do question whether or not I have kept to my aim to develop my work (see: and my word for 2009 is…. ).  I have certainly learned and developed techniques, and worked with collage and journals more, both areas that I feel comfortable with. But I am being drawn in different directions as the year draws to a close. Vintage, ‘freestyle’ themes, and altered books are calling to me. As is, once more, the lure of painting… Time, perhaps, to re-read my notes and consider yet again how to progess.

Inspired by some old sheet music that I was using as a background, this 8″x8″ square collage has taken me a while to complete. Originally I had very few ideas for this piece, and had painted the background along with tearing and pasting some of the music before deciding on what I really wanted to do. Finding the magazine picture of the loving couple lying in a field was instrumental in working out the final idea.

The image was transferred onto the already prepared canvas using a dry gel technique. Using more sheet music, including the title, some handmade paper and fabric, I gradually built up layers, painting with Viva decor paints (precious colour and crackle paints) before adding the final embellishments.

Although a move away from the urban themes that I’ve been developing and working on for the past year, I’m pleased with the ‘diverson’ as it allowed me to play with different colours and the transfer technique (something I hadn’t done on this scale before).

Again, apologies. But I’ve done very little art since the last post, and have been in a rather hazy world for the last month or so. Hopefully, the mist is slowly lifting, so here are the 2 little creations that I have done.

The first is an altered matchbox for a rather belated birthday gift. Luckily the recipient didn’t mind about it being late, and seemed delighted with her little ‘treasure’ box.

Open matchbox with goodies

I made the 3 flower embellishments (one on the box, 2 inside) from air-dry clay; the other items in the box were from my stash. The box itself was decorated with paper and paints, including crackle paint, an item which I love using.

The other item I made was a quiltie for a swap. An interesting one, we had to base our design on a photograph taken by our partner. Here’s the original photo (I’m sure Alis won’t object to me sharing it here):

And here is my finished quiltie:

Mostly fabric-painted cotton. The bench itself was printed onto cotton after having been turned into a ‘drawing’ using PaintShopPro and painted before being stuck onto the hand-drawn background. Finished with hand needle-felting and stitching.

And that’s been my creative output for the last month, apart from a few doodles in my journal. Still, I’m working on a collage at the moment, so hopefully there will be more to share soon.

Again, another long break from my blog Must post here more regularly, I know – sorry, folks!!!

Anyway, here is “Kite over the Moor”:

Kite Over the Moor

Similar to “Window on the Moor” (see “Oops”), using the same techniques. But lighter and somehow happier – having used kites in my doodles for a while, and loving the freedom/ flight symbolism, it was inevitable that one would appear in my collages!

Over the last week, I’ve done two more collages. Entitled “Urban Nature 1 and 2″ these are again on 7″x5″ canvases. I used textured papers, fabric, acrylic and Viva Decor paints plus air-dry clay embellishments. My first time making clay pieces for inclusion in my art, but certainly won’t be the last.

Urban Nature 1

Urban Nature 2

I had great fun with both of these and am pleased with the way my work has developed recently. I’m fascinated at the direction in which my art is going – wonderfully interesting, how it seems to be taking off on it’s own, lol!!!

Another long break without posting… partly because we went on holiday for a week, but mostly because I haven’t been particularly creative during the last month.

However, here is the textured collage that I did using various bits of card, bubble wrap, paper, fabric pieces and Viva Decor paints + Rub-n-Buff wax:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as good from the scan as in real life – too many shiny metallic effects, lol! And not all of the textures are easy to see. But it should give you a good idea of what it’s like.

I really enjoyed working with the materials and the freedom of not working from reality. A year or so ago I wouldn’t have envisaged developing abstraction within my work but it does seem that my art is moving more in that direction of late. In fact, I recently bought a book on abstract painting and am using the exercises to explore the genre further. Hopefully, I’ll eventually share my efforts here

I really have neglected my poor little blog!!! Sorry folks

Anyway, thought it way past time to update before you all think I’ve disappeared into the ether, lol. The end of April and May were pretty hectic, plus the inevitable fibro backlash has dulled my enthusiasm for creative endeavours. Luckily I still managed to do a little, and am now back in creative mode. Though for how long remains to be seen as another hectic time looms. So if I disappear again, you all know why.

Enough rambling! Here are some of my recent creations.

Poetry AB spread, part one.

part 2... showing the haiku that inspired the spread.

Used various papers, vellum and embellishments plus an image from the web for the above.

The other Poetry AB spread I did was quite different. Zen poetry was my inspiration, but I wanted a more tactile feel so the base is silk painted with Stewart Gill fabric paints.

SIlk, fabric paints, scrim, flakes and various embellishments were used for this one.

So, very different, and I think they represent how my art is developing at the moment. I’m being drawn more and more to working with textures and fabrics, experimenting with new-for-me materials and techniques. I’ve also had a small play with water-based oils, but wasn’t particularly happy with the result, so will resist showing that for now. However, I made a little collage (about 7×5″ I think!) for a ’surprise me’ swap that I was really pleased with:

Window on the Moors

Inspired by photos that I’d taken from the back of my son’s car as we drove through the Peak district. Again, fabric paints but on some cotton this time. A very textured wall using acrylic flint medium, black gesso and acrylics. Plus some fibres and a digitally altered window printed on transparent adhesive paper.

I was very pleased with the above collage, and hope to work further with those types of materials. Although I would prefer to return to a more urban setting. In fact, the collage that I’m currently working on does just that, but with different materials. For now, though, that’s all the eye candy you’re getting Hopefully I won’t leave my blog so long without posting again!!!

Just a few more pages from my parks, gardens and yards sketchbook.

Above inspired by flowers in the Winter Garden, and done whilst listening to Chopin.

Yard nearby of an empty house, altered slightly with crayon.

Photo of yards from street, with notes and diagram of typical ‘back yards’ in Sheffield.

For some reason, I seem to have been ignoring my blog recently. Not sure why. Anyway, here are a few pages from a recent sketchbook, done as part of a challenge to fill an A6 pad in a week. I didn’t complete the task and still have a few pages left but don’t see it as a failure, as I did manage to do something every day of that week and gained a lot from doing so. Hopefully the other pages will be filled eventually
We all chose a theme to explore: mine was ‘Exploring Sheffield parks, gardens and yards’. A huge subject, but falling within my urban / nature theme. Although photos were allowed, each unaltered one we used meant we had to do 3 drawings, so I used as few photos as possible.

These are just a few of the pages; many of the drawings were done at home from photos as the weather that week was awful and my health wasn’t great. Even so the exercise was useful and it felt good to concentrate more on drawing than on photographs.

From defining what parks, gardens and yards are, I looked at specific ones within Sheffield, learning a lot in the process and realising that there are many, many parks and public gardens in the city that I’d never heard of, let alone visited. However, I think the most important part of the journey for me was exploring different techniques from detailed drawings to the almost abstract – or simplifications, as I termed them. The fence and the palm tree being two of my favourites.
Hopefully I’ll finish the sketchbook in the not too distant future – now that the weather is improving I hope to be able to get out and draw on location. Then I’ll have an even greater wealth of material to dip into for future urban projects, including collage and altered books.