This and that

A visiting friend noticed a book in my bookcase I've had since childhood, 'Now we are six' by A.A Milne, of course better known as author of Winnie the poo. I haven't read it since I was a little girl and then I apparently thought it better use as a colouring book - plenty of illustrations filled in with blue biro and my own written title on the front :'colouring book'!- A crime if ever I saw one! I have so enjoyed reading some of the poems again but the illustrations by E.H Shepard even more so. They are just so beautiful and seem to me to embody the nostalgic feeling of childhood. Over on pinterest I've added some illustrations by E.H Shepard, but if you're familiar with Winnie the pooh you'll know what they look like. I'd like to think they've had a subconscious influence on my own work.
Christmas is invading any time slots to get work made at the moment. All this feels fine at the moment but at the same time I do miss making work. I have some bird mixed-media pieces made pre - Christmas madness, and my studio work space is quite something to behold at the moment (aka mess!). 
More photos of my work are on Instagram,  of which I need to yet figure out how to add a little Instagram logo on my blog, aswell as a pinterest logo, so to transport you there in an instant! More time after Christmas means I can have a good go at doing this job then! Time- if only I could buy it I would!

Craft Fair

My first craft fair in a while (or rather post second child), took place in Clitheroe at the weekend. It was very quiet for all stallholders so we all left a little deflated, but as usual with these events it can be the contacts you make that can really make the day, and I met a lovely stallholder that gave me a few tips and ideas. Hopefully we'll bump into each other again at a craft fair. I really am glad to be making it to fairs again. A few photos of my stall above,  it was a little dark so included one taken in my kitchen too.

Bits & bobs, kids and new tape!

I tend to get work done infrequently, this includes writing blogs posts. I think I might have talked before about being a full-time mum and artist and it isn't an easy combination, but then being a working mum and artist isn't either! I'm not sure what an easy combination is? I'll make a start with some work and inevitably four little feet will be wandering in to find me, no matter if I've set them up with colouring or lego. Yes it can be very frustrating, but in contrary to that I also find my children incredibly inspirational. No matter if it's random drawing, play dough, lego or just playing outside, I love how they think creatively and make something from nothing.
Also, lately I've bought new paper tape, I've been meaning to for ages, and aswell as being kinder to my studio walls it's (more importantly!) very pretty. Love the geometric pattern. Honestly how excited should I be about having new tape!?
I've made a few bits and bobs of work lately,  mixed-media and collage using found papers and my own printed papers. I just want to make more, usually when I'm in the middle of making a lego spaceship!
Snaps include work taped up using my new tape(!), and a few studio shots this morning, one with a little visitor!

doodle to complete piece

'Hare' mixed-media and collage on recycled wood. Had this mixed-media sketch taped to my wall where I put all my finished sketches and drawings. Didn't think I'd do anything with it until an artist friend said she liked it, so I mounted it onto a piece of wood. I quite like it now too!
On another note we are weathering x-hurricane Bertha well up here in northwest England. Maybe the gales that are predicted are due to come later!?
It's a very easy and lazy tea here at home: pizza! Can't even brag it's homemade- good old frozen! But always feel a pang of guilt giving my kids frozen food!!
I have a craft fair booked for the end of September which I feel excited and nervous about in equal measure, but know it's a step I need to take.
This has been a mixed bag of a post! So sorry about that to any readers,  just writing what's on my mind this evening!

Guinea fowl

I love guinea fowl, the quirkiness of them and since my sister has some at her farm I have learnt they sleep in trees! I find this has fairytale qualities (with a dash of humour!), just thinking about their large rounded bodies in contrast to their long necks suspended precariously on the nobbly branches of a plum tree (what they happen to roost in at my sister's farm). So of course I had to use this subject as a piece of work. Seems anything quirky has my attention. Using mixed media which I need A LOT more practice with of course,  but enjoyed making it non the less.

Bird feeders

The bird feeders have been hanging empty in our little garden for a while, until I eventually got round to buying more bird food the other week! Poor things, they must be getting used to the sporadic supply of food for them at our house though, as they seem to come back and root around until one day their luck is in and they have a fresh mound of seed ready and waiting!  The empty cages of the feeders seemed to catch my inspiration one day and I enjoyed making these little collage pieces.

printmaking

I do love printmaking! I used some random bits and pieces to make these prints - the end of an empty tube of glitter, a tiny piece of round lego, a larger piece of round lego, and the bottom of a plastic lego shark- yes apparently lego sharks do exist! All using indigo watercolour paint, watercolour because I like the imperfections and entirely-out-of-my-control marks and blotches. Quite like these.

This evening

This evening I had some time so I made some hand printed papers ready for making work with. Other images are of the tools I use for printmaking- so anything from little bits of lego (told you my kids were an inspiration in my last post!) to old pen lids. An all important cup of tea amongst my desk mess and pots of pens, pencils and water. A quite productive half hour!

Ideas in progress

I've begun to make a few scraps of work in the few snatches of time before little feet come padding in or I hear a 'Muuuum! '. I find being a full time mum doesn't combine well with being an artist, time wise anyway as in you find there isn't any to make work in! But I also find my kids are a constant source of inspiration,  yes through the work they make be it drawing,  painting, glueing and sticking or playdough, but also just being with them I find I have more ideas flooding in. The sunny weather which has miraculously decided to make an entrance here in the UK also helps, after so much grey (which is a colour I adore by the way but not in terms of light!) I think everyone feels refreshed and renewed, and the inspirational cogs start turning.
Images are of recent little ideas I am having at the moment using collage and mixed media, beginning with vessels: jam jars, bottles & bird feeders, then animals and birds such as hares and guinea fowl. Also a few  peeks of my pinboard.

Sea air and sparkling light

It made such a change to have a sunny day with blue sky after all the rain and grey skies. We had a day trip to Cleveleys on the northern coast of Lancashire. The light was sparkling, more so probably after the relentless grey light of winter. The sea was at high tide and rushing up the promenade steps in a foamy swathe. The power in those waves was still visible after the recent storms and I dash over as little legs were getting closer to the steps in open curiosity at the big bank of water in front of them. The damage caused by the storms is apparent in the broken tiles and holes in roofs around the front. I realise how lucky we are as a family, although there are many trees down where we live and lucky escapes by those that we know.
After the boys scootering and biking along the prom we had a fish and chip lunch, with not much negotiation needed with the boys, they were as hungry as we were! Then it was wellies on for a spot of pebble throwing into the sea, the waves rushing at their toes. We had a final walk along the prom looking at the large nautical themed sculptures which really encourages a thoughtful walk along this stretch. The huge carved wooden oar reminds me of a Maori artifact for some reason, the carvings of barnacles and seaweed are beautiful. There are nautical themed poems with accompanying illustrations engraved into stone, my favourite of which is a poem about a girl called Mary losing a golden shell. Facing the sea and the huge sky of the horizon above we are faced with a vertical rectangle of sheet metal about 15 ft high, into which the name and date of every ship to be shipwrecked of the Fylde coast since 1642 to 2008 has been cut so that the light of the sky which has witnessed such wreckage is used to read these names. At first I assumed such a list was names of those lost in the first or second world war, the kind that can be seen in many town or village centres, once I realised what it really was, it was perhaps surprisingly so, no less poignant.
Tired little legs and a few scraped knees determined ice-cream was called for, an ice-cream parlour (yes they do still exist apparently!) was of course doing a rip - roaring trade on the first sunny day in months. We then headed home tired after our blast of sea air and sparkling light. 

Studio time

Christmas has been and gone with all the activity, bedlam, colour and magic it brings with two little ones. I realise that I haven't posted anything on my blog since November last year, and so much has happened, especially the news that my new studio is now finished and I've moved in. It feels amazing to now have a place where I can really make work, but also a place where I feel I can sit and think or daydream too. I know how lucky I am to have such a space. After not having one I feel it all the more.  I'm beginning to make work but for a while wasn't sure where to start with so many ideas in my sketchbooks. I'm taking more of a mixed media approach than I ever have before, and it's quite tricky actually to get the image down that I have in my head, the bane of all artists I suppose! I need a lot more practice and to also give myself permission to play rather than feel I have to make serious work. Whichever way I look at it though I know I'm out of practice with making anything at all, so patience is all important right now!