My mind

Convoluted

I decided to use bits of post-it notes and monoprint and combine them in a tangle of colours. Do they link up with each other? It is a representation of my MA land. When you work on a college course there is so much to absorb and take in. Lots of information that needs to cross the book/ brain barrier via your eyes. The ever expanding reading list tries to force you to take in knowledge, but it’s not always easy to sift the relevant from the irrelevant. The clarity of words is not always there. I try to write clearly when I’m blogging, but if you have to take a dictionary with you when you try and read a piece of information, then you have to ask whether the author is being elitist.

Other problems with online courses are the lack of face to face contact. You can try and have zoom meetings or their equivalent. But it does feel sometimes like you are working in a vacuum. My desk is tiny, my pc and keyboard and screen take up about 75% of the space. It’s hard to find enough space to work in. My sketchbooks are getting smaller in proportion to the increasing number of them. So much drawing over the last year!

The other side of the studio.

Looking in through the door to the left side of the studio. I’ve got a lot of work that has been exhibited, I just need to sell some of it! I woukd like to find a good art site to sell my work for a reasonable amount (not an on line auction, or on the other hand, an expensive and exclusive site). I just want these to go to good homes.

Have been offered a space in an exhibition for local artists in June. That will be fun! It’s been a whole year since I’ve dealt with the public face to face. I feel quite nervous about it.

Mona wip

I managed to do a bit more on this work in progress today. It feels a bit closer to the original. Getting the colours to blend into each other is hard and although I’m using thin glazes the acrylic paint goes off very quickly. The eyes are a little better, but the mouth might be slightly too smiley. I just need to scumble the paint a bit more to soften the tones into one another.

Cat in a bag

Like all great speleologists my cat likes exploring tight and small spaces. For instance she found a pack of felt pens in this bag.

Her caving experience also includes behind the bathroom sink pedestal, under the washing on the laundry airer, and underneath my hubby’s overcoat where it touches the floor. She will lie in wait, or extend a paw quietly to catch her brother as he is passing. A miniature lion in her den.

Glass paperweights

Paperweights I’ve collected over several years. I’ve moved them because the cats had started knocking them off the shelves. I will make sure they don’t cause heat when the sun shines through them onto the windowledge. They can act as lenses and sometimes they have been known to cause fires so I’m thinking of putting something behind them to block direct sunlight. it was only when I took them down to dust them that I realised I had so many. Sometimes you dont really realise you are collecting things till you have a lot of them… then you think where did they come from?

Heart and Love

Small drawing of a heart that I drew on top of a bit of black monoprinting. I’d cut this section out of another bit to create a negative space for a portrait, I’ll post that drawing later. Done during a student led session that just finished tonight. Part of idea generation for the illustration course I’m doing.

One thing I do need to look at is fonts, it’s hard to draw them accurately and I struggle to copy them, and I didn’t have a particular font in mind, just the idea the letters should be red, I might try and make them look a bit more like blood with a fine ink pen.

Back at the studio

At Spode studio 21

Well, I’ve finally got back to my studio at spode! I started a small painting of a bottle oven, I think it’s going to have a Van Gogh style sky. I need to start getting some work done for a possible exhibition later in the year. I want to do work about the area, but with a bit of a twist. This is a canvas about two foot by eight inches? It will be acrylic on canvas once I’ve painted in the mortar for the brick work I will add colourful bricks. The sky will swirl with clouds and stars and there may be vegitation or a bit of foliage.

Too many buttons?

What are they all for WordPress? I know you are holding some training sessions. But I don’t have time for them. I don’t need an immersive experience, I want to point and press!

I’m still coming to terms with the loss of the classic editor and all I do now is press enter and start another block. The one thing I do like is more control over image sizes, but how do I set whether an image is right, left or centre of the page…?

I never learnt type setting, I don’t know what to do when I can type columns? I’m interested in getting my thoughts out, not how to place them on a page. Yes it might look scrappy, but I’m not fussed….