Winter Open Studio 2014

On Saturday 6th December 2014 I will be hosting my Winter Open Studio. There'll be vases, prints, tiles, cards and originals for sale. We will be serving mulled cider and starting to feel a little festive! I'd be delighted if you'd join me. You can find details on my Facebook page or email me via the website for more details.

Helen Hallows Workshops 2015

Here is my workshop plan for 2015! I'll be running a Collaged Landscapes workshop every season, so four across the year. They'll be held in Long Eaton at the Long Eaton Art Room. The Long Eaton Art Room is a charity funded art centre/studio complex and after a few years of fundraising, the teaching room is fully fitted with sinks, toilets and disabled access. Long Eaton is just south of Nottingham, off junction 25 of the M1 so is accessible by car or train to Long Eaton station. There's plenty of off street parking at the Art Room.

Student work 2014

student work 2014

student work 2014

So, the dates I will be running my one day course are, February 28th, June 27th, October 3rd and November 7th (all Saturdays).

During the day I aim to introduce you to the techniques I use to create my landscape collages. There is an introductory talk about my work, creative development and inspirations. Then there is a  morning workshop creating papers to use for mixed media work, and an afternoon session creating and collaging a landscape piece. It's an intense day of ideas to invigorate and compliment your own creative practice, be that painting or textile based. Some experience of drawing is useful, but more than that is a willingness to try new processes.  Because of the time constraints of the day (10am - 4pm), there will not be time to try the stitch processes that I use in my work but I can give advice on that. You'll go home with papers to use and a small collaged landscape based on sketches and photos that you bring to the day.

Places are limited to eight. The day costs £65 and includes cake! There are cafes and shops near the venue to buy lunch. If you have any questions or would like to book, please contact me through my website www.helenhallows.com

If you would like to buy a place as a gift for someone else, gift vouchers are available.

One of the highlights of this year has been running Yoga & Creativity workshops with Lindsey Watson of Chandrayoga in Loughborough. Inspired by the seasons, we have offered one day retreats that are a mix of yoga, meditation, great food, and a creative collage workshop centring on imagery from the season and personal affirmation. Because of their success, we will be offering these special days in 2015. More details are on the Chandrayoga website. If you can't wait until next year we have a beautiful day planned to coincide with the Winter Solstice. "Stillness of Winter" day retreat will be held in Loughborough on Saturday December 20th 2014. We hope that it will be a day that gives sustenance and inspiration for the dark days of midwinter. Places are £60.

I really hope you'll join me in 2015 and share my creative journey!

New work

Inspired by a recent trip to Snowshill National Trust property, I've got some new work underway.

I loved the warm palette of ochres and amber with highlights of rich puce pinks and magenta reds. This is the underpainting for a new landscape piece, capturing a layered landscape. I'll build this up with another layer of paint or ink before adding collage and also a layer of stitch.

Back in Stock

I've been restocking my Folksy shop, and it seemed apt to share this image of my print 'Autumn Day'. It was a day just like today, sunny one moment, raining the next and in those blustery moments of glorious late Autumn sunshine, everything seemed to be blown around in gusts of intense colour.

Autumn Days

I love this time of year and this year, Autumn is excelling herself. The colours are rich and the days have been warm and enticing. Each day I have collected a leaf and worshipped their variety and sugar infused hues.  I am savouring each day, knowing that soon the rich colours will be gone.

Bonfire Night!

Happy Bonfire Night. Here at the Hallows house, we're enjoying the rituals of Autumn; Halloween and Bonfire Night. We are off this evening to go 'ooh' and 'aahhh' at the local display. I'm quite pleased it has gone chilly and I can don my new beret and layer up on the knitwear. The season suits me!

To celebrate all that is good about the nights drawing in I've had my print 'Night' on offer in my Etsy shop. Because I haven't yet blogged about it, I'm extending the offer until midnight tomorrow night (the 6th November). You can buy the print for £50 instead of the usual price of £65. Looking at the quilted landscape will keep you warm and those huge stars will remind you to look up and wonder at the miracle of life itself and that we are all made from stardust.

Here at home, we've been making toffee apples this afternoon with windfalls from the allotment and more sugar than I care to think about!!  Who knew they are so easy to make!?

Enjoy the fireworks!

A thing for sheds

It probably comes as no surprise that I have a thing for sheds! My studio is a glorified shed, our allotment has two sheds and it seems that every home I've lived in has come with a shed, full of interesting oddities and vintage ephemera; old tins, plant labels, jars, rusty tools.  A happy weekend is one that takes me to a garden and a peelly painted shed to ogle at. After the summer holidays I had a file on my computer called 'Produce' that documented some of my peelly paint shed loving experiences around the UK! So it seemed fitting to take inspiration from garden sheds and the patina of, and objects there in, for a photo shoot for my range of vases. It has given me great pleasure to find a purpose for the old tins, postcards, boxes, and bits and bobs that fill up drawers and sit on shelves, and to create some product shots for my shop. There are nine vases in total. They sit together well in groups, along themes of Autumn or Spring....or those with birds....or those with cottages. I hope they make charming gifts...for yourself or loved ones.

A new collaboration

I'm very excited about a new collaboration with The Art Group who publish wall art and distribute internationally. I've just completed my first collection for them....not sure yet where they will end up but I'll let you know! Here's a sneak preview!

Glorious colour

I got a bit overwhelmed earlier in the year by the amount of work I had taken on which led to me cancelling a number of workshops. One that remained on the calendar was at Sock Gallery in Loughborough and last Sunday I worked with seven ladies, showing them how I create my own papers, mark making techniques and lead those into a mixed media collage. I really enjoyed the day, and hope they did too. There were some fabulous outcomes.

I'm hoping to run some more workshops in the new year. If you'd like to be added to my mailing list, please get in touch via my website.

Releasing with Autumn

I was so pleased to find these pictures on my camera of the Yoga & Creativity day I ran with Lindsey at Chandrayoga in Loughborough last weekend. Since then I have enjoyed the last of the late Summer's sun and today the rain has come. I'll be using these pictures to remind me of Autumn's glory. If you'd like to celebrate the Winter Solstice with us, we are running a "Stillness of Winter" retreat day on Saturday December 20th. To book, go to www.chandrayoga.co.uk

Through the Lens

I don't like to work from photos when creating my landscapes. They stunt the experience I had in the landscape and can never fully record the moment and the sensory experience I had. I prefer to capture the moment in my hearts eye and work from that, aided by colour notes and a sketch maybe. When using photos to work from its easy to get caught up in the details of the photo, and not the excitement of what drew you to stop and want to paint the scene. Photos capture too much, and not enough!

I do love photography though and so I've learnt to use photography as a record of things that appeal to me. Colour, shape, seasons and mood all get recorded and these become palettes and themes for my studio paintings. To draw all this visual information together, I am starting to develop mood boards that inspire my collaged paintings.

So here is the first that I've shared, and the piece that developed from it. Its been a dry summer, and I've noticed the bleached out, muted colours of the landscape that were the inspiration for this piece, Faded Summer. Its available as a print in my Etsy shop.

Photocraft Loves.....Me!

When you work for yourself it's very hard to keep the boss happy! Long hours and tough appraisals. So it's lovely when someone comes along to pat you on the back and say "Well done there!". The lovely folk at Photocraft have recognised that I've put their great advice and training into practice when I gave my website a revamp and made my Etsy shop look beautiful. So I am very satisfied to have received a 'Photocraft Loves' award!

Into Autumn

And as we move into Autumn I am still in love with deep pink! I've been getting ready for the Autumn Yoga and Creativity workshop in Loughborough this Saturday with Chandrayoga (places still available!). I'll be picking these for our lunch table and the creativity session will be focusing on 'letting go' and our hands as symbols of holding on and letting go. Lindsey will help with energy release with a beautiful yoga session and an inspiring, visual meditation. I'll post some pictures next week of how the day goes!

Love Token by Glynn West

Ta da!

Here they are! Super bright and beautiful! Perfect for harvest time and capturing that joy of growing your own through out the year. I'm currently taking pre-orders here.