A Year of Inspiration from Nature

I've been busy getting my workshops planned for 2016 and they are all available to book in my shop and Eventbrite page.

I've planned seasonally inspired workshops throughout the year that will share the techniques and ideas behind my mixed media landscapes. Designed to fit together to give you creative confidence and help you develop your visual language, the days can stand alone or be booked as a set of four.

Book all four workshops together and receive a gift of my 'I am Nature - Working with Nature as Inspiration' CD and a mini print from my range (RRP £25)

Spring Sketchbooks - Saturday February 6th 2016

Mark Making - Saturday June 25th 2016

Evoking the Seasons - Saturday October 1st 2016

Stitch techniques with Paper - Saturday November 12th 2016

Tools of my trade

I'm getting ready for a series of collage workshops. The tools of my trade are varied! I use marks to create different papers to collage with and use a variety of inks and paints. I make my own mark making tools as well as having a good collection of found objects. I use different printmaking techniques and make my own printing blocks. On the workshops I share these techniques and show how to use the different papers to tell a story, the story of your creative soul.

Workshop

I had the pleasure of being invited to run a workshop on an inset day for art teachers.  There was an exciting buzz in the air as creativity was unleashed! Some were from digital or photographic backgrounds and enjoyed the challenge to their neat and tidy tendencies. Others were new to stitching and broke through their fear of getting behind a sewing machine. Some took their work to new scales working long or large. The outcomes were really dynamic.

If you are interested in attending a workshop you can find out more here.  Or if you would like to talk to me about running one for a group, please click here.

Collaged Landscape

At the weekend I held my first two day 'Collaged Landscape' workshop.  Previously run as a one day event, running it over two allowed participants to really get stuck in and explore all the different elements of mark making, painting, collage and stitch.  The outcomes were fabulous.

Due to outrageously positive feedback I'll be running more workshops in 2013 and can now announce the following dates:

April 13/14 Collaged Landscapes workshop at Long Eaton Art Room, NG10 4LD £100 - 6 places

May 11th    Creative play day - experiment with mark making, try machine embroidery, try collage.  Can be used as an extra day if you have already attended a course or as a try out before a longer course. £50 - Long Eaton Art Room - 8 places

June 15/16 Collaged narratives workshop at Long Eaton Art Room.  Similar to the landscapes weekend but focusing on the story behind your piece, perhaps inspired by a personal story or a poem. £100 all materials included- Long Eaton Art Room - 6 places

July 13th  Creative play day - as May 11th - 8 places, £50 including all materials and cake! Long Eaton Art Room

Please contact me if you'd like to book a place.  Also available are workshop gift vouchers (£50 or £100) if you would like to surprise someone with a thoughtful and inspiring gift!

Back to basics

Creatively I am starting again.  I have had an amazing year for my business and continue to be offered new opportunities and have lots to look forward to in 2013.  With the studio move though I have felt in limbo, and as I've come to be known for the style of landscapes I create I have continued to create them.  But something inside wants me to pursue a new direction.  Really it's a more vivid version of me, hopefully a more confident creator.  When I teach the workshops I love encouraging messiness and creating textures and papers to use which are uninhibited and free.  So, I've been doing what I love, and without a total vision for the work, I have been mark making and experimenting with the media that have become familiar to me, ink, collage and stitch.  I've bled out the colour....see previous post on black....and I am starting out on a new creative journey.  It feels exciting and liberating and a little scary.  I'm waiting for the colour and shape to arrive.

From my mind's eye

I've been trying to work from my memory. There are images in my head, some that have been there nearly all my life, and I've been trying to evoke them in my work. Some are hazy, early memories of people, some are family tales, others are fleeting moments of my life that were so beautiful or so dramatic that they etched themselves on my retinas. It's been a challenging step, in terms of trying to make my work more personal and in trying to realise an image when there is nothing tangible to draw from. It's also been liberating, making my mark stronger and honing in on what is important to my mark making; pattern, image as symbol and also image as metaphor.