A Touch of Colour

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Some of my long time readers will know that I delve into the world of all things creative - it's just who I am. As well as my love for making clothes I am a passionate artist. I love colour and I love to create. I can get lost in art work creation, far more than I do in any other media. However, it takes up a massive amount of space. I don't have my own studio and the dining table and back yard are more often my pop-up studio spaces. This means that I tend to have short bursts of art making as the family like to be able to eat their dinner and the washing needs to dry somewhere too (I use the airer for my prints and paintings).

In those quiet days between Christmas and new year, while the weather was poor and everyone had eaten far too much to worry about what was on the table, I made art. I was prolific. I worked on over 20 pieces!!!!

Don't misunderstand, I did not create this many pieces from scratch. I began by experimenting im my sketchbook with some abstract forms. I haven't done this type of work for some time and it shows - I used to work in a purely abstract way some years ago and I'm drawn to shape, colour, line and texture. I used a few small tubes of acrylic, posca pens and oil pastel. I had forgotten how much I love working with oil pastel. It must be one of my favourite drawing media.

The next day I raided my portfolio of unfinished work. Some of this stuff had been in their for 4 or more years and was begging for a new lease of life. Some of this work I cut up.

I wasn't really happy with the collages so stopped and instead pulled out the paint, pastels and paint pens again. I limited the paints to just a few colours and instead tried to focus on my use of the pastel.

When I work like this, I don't feel precious about the work. These are pieces that I feel are not working or lack some form direction. As I start to work, 

I look for the shapes that the original suggests to me. As I work on them some are successful, some aren't. Some I love, some I don't. Although I often find other people love the ones that I don't like.

Many of the original pieces were monotypes. some were abstract in nature as I had experiemented with using a Gelli plate - I still haven't quite got into using this thechnique. Others were more traditional oil based monotypes created on perspex. I love the long working times of this technique, but that means drying times are long too. Many of these had a more landscpae feel about them, as they had been created during my Seaspace project. The original surface really did determine the materials I used on top. The oil pastels work well on the oil based monotypes, and the paint pens are better on the Gelli printed work.

I let the shapes and colours of the original dictate the form and shapes of the layers that I added. Often sitting for a few minutes before adding anything. Letting one piece dry while I added to another. Some had only a few marks added, others had several layers. Many ended up feeling like abstracted landscapes.

I have shared just a few of them here (When work settles a little I'll actually try to get some of this stuff posted as an online gallery). I wonder which is your favourite?

A peek into my creative process.

Big Stormy Sky

I have been re-engaging with my painting practice recently. Over the last few years I have predominantly created one of a kind monotypes, which I often work into with other materials. I keep a sketchbook and like to explore different techniques in there, however, I love to work bigger. when I completed my MA in Fine Art and Education I worked on large format canvases, which were well over 1m. I loved the process here and enjoyed working to such scale, but I don't have the ability to store or transport works of this size at the moment.

I have found a happy medium in working at about 50cm square for paintings. Big enough to get my teeth into, but easily storable and easy to ship and transport.

The Estuary

I continue to work on my Seaspace series. My style has changed quite a lot over the years and I try to capture more of the feel of the place than trying to capture a pictorial representation. As such, my paintings often go through several stages. Today I'd like to share the development stages of one of my paintings. This one is called 'The Estuary' and is based on a view I pass regularly on my daily walks, just a couple of miles from my home on the Northumberland coast. It's painted with Acrylic paint on a standard edge canvas. Most of my acrylics at the moment are Daler Rowney System 3.

This is the beginnings of a new painting. I'd just finished working on another piece and decided to use up the paint I'd already dispensed to block in my composition. At this stage, I don't worry about detail, I just apply the colour quickly and try to get the shapes I want and get rid of that blank canvas feel. Then I leave my work and think about it for a while.

Originally, I thought that this might be a quite realistic painting and I began to apply the underpainting in the right sort of colours. I love bright colours and have a tendency to want to use them everywhere - reign it in Claire!!! So here we have the shape more clearly defined - you can see the beach and sea and river quite clearly.

As I progressed with this, I started to add details of the buildings in the background and more detail to the sky. These are the rough shapes and not supposed to be fine details. It was going ok, I took a break and spent some time looking at it. I do this a lot. If I'm unsure about a painting I will often pop in on the easel and have it on display so I can look at it and see how it wants to be developed, sometimes just a few hours, the longest I've left something like this was about 6 months.

I wasn't feeling it, it seemed too still. It was starting to look like the place rather than capturing the emotion of the place. I swapped out the small brushes for the big ones and began to make more gestural marks. I stand up for this, often using my whole body to create the marks needed (I can be quite messy at this stage and often work outside during the summer months). You can start to see the brush strokes and movement of the paint.

It did not quite capture the feeling and movement of the place, so out came the pallette knives, cardboard and the biggest brushes I have. Paint is scraped over the surface or dry brushed, allowing some of the previous layers to show through and create that ellusive personal sense of place that comes through painting. At this stage I slow down - just so I know when enough is enough. It's so easy to overwork and miss something. Just a few minor careful adjustments and I decided that it was where I wanted it to be.

I'm often asked how long it takes me to create a painting. It takes a lifetime. It takes all the training, skills, knowledge, experience, fails and successes to create each one. To construct the physical painting can take anything from a few hours to a few days, but sometimes, months or even years. Sometimes I don't create work for months, but I'm constantly thinking, considering, collecting visual source materials and ideas, which eventually coalesce into an idea which eventually becomes a series of works. This process often takes two years or longer. My current series has been in development for about 18 months and I'm still not done with it yet.

I hope that you enjoyed this glimpse into my creative process. I'd love to hear about your creativity too.

Both of these paintings have been sold, but open edition prints are available on my Saatchi shop and Gifts with these images are available to buy on Redbubble.

Recent Art Adventures

It kind of makes sense that as an Art teacher I enjoy Artmaking. This is true, although I don't often spend as much time creating as I would like. It takes a while to get all my materials out and set up, so I have to plan to spend a whole day making if I'm doing this at home and I take up A. Lot. Of. Space. when I'm working. My sewing, on the other hand, is usually confined to a much smaller area, unless I'm cutting out and therefore is easier to pick up and do a bit at a time. so I always take opportunities to attend workshops when I can.

Last week I have been fortunate to attend some CPD at The Northern School of Art at Hartlepool (formerly known as Cleveland College of Art & Design). It was a bit of a trek from school, but well worth it and it was inspiring to see the degree shows at the same time.

The CPD was focussed on printmaking with found objects. The instructor was Helen from Northern Print and she went over a range of different printing processes and how we could achieve effective results in the classroom, with or without a press.

As often happens I found myself drawn to the monotype processes. I don't know if it more to do with the painterly aspects of this type of printing or the immediacy and unpredictability of the technique that I like. I played with the layering of textures and shapes, using both hand printing and the press to achieve different results.

What was new to me was using a printing medium for using with acrylic paint. I was pleasantly surprised how long the paint stayed open with the medium added. I think I will buy some to use with my Gelli plate at home as I have found the fast acrylic drying time limiting when working with the Gelli plate. When I make monoprints at home I usually use oil-based ink, which I have grown to love but it can take a long time for the inks to dry and then there is the cleaning up!

I am constantly drawn to printmaking and would love to pursue this further, especially textile printing methods.

On Saturday we also had our monthly crafternoon and I decided to start a painting. So I took along some paints and some design ideas I've been working on and began to create the underpainting. I go from excited to bored very quickly and I'm starting to realise that I like my paintings to have textural qualities and at the moment this work is far too flat and the colours and layout are not quite right. Over the coming weeks, I will be adding to this to start to bring it to life. I really do like to work with mixed media and would love to bring some stitch into this work at some point. Watch this space!

It's always amazing to see how my preferences and ways of working change and develop over time. I wonder where this will go next?

Art Sale - Pay what you decide.

The Church on the point 120 by 120 cm acrylic on canvas

I'm hoarding art works!
They are no good to anyone stuck in the spare room.

The church on the point - detail

I need to clear some space and raise some funds for my next art project (which I cant wait to share with you!!!!).

The House on the Hill, 50 by 100 cm. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

So I'm selling.
I have a range of work - on canvas and paper, from large to small. All I ask is that you pay what you think it's worth, plus the postage and packing. I'll be sharing works for sale over the next couple of weeks. These are the first three.

The house on the Hill  -  detail

Depending where you live will affect the cost (within the UK most postage will be under £20). I'm willing to post world wide, but please be aware my work sometimes contains, grass, sand and other natural materials which can be restricted for import.

Night Sky. 50 by 100 cm, Acrylic on Canvas

Message me if you are interested or find my event on facebook.