Walking, Sewing, Painting

I often have a lot of things on the go, it's quite normal and it's how I work. The last couple of weeks have been strange as I haven't really finished much, but there is a lot in the pipeline. The end of term came and went in a strange socially distanced way and the school holidays began. I find it quite a stange time anyway and often spend the first week or so redrafting my schemes of work ready for September. However I know there will be some updates H&S advice coming out in August and I don't want to have to do the planning twice, so I'm leaving it until I know what the recommendations are for teaching Art & Design in our new normal. I'll probably spend a big chunk of the last week of the holiday in school sorting out my classroom and getting prepared.

I have started a few projects and have been busy printing and taping PDF patterns ready to cut and sew. I have prepped fabric for my next Minerva makes and the first item is almost complete - just a fastening to go.

On my sewing table right now...

Almost finished are Burdastyle Culottes 03/2015 #126. They have quite a nice overlapped pleat at the front more details to come soon once I've finished the fastening.

Also almost finished and just needing a button and buttonhole are these basic shorts. I downloaded this pattern from a spanish website a few months ago, but it seems to have disappeared from the the internet. The drafting is great but it only has a spec sheet rather than full instructions, but that's ok with me - it's a basic design - fits well too.

I also have this stunning cotton Sateen from Minerva to make up. It's washed and ready to go and I think I have my patterns identified - but I keep changing my mind!!!

Recent makes have been lingerie related and I'm on a bit of a roll. I have now made 3 Watson bras and I'm starting to plan pattern hacks!!! I made this fun bra and knickers from this Rico jersey, which was left over from a t shirt I made a while back. I made the knickers in a size small and used bands rather than elastic -just to try it out - I quite like it.

I also made another pair of the knickers to match the simplicity 8436 bra I made a few weeks ago. I increased the rise by a couple of cm as they sit a little too low without. This version uses some beige lingerie lace with some stretch. I cut both the bands and elastic at 85% of the openings and it seems to be ok.

I also have some navy stretch lace and nude stretch mesh to make a Noelle Bralette and Panties set, but I need to get some elastics and findings.

Apart from sewing I have been painting. Creating a painting is usually quite a long process and i need to sit and live with them before I decided if they are finished. Often I'll work on serveral pieces at once, working on one, while another one dries. I've currently got 4 on the go and they are all inspired by walks along or close to the coast where I live. I try to get out for at least a 4 mile walk each day and prefer something a bit longer. I have found that this activity has been incredibly important to help keep good mental health during the lockdown.

Here are some of the in progress shots of my paintings - Non are quite finished yet.

I've even managed to repaint the garden furniture - it was looking rather tired and now its bright blue!

On Sunday we went to visit family. It was great to see people in the flesh instead of over a screen. We did a long day and got home very late but at least we were able to sleep in our own bed!

Wednesday was my birthday and John, Bethan and I (and the dog) drove up to Seahouses and then walked over the fields, along the Northumberland Coastal Path to Bamburgh. It was a pleasant walk, we had lunch at a local pub before walking back to Seahouses along the beach.

It's almost an hour's drive and it was nearly 4 by the time we arrived home. I had been in just a few minutes when my lovely friend Allison dropped by with my birthday gift of a large piece of waxed cotton. Now I just need to decide what to make with it.

I've had a new fitbit and the Vivienne Westwood designed war child T shirt from the family. I've also had a bit of money towards a new sewing machine. I'm looking to upgrade and thinking about a couple of different machines at the moment. The trouble is that my local store are not doing demonstrations due to Covid and I really want to try before I buy - so I might have to wait a while. I primarily use my machine for garment sewing including outerwear and lingerie, so it needs to be able to handle all kings of fabrics. I do a bit of quilting every now and again.

I'm considering the Bernette 38. It has all the functions I need in a machine, but I need something that can handle thick fabrics - for things like jeans making. I don't know what it's capability is for this type of sewing.

The other machine(s) I'm considering are the Juki HZL G210/220 They have the industrial box feed system and are marketed as begin able to handle lots of fabric - they also have lots of decorative stitches - I'm not sure I'd use them all, but am drawn to the power of these machines.

If you have either the Bernette 38 or the Juki HZL G210/220, do let me know what you think of them. It might help me make a decision.

There we go - You're all caught up with what I've been up to. so how are your days panning out?

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.

Lockdown creativity

So this week I've only been at work one day and as it's the Easter holiday I've been spending some time being creative and making things and getting some fresh air on my daily exercise - luckily for my the view above is just a 5-minute walk from home. I've had a few things that just needed finishing off sewing wise.

I messed up a welt pocket and ended up having to re-cut pieces but the second attempt was much better. I had a lot of buttons and buttonholes that needed doing. I make buttonholes on my Janome, so I packed the Bernina away (put it on the floor for a bit) and set up the Janome for the one-step buttonhole function and got to work doing all the garments I needed to finish off. I only bodged one buttonhole, but it was on wool fabric and really did take some unpicking. Garments now need a final press and photographing - so expect to see them in the next few weeks up on the blog.

It was my daughter's 17th birthday and I channelled my inner Mary Berry and made her a gingerbread house "cake". I don't think I've ever made anything quite as well when it comes to decorating cakes.

I decided that I'd like to make some portraits and stretched some paper ready to get started. I sat outside in the sun, but it was a bit too bright to see my source images so I decamped inside. I used a very basic grid to get the scale right. I don't always do this, but it can be helpful to work out proportion.

I'm planning on doing a coloured pencil piece and a graphite pencil study. so fay I've sketched the structure in for both and blocked in the tone for the graphite study. Hopefully, I'll start to refine this piece this week.

I've also been helping my hubby with creating the online content for our Church Easter services - mostly keeping quiet, but also doing some reading and setting up some visuals. you can see our Good Friday Tenebrae reflection here.

I started an upcycling project. Our old coffee table had a really damaged top and needed an update. I've been planning to mosaic the top for a while and this week I finally got it gridded and started to stick down the tiles. Unfortunately, I ran out of tile adhesive and need to find some before I can complete this.

My other creative pursuits bring together my love of art and stitch and I've been tackling some hand-stitched art as part of Textile Artist's Community Stitch Challenge.
The first challenge was set by artist Sue Stone and began with experimenting with just one basic stitch.

The second was set by Cas Holmes and involved using applique and hand stitch to create a small piece. Follow on Instagram.

And this week I've been working on an eye study set by Emily Tull. Its an exercise in observation and Emily teaches how to create curved stitches and had us making a drawing using stitch. I used a yellow background for this one and started with the recommended black, white and grey machine thread (never used this for hand embroidery before), but then sent myself down a rabbit hole and started with colour!!!! You can follow Emily on Instagram.

This task struck a chord with me as I've set my students an eye-drawing task for after the holidays. I even attempted a video - Too much noise in my house meant that I used written instructions and music background.

I can't wait to see what next week's challenge is and I'll try to get the mosaic finished. My daughter also wants to do an art day, so it might be time to get out the mono-printing stuff this week too. What have you been doing to keep sane during these mad times?