Sorting through.

I have been trying to have a grand sort out in my little room/studio; I would like to say it is of my life but it is really only of all the scraps, papers, found and given bits and pieces which have accumulated over at least the last nine years. It has been hard to part with some of the bags of tissue, cardboard, and bubble wrap, but I am pleased to say that much of the ‘haberdashery’ and painted paper has found a home. I could still make my way through all the sketchbooks and course work gathered over the years, but this may have to wait for the next round of energy.

I gathered some fabrics from my scrap basket and am thinking of putting them together into some kind of patchwork, rather like Spirit Cloth’s nine patch project.

 Every piece of coloured paper and fabric holds some memory so one has to be a bit ruthless in all this.

Pattern

I have been enjoying trying out some of the classes over on Skill Share; enjoy is perhaps not quite the right word as pleasure and frustration are equally mixed as I try to get to grips with computer programmes which I have never used before. Some of the classes are excellent but others are definitely not for the beginner. If you fancy trying out the range of classes there is usually a cheap introductory rate. Here are some of the repeat patterns which I have made:

Also over the last week I have been to my experimental drawing class and tried drawing whilst watching a video of a moving figure. This was enjoyable and introduced me to the dancer Sylvie Guillame

I took photos of my drawings and then played with them in the Icolorama app.

I also watched a TV programme about contemporary images and discovered the amazing large scale drawings of Jenny Saville   in fact I think someone on my Access Course did a presentation on her work but I didn't thoroughly appreciate it at the time.

What I did on my holidays.

I have been away for nearly three weeks in all and managed a few bits and pieces.

I did a watercolour class on my cruise to the Azores, slightly punctuated by terrible weather in

 The Bay of Biscay. Looking down and concentrating I realised is not the best thing to ward off sea sickness. The ipad app IColorama adds interest to even my poor water colour flower.

In The Canaries I found a few bits of sea glass and some bits and pieces. I wanted to pick up all the discarded bottle tops in Lisbon but felt inhibited, ‘what a crazy lady’.

When I got home I received a lovely present from Özge Başağaç  in Turkey, complete with an artfully addressed envelope.

Then off again to Dorset and another present, a little basket made from clothes line, dipped in turmeric. Really neatly done and a perfect store for some of my beach finds.

I found some interesting bits and pieces, including a piece of what I think is fossilized bone and also fossilized wood, which looked to me like a piece of Whitby jet. Lots of information about this sort of thing on the web, including one knowledgeable lady who takes photos of rocks with holes and explains what has made the holes, fascinating.

I did a few drawings of the shells I found and manipulated those on the ipad; endless fun.

Over on Spirit Cloth Jude has started a Feel Free Project; you can donate or just choose to admire her work and process. She is putting together an account of her working process which is gathered from several of her previous workshops. I have done one of her workshops, joined in the Magic Feather Project and have one of her cat patchworks hanging above my desk now.

I have been trying out some Skill Share classes  to learn more about computer programmes.

I seem to have spent hours on this and keep reassuring myself that it is good for the grey matter, and that I must have learned something on the way. One of the ‘easier’ classes is about drawing a collection and the tutor is excellent and entertaining to watch. This is my first effort.

Have a go?

This is a project you may want to have a go at; I got the basic idea from a product review on the Great Art Blog about the use of Catalyst Wedges. I liked the idea of colouring in the mono print which results.

I used A2 water colour paper. The mono print was made using black and white acrylic paint with the addition of Open Medium, this meant that I had more time to work the print and also that I had the opportunity to make a number of smaller prints from the same marks onto A4 copy paper. I worked on a large sheet of acrylic. I fancied working bigger than my gelli plate.

I made two large mono print one in grey and the other black. It struck me that we have no need to buy the expensive adult colouring books which are now so popular when it is so easy to make one’s own version; this definitely absorbed me for some hours, colouring in the marks made with the wedges, of course you can make the marks with anything that comes to hand, for instance a comb or shape cut from a piece of card.

Then I started to colour in areas using mostly gouache but with some watercolour paint as I ran out of yellow gouache.

I then decided to cut up the A2 sheet into four A4 pieces and took them to the sewing machine to add some interest.

The smaller mono print were slipped inside the ‘covers’ with about five pieces of plain copy paper.

 I then sewed the little booklets together, but you could make four small books and sew with pamphlet stitch, or even on the sewing machine.