Liberty Open Call - Last Chance to Vote

Today is the last chance to vote for me if you like my design.  Please vote here:

https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/features/design-and-living/liberty-open-call-voting.html

Thanks for all the support received so far :-)

Make It In Design

Another reason for being quiet on the blogging front is that I've been following Make It In Design, Module 2, 'Creating Your Professional Identity'.  I've loved doing this course and am still creating my logo and business stationery for it.  It's made me do a bit of soul searching about where I want to go with my designing ...  It's a fabulous course for helping you get to the nitty gritty of who you really are as an individual.  I've been able to take up where I left off at art school years ago ... it was all about drawing and creating then, which is ok but not so hot for preparing you for the business world! This course and the preceding one 'Designing Your Way' which I took last year are great for this.  I am planning to do the next instalment, Module 3, 'Monetising Your Designs' next year.  In the meantime, I have lots of time to practice, get proficient with Photoshop and organise my portfolios. I'm glad that I've kept all the art I've every done over the years ...  This photobook was created using some of it as well as more recent work. I've learned how to mock up my ideas on to products which really brings the work to life and shows how it can be used commercially.  The company that made the book is Saal Digital. I took advantage of an Instagram offer to create the book and thought it would be a good way of having a go at making a 'Look Book'.  I'm really pleased with the quality of it and wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

Sarah Campbell Fabric Painting Day

A grey start to the day....  I was unfortunately going to be a bit late for my class at The Fashion and Textile Museum and had already made my apologies in advance but there was a further delay at Moorgate tube and I had to walk down to London Bridge. Not a bad walk but I was then lost at Monument and Pudding Lane … I then realised I was also on the wrong side of The Thames!

Doubling back on myself, I found a stairway to the top of a bridge and was able to head towards The Shard at Bermondsey where I knew the Museum was located. 

I made my apologies at reception and was then able to join Sarah Campbell’s class who were just about to have a lunch break.  I took the opportunity to photograph everything and anything I could in the Josef Frank exhibition.  What impressed me was a riot of colour and blooms on lengths of fabric suspended from the ceiling.  

There was also a beautiful room set up with painted furniture, prints and glassware, where you could see the fabric in context.  

The Museum shop had Sarah Campbell scarves and cushions printed in mouthwatering colours ...  

Some from the past and newer designs such as this hand painted birds and nest.

I enjoyed browsing through the books and cards, particularly a Zandra Rhodes cut out and colour paper doll complete with outfits!  

I also came away with a Fashionary book – like a dictionary of fashion styles and faint templates of figures for drawing over.

It was a pleasure to meet Sarah Campbell, who I’ve blogged about before: Start to Finish - The Collier Campbell/Sarah Campbell Story UPDATED , when I saw her exhibition in 2014, again at The Fashion and Textile Museum.  

Although I was late, she made me feel at ease and I went straight into painting on calico.  I was inspired by the sunflowers I’d seen in the Frank exhibition.  I learned about auto-fade pens and lightly sketched out my pattern on the fabric. 

Auto fade pens are like felt pens but the outline disappears after a short length of time and doesn't spoil a painted design.  It’s been a while since I handled paint but I took to it again immediately and loved the way the fabric paints blended and bled on the cloth.  

I only had a couple of hours to do anything in and made the most of it while I could.  

The end of the class came round too quickly and I felt I should head off home in good time considering the journey I had in.  Delays on the way home too!  I didn’t arrive home until 9 in the evening which meant for an exhausting day.  Enjoyable though and of course, I met a heroine of mine  ....  A grey day ended up full of colour ...

I've since bought a set of fabric paints of my own and I'm now looking forward to finishing my design.  So glad to be back painting again! 

New Designers 2016

Amongst the wedding preparations, I did find time to go to this show last Friday.  I've been meaning to see what it's all about for the past few years now and finally I had the chance.  It's held every year at the end of June in The Business Design Centre, Islington and has been going for 30 years now.

The main angle is for the various UK (and one from Sweden I noticed ...) Art Schools to bring their final textile shows to London.  There is a lot to see and take in.  However, it is possible to identify various strands and themes running through the work.  I noticed some designs reminding me very much of Memphis from the 80's.  Most of the work though seemed to take its influences from Natural History and Botanical Prints.  Insects, butterflies and moths were a recurring theme throughout the show.  I was also surprised at how much hand painted work there was, in that there is a noticeable shift at the moment to digital printing.  There was even a demonstration of digital fabric printing:

The students were very eager to chat and talk and I enjoyed finding out more behind the work I was seeing.  They all had their own business cards and some had printed flyers and booklets.  Now the show is over, it's possible to look at their websites and find out more.  I don't want to post close-up photographs of their work here for copyright reasons.

These are some of my favourite business cards to give you a flavour of what was there:

Make It In Design also had a stand at the show and I was able to meet and talk to the ladies who organise everything, as well as take away a goodie bag.  It gave me inspiration to finish the last two exercises I have to do from my course, Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design.

I've signed up for the Summer School which begins in August.  I have a week off work then so should be able to make a fair job of it.  Looking forward to then!

Designing Your Way

A few posts ago, I documented my creative journey so far in life.  I had just finished City & Guilds and was enjoying a rest and a look back over achievements so far.  I thought a retrospective might provide a pointer for the next leg of the journey and it has in a way.  I really enjoyed the creative design elements of C & G and have been taking this aspect further in 'Designing Your Way', the first module of a series of 4 run by Rachel Taylor and Beth Kempton of the Make It In Design School.  I am re-discovering drawing and the design process, along with how to look at the world from a designers perspective once again.  Module 1 only lasts for 5 weeks and I am in Week 4 already.  It's entirely manageable alongside my full-time job and very enjoyable.  More news soon!

The Northern Quarter - Street Art

I've been back to Manchester for a few days.  The Northern Quarter, just off Piccadilly, is a centre for arts and creativity.  Each time I go, I notice something different - especially the murals.  This one has been there since 2011 and I've now done a bit of research on it.  It seems that not all the 'street art' is exactly that and much of it has been done commercially, but that doesn't detract from its beauty.  This one was commissioned by Converse Trainers (you can see the 'star' logo on there).  It's enormous, taking up the whole gable end of a multi-storied red brick building.  I didn't notice the bird at first though, as I was too busy looking at the trailing plant up the right hand side - in fact I've found a couple of the photos of the bird in close up from elsewhere on the t'internet.  Sorry if I'm treading on anyone's toes with them ... I'm not sure where they came from, but this is for criticism and review only, in a very positive way!

    
The Northern Quarter has been likened to 'Old New York', because of it's features ... fire escapes and multi-storied buildings.  Many of the buildings have been and still are being used for clothing manufacture and wholesale retail - that's what I always used to know it for before it became trendy recently.  Several films have been made around here - I can often imagine car chases in detective films and tv series going on ...

Designing an Arts & Crafts Style Illuminated Letter

A couple of weeks ago I gave myself the very special treat of a 3 day course at Cambridge Botanic Gardens.  I'd picked up a booklet there on one of my many walks and was intrigued by the title, especially as it involved the use of gold leaf.  Now I haven't picked up a paintbrush in months ... I've been under such other demands as work every day, doing my knitting course and the occasional bout of sewing. It really takes a lot of concentration for me to complete a painting, so taking 3 days out was just what I needed to get started again.  The course was held in a lodge adjoining the garden and our classroom looked out over tranquil gardens ... magical.  Georita Harriott, an award winning botanical artist, led the course.  I've seen and admired her work before and felt privileged to be taught by her.

We started out with a lecture on Arts & Crafts decoration, learning more about the work of William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and, unknown to us all on the course and a revelation, Lewis Foreman-Day.  They had all been influenced in turn themselves by medieval styles and had 'raided' works from the past to make their own designs.  Our decorated letter could take the form of either a boxed style or a more free flowing design and I chose boxed ...  I am thinking of designing a logo for 'Marguerite Designs' and thought this would lend itself to the development of that.

Anyway, we began by choosing a style of letter and scaling it up with a grid system.

After tracing our selected letter, we could then decorate.  I chose to use acanthus leaves entwining the letter 'D' - the acanthus was a typical Arts & Crafts motif.  While I was outdoors, lunching on one of the benches, I noticed the daisies, or marguerites at my feet and thought they would be a perfect accompaniment ...

  

We then had to select the area that would be decorated with gold leaf.  This process has to be done first, before any painting, as there is a danger that the gold can stick to the underlying paintwork.  I felt quite brave and decided to do the whole 'D' like this!  I also felt it lent itself to doing the daisy centres as a kind of accent.  A glue called 'Ormoline Gilding Medium' has to be painted on first - it's best to use an old paint brush for this, as it's hard to wash off.  It can dry quite clear, so it helps to mix in some Yellow Ochre watercolour with it to identify where it's been painted on.

   

Once dry, the medium has to be re-activated, which is done by breathing on it in succession around 10 times - this can be quite comical!  The gold leaf is then laid over the top and a smooth seashell, such as a cowrie, is used to polish over the backing paper.  The gold then separates itself from the paper and sticks to the medium.

  I loved doing this!  It seemed quite magical!  I really want to do some more ...  The next stage was painting in.  I quite liked the look of blue next to gold, which I'd seen in medieval illuminations, so I decided to use shades of it all over the background.  I found the candy stripe border around an Arts & Crafts style carpet illustration.

The Arts & Crafts artists, particularly William Morris, used natural plant colours and dyes in their works, so  I was keen not to use anything too bright.  I chose a chalky green for the acanthus leaves, in several shades along with an ochre centre.  I could use this in the striped border too, where I'd also used a strong crimsony shade to tone in with the daisy petals.

The daisy petals came next - they are not white as imagined - they have pink edges and the undersides are quite a strong shade.  Lastly, came the stems and leaves, in a yellowy green to distinguish them against the background, and finally some ochry stems.

I'm pleased with how everything turned out.  The course came along at just the right time, as I needed a bit of TLC and rest and recuperation.  I'm thinking about my logo now .... coming soon ...  

Spoonflower Swatch

Did anyone else take advantage of the offer of a free silk faille swatch printed to any specification at Spoonflower recently? I had my repeating seashells done and it arrived just over a week ago. It's great to see how a design actually translates to a piece of soft fluid fabric. I was impressed by the service too.

Beach Huts, Dreaming of Summer

I've made this little collage of gouache and torn papers.  It's going in an exhibition over the May Bank Holiday here in the UK at Grimston Celebration of Art 2012.  The show will be in a church on the edge of the Sandringham Estate.  It's a lovely atmosphere there, with musicians and tea and cake.   I've exhibited before, along with a hundred or so other pictures by East Anglian artists.   

Drawing again ... at last!

I've been asked to do a bookplate or, 'Ex Libris', so I'm playing around with images of books and inkbottles ...more to come.

Colour Reference

I've started a new colour book and these are some examples of experiments where I've separated out the colours seen in ikat weaves in The Whitworth Art Gallery ...

Mousehole, Cornwall - commission

I had a picture in an exhibition and as a result, I received this commission. It's pen and wash, my favourite technique, depicting the harbour in Mousehole, Cornwall.  Years ago, I did a series of pen drawings all around Cornwall - love the place - inspired to do more ...

Repeating Seashells II

This is a companion design to the one in the previous post.  Although both were requested by my agent at the time, it's still a subject I love ...

Repeating Seashells I

Using densely packed shell motifs, rather than an allover effect, this design has a range of possibilities and here are just some of them ...

Coast

Continuing on the beachy theme is 2 designs I did as a set of 4 for wall art, coasters, mats, in fact anything needing a square format...  I collaged them with torn papers and drew in with fine detail for the flowers, boats etc.

Ships and Lighthouses

Ships and Lighthouses are a favourite subject of mine even though I was specifically asked to produce designs around this theme by my agent at the time.  It's the watery/beachy theme that appeals ... always has, and it fits in with my favoured technique for painting, in a watercoloury style.  This design is a side by side repeat.

China Tea

Well here I am again, at the start of 2011 and determined to try and make my blog work for me this year.  I've had a busy time at work since changing jobs but have still managed to do some creative things.  I'll start with a little potted history ....  I completed some textile designing for an agent and I've posted a couple of examples here, China Tea. These are for anything kitchen related but particularly wall art, coasters or pot holders for examples.

A Norfolk Village

This is Wimbotsham Village in Norfolk and I painted the border of the green there a while ago as part of a sketching day course. All the students sat around the village one sunny Saturday.  I enjoyed working outdoors and the immediacy of the pen work and loose wash technique.  It's something I'm comfortable with and I really need to get into doing more ...

Poppies

This blog is a place for me to share my creativity, beginning with one of my favourite painting subjects, poppies. Their papery petals suit my watercoloury style of painting and they are abundant here in Norfolk.  I find it very hard to use opaque paint and always want to water it down to achieve a certain effect ....