Yesterday I attended the opening night of the Aber Valley Arts Festival. I had entered three pieces of work into the competition, including ‘Moments after the big bang’. I won first prize in the textile section of the competition!
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Another Mandala
Mandala is approx 8″ in diameter.
Derwent “Inktense” pencils with a water wash and metallic watercolours and pens on cartridge paper.
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Prehistoric Fertility 1
15×23 cm, around 12 to 15 hours of work/pleasure.
Needle felting in silk fibres, embellishments done with various metallic fibres, beads and custom made sequins.
Patterns inspired by British Prehistoric rock art and Neolithic/Bronze Age pottery.
I had my doubts part-way through whether this was going to work out, but I’m really now quite pleased with it. When friends saw it, they thought it was like cells expanding and reproducing – hence the ‘Fertility’ part of it’s title!
When I mount it for display, I’d like to put it onto a piece of slate, an old slate tile maybe; however, I have my doubts about the sensibility of that with the damage dust and fingers could do to it … I’ll work on the idea!
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Textile work greetings cards
A friend of mine asked me late yesterday evening if I’d create a couple of cards for special birthdays, one of which is today! No chance of it getting in the post for today, but that’s fine as apparently it will work really well as a post special birthday surprise. Fortunately, I had some little textile pieces on one side that I’d wanted to frame, so instead, they’ve been trimmed and mounted on card blanks that are slightly iridescent/metallic in sheen.
They work well don’t they?
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End of school year Sept 2010 to July 2011
Hurrah! Home! Six weeks or so to please myself what I do, no timetable to stick to, no feeling like I’m stuck on a treadmill. Time to rest, relax, create, use my mind.
Does it sound like I don’t like teaching? Actually, teaching I do, generally, enjoy. The beaurocracy, the curriculum that doesn’t do much to enthuse staff or pupils, the endless rounds of reporting, assessing just to prove what you already know about the pupils’ progress, the red tape, the statistics, the piles of paper that are generated to feed the great paper monster, the assumption that education is like a factory production line with equal ‘quality’ of raw materials going in so the quality coming out should be the same (we’re talking about human beings here, not inanimate computers). I could go on… the actual work of teaching, of helping pupils to progress either in the subject or personally, of seeing them grow and work towards their potential, the fun, the laughter, the enjoyment of the lesson, that is what I like…
I feel thin and stretched, much as Bilbo did when he gave up the One Ring. Perhaps the government dictates are the educational version of that insidious One Ring, the power in the world of Sauron who produced his armies on a production line …
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Rippling Rivulets Revisited
Watercolours, Zig Art and Graphic pens and wash, Rotring Rapidograph pens with black ink on HOT pressed watercolour paper. 12″ x 8″
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Rippling Rivulets …
12.7cm x 9.6cm. Zig pens and water wash with Rotring pens and black ink on watercolour paper.
Another little bit of art, trying out the new pens. The words just came to me…so I went with them!
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Latest Artworks …
Earth Day 2011
Approx. 18cm x 12cm. Pen and watercolours on watercolour paper.
On Saturday 23 April 2011, I was invited to and attended an Earth Day celebration held at Arthur’s Stones near Reynoldston on the Gower, Wales, UK (GoogleMaps). A couple of days later, as I worked on this inspired work I realised it was inspired by my experience at that gathering. Make of it what you will!
Wedding Blessing
In silver and various hues of lavender…shushhh though, it’s a surprise, but I doubt the people it’s for will see it here! Watercolour and silver and black inks on watercolour paper, and a poor photograph.
Lavender Spirals
18cm x 9cm. Silver ink and watercolours on watercolour paper.
A natural follow on from the Wedding Blessing above!
Beltane 2011
18cm x 9cm. Watercolour and metallic watercolour on watercolour paper.
As I woke and meditated on Beltane (1st May), I saw an image that inspired me to paint this.
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Amazing iced cakes
Well I think they are pretty amazing! The dragon is stunning!
I stand in awe of anyone who can ice cakes, I have tried in the past and failed dismally!
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A dragon-filled letter a…
This is very much a work in progress …
This is about A4 in size. The outline of the ‘a’ was printed out, and I’m just embellishing/illuminating/decorating it with dragon-inspired patterns/forms.
So, who is to blame for this? Well it happens to be my pal the head of art. She came to chat through ideas about a series of lesson for year 9 (13 to 14 year olds) about illuminated letters and this is one of the activities she wants them to do. Of course, she ‘asked’ (read coerced!) me to do an example to show them. She’s doing one, as is a lass who is with the art department on work experience.
I will post more photos as it progresses. This is the result of around 4 hours work today … maybe a bit more, I don’t really keep track of how much time I spend doing art. This evening the time was very much broken by a cwtchy pusscat … he misses me when I’m out in the day, bless him.
Art is the Adventure 