Under the Oak designs

After a slow, quiet start to the week (at least as far as art is concerned) the last few days have seen a couple of pleasurable forays into new mediums for me. On Thursday afternoon I attended a pastels workshop at the local community centre.  There has been an art group that meet each week for some time but periodically, at the moment, paid classes are also available.  I say paid but it only cost £4 and for that I could've used all of the tutors materials for the full two hours of the session. I didn't, I took my own cheapo soft pastels that I picked up somewhere, in a sale no doubt, but I did use the paper, pencils, putty and fixative spray that were available. Boat on a beach She started us off with a step by step exercise to get used to using the pastels - The output of which is the dark and moody 'boat on a beach' picture you can see. I was pleasantly surprised with the ease with which this came together - I think we worked on it for 30 minutes, that's all....

I spent a lovely morning manning my first market stall on Saturday.  As I mentioned in my previous post I collaborated with the lovely Helen of Walkmill at no.7 in Knighton.  The collab worked quite well I think and our stall did look rather attractive with the combination of elements.  The community market is much like all retail in the area at the moment, quite slow, and so my expectations were not high. That said I think we're all the same is as much as secretly we hope it'll be a bumper day - It was not - but it was a good day all the same.  I did sell a few cards and Helen's side also sold quite well. It was the first time I've put myself 'out there' in terms of my art. Selling via a bricks and mortar shop is fairly anonymous, even if a few locals do know me. This time I felt I was facing folk directly and you can guarantee that not everyone will have liked my stuff.  There was , however, no negative feedback at all. It was all either neutral or...

For my first stall at our local bi weekly community market on the 23rd July.  It's a bit of a leap of faith, putting myself out there and I've chosen to collaborate with a lovely lady who currently sells my cards and art in her shop. Hopefully the combination of art, cards, lovely smellies, hurricane lamps, vases etc etc will entice a few folk to visit the stall and hopefully generate some sales for us both. So I've been busy framing limited edition prints and building up my stock of cards in preparation. I'm relying of some of my more popular cards plus I've created a couple of new ranges over the last fortnight. Cactusill Lino tree I've been intending to draw and paint cactus for a while and after being inspired by stamps from the Woodware Craft Collection I finally got around to it.  Originally created for my daughters birthday, Cactusill includes the middle section from my watercolour Plasencia for the view outside the window.  I have since created another v...

I really quite like this one, once again the print I pulled wasn't perfect but after a little pen work I'm happier with it.  There's a little pen work at all of the corners, and of course, the large flower top right. I am wondering if  I should add a little more pen, hmmm, not sure, I'll think about that one. I do think I have to accept that with monoprints, the imperfections can happen and it perhaps should be considered part of the process.  In fact, maybe I need to presume that it will happen and that it's the first stage of the process. Second is to look at what the imperfections present for me to work with. I quite like that thought. All this talking about it makes me want to get the paints out and play some more 😁

Discovery -  I've been developing this piece on and off for a while.  It started life as a gelli print that didn't work as well as I'd hoped but you can still see the leaves in the background. First I decided to add the white mandala in the centre with my lovely sakura gelly pens (see photo below). I felt it was an improvement but was still lacking - so, I raided my scrapbooking stash to see what I could perhaps use to embellish it.  Rub-ons, stickers, stamps with a tired, almost dry, black ink pad - have all made an appearance.  I even purchased a new embossing ink pad so that I could make use of the denim powder and my old heat gun.  I've no idea if I've thrown enough at it, too little, or too much.  I've decided that I do actually quite like it - I have to leave these things a while as I grow quite attached to them in the making and I know I can't view them critically to start with, but I've still no idea if others will like it.  The question i...

A glimpse into my studio -  Hello there! It's taken me a while but I've finally started work on my online presence to accompany my creative journey.  To be honest this post is pretty much a place holder whilst I work on constructing the galleries and links to my online shop.  For a while it will remain the top blog post and I'll update it as I go along. Hopefully when all the construction work is completed the blog posts will be used to reflect where I'm at creatively and share some of my experiences. I have started work on my online shop (hosted by Sum-Up)  Eventually you'll find pages for cards, limited editions, originals and a full gallery listed at the top of my Home page.  These will detail the art work that is available and will provide a link to that item in the shop. If you'd like to just go straight to the shop then please follow this link here . I've no idea how many folk I'm likely to reach but hopefully it will be fun finding out, and please...