a journey in mark making
“Unlim
ited Palette” will be showing at various studios around Waihi Beach on Auckland Anniversary Weekend which falls on 26th and 27th of January. Each artist works in a different process – watercolour, acrylic, printmaking, and callligraphy, covering a wide range of styles – traditional, modern, stylised and quirky. Cash sales only.
Something from my recent series “Waste Not Wanted” – mixed media acrylic, 3D waste cardboard on canvas.
This piece is for sale at the Gallery at the Thames Society of
Arts, in the Old North School building, Main Road Thames, on the Coromandel Peninsula New Zealand. Worth a look if you are passing.
Greetings from Middle Earth, (or pretty close by) – 37 degrees South actually, in New Zealand.
I have been reading on the blog of one of my favorite mixed media masters Seth Apter www.sethapter.com how he has struggled to find the time to keep up with all his online accounts – blogging, facebook, instagram and so on. It would seem that sitting at the computer writing screeds of what is on your mind, is no longer the thing to do. Especially if you are a creative wizard who runs an online shop selling your own lines of mixed media supplies, along with touring the country taking workshops. Can’t be all things to all people. So he has finished with his blog but retained his website because that is where his core business is. I don’t blame him.
Where is the joy in being creative when you are up til 3am answering multiple feedback responses. I had reason to ask a question of him not so long ago, to do with items in his shop, so it was business related. He gave a response within 12 hours, and I thought at the time …’this guy must be awake 24/7 or he has a backup staff who do the menial tasks while he gets on with his creative life.’
So my question is this: How can we be creatively engaged with the wider world while still being true to our artistic selves. Do you have the answer?
a hot, muggy afternoon, doodling in the “studio” wanting to find some inspiration for my next series. On the floor, canvases and boards which have already had a life, waiting there for a new one. My inner artists says “paint what YOU want”, but my sensible voice is saying ” what do you have to say”.
there’s two lines of thought at play here. Do I carry on making new pieces on fresh supports (canvas or board), or do I remake the old ones, cover over what is not pleasing, and carry on. It’s a while since I sold anything, but then again I don’t have my work on show in many places. Last year 2018, I had two serious showings which I worked towards by making pieces for a new series called Waste Not Wanted. These were mainly smallish abstract works on canvas, with a 3 dimensional effect from recycled cardboard.
There are not many opportunities to put work in front of the public unless you go down the facebook or instagram path. I will be taking part in a showing at the end of January when there are 5 artists from Unlimited Palette, in 3 studios, open to friends and family. I have made a couple of new small works for this event, and expect to make a few more. Mainly I am hoping to find the inspiration to carry on making the art that pleases me and also the people who get to see it.
my toolkit is open and ready…………………….
Today I have added the word “studio” to my blog address. It seemed appropriate, because even though my artroom is now reduced to a 16 square metre space (also a bedroom and office ) it is still the place I go for “me time” to think, browse, write, make a mess, hide from the TV, and eventually……….. create.
According to Robert Genn, in the toolkit for making art you need six items: time, space, series, media, books and desire. Most of these I have in bigger or smaller amounts. I can set aside time, I have a space, I like to work in a series; books and media are both available for when direction is needed; desire comes from process, which reinforces desire, which then becomes love. You need love in your kit.
been away visiting family and friends, good to have a chance to refresh the mind. Plenty of artistic stimulation, great food, discussion and lots of walking around the old hometown which is changing and growing, but will always be ‘my place to stand’.
today we are checking out how to do this.
COLLAGE and MIXED MEDIA are where it’s at in my ARTMAKING
