Christmas Cards 2013

Every year after Christmas I say 'never again!' and every year in October, I start making them again. Let's hope these ones do well so my friend and I can raise some money for charity.

Engagement card

So many engagements this year....and so many weddings next year..... x

Farewell Miss Peters

 

This gift was made out of pure love for my dear friend Katie who is moving to Aus to be with her very special boyfriend. I was originally going to make a regular book and started initially making the pages out of black and white papers. Then I realised what a rainbow of colour Miss Peters is and changed the pages to be as bright and colourful as possible. I also thought that it would be such a shame to have the pages hidden away inside the front and back cover, so made it open like a concertina. On one side is pictures of her and words to describe her wonder, and on the other side pictures of her with her friends and heartfelt messages from them. It was such a joy to make, and also so easy because I had a specific person in mind and I knew just how much it would mean to her. It was a great example of how projects grow and evolve and change during the making process and how, as the maker, you should allow this change to happen and not be stuck or rigid in a design plan.

More cards for happy occasions

 

Sometimes my card-making seems relentless! So many happy occasions to celebrate and congratulate people on. 

More leftovers

Experimenting with paints is so much fun. I have started doing these boards as a way to use up any excess paints left over from whatever I was doing previously. They are pure expression and freedom, which is often very unlike the other work I may be doing at the time. I enjoying doing them so much and always feel a sense of relief afterwards. I want to try cropping a few different paintings together and seeing how they work together.

 

Moving Images Collages 3 and 4

 

Moving Images Collages 3 and 4 to add to the ever growing collection. These are now on display at Milton Keynes Hospital.  My next goal is to start turning the Moving Image series into paintings.

Moving Images Collages 1 and 2

 

Two more Moving Images to add to the collection....more to come....

Nepal landscape

Finally it is done!  After several months of doing an hour here and an hour there, this landscape of Nepal is complete.  I am really happy with the result and I think the recipient is too.  Initially I was so worried about doing this commission as I have limited experience painting landscapes, but it just goes to show that if you put your mind to something it can indeed be achieved. 

Flowers for charity

 

 

This is a painting I did recently for the guys at Rowan. It is for a charity auction.  I have made a lot of cards recently in this style and it was nice to have the opportunity to develop them into a full canvas.  I was really pleased with the result and think that I was able to be quite free with it, because I knew that it was for someone else.  In the end I wanted to keep it to give to my friend Rachael for her birthday, but as the canvas had been given to me for free and the result was for charity, I thought it would be a bit cheeky!

Cards for special people

 

 

A card for two friends who have just moved into a pub and another for a dear friend who is just about to turn 27.



 

Adding the flags

 

Last night I started adding the flags to the commission I am currently working on.  I thought they would be the easiest bit, but as per usual when I think that, they are proving to be quite tricky.  It is essential that I get the perspective just right so that the painting has enough depth.  Also I used the wrong brush on the edges of the green flag, so the fraying now looks a bit too contrived.  Going to leave it for now and see how noticeable it is once the whole piece is finished.

Another forgotten building

I pass this on the way to my studio, every time I go up there.  I'm not entirely sure what it is - perhaps an old waterworks, or part of the old school - but it is totally redundant and forgotten.  Therfore I love it.  It looked especially beautiful this week with the contrast of the clear blue sky behind the orange brick.  I love the geometric shapes and the yellow bin is such a striking feature.  I must start making all these observations and photographs into a series of paintings.

More cards

Special cards for special people.  One for an engagement, one for a new home and one for a birthday.

An experiment with leftovers

This is an experiment I am working on at the moment and is arguably the most exciting thing in my studio right now.  I can't bare waste and so when there is paint left on my plate at the end of a session, I feel compelled to use it.  I started this plaque a while ago and Have just been building on it every week, every time I have left over paint.  It shows all the colours I like to work with and because it is an experiment I feel quite free with it and like I can't mess it up.  My friend said it looked like an LSD trip - I'm not sure about that, but it certainly makes me feel happy when I look at it.

Inspiration from a plate of paint

This was my palate at the end of a painting session and I couldn't help but admire it's beauty.  I'm a sucker for bright colours.  I thought perhaps it was more of a work of art than the painting I had been working on...

Landscape painting

This is the commission I am working on at the moment for a friend's sisters birthday gift. I was so hesitant about doing it at first, mostly because I don't really have much experience of doing landscapes, but I am actually really enjoying the process and the challenge of doing something which is out of my comfort zone.  It is also refreshing to do traditional painting and work on a piece which requires a lot of concentration and accuracy.  I am looking forward to adding in the Tibetan flags at the end, as I think they will really bring the painting to life.

Progress on birthday ceramics

 

 

The bowl I am making for my mum's birthday is going well and last week I carved in the message around the top - which was a lot more difficult to do than I had expected.  I am pleased with the result though.  Next time I will be glazing and firing it.  

 

 

 

 

Rowan

Rowan is my sanctuary on a Friday - away from the desk, away from the stress and chaos, a place simply for people to make and create.  I feel so privileged to be part of it.  At the moment I am making a ceramic bowl for my Mum's birthday and am starting a large group painting to be hung in the kitchen.  Looking forward to my progression tomorrow.

Another forgotten building, another found inspiration

Walking around my Dad's village, I couldn't help but be drawn to this beautiful old building, which we thought might have been an old shoe factory.  The broken panes of glass and the rotting, peeling paint just draw me in, as I imagine who used to live there, what used to happen and why has no body restored this little piece of history.

Making Flowers

I've got back into card-making the past couple of weeks, since my grandma asked me for a batch and there seem to be so many birthdays at this time of year. I've continued using the flattened brush as a shape for petals but have also started experimenting more with different colours and flicking paint over the background, as I didn't like the plain white.  Thinking of trying it as a canvas painting next.

Back in my favourite place

Manchester has probably been the biggest inspiration in my life so far and today I got the pleasure of spending the day there in the sun.  The architecture always astounds me - the way the old Victorian buildings still stand proud against the ever-growing background of new development.  This little pub is like a shiny gem stone, unique and irresistible.

Look up and see a work of art

I was on the train to London.  I looked up and saw this and I just thought wow.  I don't know why I am drawn to old run-down forgotten buildings, but I am, and the contrast of the greys and the browns here against the bright blue sky is just stunning.  The lines through the sky complete it.  It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time.

Making a mountain out of a molehill

 

This is a painting I am doing for a friend's sister's 30th birthday present.  She has done a lot of travelling and this photo is one she took in Nepal.  I love the contrast of the colourful man-made flags against the natural world behind them.  Landscapes are not something I normally do, so I'm trying to get over the fear of the mountains and embrace them.

Congratulations card

Just as a quick break from a painting I was doing today, I made a congratulations card for my wonderful friend Amy.  Just pushing the bristles of the brush onto the page gave a lovely petal shape - ideal if flowers are your favourite theme!  What's especially nice though is that all the different colours and tones that have been loaded onto the brush come out, to make the petals look really individual. 

All the paintings together

So this was a bit of an accident - as many great discoveries are.  I had some prints done of some of favourite paintings and was cutting them from their original oblong shape into squares, which I then mounted onto foam board.  I had six scraps leftover and suddenly saw them all together.  Each individually is a nice painting to look at, but united they create something else entirely, something unique.  I am going to continue along this route and see what else happens when I merge individual pieces together.  I also thought about sewing into these to give them some more texture.

Birthday card

For a dear friend's mum on her 60th birthday.

Introducing some stitch

 

 

I have spent a lot of my time painting recently and have begun to move onto collage and now a bit of sewing.  I have never been able to stay fixed to one medium, and honestly can't think of a reason why I should.  The options are endless when using mixed media.  I find it incredible the journey this particular piece of work has gone on so far, starting as a photograph of an old boat on the Isle of Wight, moving through to a patchwork of colours.  I wonder where it will go next.

A familiar journey

A journey between Manchester and Milton Keynes.  One I am very familiar with and one that has meant many different things to me over the years.  I struggled to find the right words this time - I think they have all been said.  It's time for doing now.

This is always how I start my illustrations - a quick sketch on the train.  I'll now sit down with these and start experimenting with lines and textures and eventually they will join the ever growing Moving Images series.  I wonder if they will ever stop moving.

Studio

 

So it may be a little rough around the edges at the moment, but this is where the action happens, at my lovely little studio in Emmaus village Carlton.  Light is so important when you are being creative and I am fortunate enough to have it flooding through in abundance through my enormous windows here.  I am making it a bit more homely over the next few weeks, so will post more photos as it progresses. 

Inspiration in the Lakes

Over the Easter break, I was fortunate enough to spend a few days in Lake District, walking, reading and generally relaxing.  The countryside was breathtaking - impending mountains, vast lakes, endless stretches of green and gorgeous old buildings made from local stone.  As ever, I found myself most enamoured with the derelict and forgotten places we stumbled across - houses that were no longer inhabited, industry that was long forgotten.  I just love imagining what it was like before.  I was also struck by a magical fallen tree trunk which visitors used like a wishing well, pressing pennies into the bark in the hope that if they made a wish it might be granted.  The contrast between nature's mammoth creation of a tree, with hundreds of man-made shiny coins was almost breathtaking and, for me, was a wonderful example of how mankind can interact with the natural world, so simply, to create something unique.