The first pieces of work I sold were small commissions for friends and family just before I went to college. However, it wasn't until after graduating that I waited to sell from my studio.
Open Studios in Cornwall is a twice-yearly event; a week in spring/summer and a weekend around Christmas. It's a brilliant way to discover new art, meet the creators and see where they work. The test was whether I would have buyers who were not friends and family. I set up an Etsy shop for artwork, a Spoonflower shop for my fabric and wallpaper designs and participated in Open studios where I had everything on display and it worked! I have also sold from galleries, private sales and art shops. Artists often go through stages of not knowing whether the process is right, working alone for long hours or when to stop and put down the tools. Feedback from my customers and photos of my work in situ is a reminder that it was worth sticking with it. I haven't sold on Etsy for a long time and I often debate whether to reopen my shop or upgrade and use my website. However, my Spoonflower shop is still open and hopefully, I can take part in more shows soon. Here is some feedback I have received: Arrived today, wonderful! I'm really happy with your work..so creative! Absolutely gorgeous - the photos show true colours, lovely detail, very pleased with my purchases. Beautiful piece of detailed, affordable art. Shipped on time and well packaged ...they had to be mine!! it's even more lovely in real life I couldn't stop thinking about it, I had to come back for it
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My reoccurring motif in my work is the tree. As a child, I always loved playing in the woods, as a teen I would hang around the woods with friends, now I enjoy having long walks and nature spotting with my family through the woods. It seems only natural that trees frequently appear in my landscape work. I tend to paint my trees in the distant and without foliage; silhouetted in the landscape, breaking up areas, adding to the composition. I should do more studies adding more detail and making them more of a feature of the work as part of progressing my creative skills. Here are some trees I have created: When the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown came into place I was still working in the art gallery where we had the exhibition of Naum Gabo, Russian constructivist; “...the first extensive presentation of Naum Gabo's sculptures, paintings, drawings and architectural designs to be held in the UK for over 30 years. The exhibition marks the centenary of the Realistic Manifesto 1920, a set of pioneering artistic principles launched in Moscow by Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner. The statement declared that authentically modern art should engage with and reflect the modern age. ” - Tate St Ives During our time in quarantine, my colleague, Alice, decided to put together a film of the museum staff reading the realistic manifesto translated from Russian to English, not only marking 100 years since it was written but also how relevant it is today. The manifesto was originally written by Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner. I took part; it has been a joy and a privilege to be able to collaborate. It was really sad that the exhibition was missed by many and on my last day I found this written in the exhibition catalogue, I shared this to my Instagram: "Art should attend us everywhere that life flows and acts...at the bench, at the table, at work, at rest, at play; on working days and holidays, at home and on the road...in order that the flame to live should not extinguish in mankind" Naum Gabo, from Constructions for real life exhibition catalogue 2020 You can find out more about Naum Gabo here. References https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/naum-gabo https://www.moma.org/collection/works/173291 text for gabo pic 1 …Naum Gabo Head No.2 1916, enlarged version 1964. The Work of Naum Gabo © Nina & Graham Williams / Tate. Photo: Kirstin Prisk. This week Tate St Ives are hosting an exhibition showcasing the creative talents of its staff based on the theme environments. I am really pleased to have a painting on show! The exhibition also includes sculpture, jewellery, photography, painting, performance, film and more. The exhibition runs from 24 - 29 September 2019, Foyle Studio, Level 3. From Trevalgan with Lanyon by Stephanie Croydon My exhibition piece is mixed media on wood and was made during a mentoring session with artist Liz Hough. We went to a high point in St Ives to sketch; between rocks, fields and with the sea at the horizon. Nearby is a memorial plaque dedicated to St Ives born landscape artist; Peter Lanyon. Statement; 'The coast, woodland and the countryside are places I often use as inspiration to create, working outside directly in the landscape. Primitive places unoccupied by technology and consumerism; particularly up on the hills and in fields where the landscape still feels raw, still bearing traces of how our predecessors occupied and moved through the landscape'. 'I use these areas as a place for quiet contemplation, places where we can be still from the world. ‘From Trevalgan with Lanyon’ is taken from a larger body of work; Out West, and was created with the starting point of looking in more depth at the ancient Cornish landscape. Following Peter Lanyon’s map along the Penwith Coastline, I started from Trevalgan near Lanyon’s memorial plaque, information gathering directly taken from my surroundings'. 'Evolving from my previous work; looking at how the world touches us on an emotional level, working outside leads me to question our movement in the landscape at a time when it has become critical to question the future of our environment. How we move through the landscape every day; our footprint and the wider impact we are creating with consumerism, waste and the impact of climate change'. The private view was really busy and there were performances of music, poetry and other reading on the night. On Friday there will be another performance at 12.30pm by the wonderfully talented Alice Ellis-Bray which is not to be missed! The show has numbers next to each piece rather than text but there are sheets and a booklet available for visitors to find out which piece belongs to which artist, the booklet gives a short statement about each artist. The exhibition is family friendly and free with a paying ticket which will give you access to the rest of the galley. Modern Art and St Ives and Otobong Nkanga: From Where I Stand are the exhibits currently on show. Although this isnt a selling exhibition, there are no prices listed, I am happy for this piece to be displayed in a permanent home should a collector be interested. The exhibition is featured on the Tate website Whats On section HERE The instagram page for the exhibition which also features more artists can be found HERE I recently travelled to London from Cornwall to take my painting ‘towards Zennor’ to be exhibited at Tate Modern and spend a few days in the city. The exhibition was the Tate Staff Biennale by the Inside Job Collective and based around the theme of Movement showing work by collegues from all 4 Tate sites; St Ives, Liverpool, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. The exhibition was held on floor 5 of the Blavatnik building from 28th august – 3rd September 2019. The private view evening was really busy and although it wasn’t a selling exhibition my painting sold that evening and has now gone to its new home! In total 6,070 people visited the exhibition and was featured on the museum and heritage advisor website. The work varied from painting, sculpture, film, textiles, prints, photography and also workshops. I attended 2 of the workshops by my colleagues; Annabel who lead a cyanotype workshop and Sayra who lead a comic book making workshop. I interviewed Sayra recently in another blog post. There are more photographs on my instagram page. I have decided to run a meet the artist feature on my blog as I thought it would be a good idea to introduce how others found their pathway into the creative industry and what their niche is. I could just put this straight into my about section but to start the first post off I thought I would write briefly about my practice and my journey so you can see what to expect from future posts. If you would like to be a part of this drop me an email at [email protected]. My creative practice is mainly painting at the moment however I like to try different techniques and experiment particularly with textiles, printmaking, mixed media, sketching and fabric design. I work from a small studio from my home in Cornwall. My pathway into art started from a love of drawing as a child (I still have some of my childhood books with scribbles in) and art was my favourite subject at school. I did art at GCSE level with a predicted A grade but I never took my schoolwork seriously; too busy socialising, and I didn’t enjoy sixth form so I dropped out. I eventually came back to art much later when I started receiving commissions from family and friends and I was encouraged to see an art exhibition at the local college. I signed up to an access to HE course and I had to apply for University only 3 months into the course. I was really unsure about which degree to choose, I couldn’t decide between fine art or textiles and several people said I should do illustration, I was really confused. The degree I chose was Ba (Hons) Contemporary Creative Practice (now called Art & Design Practice) with Plymouth University. This degree is interdisciplinary; a combination of subjects which gave me the time I needed to start to define what my practice was and become more autonomous. At the end of my degree I went on to win a one year residency at Krowji studios where I focused more on painting and taking part in open studio events. My story or theme behind what I do is mainly landscape based. This exerpt is taken from a recent painting submission; 'The coast, woodland and the countryside are places I often use as inspiration to create, working outside directly in the landscape. Primitive places unoccupied by technology and consumerism; particularly up on the hills and in fields where the landscape still feels raw, still bearing traces of how our predecessors occupied and moved through the landscape. I use these areas as a place for quiet contemplation, places where we can be still from the world'. I grew up in South Yorkshire and my best childhood memories were playing in the garden and then going into the woods and other local nature places with friends. When I moved to Cornwall I was surrounded by a different sort of landscape plus the coast so I started to try and make connections as I put down new roots. I found a quote that stuck with me for a while; ‘to make visual how the world touches us’ by Merleau-Ponty, 1993. My last project ‘Out West’ looked further into this. I am inspired by other types of art such as street art, figurative, ceramics; if you follow my Pinterest account you will see it’s quite varied! The process from idea to finished piece starts with ‘information gathering’. This is mostly sketching outside but also collecting poems/words, being inspired by other artists/places, collecting images, visiting exhibitions, making notes. It can vary which keeps it interesting, then I’ll make a pile of all that I have collected and when I go through it I will pick bits that stand out and start experimenting with materials. The advice I would give to someone interested in working in this discipline/industry is to keep drawing, keep a notebook, sketchbook a file on your computer; whatever works for you and keep adding to this to develop your practice. Even if you don’t know what your practice is yet add to it regularly. I had to take a portfolio to my college interview so having a selection of sketches and paintings showed how I work but that there was potential for it to develop- it doesn’t need to be perfect. I also recommend following other artists through Instagram, it’s a great platform to be able to see other creative people and so many people use it as their ‘sketchbook’ as well as to sell their products. You can see my recent instagram images in the sidebar to the right. Even if college or university isn’t for you Instagram can really build your following and generate some commission work. Pinterest is good for finding different styles of work and ‘collecting’ and building boards as well as also sharing your ideas. Local libraries and book shops have lots of art books, if you prefer not to go down the digital or social media route. Attending exhibitions, reading creative magazines and articles and networking are all good for building up your knowledge and discovering opportunities. My inspiration is mostly landscape as I am surrounded by beautiful countryside and beaches but as I work in an art gallery and museum my introduction to other artists is increasing with each new exhibition. I also go to a lot of other local art exhibitions. I have started to look more into feminist and political art, buying books and researching online around this subject but I haven’t yet started to introduce this into much of my work. I have written a piece for a zine and I would like to be involved in doing more work like this. I think it’s important to go with what feels right; follow the path if it’s something that you are surrounded by or calls to you in some way. This year I have been involved in several exhibitions and I have a few yet to come which I am really excited about. So far this year I have exhibited at; The Sloop Inn; St Ives, Penwith Gallery; St Ives, Penlee House; Penzance University of Greenwich. This year I will be exhibiting at Tate Modern; London and Tate Gallery St Ives. I don’t have any big projects planned at the moment, just a few ideas I would like to finish off and I would like to reopen my Etsy shop to sell original small pieces to make room for new work in the studio. I am hoping to start writing more ‘How to’ posts on my blog but having some more in-depth tutorials that can be downloaded from Etsy as I don’t have the space to teach workshops from my home studio. My plan is to head up to London this month for my Tate exhibition and attend other shows whilst I am there for more information gathering. I am hoping that in the future I can exhibit outside of Cornwall more often and find work in a museum or gallery in London even if just a temporary placement for experience. Summer holidays are right around the corner! whether you’re a stay at home parent, working parent, have a holiday away booked or a couple of day trips, I think a lot of parents’ question how they are going to entertain their children for 6 whole weeks of the summer holidays, I know I do!
Whilst I will be juggling work with the kids being off there will be little time to be in the studio to paint but I can still be creative in other ways. I have been thinking of some creative activities that you can do with children (suitable for most ages and with supervision) to pass the time and make some summer holiday memories. Whatever your plans are we all hope for sunny days where we can be outside but some of these activities are ideal for indoors or you can pop on the wellies and raincoat if you don’t mind the elements.
I decided it would be a great idea to list all the galleries, museums and theatres in Cornwall for locals or whether you’re planning to holiday here. Then I realised what a vast list that would be! So I have compiled a shorter list of sites that already have all the information (and have done a much better job than I could have including contact details and maps!) Click each title to go to the relevant website
Museums Cornwall museums News, events, educational trips, links to museum websites for ticketing and prices, Cornish history links Trip advisor Visitor ratings and reviews, maps, (clicking the link will take you straight to museums) 101 things to do on a rainy day in Cornwall Similar to cornwall museums without the images but does include contact numbers and postcode and map link plus cinema, theatre, markets, organisations, kid activities…I wish I had found this during the last half term! Day out with the kids Galleries, user friendly looking site with locations shown on a map on the right hand side, nearer the bottom there are links for different types of days out Visit Cornwall History and heritage attractions Cornwall Heritage Trust Places to visit, organisations Galleries Cornwall Arts and Crafts Directory Includes Art galleries, Cornish artists, Graphic designers, Technical illustrators, Art training, Art suppliers, Art exhibitions, crafts, services and suppliers Cornwall Guide List of galleries, literature, jewellers and theatres, search by area and more Trip advisor (again) the link should take you straight to a list Krowji A hub for creative professionals with an onsite cafe , open twice a year for Open Studios to meet the artists, buy their work, attend workshops, café open daily (I did a year residency here and the café décor is worth visiting!) Theatres Rogue Theatre I highly recommend booking to see Rogue Theatre when they have shows, theyre magical and like nothing ive ever experienced before, I love to go along with friends and dress up for the experience, especially for the Halloween show! Visit Cornwall (Theatre section) The minack Theatre Stunning location, also has gift shop, gardens, exhibition area, story telling Cornwall Council List of organisations in the culture and creative industry Photo by Benjamin Elliott on Unsplash |
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