If you have looked at my Pinterest page, you will see I’m inspired by too much! Often inspiration comes from a place, a song, written work, a feeling, not always something visible which is why sometimes refer to the quote 'to make visual how the world touches us’ by Merleau-Ponty, 1993. I used this to inform my Ba (Hons) work. However, I will narrow down a few: Artists and galleries Here is where I can refer back to the 'favourite books' blog post. Majority of my art books are about landscape art and I also enjoy looking at work by abstract artists and textile artists, especially sketchbooks. I follow mostly artists on Instagram, I love to see their process and keep up with galleries. A local library is also a good place for artist books. However, I also explore art outside of my niche and this is where I love my trips to London. Cornwall is great, but it’s good to see something more than the coastal art and the tourist market. I don’t usually explore politics much in my artwork however, in the past; I have written for the Punky Moms Zine and made work referencing the environment and wellbeing. I also have books on feminist artists and body modification and pinups. Walking Living in Cornwall it’s not hard to find somewhere beautiful to walk, although I live in a town, I’m only a couple of miles from the beach and there is countryside just down the road. I often take photos to work from or sketch somewhere outside. Getting out in nature is proven to be good for wellbeing, I know I always feel better after a long walk (or run) and I love to go nature spotting with my family. Music and books
I love music. I listen to it when cleaning, getting ready in the morning, in the studio, commuting to work, writing blog posts etc. One of my projects at University was to produce work in response to a book; the book I had was about music. I chose a particular instrumental piece I loved; it was challenging to make something from an inspiration that wasn’t visible. In the past, I have also made small landscape pieces and added cut out text from books to create the narrative.
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I knew I would enjoy this prompt when I saw it; I have many art books, exhibition catalogues, creative magazines, tattoo magazines, other informative books and novels. Photographing my bookcase made me realise the shelves are starting to bow, I’m not surprised. I love buying books. As a dyslexic person, I enjoy dipping in and out of art books or just reading a few pages in bed rather than sitting down and reading for a long time which I find hard to do in my noisy house anyway. For this prompt, it was too difficult to pick just one book. Some books I bought at university, some I bought for work research, some were left outside by my neighbours during lockdown; many of us made free boxes of books and puzzles, some books were gifts and some aren’t mine! I do know I need more storage. There is a bookshop by Tate Modern I highly recommend called Marcus Campbell Art Books stocking rare and second hand art books. My choice for this is Art and Artefact: The Museum as Medium
I bought this book to help with writing my dissertation; ‘An investigation into how museology has evolved, allowing artists to disrupt the narrative of the museum and the consequential engagement of the audience'. This book is full of artists who have used the museum to inform their work, site their work, history around the display, highly recommended. I work in a museum, however, the dream would be to work with collections in a big London museum. Kurt Jackson Place and Sketchbooks 2003 – 2004 I discovered Sketchbooks 2003 – 2004 at college and was at the starting point for my love of working with the landscape. I loved the way Kurt captured the Cornish landscape before I was a painter but the book was out of print. Eventually, I found a second-hand copy and ordered it. When the book arrived, I discovered the book had belonged to a local library, made its way to Scotland for a while and then back home to Cornwall to me. It is signed too! I bought Place after seeing the exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro. The idea behind the work resonated with how I used the landscape in my practice; painting landscapes where we have a connection, nostalgia and a sense of identity. Jeremy Gardiner I discovered Jeremy's work at University. This book contained art based around Cornwall as well as other places. I was creating landscapes on broken pieces of wood and layering media as part of the process. Although Jeremy worked with different materials on board, I was fascinated by the results of his abstract layered landscapes. Peter Lanyon At work, I spend many hours admiring the Lanyon paintings. They contain so much information and hidden messages and motifs in their compositions even though Lanyon’s style and approach changed over time. I have many Lanyon books; I bought this book, now out of print, whilst working on Out West. Catherine Hyde, The Hare and The Moon I’m not sure when I discovered Catherine’s work but I had this book bought for me a year ago, I knew I had to have it when I spotted it whilst Christmas shopping. The style of work is a little more illustrative than my usual inspirations. The connections to the seasons and how the land can change piques my interest, especially as I am fascinated with pagan traditions and ancient lands and nature which Catherine captures beautifully. Robert Macfarlane, Underland I have read Roberts books The Old ways and Landmarks so when I saw this as a new release, I immediately reserved it at my local library. However, I was borrower number 60+ in the queue to read it and as I’m not a fast reader I couldn’t get through it before it was someone else’s turn to enjoy it. I requested the book for Christmas so I can enjoy it at my own pace. For a long time, my interest has been what grows and lives near the surface. I have owned and borrowed books on archaeology and evolution (I love Time Team and history documentaries). Now I’m interested in exploring what is underneath and allowing that to take a new dimension within my work. Did you know the term 'shelfie' is a thing now? My rainbow Shelfies: If you want it, you have to make it happen Pretty obvious, right? However, I’m really good at talking myself out of a situation because I have what I now recognise as imposter syndrome and I’m good at procrastinating. I know I’m good at procrastinating because when I got my latest phone and checked the digital wellbeing app it came with, I realised how much time I spent on my phone. All those hours I could have done something productive like sort my studio, started that piece of work that’s been stewing as an idea for ages, contacted a gallery, applied for something etc. I’ll never get that time back. My imposter syndrome generally manifests as anxiety telling myself that I’m rubbish so why bother; it’s has reduced me to tears on many occasions. If I listened to myself though I would’ve missed out on the experiences I’ve had. When I went back to college it was the first thing I was doing for myself for years, I’d been a stay at home parent and struggled with post-natal depression, I had little confidence left however I knew I wanted to do something creative. Art had always been a hobby. When I walked into the class, I thought that I didn’t belong there. I stuck it out and studied for four years achieving my Ba Hons degree. It was such a difficult four years; my children were still very young, juggling study with home stuff was really hard and stressful, I snapped and said several times I was quitting. I knew I’d regret it if I did quit and upon graduating I went straight into a paid creative job and won a residency in an art studio. Those opportunities wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been determined to finish. There have also been many times where I have had the opportunity to show work that I felt really unsure about; again imposter syndrome tells me nobody would be interested. It always means a lot to me when someone says they like it, they have a connection to it, some have said that ‘they just had to have it’ and of course I feel on top of the world for a while. I usually go to London to be a part of an exhibition or see a show and I’ve nearly talked myself out of it a few times. I can guarantee once I’m there, I don’t want to come back yet, because there’s so much to see and do! Let’s hope this virus goes away soon so we can all jump at the opportunity to travel and socialise again! I have decided to start the new year by joining in with the 21 day art challenge set by Tara Leaver over on Instagram; you can sign up via Tara’s website or screenshot the prompts and get going. Most people are doing the challenge by posting photos to their Instagram page however, I decided to do it as blog posts and sharing links on my Instagram. I haven’t joined in an art challenge before but I had several reasons to join:
So the first prompt of the challenge is called A Favourite Painting. I’ve probably considered myself a painter since my last year at university; around 6 years ago when studying for my Ba Hons. It doesn’t feel that long ago but that’s a lot of paintings in that time! I find that whenever I’m working on a piece of work, whether in my sketchbook, on the table or at the easel, I will leave it on display for a while. It’s like leaving it to breathe; even if it’s already dry I’ll keep looking at it from various angles. Whatever I’m working on becomes the favourite; I’ll keep giving it attention, tweaking the composition, wondering whether I can call it finished and share it on my Instagram and Pinterest pages. However, if I’m creating a body of work I will lay out all of the pieces and pick a couple of favourites and some that I think don’t work now but could become something else by cropping or working over the surface again. One painting that will remain a firm favourite of mine is one that I no longer possess; I sold the painting at the private view of its showing and I’m really happy that someone now has it on display in their home than it being stacked with others in my studio. The painting is called Towards Zennor and is the canvas I exhibited at Tate Modern in 2019 (you can read about it here) it is mixed media on stretched canvas. This painting isn’t a favourite because it was exhibited and sold in London but because of the experience of creating it. Towards Zennor is one of many pieces made as part of a mentoring project I did with landscape artist Liz Hough; a colleague from when I worked at St Ives School of Painting. We drove just out of St Ives town to do some sketching up on the hills whilst following the journey artist Peter Lanyon made. The grey clouds were looming, it was biting wind and it felt like a race against time to do as much as I could before we had to run back to the car. We sketched in various spots between St Ives and Zennor and once I was back in the studio I started picking through all the pieces to see which pieces stood out to be worked from. This particular composition was created several times; the original in my sketchbook, the canvas, a mixed media on wood piece (also sold) and a piece on paper. All worked from the same sketches made onsite but all are different because of the creative process used for each, not all of them were intended to be finished pieces but its common to have several pieces as studies or prep work. In January this year, I wrote a blog post called ‘2019 roundup and plans for 2020’, however, I didn’t know that all plans would be put on hold or completely changed for a worldwide pandemic. A scary time of being at home worried about our families, friends, and livelihoods.
So what were my plans for this year? Happy New Year and happy new decade! I thought I would do a roundup of 2019 and what is instore for 2020 post. I don’t generally do resolutions as such but last year one of my goals was to be more active with my creativity. I didn’t have a clear set plan of what I was going to do or a timescale which sounds really rubbish, in fact I was very vague because my art has to fit around my job and family. I felt if I was too rigid and things didn’t go to plan I would feel too defeated. However I had some great successes last year and a few low lights but that’s to be expected, as they say; a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. I think it’s important to acknowledge what didn’t work rather than erase those bits and paint a ‘perfect picture’ for the world. I wrote about it here in my post 'How to deal with rejection as a creative practitioner'. In 2019 I was lucky to have 5 exhibitions in Cornwall;
When I went back to college I remember being nervous and telling myself several times I wasn’t good enough so to have exhibited and sold my work at Tate St Ives and Tate Modern were definite career highlights and experiences in 2019. The paintings I submitted for both Tate exhibitions were painted as part of a mentorship I did, one sold at the private view and the other about a week later! ‘From Trevalgon with Lanyon’ shown at Tate St Ives I had to take my artwork to London so I spent a few days there and also enjoyed the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, a few days is never enough though. I love London as it just opens my mind to more artists and I always come home with lots of new ideas. In February, many months before the exhibition at Tate Modern I went to see the Don McCullin photography exhibition at Tate Britain. This exhibition will be at Tate Liverpool 5th February – 6th May 2020. I know Cornwall has so many artists and galleries but it’s nice to get away from seascape themed artwork and look at different perspectives. So what’s the plan for 2020? I made a list a few days ago;
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. I am really happy to announce that this year I will be exhibiting at Tate Modern, London! The exhibition is the Tate staff biennale and will be open to the public from 28th august – 3rd September; Level 6 of the Blavatnik Building of Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG Times do vary so check with the website first. "Responding to Tate Exchange’s theme for year 3, Movement, The Inside Job Collective have been invited to take over Tate Exchange and pull together the work of staff across all Tate sites into one exhibition. The exhibition showcases the often-hidden skills of staff members at Tate and allows you to see the impact of working with Tate’s collection has had on their practice". "Approaching the different strands of Movement through varying mediums, there will be a dynamic series of live performances, workshops, installations, film and 2D works, as well as an evening of specially curated music and performances from staff for the August edition of Uniqlo Tate Lates" -Tate website. Responding to the theme of movement I will be showing a black and white landscape painting. This painting is part of a bigger series called Out West and was made looking over towards Zennor from Travalgan, St Ives. I went sketching here with Liz Hough as part of a mentorship program with help from Cultivator Cornwall. This weekend I was interviewed by The Rebel Magazine about the exhibition and what this painting is about, you can read it HERE |
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