In Our Garden

Just before lockdown - was about to put some work into an exhibition with a group of Digswell artists at the New Maynard Gallery in Welwyn Garden City, as part of the 2020 centenary celebrations. I'm posting here images of the pictures that I made for this exhibition, The theme 'In Our Garden' linked with the idea of garden cities and conjured up ideas for me about houses that are growing and gardens that are built - played with collage using prints of bricks, tiles, patterns and flowers and gradually ripped off the paper and replaced its with paint and oil pastels. Here they are: From left to right: Ghost House, Tree House, House Tree

Here is the beautiful poster of the exhibition that didn't happen by the very talented Sue Jarman - if you click on the poster you'll find more details about the other artists that made work for this show - hope we can show it one day as I was so looking forward to seeing all the work together:

Imprinted, St Albans Museum and gallery, 24th Nov till 3rd feb

Everything is Kept

Delighted that one of my 'time pieces', Holding Still 2017, is currently inhabiting one of the Keepers Galleries at St Albans Museum and Gallery.  It's part of the Imprinted exhibition with Suman Gujral, curated by UHArts, University of Hertfordshire's arts and cultural programme.

We'll both be talking about our work in the gallery at a meet-the-artists event on 9th December, between 3.00 and 4.00 - all welcome - no need to book.

My piece includes twelve of my paintings, twelve pockets of the now dried flowers seen in the paintings, and the twelve vases that are featured in the paintings - all given to me or purchased from craft stalls or second hand shops throughout my life. The paintings were made one per month on the day that I picked the flowers.  I made the paintings over a few hours, never allowing myself to go back to them once the day was finished.  They are in second hand frames that I repurposed to fit the paintings. The vases in this show were all made by other people and I hope I remember to acknowledge them where I can.  This seems a good place to start:

Here are the credits for the vases:

(From top, left to right)

January: Tintagel Pottery, 1984
February: Lisbeth de la Cour, 2003
March: Lisbeth de la Cour, 2005

April: Denby, 1930

May: Ford and Sons, Derby pattern, Burslam, 1900
June: Trident Pottery, 2007

July: Unknown origin and date

August: Stuart Crystal Vase in Cascade Fuchsia Pattern, 1999
September: Unknown origin and date

October: Kinska, London, 2013

November: Jean Knowles, Norfolk, 2004

December: Wileman bone china c1840 - 1900

The frames also had previous lives and were reclaimed from family and friends' pictures and from second hand shops.  I now have a range of prints, paintings, drawings and embroideries, emptied from their frames - they are kept carefully and I'd like to find a way of showing them one day too. 

You can find out a bit more about this piece here.

28th August 2018

Upcoming Exhibition:

Very pleased that I'll be showing some of my visual diary work at the wonderful new St Albans Museum and Gallery in November, alongside the beautiful work of Suman Gujral.  More details to follow - below is a picture clipped from the UH Arts Programme for 18/19.  You can see all of the exciting upcoming UH Arts events here

Friday 5th January 2017

Delighted to say that you can buy my tiny handmade facebooks at The House of Illustration shop near King's Cross.  They are handmade and bound, printed on cotton rag paper with archival inks: £10.00 each.

Tuesday 2nd January 2018

We have entered 2018.  Here's the last of the monthly flower paintings: December 2017

Looking forward to this year - hope you are too!

4th October 2017

I am spending this year making work about my life before and with our eldest daughter Bronwen and how she continues to be a huge influence on my life, long after she died.

Here's a picture based on my memory of Bronwen's kindergarten.

And here's a picture of our wedding day complete with baby Bronwen, aged one.

2 October 2017

Been ages since I've written anything here.  Here's a picture of an oil painting I made a couple of days ago for September:

and here's one I made a month ago for August:

Here's a photograph of the flowers drying on the table so that I can sew them into a bag and keep them safe.  I want to keep each of the bunches of flowers in its own bubble for as long as possible.  I now have a white bag of dead flowers for each of the flower paintings.  Not sure what for - at the moment all the flower bags are in a carrier bag labelled "Please do not throw away these dead flowers."

I'm also saving all the jugs and keeping them apart from the rest of the household vases.  Not sure whether anybody in the family will notice that all the vases are slowly disappearing - I'm trying to leave a few obvious ones but they are looking very tempting. 

A small selection of limited edition prints of flowers are available here:

I am still writing and drawing about my childhood and early life, including our daughter Bronwen who died a few days before her sixth birthday many years ago.  I'm hoping to acknowledge and celebrate her and also to examine some of the ways that her life changed our lives. I am fascinated by the way memory is fluid and I am sure that my childhood memories have been affected by my experiences with my own children.   

19th July 2017

Here's another oil painting of flowers from our garden.  Making one painting a month as part of a 2017 diary - you can see all the pictures and buy limited edition prints here:

Flower Print Shop 2017

Friday 21st April 2017

Digswell Arts Trust has been in existence for 60 years, supporting Hertfordshire artists in the first few years of their practice.  I am now nearing the end of my time with Digswell and am very grateful for all their support first at Fenners in Letchworth and now at the Forge in Digswell.  I'm delighted that we'll be opening our studios at the Forge again on the 6th and 7th May.  There will be exciting work from all the artists and printmakers currently working at the Forge and I am very pleased to be part of this years celebrations.
I'll be showing some of the work in progress of my visual and written diaries and memories.

26th October 2016

Great 'Dress the Giant' drop-in workshop at Watersmeet in Rickmansworth yesterday.  This was a Big Draw event.  We all helped to create clothes for the giant child and then tried them on her to see how she looked. Participants were also invited to draw their own giants in charcoal on card and to make paper clothes for them.  One of the giant's dresses was made from wax leaf rubbings, another was created from stripes of natural materials and the last long dress was a mass of tiny patterns and drawings.  It as wonderful that so many people participated and the whole room was buzzing with creative energy.  Thanks so much to everybody who came to help us and to all the staff at Watersmeet for making sure that everything ran smoothly.  

Molly the giant is now standing in Artistsmeet with one of her beautiful dresses on and will be there till my show finishes on Wednesday next week.  

20th October 2016

Very much enjoyed the opening of my show at Artistsmeet in Rickmansworth last week.  It was great to show people work from the past five years of my ongoing visual diary.  Also loved running the 'thoughts diary' workshop afterwards as part of the Big Draw festival.  Thanks so much Elaine Johnson and all at Riversmeet for organising everything so smoothly and thanks to everybody who came along and helped make it such a nice occasion.

Great to meet Chairman Andrew Scarf and his wife Alison too.
https://threeriverschair2016andrewscarth.wordpress.com/2016/10/12/the-big-draw-steam-at-artistsmeet-12-october/

Next week I'm looking forward to our next Big Draw event: "DRESS THE GIANT" - a family drop-in event from 12.00 - 2.00 also taking place at Artistsmeet.

11th October 2016

Solo show this month at Artistsmeet in Rickmansworth.  Visual diary made over the past five years including books, animations, pictures and prints.Open evening tomorrow (12th October) from 5.30 - 7.00 followed by bookmaking workshop. Childrens drop-in workshop on Tuesday 25th: 12.00 - 2.00

6th May 2016

Here are a few pages from my sketchbook.  Been drawing with charcoal in the beautiful gardens at Knebworth House.

Thursday 31st December 2015

So goodbye 2015. I've just finished my lines - started on the 1st January - one for each day of the year on a small piece of paper. Here's the process, started in my old studio at Fenners, and finished in my new studio at the Forge:

12th December 2015

Exhausted but very happy after the Illustrators' Christmas Fair at the House of Illustration. Great stalls and plenty of interested visitors - also people bought things which is pleasing. Bit sad I didn't find a way to have a better look around the rest of the fair - what I did see I loved.

4th August 2015

Moved into my new studio a couple of days ago, happily still with Digswell Arts but now closer to home.

Keeping it very empty with no furniture - just four white walls and some windows above.  Here is a bit of work in progress:

Comic

Been working on a tiny graphic novel called Turns which I started at The Prince's Drawing School in Emily Haworth-Booth's class (which is a great way to learn the basics of making comics/graphic novels).  Here are pictures of all the pages - there are no words and it's a based on a hand painted book 'Flute Girl' I made a few years ago.  Enjoying the process of 'translating' it into another medium.

turn the page, artists' book fair, Norwich

Very pleased I'll be at turn the page artist's book fair in Norwich again this year - on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd May at the Forum.

I'll be showing the twelve pictorial diaries that I made last year and inviting people to create their own  diaries.

Can't wait to see all the other artists and their work - was great last year - very busy and with a great range of artists and books.

I spent this weekend finishing the diaries and I have been playing with them, deciding how best to display them. Each of the books opens out so that all the pages can be seen at the same time - I'd like to find a way of showing them so that people can touch them.  I have the perfect box for transporting them - an Easter egg box - I like the way they fit snugly.
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