Hottest October on record, and a few images from my Flickr friends to celebrate the warmth. 1. Olas 2011, 2. "Then the carousel started.., 3. Carrot paper one year on, 4. Wet Island, 5. S/T. Técnica mixta. 2011, 6. Painting, 7. rusty hook and rope, 8. The yellow day II, 9. Spot on!, 10. Cloak - P1140926, 11. 'lazarus' series detail, 12. Untitled, 13. The colors of autumn VII1. Olas 2011, 2. "Then the carousel started.., 3. Carrot paper one year on, 4. Wet Island, 5. S/T. Técnica mixta. 2011, 6. Painting, 7. rusty hook and rope, 8. The yellow day II, 9. Spot on!, 10. Cloak - P1140926, 11. 'lazarus' series detail, 12. Untitled, 13. The colors of autumn VII
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An Indian summer? The last few days have been glorious, and the bright heat today made up for the cool and overcast late summer we've had. I've been drawn to the colour red for the past few weeks, and here is a sample of the photography, painting, knitting and soft textile sculpture I've been doing. Walking in the park with Dandy Doggins, the leaves seemed to be on fire in the late summer evening sunshine. A red forest painting So, I've been doing a lot of knitting lately, probably because until this week, it didn't feel much like summer at all. I associate knitting with battening down the hatches and sitting by the fire! Anyway, this is a shawl that I took to the park to photograph. It's in a warmer shade of red than the picture above suggests, and it was way too warm to be wearing it to the park. It was inspired by the magical colours of the late summer maples, and looked great draped in this small shrub. Anyway, I don't know why, but here are some images of a soft textile sculpture I made of a magnolia pod. I don't usually work sculpturally, and I'm not sure it's successful as a work, but it made me smile. Though I'm not quite sure what to do with it!
I've had a bit of a break and was struggling to get back on track; I often lose me way and wonder if it's all worth the effort. Then today, Seth Apter included my work in his current series about tools and techniques on The Pulse. It's great to be included, and to browse the links to other artists and the way they work.
I then had some great feedback, and this cheered me up no end and has inspired me, so I'm working on a post for sometime over the next few days. Watch this space! My daughter Rhiannon once asked me "how many photographs do you have of me?" I wasn't able to answer with any degree of accuracy, but it wasn't very many, and hardly any at all since she'd grown up and moved away. "And how many do you have of rocks?" Gulp! Thousands. I've never really been a photographer of people, and at the time I was having a fairly heavy love affair with rocks and pebbles. When I get caught up in a passion, I keep filling up my hard-drive with hundreds and thousands of similar images; trying to get to the essence of something. Currently it's Maple leaves and Hydrangeas. I take any opportunity to grab a few shots; I like to get really involved and I literally get 'into' the tree......or bush, in an attempt to boil it down to the essential image. So here is a slide show of my recent foray into the late summer Hydrangea. I'm absolutely thrilled to be included in Seth Apter's forthcoming book! It's not out yet, but I'll post a link when it is. To celebrate, I made a mosaic from images belonging to my Flickr friends! 1. Minnehaha Falls, 2. Surfina, 3. Baxter House - dining room, 4. On with the dance!, 5. Maple Bokeh, 6. climbing up sunshine mountain, 7. Versunkene Schätze AMC, 8. cold spring, 9. Delicia , 10. S/T Óleo sobre lienzo 2011. 46 x 38 cm., 11. Untitled, 12. 'Waves' - work in progress, 13. ombres sur la boite chinoise (2)14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available
Have a good weekend! I've been away from blogging for the past few weeks as I lost my very dear friend Andy, who died suddenly in a collision; leaving his partner, family and friends devastated and in shock. We all rallied around, some from far-flung corners of the planet, to support his partner Anne and to grieve together. For my own process, I immersed myself in stitch and meditated upon my pain and loss as the rhythm of the stitch washed over me. Shine on Andy; you were an inspiration to us all. Got back from my workshop to a message from the wonderful Seth Apter to say I'm in The Pulse on Saturday.
His blog, The Altered Page is a tireless promotion of mixed media art practice, current happenings, a forum for his work, and an invitation to collaborate from his many followers. Periodically he takes the pulse of the art world, and invites you to participate. This week I'm included.......and thrilled to be so. Thanks Seth! So, armed with a memory stick full of photos, I attended the South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell to do a digital media workshop making a fresco with the wonderful Janet Curley Cannon. On day one Janet gave us a talk about digital fresco and the techniques developed in Digital Art Studio by Lhotka, Krause & Schminke (one of my favourite books, and the main reason I bought my large-format printer). Janet also gave us a whistle-stop refresher session in photo-shop techniques and I used the following five images: .........to make this digital collage for the fresco. This was a really useful part of the session because I'd forgotten some of the basics of using layers in this way. We then painted a mixture of InkAid digital ground and acrylic flow medium onto a sheet of mylar, and left it overnight to dry. On Sunday it was time to print the image, and I had another useful session from Janet on using the Epson large-format printer with photoshop, and printed onto the digital ground. The print was then left to dry whilst we prepared the fresco panel. We made a well with gaffer tape around a supported plywood board, then poured a mixture of rabbit-skin glue and white marble powder onto the board. When the surface was tacky to the touch, we transferred the print from the mylar onto the fresco panel. It was really exciting and a bit like magic, watching the image slowly release from the mylar. It's a lot like a polaroid transfer, but on a larger scale. I love the additional textures that were created during the transfer process, and when dry it can also be painted onto with encaustic paint (or other media).
It was the best workshop I've attended for a good long while. I loved South Hill Park Arts Centre, which was lively and full of action, sound, and visual art in a beautiful building full of people of all ages; exactly as a good arts centre should be. I had fun with the other participants who produced some amazing images and we really bonded well; it really felt like we'd been working together for ages. Janet's teaching style was relaxed and informative, and I loved the range of skills she covered. I'll definitely be going back in the spring to do another of her workshops in printmaking. A selection of some of the amazing art work on Flickr, created with fd's Flickr Toys
My lovely nephew Ben, came with a friend and they helped me do a much needed clear of the veranda, which had become cluttered and abandoned. Thank you Ben! We worked really hard and did a big trip to the skip, and when it was swept and washed down, it was perfect to use as a summer studio for my encaustic experiments. I should have taken some 'before' photos to compare it with, because it really was a terrible eye-sore! So this is a view looking out of the conservatory onto the veranda. I relocated my sewing station here when my large format printer arrived and I couldn't fit my sewing stuff in my studio any more. And here is the encaustic bench, situated near the trellis because you need good ventilation. My hot plate arrived at last, so I got to work making a batch of wax/damar resin medium. I had to be patient because it took over 24hrs to melt it slowly (or it becomes brittle). And here's my very first batch of medium! I was ridiculously excited when it cooled and hardened. Doesn't it look wonderful? Here's the veranda from both ends. I'm really lucky to have this space, though it's only useable for encaustic until the weather gets too cold. I've used the pallet that came with the printer, to do some experiments with different grounds. The white area is venetian plaster, and wet-strength tissue. Dandy's best mate, Donnie Darko (otherwise known as Scrappy Do) came to check it out and give me a hard stare. He can't help himself; he's a jack russel/poodle cross and he's really manic and intense! |
AuthorJulie Shackson is an artist and designer, working across various mediums and living in Wales Archives
June 2014
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