Rebranding Myself on my 10 Year Anniversary

Those who have been following me for a long time, will have watched the unfolding of quite a few changes in my work. When I first started this blog, almost exactly 10 years ago, I was working as a full-time picture book illustrator. I had just finished the artwork for Dragon's Dinner. I was at the peak of my time in children's publishing, winning awards and performing at major festivals like Hay and Edinburgh. I had no plans for things to change and could not have imagined what the coming years would bring.

It was during that year, I was invited to join Urban Sketchers and become a correspondent. Again, I could not have known how important that invitation would be for my future adventures. It almost immediately took me to Lisbon, for my first Urban Sketchers Symposium then, the following year, I was invited to run a workshop in Santa Domingo! 

I had always found the isolation of studio work frustrating - I am a people person - so the international travels which urban sketching brought, really opened out my life. I got extraordinary opportunities to work alongside artists from all around the globe. Who would have thought I could wind up sketching on the Sugarloaf mountain in Brazil!

10 years on, I find myself in an entirely new place. Okay, I am still based in my lovely attic studio in Sheffield, but I no longer illustrate picture books. My new creative life has two very different facets. The urban sketching has evolved into my research-sketching work, which still occasionally takes me off on adventures overseas. Anyone who has been looking in lately will know all about my research work in Australia.

One of the key things which I absolutely love about this work is the fact that it is not studio-based. Every day is different, because I am working with different people in different places, learning new things. I have just begun work on a couple of new projects with York University and it gives me a huge buzz to be around such clever and interesting people, sucking up knowledge as I paint.

The other new development has been my textiles work, which came absolutely out of the blue. Actually, the seed was planted by a chat with researchers at York University a couple of years ago. We were putting in a bid for a sketching project and they asked me to think about how I might create a single piece of artwork, which could illustrate key elements from my research sketchbooks. I didn't like the idea of re-drawing my sketches as illustrations (even though that would seem the obvious thing to do, given my illustration background). I got the idea that changing medium, stitching the artwork rather than drawing, would be more fun and a more creative experience for me. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get the funding for that project, but that little seed had already grown roots and I couldn't shift it. I decided to explore the idea anyway and, my goodness, what an exciting plant it is developing into! The early textiles pieces were based on specific sketches, with me trying out the new language of stitch and exploring different ways of using it. When I was funded for a 2-month residency at Orchard Square, I felt for the first time that this was more than just play, that it was a legitimate path of work for me.

It is ironic that I began my artistic journey with a degree in Printed Textiles at Middlesex University, way back in the 1980s. I never worked as a textile designer then: the textiles industry in Britain was on its knees when I graduated and my path was already bending towards illustration. It's funny how things work out. 

The textiles work has now evolved away from the sketches and, on my 10-year blog anniversary, I am enjoying two thoroughly rewarding, but very different avenues of work. It might seem odd to be following two such disparate paths at once, but it feels good, and the shift back and forth keeps both things fresh. I suppose it's similar to the way I used to shift back and forth between my book illustrations and my sketchbooks. They were very different too and I needed the contrast to keep my creativity from going stale. Does that make sense?

The more observant amongst you might have noticed a subtle difference in the blog today. Ten years on, I have realised that the label 'illustrator' is no longer the best way to describe myself. So I have re-named the blog An Artist's Life for Me! I feel that better encompasses the new and exciting things I am doing. 

What a journey. Thank you so much for coming along on the ride. I hope it has been interesting for you, Gentle Reader, and continues to be so. I wonder what the next 10 years hold in store? 

Photographing my Textiles

Last week, I decided to bite the bullet and get professional photographs taken of my textiles work to date. They are so hard to photograph properly, because the beauty is often in the detail, which never comes out well when you do it yourself. Colours are an issue too. The light is never balanced right and never even across the surface.

I took a dozen pieces out into Derbyshire, to the Little Longstone studio of photographer Matt Swift. Watching him in action was fascinating and really emphasised why my own photos of the work are never very successful.

It took a couple of hours to work out the best way to light them. He tried a few possibilities, each of which brought out different aspects of the textures and materials. The organza in particular was interesting. Lit in one way, you got a lot of sheen on the surface, which was lovely, but it emphasised the top layers, so that the stitches beneath were less visible: a bit like looking at the sea through polarised or non-polarised lenses. 

Another lighting set-up really brought out the stitched texture of the surface: the way the top fabric has a subtly 'quilted' quality, as each stitch pulls the layers tight. This added a pleasing 3-dimensional element, but needed to be reined in to some extent, or it was more pronounced than the stitches themselves.

We played about with different effects, using my Ladybower piece as a tester. Each time he took a shot, a battery-pack the size of a small dog in the centre of the space powered a blinding flash not unlike a lightening strike. A second later, a new image appeared on the huge monitor beside me. They were so incredibly sharp you could zoom in and in and in, until tiny stitches were big as string.

Typically, we decided that the first arrangement he'd tried was the best, so he moved the 8ft reflection screen and the two big, black umbrellas, and re-arranged tripod lights until all was perfect.

Once we got that nailed, the rest was like shelling peas. One piece after another was carefully secured in place and shot through with the lightening. I am delighted with the results and would highly recommend Matt if anyone else in my part of the world needs the same thing doing.

Australian Residency - First Week!

Well. Where to begin? I can’t believe that we’ve been in Australia for over 3 weeks already.

John and I had a holiday at the beach for our first fortnight, enjoying the sunshine at Peaceful Bay and not missing the cold, wet, dark winter at home at all. I did these sketches there. 

Then we caught the bus to Perth and got settled into our home for the next 2 months – a lovely, old house with a pretty picket fence and a little back garden complete with a lemon tree. 

Then last Tuesday was the 1st official day of my residency. Really exciting. I got to meet all the team at the Work Design research centre (part of the University of Western Australia), who all seem lovely and really excited about the work we will be doing. I was shown to my very own office and a lovely pile of art materials, just waiting for me. 

There was no sketching for a while though - I spent most of that first day working out how to get the best out of the two huge rolls of watercolour paper they bought for me, and setting up a temporary workstation in the lobby, because you need such a big space to make the sketchbooks. 

It then took John and myself 3 solid days to wrestle with the watercolour paper (it’s VERY springy when it’s rolled), to cut it into strips and laboriously fold them all into the concertina sketchbooks I am going to use. 

Then I made the detachable cover. I actually used my own blog post from when I was preparing for the Manchester residency, to remind myself how to do it! As well as helping to make the sketchbooks, John filmed the whole process. He is not allowed to be paid for his work, because he doesn’t have a work visa, but he is going to accompany me on lots of the sketching trips, as the informal camera-man, keeping a video record, so we can cut together a film at the end.

Making the books was surprisingly physically demanding and we went home every night feeling pretty shattered. That was fine though – we loved every minute. It is a really gorgeous place to work too: all huge glass windows looking out on bright blue skies and the wide river. We had a tour of the campus on Friday afternoon. It’s huge and equally lovely: wonderfully green and alive with exotic birds.

I began the sketching part of the residency bright and early on Monday morning, but I’m going to keep you in suspense for a day or two and show you how I got on next time.

Australia Here I Come!

Golly, the time has come. Suddenly! We leave in the morning.

There are so many things to think about when you aren't going to be around for such a long time. We have even had to organise friends to come and live in our house, so it won't be empty.

I'm really hoping I won't get there and discover something important we forgot. I think it's all pretty sorted. The people I am working with at the research centre in Perth have helped with all the boring stuff, like my work visa and insurance requirements (don't you just hate all that side of things?), and they have organised some lovely accommodation too. Plus, so that I don't have to fill my luggage with paint and paper, all the art materials for my residency have been ordered in Australia and delivered direct to Perth.

I will post pictures of what I am up to on Facebook and Instagram, just as soon as I can, and will keep up the blog for the 2 months I'm in Perth, so do keep looking in. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see a few of the sketches I did at our most recent sketchcrawl, on Saturday. It was lovely to do it so close to me leaving, as it was a chance to say goodbye to my UK sketch-buddies. I'll be meeting up with Urban Sketchers Perth when I get there.

We spent our day in the centre of Sheffield, in the lovely Winter Gardens. I have had a few goes at this over the years and it is very tricky, as there is just so much going on. I think this is the first time I have felt that I have coped with it reasonably well.

That's a good omen I hope for my painting time in Oz, not just for my 2 month residency, but also the travelling time, when we'll be in Western Australia, and I hope to do lots of painting out and about.

Wish me luck!

Drawing Ideas: a Philosophy Collaboration

It is an exciting time of creative change for me right now, juggling lots of new things. As regular readers will know, in the middle of my surge of interest in embroidered textiles, I am also getting ready to leave for Australia,  for my UWA residency. But there is something else too, something completely different, which has come my way recently.

Remember the Ideas Bazaar event run by Sheffield University, where I exhibited my reportage work? Well, I initially thought nothing had come of it but, although it has taken a little while to get it together, I have now connected up with the university's philosophy department: a completely new area for me. But it's also going to be a completely new kind of work...

I have been having meetings with a philosopher Phillip Nash and we are really excited at the opportunity to work together. We have these brilliant discussions about ideas, which just roll and roll and tease my brain into lots of places it hasn't been before. It is all fascinating new stuff for me but, what is really inspiring, is the unexpected common ground we have. We are both really interested in how creativity works, and the creative process in the visual arts is closely mirrored in creative-thinking practises.

We have put together an exciting new project, where we will use my visual communication skills to attempt to interpret a series of abstract ideas about knowledge and the pursuit of truth.

As usual, none of it is a done-deal, because it depends on funding, but we are going to apply to the Making Ways fund for research and development support, to test the process and hopefully create a series of interesting, innovative drawings. At the same time, we are being supported by a professor at Sheffield University and together we are putting in for some funding to make a presentation for the Festival of the Mind, in October next year. The idea is to build on the initial drawings, to develop them into artwork which hopefully can help communicate some of these philosophical ideas. We want to  put together an exhibition of all the work, but also run some workshops, to test how well the work communicates and to use the drawings to explore further the connections between visualisation and the understanding and retention of new ideas.

It feel weird to be getting so excited about this, when I have to leave it completely now and go to Australia. If it comes off though, I will be able to start on it the moment I get back. Ultimately, I want to use all this as the basis for an entirely new collection of textiles work, but that's even further off. One step at a time!

New Textile Artwork Inspired by Lanzarote

The piece I have been working on for a while now is another biggish one, similar in size to the church, which I did near the beginning of this textile adventure (and which I sold at my Orchard Square exhibition - hurrah!). 

I think this new one is finished. I have been very keen to get it to this point before going away to Australia, as I didn't want to lose momentum by having to leave it for ages. I keep going back and tinkering though. It has moved on quite a bit since I last showed it to you, although the changes get more subtle, the nearer I get to the end.

The piece was inspired by my trip to Lanzarote in February. I did a great deal of drawing and painting while I was there, but one thing which I didn't capture at the time, but which really impacted on me, was the vine farming. Anyone who has been to the island will know what I mean, and hopefully recognise it in this new piece of mine.

I believe the technique is unique to Lanzarote and is a response to the combination of heat and wind. Low, semi-circular walls are tiled like fish scales over the land. A conical depression is usually dug inside each, to create greater wind protection, and the ground is layered with black volcanic ash, which of course they have plenty of, to help keep in what moisture there is.

When the vine planted at the centre of each circle appears, the effect is a series of bright green dots. From a distance, they stand out in a surreal fashion against the matt black, and I think it is this which stuck a note with me.

I have been wanting to do something with the idea since I got back and finally I have got around to it. The piece is saying two different, but connected, things about the landscape at once, using background and foreground layers. 

With the warmer areas, I am attempting to reflect the volcanic evolution of the landscape and the source of the ash. The bottom of the piece, with multiple layers of stitching and organza shapes, represents the magma chamber which periodically comes to life in the heart of the mountain, leaking into the rocks and eventually throwing up new landscapes.

The cooler areas are my response to the unique appearance of the vine farms. I cut up a pair of old work trousers for the ash layer, which I tore into strips and reconstructed, as I often do with my base layers. I wanted the dramatic contrast of the dark fabric to suggest the almost solemn solidity of the landscape, and to give the green 'growth' the necessary visual punch. I have used my wools again to represent the walls and provide contrasting rhythms with the bolder marks.

I have also 'drawn' with couched crewel wool, for a smaller echo of the lovely wall shapes. I was inspired to get some couching in, after my trip to the Royal College of Arms.

I can't wait to see what inspiration I get in Australia! I don't expect to take much sewing kit with me but, once I am done with my residency work, I will have a month in WA's national parks and will certainly be doing lots of painting again, to gather ideas and capture the shapes and colours.

Free Advice for Sheffield Artists!

You remember my recent residency at Orchard Square, where I developed the Coffee House piece? It was an opportunity awarded to me by Making Ways, who have a certain amount of funding available to assist and support artists in Sheffield. Which is GREAT.

Well, one of the other projects that they have initiated with the funding is a series of one-to-one advice sessions. The project is called Open Forum and it is completely free and available to all artists living in Sheffield. I went along to the first day, which was held at the Kiac's Gage Gallery. It was SO useful for me, since it has come at exactly the right time, as I am making so many changes in the way I work.

My first session was with Matt Roberts, who was able to give me lots of tips for increasing my chances of getting funding from the Arts Council and similar organisations, as well as advice on where to find more artist's residency opportunities. Both of these are becoming increasingly important to me, in my new guise as a textile artist.

After that, I had a 2nd session, this time with Jennie Syson, director and curator of Syson Gallery. I took examples of my work, both my reportage residency work from The Morgan Centre, to give background to where I am coming from, but also a couple of pieces of my most recent textiles, including this really new one below, which is still only half finished. I took photos on an iPad too, because most of my work has been mounted now and so is no longer portable. I felt that Jennie and Matt needed to see at least one example of the actual textiles though, rather than just photos, which don't really do the work justice.

Jennie was lovely and also extremely helpful. I feel a little at sea, as I am entering the world of Fine Art practise, and have only the sketchiest idea of the how this works. I needed a better understanding of the practical side of how I should be thinking about my future direction.

I came away feeling reassured that, though things are still evolving, so my textiles have not yet entirely arrived at where they are going, Jennie felt things were definitely heading in the right direction and gave her stamp of approval, so to speak, to the new work I have been exploring.

If you think you could benefit from some advice, do get into touch with Making Ways. There are still more days coming up towards the end of January, February and March.

A huge thank you to the Making Ways team for putting this and other new opportunities together.

Creating a New Textiles Piece: Start to Finish

Having finished my coffee house piece, but with no particular plan in mind of what to do next, I have decided to go back to pure experimentation. This is always especially exciting, as it pulls on pure creativity, but it's also really quite challenging too. Where to start?

As it happened, I had a bit of a play around with tea and dye-splotting during my recent residency and produced a few pieces of background cotton, which I put aside for an occasion just like this. I started by pinning a couple of different colours of organza on, to break up the space and start a more interesting composition, then chose some initial thread colours:

I then played. I like the way blanket stitch can create interesting curves. I am also very into stitched crosses. The blocks of running-stitch were brought across from my coffee-house piece. I got inspiration for the large sweeping marks from one of the mark-making pieces I created ages ago. I still keep the pile of squares by my desk. They have been so useful, if ever I'm stuck.

I built it up, adding more sections of colour, to create more layers and give it depth, expanding the stitch-colours, trying new marks on top of what I'd already done. It was looking really interesting, but I felt it lacked something. It needed more powerful contrast, a bit of 'oomph'.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been gradually going through rag-boxes that a couple of people gave me when I first started getting into textiles. I've been ironing what I want to keep, and sorting the bits and bobs into warm and cool colours, patterned and plain, so I can find things more easily. At the bottom of one box I found a tiny tangle of wonderfully lumpy wool. I was about to store it away. Then I placed it on the piece.

I have 'couched' in some wool before, on the first map piece I created, and was really pleased with the textural contrast it provided. This seemed like it was well worth trying...

I didn't overdo the couching, as I didn't want to flatten the wool's lumpiness, so I stitched just enough to keep it in place and to add a subtle glimmer of mustard thread, to tone down the white and help it 'belong'.

One final bit of work I felt it needed was a few stitching additions to the mustard stripes top left. I softened them into the piece by stitching across with some pale blue, which really did the trick and echoed the couching of the wool.

I am pretty sure it's done now. I'll live with it for a bit.

I am really pleased with the overall effect, but also with the way sections of it work, when you focus in on details. It's so hard to photograph this work - you can't really appreciate the layering and detailed stitching when you take a picture of the whole thing, especially with the larger pieces.

Hope you like it! Now... Tea-bags and wax...