My Creative Space

I'm joining Kirsty in showing my creative space again this week. While I haven't been posting much lately a lot has been going on albeit mainly in my brain. However, today I am experimenting with what I think might become my new favourite thing - Ampersand Gessobords.
These carefully constructed PH neutral boards are perfectly coated with a special gesso finish that is specifically for acrylic or oil paints. They are light and phenomenally sturdy. I'm thinking they will easy for posting and shipping. I'm also doing further experiments with oil paints and coloured grounds.

What is your creative space like today? Join in or check out the other creative's spaces.

Let's talk about inspiration..

Sometimes I can be as empty of inspiration as this patch of wall in my studio. Luckily it doesn't happen very often. The subject of inspiration has come up in my Indie Biz course, of course! The suggestion is to make an 'inspiration board' to pin up images and things that inspire and, with luck on your side, the juxtaposition will spark off some new ideas.

Great! I've been meaning to do this for ages, however, the last thing I need is yet another 'thing' in my tiny studio. Space is my biggest issue these days and I was reluctant to even think about another object vying for wall space. Luckily I have one wall which is almost entirely pinboard! I chose that section of it which is now near my 2nd desk (is it any wonder I have no space!) to turn into my inspiration board. A Poscar pen and a bit of acrylic paint and I now have... ta da!

An inspiration board!!

I wrote "dream a little dream"; I was thinking "dream a little dream of me"; I often think I 'need' to dream big; encouragement to dream little is what I need right now (while I'm dreaming big in my Indie Biz course, of course!) And here it is now - completely filled to overflowing!





Inspired? Show me your inspiration board, please!

Studio with Thoughts finished - again

I posted a shot of this painting last week. At the time I thought it was finished. This time it really is. Studio with Thoughts.
It has to be finished because today is the closing day for entries to EMSLA. It has been turned upside down again since last week. This orientation is how it began. It has a much more enclosed feeling and is actually quite three dimensional. The thought patterns float in the air inside my small cramped studio. The colours are muted because it is what happens in the space that is the most important thing.

I am taking a big risk here. EMSLA is a selected (juried) exhibition and I will be publically humiliated if I don't get in now that I've blogged about it. But I wanted mostly to record the entry of it into the competition. I've not been entering competitions for many years for a variety of reasons. It will be good for me to face my demons and get my work out there again - even if it is only for the selection process and I miss the exhibiting part. It will be good for me.

Thinking

Actually, I'm thinking about quite a lot of things today. But first I'm going to ask you what you think. You may almost recognise this painting. I actually began it last year and at the time I thought it was finished. It is of my small studio and it's voluminous contents. With the entry deadline for EMSLA drawing very near I wanted to revisit the work. (It is exceedingly difficult to photograph both last year and this year!!!)

Still Life in Studio With Thoughts
Acrylic on Canvas 101.5 cm x 75.5 cm

What do you think? (Please click on it to see it enlarged.) I've got to try to take a better photo tomorrow. It IS very pale, all chromatic greys. I don't know! This is the point I get to prior to entering competitions every time! And then I just don't enter. Quite a vicious cycle really. Don't get me wrong. I do actually really like the painting but I just don't think it's good enough.

The painting is pale because it is what happens in my studio that is important rather than it's actual appearance. Because it is my space, in spite of it's size, it has a huge limitless space in my mind. I truly believe anything could happen in there, all I need to do is enter and begin. I wanted the studio to be present in the painting but for something else, the 'intangible' to be the primary subject matter.

Oh, I really don't know. I might have a go at finishing another work in progress and see how it turns out. Why do we artists doubt ourselves so completely?

My Studio

I've just finished a painting unit in the degree I'm doing and I thought I'd show you the final exercise. It was about transformation of a space that we spend a lot of time in. I chose my studio as my subject. I started work in my journal. First I had individual photos of areas of it and journaled fairly usually about them. Then I decided to string the photos together, an 'analogue stitch' if you like.

Then I did drawings, sitting in the middle of the room on my swivel chair. After looking at them a while I decided to 'stitch' them together too.
I still didn't know what I would do, but I worked on each drawing individually, abstracting the main horizontal and vertical lines and creating shapes. I had an idea that I wanted the whole thing to have gentle greys with small areas of high colour, a visual symbol for how most of the work I do in my studio is fairly ordinary but at times something good is completed or a surprise occurs. I wanted these to be represented by intense colour but there to be few of them. After painting these new abstract sketches I found my pale colours were really quite intense anyway. I would need to go paler. Just for fun and to keep the whole process going I strung these larger works together too.

The final painting is 40" x 30" and titled The Studio. I challenged myself further by not using a brush, well not after the first white wash layer that knocked back my line drawing. I looked at each of the painted studies in turn and drew directly onto the canvas, adding the sections of each study that were the most successful. I didn't add them in visual order, sometimes working backwards and sometimes rotating the canvas. I kept looking at the work as a whole and trying to get it all to marry.

I used woolen blanket, sponge, glue spatula, palette knife and sandpaper to apply the paint. When I tried to add the intense colours some of the areas 'worked' and some didn't and needed to be painted over. They don't stand out now but they are there. This painting taught me something about what's important. It isn't those intense coloured 'spots' of creation, but it is the ordinary work that achieves nothing more than itself that is most important to me. I have tended to focus on my occasional 'stars', their colours can be distracting, but ultimately it is the muted but colourful greys that fill my day and create their own kind of beauty.

...closer and closer...

I realised I didn't clearly explain the title of the previous post. It's there but you have to read each sentence to get it. What I'm getting closer to is being caught up on some of the projects I've let wait.

And wait. And wait. What is this procrastination? What is the resistance? I struggle procrastination and resistance continually. I'm hung up on knowing they will be perfect before I start which is ridiculous because they are never perfect in the end, so why do they have to be perfect at any point?

But it's not 9am yet and I have gesso all over me, in my hair, everywhere. Gesso is one of my all time favourite art materials. So simple, but I love it's off white toothy brushy texture and the way it interacts with what comes before and what will come over it. So this is my desk this morning. I'm putting it up on flickr so I can annotate all the gesso that's there and my other favourite art supplies too.

Now I'm off to have coffee with Sara Bowen and I'm really looking forward to it! We live very close to each other and have met a few times, but our friendship has grown online. I'm having a bit of an online-relationship time this week. Yesterday I met up with another lady who I met here in the virtual world. It is really interesting.

My man asks "Why can't I meet up with any of the women I meet online?"

Finishing, clearing, starting

Last week I completed a project that I've been working on for 6 years.

It was finished when the second book of the two I was making was given as a gift. After I gave the first one as a gift 4 years ago and hadn't kept a scan or a photo, I intended to document the latest one. I forgot again.

It has been a process I have loved but was huge and involved countless hours of work. In spite of loving it passionately, I found it also haunted me... "I probably should be working on [that] book"...

After so long working on a project it takes a little time to fully realise that it is finished. I have so many current projects that are no where near finished. I need SPACE! The space of time as well as the space in my brain.

I'm reorganising my studio. [Those that know me are used to hearing that sentance!!!] I have a very small studio space in my home. I feel lucky to have the space. But I still find it in me to complain about the lack of SPACE in my space. I reorganise perpetually. Juggling furniture, items, stock, etc etc etc etc to try to create a little more space.

And I'm messy.
Which doesn't help.

I'll be uploading these photos to Flickr sometime today [I've also got to finish tidying the studio!!!] so I can annotate them. There are a couple more images too. I love looking into others studio spaces, so if you are at all like me, embrace your inner voyeure and click on over to check it out.

New Best Friend (I hope!)

I don't have the room (or the money) for a 'proper' printing press. That, however, did not stop me from wanting wanting wanting. I found this little beauty in Parkers art shop in The Rocks, Sydney a few months ago. It took me a few months to convince myself to actually go ahead and get it. No amount of Googling could reveal anyone else who has used a press like this. (I guess that is pretty obvious when you look at the low-tech beauty of it!)

So, last Friday I was having a particularly good day - my eldest daughters graduation from Sydney Uni (the mother in me means I must mention 'with 1st class honours'!) followed by a champagne and oyster celebration on the harbour next to the Opera House, then the lovely little walk up into The Rocks to find Parkers (always a sense of satisfaction when you get there, because sometimes I just plain don't find it and miss out on the experience!) OK, I was just a little merry, and I was planning to buy my little press, so I was happy. I guess it showed. I think the guys in Parkers quite enjoyed selling it to me. I know they are certainly looking forward to my other daughter's graduation next year with hope (and dollar signs) in their eyes!

I haven't had the chance to use it yet, but I will report how it goes. It uses the good old fashioned lever action to create the press suitable for relief printing. I plan to use it for linoprints, but will probably try a few collagraphs too. It prints up to A4 and with no moving parts etc. I plan to have it for a long time. And it fits perfectly in my little studio!

Extreme Good Fortune

My husbands father was an artist, cartoonist, signwriter and ticket writer. He died over 10 years ago, and hadn't used these items for about 10 years before that. Over the years in various clean-ups I have been the fortunate recipent of paints, pastels, stacks of watercolour paper and paints, pencils, brushes and books. In a final clean-up my husband wanted this little glass and cedar drawer cabinet and brought it home still packed as his dad had it. Never a pen and ink girl, I did my first sketches in ink about 2 months ago in response to Danny Gregory's "Creative License" book. I'm loving it! And now, out of the blue, find I am the lucky recipent of three draws of nibs, nib holders and other ink drawing materials!!! What ink there was has long dried up, but I will remedy that situation swiftly! So I'm about to move on up from my markers and disposable cartridge pen! to dipping ink and any nib you can imagine! I am truly lucky! (Always have been!)