I decided to start the challenge in some sort of arty chronological order which started with work I kept from school days. When I was in the fifth and sixth form art was the only subject I really enjoyed, which is probably why I still have my old portfolio with quite a selection of work in. It does smell rather fusty and musty from being in parents attic and now living with me for 7 years in damp, cold, rented properties and the fact it is over thirty years old now.
Anyway whilst I was digging through the fusty old bits of paper I took the opportunity to photograph some of my favourite pieces before moths or other such nasties eat into it which is always a danger with living here.
For my own record I am displaying the pictures here with a brief description.
Pencil drawings were always a big part of art lessons and there was much encouragement to get contrast and different line thickness in there. I used to love collecting a good range of HB pencils for doing my drawings. I didn't particularly like doing the 2 pieces below, rather boyish subjects of tools and an old engine but I persevered!
I was much happier drawing plants.
Or trying to do something a bit more surreal, I did a study of a shoe first and then had the idea to do a shoe coming out of a gramophone, it's a bit rubbish but there must have been a reason for it!
This was quite a large painting I did, 4 sheets of A2 stuck together and the idea was to explore human form and we also made ceramic figures to go with this project.
I've never done much in the way of figurative work since.
Something else I haven't particulary pursued since school is working with pastels, for no other reason than it seems too messy in my already messy world.
Going from the dates on these, I completed them just as I left school in '83.
I used to enjoy doing pastels in a limited colour palette, the first pic is the Market Place in the Old Town, Hull.
Next we have rooftops in a German village from a holiday snap and lastly Piccadilly Circus.
I do still have a soft spot for the naive charm with these.
Moving on to work which I suppose we call mixed media today. I've always been and still am a big fan of collage. You can see my musical taste of the time with this top ensemble.
My work started to take a more graphic approach in the sixth form as I took images and deconstructed them and reconstructed patterns, probably a hint that I would end up doing graphic fabric designs today.
The bottom pic is a red pepper, I seem to remember doing something similar with a tomato but that hasn't survived.
Finally, to finish off with, this is a piece of work from '82 which I still quite like and it took absolutely ages because all the colour is made from tiny ripped up pieces of colour magazines. It is a scene around the marina area of Hull, looking across the dock to some old warehouses.
