Thirty year old school artwork

A friend nominated me to join in the #ArtChain challenge were over a stretch of 5 days you show and tell with 3 images of art a day. I'm sure some of you have been doing this also.

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.

Festive mixed media collages

Really not feeling festive, less so than usual, still full of cold and haven't been out for food shopping in days (the plan is late tonight!). Haven't felt like doing my usual baking, the house is at it's coldest on a windy day like today as the drafts and wind chill blow right through.

I wanted to enjoy this festive season just a little bit knowing that I am working on this being my last, cold, miserable Christmas in this house but I think my cold has zapped all the energy out of me.

However the week before the cold I did enjoy making some festive collages as I often do for using as my own Christmas cards or digital greetings.

I've been recycling old pages from a book which provides a really nice surface for drawing on and I've simply used a black pen for patterning up some festive images.

The collages have some cut out details which are inlaid with contrasting paper, I have also machine stitched some parts, rubber stamped and then digitally added some finishing touches and lettering.


Here is one of my finished robins.

I also did a stag image

And then for a final bit of fun I thought the images might make nice stamps so I adapted them into my own postage stamps.

Festive good wishes everyone and hope you are keeping warm and safe from the strong winds and high tides.

Design a fabric competition for Making magazine

Phew! am I pleased I stayed inside working today and didn't go to the Driffield Show as it was the hottest day of the year and I know it would be way too hot and tiring for me, tough for the livestock too.

I've decided to post about a fabric design for a competition I entered in May and was holding off with posting my ideas until I knew the outcome. However I think it's safe to say I wasn't successful as the notify winners date was end of June.

The subject matter was nature.

I created one of my mixed media collages with newsprint and stitch.

Started by painting some newspaper.

I wanted to create some butterflies, pods and flowers so I made some scribbles to base my shapes on and then I ripped & snipped bits and built up layers for the shapes.

Then it's time for a bit of stitching, using machine stitching to go around my shapes and add detail

They start to look more interesting when the definition is added

With all my hand made elements complete they were scanned in and worked up in Photoshop. I then started to create a repeat pattern which went through many phases before the result you see below. It had been on a white background but it looked too new and I wanted a more antiquey looking fabric so I did some rubber stamping in the background and built in a few more layers.

Here is my fabric repeat and shown in more detail below.

The competition was quite thorough and even wanted a mood board sending so this was my inspiration.

Not sure which forthcoming issue of Making will reveal the winner but I can't wait to see what the winning design looks like.

Sewing Needle Case - mixed media

This week I made the rubber stamped, embroidered bird into a needle case as a birthday pressie for a friend.
Here was the start of the project, rubber stamped and then starting to fill the design in with embroidery floss.

The plan was to make the needle case look like a little book so I choose some interesting fabric for the back and then I did a spine which is also a rubber stamped ruler design. Stitched all 3 elements together.

I used a floral fabric for the inside and I stiffened the book by lining it with some pelmet fabric.
The layers were stitched together and I sandwiched a ribbon at each end to tie it closed once it's done.

I then added some felt 'pages' stitched down the spine for attaching the pins & needles to.
I also added a little inside pocket using some groovy vintage decorative ribbon and this can hold a needle threader.

That's it virtually done, I finished it off with a bit more embellishing on the front and voila, a mixed media needle case.