Jan 14 2011 - Mini Murals Workshop for Ashby Art Club @ Ticknall Village Hall

This was a workshop i ran a week ago using imagination and pretty much any medium of choice applied to coarse chipboard. I personally find this surface very intriguing as the medium you use on it also has a definite influence on what emerges.
It is the artistic equivilent of a writer being given a title for a story, and then being let loose with pen and paper.

Ten artists with creative antennae and brushes quivering; ten Chipboards of differing sizes and shapes; ten different ways of seeing what was in the board and then teasing it out. One side was primed, the other bare.

The choices, the choices....

I took photos at various stages to show the development of the pictures but must apologize for the quality of some of these photos. If anyone wants to send me a better photo I will gladly substitute it. And if you finish your picture let me have it and that can go up too. In spite of some photographic failures I hope you can see the huge differences in approach.

Kay Astin started by applying pastel to the board and then observing what slowly emerged... a tree, a hummingbird, flowers, a cockerel, she then used acrylics to bring these features out. I understand there is even a dog lurking behind the tree.

Kay has updated her finished painting now (Feb 27th 2011), and here it is, renamed, Cock-a-doodle-do. What an amazing picture to literally emerge from the wood! Fantastic.



Some used the board with just ink wash. Below are a series of inks painted onto natural wood -

Blue Trees by Dianne Cox - with acrylics used for the white flowers. The ink soaks in, leaving the surface of the wood still visible. Watch out for the finished picture in due course....

This picture below, Mermaids by Jackie Adshead, is done chiefly with pastels, using the rough wooden texture to provide the seaweed and rocks for the drama being acted out!

Lesley Griggs did quite a bit of experimenting, using first her fragment of board and then both sides of the larger board with Trees on the primed side (inks) and Running Man on the wooden side, [acrylic & ink.]

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Janet Hunt used both sides of her board too: acrylic Waterfall on the wooden side & inky
Tuscan Orange on the primed side. (Photos are bad, and don't do them justice)

Japnese Ladies with Kites, by Dave Tremain, were painted in acrylic and then highlighted in pastel. Little Green Riding Hood was painted in a mix of ink, pastel and acrylic on the primed side of the board - all inspired by one bit of wood!

Chris Cliff, declaring he had 'no imagination' at all, deliciously managed to prove himself wrong by painting not only a striking picture and using the strands of wood to good effect, but also creating three totally different moods, or times of day with his Purple Rocks. Quite an achievement.

Teresa Bailey used acrylics as a base and pastels as highlights to produce her Seed Pods, leaving the wood exposed as the background - very effective as you can see.

Anne Devenport was inspired by the shapes in the wood to find cone shapes, possibly buildings, a castle? She kept the wooden board as the background and enhanced it with metalic ink. The finished article is to follow......

This picture started off as a vertical Waterfall, and beccame Beachcombing when turned horizontal. Mary Oliver painted it largely in acrylics, picking out the driftwood in the foreground with pastel. A very intriguing surprise creation.

Viv Pichard painted both sides of the board, pastels and acrylics produced Huts by Waterfall, [right] and on the primed side, Climbers. Viv used the fibre of the board for the fence, roofs and rocks to very good effect. (The quality of these photos do not do justice to them. Note to self: must do better)

Liz Harris used the wooden background of her picture as the backrop for a Forest of Peacocks which kept peering out at her. A voyage of discovery within the wood which got more and more intricate as the day went on. It was fascinating to watch.

It was a day of exploration and discovery, a time to let go, because it is impossible to get this form of art 'wrong'. And not one person did!
A very enjoyable time was had by me, and judging by the feedback I've had since, others had a good time too, so thanks to the Ashby Art Club for making such a Happy Saturday.

2011 The Year of the Shed and Many Things to do

I have a new studio.....Hurray! The garden shed was insulated a week before the Big Freeze and is now my own domain where I can make art, mess, and no one else cares. So my aim this winter is to paint enough pictures for all the summer exhibitions. Mice, men and other things not interfering too much, I might get thirty paintings done. Too ambitious? Maybe, but New Year's Resolutions are, de facto, half full glasses.
2010 was the year of Chipboard. Those pastel panels seem to appeal to other people as well as to me, so I only have two left now and need to start some others. I aim to have five new ones in time for Derbyshire Open Arts, May Bank holiday at Via Gellia Mill, Bonsall, DE4 2AJ
This yearI am also starting a new series of paintings in black ink on white canvas. Check out 'Things' in my gallery as I'll add them as they come.

Painting is an odd thing. The medium itself dictates the result, like writing: handwriting has a life of its own quite different in character to typing. Thus, 'Things keep Piling up' done on A4 card is quite different from the same title done on canvas. I will post both to illustrate this. And if I painted it again, it would be different once more. These Things keep growing on me..... [that should prove to be an interesting picture too, maybe next month.] At the moment 'It's a Good Thing on a long haul' that starts the year, and it is a long haul, as Things keep multiplying (see what I mean?) In fact, Things are probably limitless, (stop it!) and you know how it is, 'One Thing Leads to Another' and then all of a sudden those Mice or Men interfere and 'Things have gone Pearshaped' leaving me with 'Things up in the air' and Things to do, places to go and a lot of 'ThingKing' to do. But generally 'Things are Looking Up'. I personally never say, 'Some Things were meant to be', or Some Things weren't meant to be!' but a lot of people do feel influenced by Things. Some people says 'Bad Things come in Threes', I just hope 'All Things Bright and Beautiful,' come your way in 2011.

At the moment most of these pictures, and about 40 others, are in a sketchbook, waiting to amuse you through the year ahead. Um...that's about four a month. Gotta go.

CHESTERFIELD XMAS MARKET SUNDAY NOV 20TH

THIS SHOULD BE ANOTHER GOOD DAY, SO COME IN AND SEE WHAT'S FOR SALE ON ALL THE STALLS. I will have some hadn-decorated candles, wooden plates, cards, prints and a few original canvases.


The first Arts & Crafts Market on Oct 29th buzzed. It felt good to traders and punters alike since there were about twenty more active stalls in the market than there would have been otherwise. I took along about 20 original pictures, but it was mainly prints that sold for me as anything over a tenner is probably a non-starter in this market. The wind was fierce, so the Chinese Brush Painting workshop was a little tricky as paper kept flying off, but in spite of that, there were some successes, with bamboos rising out of the tempest.

CHESTERFIELD ARTS FESTIVAL WEEK! FRI OCTOBER 29th MARKET STALL . AT ROSE HILL METHODIST CHAPEL CHESTERFIELD ART SOCIETY SHOW FRI 29TH AND SAT 30TH

Chesterfield Market is going to be full of Arts and Crafts stalls, just in time for Xmas this Friday, so come and find me, up the top, near the pump. I will have originals on display and also prints, card, decorated candles, mirrors and wooden plates, all at reasonable prices. You can have a go at Chinese Brush painting too. Also at The Methodist Chapel, Rose Hill, is the Chesterfield Arts Society Exhibition, very reasonably priced original artworks. Fri 29th & Sat 30th Oct.

If you can't make Fri Oct 29th, I will be back again AT THE MARKET on Sun Nov 21st.

WIRKSWORTH FESTIVAL - SAT SEPT 11th - 26th

Two weeks of great events, check out http://www.wirksworthfestival.co.uk/

I shall be right in the middle of Wirksworth inside The Wirksworth Framing Company , 22 Market Place, Matlock, DE4 4ET on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th, demonstrating Chinese Painting. Come and have a go yourself, and if you want, sign up for an all day workshop.

The Art in the Gardens was a fantastic display of so many local artists, and business was brisk for many of them, in spite of the recession. The Preview evening is magical as the sun sets and the domes of the Botannical gardens are lit by turqoise lights. People spill out onto the grass from marquees glowing like some painting by Rembrandt, listening to the music, sipping wine and enjoying one of the last evenings of summer. It is an evening I love. The next days are less dreamy, but there is a real buzz as the other stall-holders set up their wares. Everything from jewellery to mirrors, wood turning, photography - something for everyone. There is music in the marquee down the bottom of the gardens, and fresh-cooked food even for the Gluten-free.
I plan to have my own stall one year, so then I will get to meet those who like my work enough to put their hard-earned cash down :)


CHESTERFIELD ART CLUB AT BASLOW - 28th - 30th August Bank Holiday W/E

This year there were too many pictures for the venue, which made a change! It was a nice show with very low priced original works of art, so if you want something affordable, then make sure you get along to the next Chesterfield Art Club Show in Chesterfield.

I won the prize for best Mixed Media entry with Stormchaser, my latest pastel-chipboard painting, so I was very happy. I did Chinese Brush Painting demos, met some amazingly interesting people who tried their hand at it, and as a result have enough people who would like to do a workshop.

Art in the Garens -Sheffield Royal Botanical Gardens Sept 4th & 5th

If you've never been to this event, put it in your diary. It's a great day out even when it's wet because there are small marquees all over the grounds with everything from crafts to fine arts on sale, and very good coffee. There's live music too, a massive display of wood turning - amazing stuff - and photography, and a big exhibition of local artists' work in the main marquee. That's where my work is. The year before last I wore wellies and a big umbrella, (no, I wasn't nude modelling) but last year it was fine and beautiful.

After the Great Sheffield Art Show -

Fantastic show. It can take a few hours to look around 1500 paintings and meet the artists with booths around the edge. One year, I promise myself, I will have one of those. Watch this space, or those booths anyway.... My paintings were in the last few, so forcing ourselves to start at No 1 and work our way round, it took a couple of hours to find I had actually sold Nightflight. We were so chuffed we had to go outside to shout, drink coffee and grin. So, really thanks to whoever bought it! I hope you really enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. It grew over a couple of months at the end of my kitchen when I was supposed to be doing other things - not that I was obsessed or anything..... One day I will use it in a story, along with Dragonship, Timberville and Waterpostman. The good news is, someone else who saw it at the Derbyshire Arts event also wants to buy it. So I must be doing something right.
I really enjoy these chipboard panels. they grow organically from the boards, dictating what is there, encouraging exploration and adventure. It's as much sculpture as painting, the use of fingers essential and not a lot of brushes involved. Yes, I get messy. Yes, the kitchen is not the place to work. So now.....Since Best Beloved said No to a summerhouse, I have requistioned the garden shed - the contents of which now reside in a nice plastic greenhouse, £25 from Tesco's Sale :)