PIECES ON DISPLAY

My artwork is now on display in the art room window at college, you can see it when passing to the Library so take a look as you go by.I'll be adding and changing pieces as my project develops, so take a closer look before these disappear!

PINS, THREAD AND FEATHERS

This piece is inspired by the work of Debbie Smyth (see link to her blog), however I focused on the motif of a dead bird and gradually added it's own feathers around it. I wanted the piece to both silhouette the poor pheasant, the threads and pins symbolising how frail life is, as they could so easily bend and the loose threads fall away. I also, however, wanted the piece to seen a bit ironic, the feathers should be inside the outline in the empty space and on the bird, yet they are not. They are still part of the bird, but outline it's death rather than its life.

After all, the bird had to be dead for me to get the feathers, so I think it is only respectful to use them in an art piece dedicated to it.
Some of the featheres are pinned in whereas others are tied into the thread, I wanted to add a bit to the ouline. I think more pieces using feathers will be on the way!

THE TULLIE HOUSE PICS

Here are the photos of my work in the Tullie House in Carlisle, my photos are on a slide show that takes about 2 minutes to run. If you have a space few mins pop in and let me know what you thought!

SPRAYPAINTING ON GLASS

These are some little experiments with glass and spraypaint- the swam is made using car spraypaint whereas the seagull is made with enamel spraypaint. The swan, in my opinion, if far more effective- simplier but more etchy and less refined. It's also simple, with the plain background and placed slightly off centre to draw the viewers eye- as well as leave that all important empty space.
Claire (sister) prefers the seagull, (I disagree) but the scratching into the paint didn't turn out how I imagined- perhaps I need a bigger needle and a bigger piece to work on, that way the scratches would be easier too see, 20cm x 15cm might be a bit too small. I'll try again smalller- but keep the background far more simple and then maybe work on a large piece of glass.

In both pieces, though, I like combining the text with the bird figure, it makes the birds appear more human and more personal to me. The quotes are from my one of my favourite Christina Rossetti poems- A Dream. I think it's on my EPQ page if you would like to have a read-y. Enjoy!

DEBBIE LUCAS

Travelled up to the Lake District today, not far for us to go really, as I have some photos in a slideshow in the Take Another Look Exhibition in the Tullie House in Carlisle. I entered a competition and TWO of my photos are now on display! (Above). We also called in Keswick to visit an art exhibition for an artist we found in Cumbria Magazine. I love her work, Debbie Lucas works with felt to create landscapes and they are beautiful, follow the link on the right but I don't think the photos do her work justice. They look so much more beautiful framed and in real life- you can really see the detail she has gone into with the felt and how she has cut into the layers to create depth and tone. They are brilliant! The exhibition is in Keswick 'Theatre by the Lake' and worth popping in to see (second floor- plus it is free). A fab day by all accounts!

DEVELOPMENT PIECES

Some more development pieces, working with thread pins and card birds. I think I might need to switch some of the black birds for the acetate ones (previous post), that might make the piece more interesting and break the lower piece up a bit. I found that smaller pieces (like the bird below) are very hard to work on with pines and thread, I think all pieces from now on need to be at least A4, if not bigger. I love the technique and they are fun to create- a different way of drawing! I used hairspray to keep all the threads in place (a handy hint if you fancy doing this yourself!)

ACETATE BIRDIES

Just a quick piece with pins, I printed some of my own birds onto acetate and chopped them out. It's not finished yet, just a quick experiment I thought people might like to see!

PHEASANT

I got hold of a dead pheasant at the weekend as well (the dog found it- some people had been shooting and left it) it is was fab! I had loads of sun- surprisingly- photographing it in the garage, playing with the wings and putting it in poses, strangling, hung up, running etc. I felt rather sorry for it though, it's so sad that such a beautiful bird should die for our amusement and 'sport'. On the other hand, they are incredibly stupid and get hit by cars down our road quite frequently, so I only felt sorry for it up to a point.
More spray painting, however I have added red spray paint in spots to this one (if you can see) to allude to death and the horrible death he endured, as he was shot. More experimentation with layers, starting to spray paint onto tracing paper as well as acetate and it works well, more cloudy and less distinct. It's not finished though, perhaps will add text and thread. Any ideas anyone?

WORKING WITH WIRE

In the first piece, I used the wire as a drawing medium (it's a bird on a bird feeder in case you are wondering); separating each section and using the hot glue-gun. I was unsure as to whether or not to to use the glue-gun, but I didn't really know how else to stick the wire down. Apparently tacking it in with thread works best! I think I'd agree on that, the blobs of the glue-gun are too big and detract from the fine wire.
I wrapped thread around the piece above, using both the thread and wire to draw the piece this time, the glued to canvas board (love it- so much more robust than cardboard). I think this piece is quite effective, but the threads frequently fall off and perhaps need to be sewed on or more firmly attached somehow. Again, I find that simple is best, the white background sets off the black feather and text- more fab poetry on birds. I'm thinking of moving on from poetry onto Shakespeare and other renaissance play write- studying some in English and there are some brilliant quotes that are so deep and meaningful to the world today!

More soon!

ACETATE AND SPRAY PAINTING

I have started to combine the spray painting with clear acetate, so that the backgrounds i made show through. I have also incorporated the threads, working these onto the acetate, as they hang down and can be seen through the layers.

The layering works really well and I'm sticking to the monochrome for the moment, it's more sad but easier to work with, as there is a smaller spectrum of tones! I think the black and white also works better with the subject matter, even though the birds above are bright, they probably wouldn't be as effective if printed in colour, with the quotes and splashed paint and thread, colour would just make the pieces too busy.

I love the style and technique though, hopefully will be moving out of book soon- but first I want more imagery. I fell I am beginning to exhaust my 'love bird' photos and I want to look at the form and structure of the birds and their grace when in flight, so will probably head up to the boating lake, as there are plenty of birds there.

CHARLOTTE HUDDERS WORKSHOP

I participated in the Charlotte Hudders workshop at college today, there wasn't enough time to larger costumes or pieces, but I related her work to my theme and created a little headband and hairslide. I tied the feathers on with thread and wire and added pins to the top to tie the thread around, avoiding poking Claire in the eye! I love working with feathers, they feel so natural and organic and contrast really well with the harsher wire and pins, they're more robust and 'manmade'. I think her work is brilliant (link on left to see more) and she was a lovely person, full of great ideas and always willing to help!

Here are the two pieces, beautifully modelled by my sister and a friend. A thoroughly good day!Designs for the head piece are below, just come quick collages in my sketchbook.

BACKGROUNDS

Had fun flicking inks to create these fab backgrounds! Spent most of the weekend enjoying fireworks (at Village Hall and at Lancaster) so this was quick easy and effective. They are to go behind the some of the transparent pieces and spray paints.

DEBBIE SMYTH

Debbie Smyth is a textile artist with a very unique and easily identifiable technique. She wraps thread around pins as a drawing medium to create large installations of scenes. Follow the link to her blog on the right for more information. She challenges our expectations and concepts of what a 'line' is and I love her. She's unique and original and keeps her work simple; black and white with silver pins. It's a recipe for success!I stared to focus on isolating and outlining the birds, at the same time as beginning to experiment with assotone printing onto laminating pouches, which works surprising well! The threads I have actually melt a bit and go discoloured when run through the laminator, but I think the pieces work well without being heated (as the piece above shows). The pouches are slightly cloudy and nicely dull the black thread.

I also like the combination of the thread and spray painting, the cleanness and rigidity of the stencilled area presents a nice contrast to the free-ness and messiness of the loose threads. More work to come, both of these could be expanded, maybe working out of my book on pieces in boxes!