Juju Loves Polka Dots

Symbolic still life

I'm anorexic really. Anorexic people look in the mirror and think they look fat. And so do I.
Jo Brand

I'm finally finished editing the colour proofs of my book (so tedious!) and I'm really looking forward to making the space and time to paint again.

Part of that process is keeping a new diary and tracking my ideas. Part of it will be going to galleries to feed my eyes. Part of it will be clearing up my studio to make space. And as always, I'm reading a lot. Lots of myth, fantasy and now the Bible. Okay maybe not quite the bible, but about the bible. Interesting, I have no religious education of any kind.

Which brings me to this wonderful paintings.

Once again I have to credit the incredible Ulla for finding artist Dorina Mocan.

They remind me a little of Victoria Crowe's work.

All of it good food!

Today's Inspiration: Dorina Mocan

Likes: Julia Sweeney losing God, on  This American Life

I'm having some strange Typepad problems but am looking into them and will be blogging again soon.

Painting time

I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius.
What's misunderstood about you?
Nobody thinks I'm a genius.
Calvin and Hobbes

How do you make time to paint?

I've made a bargain with myself that I will not take any more jobs between now (or when I finish editing the work I'm doing now) and September, so I can get some painting time in this year.

But that isn't going to be enough time, is it? Not with children, housework and summer holidays coming up. I would really like to find some way of painting regularly next year. Which means making more physical space and dedicating time. Time where I don't turn on the computer or answer phone calls. I just ache for that kind of time.

I recently completed a sketchbook full of ideas for painting from. This is the cover.

I sent it off to Cloth Paper and Scissors, so you may see more of it there soon.

I was delighted to see some of my fairy tale interests coming up in it. I worked very intuitively with a pencil and eraser. Lots of erasing, until subjects began to mysteriously appear.

Today's Inspiration: The town of Wall as invented by Neil Gaiman and Written about by Suzanna Clarke.

Likes: Diana Jones. Her song, Pony, makes me cry. If you like Gillian Welsh, check Diana out.

Inspiring paintings

An intelligence test sometimes shows a person how smart they would have been not to have taken it.
Laurence J. Peter

Thank you again for all your kind comments after my last post. One question ~ in America, has there been much press controversy over American Idol's auditions? I know Simon Cowell is always controversial (or so the press would tell us) but did other people get upset about these episodes?

Last weekend I got out for a couple of hours, with my sister, to the London Art fair. I'm so glad I went! I found much to be inspired by.

My favourite new (to me) discovery was Scottish painter Gary Anderson, who is represented by Ewan Mundy Fine Art. He is a member of the Royal Society of Watercolourists but clearly mixes his media a bit. I can't find anything about him on the web but I bought all of his exhibition catalogues. So I'll share a few pictures from them.

He works on paper, very small and says anything over A4 (letter paper size) is a BIG painting. The texture of the paintings and density of colour won't come across as well on the net or in print as in real life.

"To see my paintings, to read them properly, you have to get close, only inches away; as close as you would to the page of a book. Close enough to smell the paint and the varnish and to see every line, every brush mark, every fingerprint. I like that intimacy."

This one is "A Little Blue", 2003, watercolour, crayon and leaf, 16.6 x 16.7cm

Deep, Deep Blue, 1995, Mixed media on paper, 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

Subject and Medium, 2002, Watercolour, crayon and leaf, 15cmx15cm

I could have looked at his paintings all day!

I also really liked the paintings of Jia Juan Li, a Chinese painter, now living in Paris. These are oil on Canvas.

They were very magical looking, reminiscent of Vulliard and Bonard.

Today's Inspiration: Gary Anderson

Likes: Dense, heavily pigmented watercolours

Dislikes: I've been stuck inside for so long with my son that my muscles have atrophied and I've pulled something in my lower back. It's making me miserable and grumpy!

Friday was a play day

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you'll be a mile away and have their shoes.
Frieda Norris

I've been having a big paper painting session which will carry on this week. I paint with water based house paints/gouche/acrylic on brown parcel paper; painting many layers, sanding, crumpling, stitching and using other techniques until I get something I really like. Then I have a selection of paper that feel a little like leather and can be worked in lots of different ways as they are very durable. Sometimes I paint both sides and sometimes I iron interfacing on the wrong side.

I like to have a selection of these papers in my studio for all sorts of projects, like this sketchbook cover.

I'll try and show you more later in the week.

Oh, I must add that although I'm still grieving Lyle I have found two great Internet radio shows.
I'm loving this from BBC in Scotland. Not only do I get to listen to the kind of country music I love but I get to hear a lovely Scottish accent too.
Also loving dysfunctional country from Boot Liquor.
I may be all alone here but I'm just celebrating my pleasures.

Storms and migraines

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
Steven Wright

It was a beautiful weekend in Whitstable. We've had really hot weather here leading up to storms this week. Unfortunately for me, storms mean migraines and I couldn't paint on Sunday. I was only getting started when I had to stop. But I enjoyed my migraine with a cool sea breeze which is better than a city migraine.

So I took away my little pages and began painting on them. I was still working from my pieces of jade. These are just beginnings, ideas - not  paintings so I'm not sure I should be showing them. But of course I will.

At least some of them.

I thought I would have time to do more painting this week. How come it's Friday already?

Transform

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
Steve Wright

Or transform it...

Still working on the theme I started yesterday with the Janus scrap file collection.

Today I was creating small collages to paint on top of. I'm making a small book of ideas for a series of paintings.
I wanted to start with vividly coloured collages and then knock them back. This is a 6x4 inch page with just paper and scrap collage.

I took each of the collaged pages and scanned them so that I won't be precious about covering up all that sumptuous colour.
Some of the scraps from the file project got played about with in photoshop. I will get prints of these to include in the final book.

This is the same image turned upside down with a layer of paint suffocating it.

We'll see what happens next.

Falling Out

I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.
Steven Wright

Thanks for the comments on ways of listing books. I took up Anon's (that's her tag, not just my ignorance) suggestion and got addicted to librarything. Oh oh, trouble that is.

One of my favourite painters,  Tom Wood.

A new discovery to me, painter Thirza Kotzen.

I think her watercolour landscapes are good and unique.

And Then...

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

 

So back to the sketchbook tutorial from yesterday.
My next step is to use the incredible Zenith paper drill (look under hole cutters in Silver Crow catalog) to drill holes in all the sketchbook papers and the front and back covers. I also use the hole drill to make holes in felt beads, it's a great tool!

Then it's bang, bang, bang with my hammer to set the eyelets in the front and back cover holes. Eyelets and setting tools can be bought most places that sell scrap booking materials, including Silver Crow.

I pull ribbons through the covers and pages  with a darning needle. Be sure not to let any of the pages drop before the ribbon is tied on the outside spine. Leave enough room for the pages to turn easily.

Finally I trim the ribbons and stand the book up somewhere to gather dust.

I don't do this with all my sketchbooks. I usually keep a store bought  A4 bound blank book in my hand bag which I fill regularly. These are a good size for sticking scraps from magazines in and bigger drawings but can be tricky to draw standing up with so I also carry a smaller bound book in my bag for all those moments in museums and cues when they come in useful. It also means I always have an extra sketchbook in my bag to give to the kids, so that we can draw together.

The beauty of these little hand bound ones is that they can freeze and memorialize a certain period or event in my memory. In this case I will always remember the weather in March 2006. Not just because I have a record of it but because the process of recording it  and the notes I made each day fixes it in my memory.

I think sketchbooks can be kept for lots of different reasons and it's good to clarify the purpose of each one. I carry daily sketchbooks that I wouldn't want to show everyone, they are working out of thoughts and ideas and are a slightly private affair.
These ones that I bind are a little more showy but I  want them to  reflect the moment that they were made.  I'm not making showy art works on each page.

What I did next

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
Steven Wright

Remember these?
Everyday in the month of March I painted a square to represent the weather (what a lot of grey!).
Well now I'm going to show you what I do with them.

I make lots of these little books and leave them collecting dust all over my house (ostensibly to inspire myself). Sometimes they are filled with kids drawings, sometimes shopping lists and other daily ephemera.
Check out Tom Judd's 365 day sketchbook. I'm not quite that dedicated although I am considering doing it for 60 days over the summer.
Here's how I make my books:

PART ONE

Tools and Materials

Mount card or other heavy cardboard

Sketchbook papers, in this case my watercolour pages but if I'm making a blank sketchbook I'll use a variety of papers including some with stuff already on them. I usually have envelops on the inside of the front and back covers for stuffing odd bits in. I like glassine envelops best.

Collage materials (below is a bucket in my studio where I stuff every scrap that comes my way. I love kids doodles and writing, edges of paintings, receipts , stamps, envelops, all daily ephemera.)

Japanese paste

Blotting paper or similiar

heavy book

Zenith hole maker

ribbon

eyelets and setter

darning needle

cutting knife and mat

 

How-to

If the pages are already prepared, as in this case, I start by cutting the front and back covers, making them 1cm taller and 1cm wider than the pages. I use scraps of mount card. I'll be covering them so I'm not bothered about the colour or condition.

I gather together some scraps from my collection and collage them onto the mount boards, on both sides, using the Japanese paste.

Here I have used some decorative papers, a kids doodle, and an old car tax disk.

Then I find a heavy book and some blotting paper (okay, just any old paper) and wrap the covered boards in the blotting paper and lay the heavy book on top. I let them dry over night like this so they will be nice and flat.
Next... Well, you'll have to come back and see. I'll finish this tutorial in my next post.

P.S. Did I mention that I'm crippled with muscle pain form too much belly dancing yesterday. I'm off to bathe in Redox.

Chinese slipper

It's easier to put on slippers than carpet the whole world.
Al Franken

I think this is finished.
I bought a dozen beautiful pieces of antique Jade on eBay a few years ago and have never figured out how to use them in jewelery. So now they're popping up in my paintings.
This one has a double fish and a dragon-pig (lower left).
Fingers didn't make it into this painting but toes did.
On to my next one. There will be fingers in that.