Bunting

I went wild and created a bunch of bunting for my friends wedding, they requested that the bunting be creative and reflect the personality of the maker. Since there were no material restrictions I've made pieces using painted canvas, carpet, foam, duct tape, blind fabric, pinweaving and denim. I think I've got the crazy bunting niche covered. Below is a selection of the bunting I've produced. 

Lighthouse Wall Painting

Compass Inn have commissioned me to create a painting on one of the interior walls, the chosen image is of Winstanley's Lighthouse which was built on Eddystone rock in 1696, Eddystone is a famous Plymouth landmark. Smeaton's tower once stood on Eddystone (many years after Winstanley's light) before being moved to its current location on Plymouth Hoe. 

Winstanley's Light was made mostly of wood and was extremely ornate, it survived until november 1703 when a 'great storm' swept it away killing Winstanley who was visiting at the time. The version I've painted on the wall of Compass Inn is based upon the polygonal tower as it looked in 1699 after Winstanley had expanded the design.

To see the painting for yourself visit Compass Inn at 59-61 Bretonside PL4 0BD Plymouth

Design Decisions

Its little wonder it takes me so long to finish artworks when I start contemplating design decisions such as ribbon composition, I do prefer the angled ribbon layout though...

Produce patterns

More progress, these sugar snap pea pods will be joined by a few more in various media

Produce patterns - progress

Here's a little taster of how the lime is progressing...

Produce Patterns

You may remember this post about a painting I started several years ago and always intended (road to hell etc) to finish yet never quite did. Well I still haven't finished it, but it has dramatically moved on from my last post...

I decided that the undertaking of finishing that big canvas was a little foolish on my part, the painting had past its moment and there were practical reasons to abandon it too.

So instead i've hatched a plan to complete the work in a different way:

Salvaging the sections of the painting I was most happy with (and discarding the remainder) and using them in a series of new mixed media works. 

(featured above are two "in progress" shots of the salvaged sections) 

Bathroom Beauty

 Acrylic & Gouache (15 x 21cm) 

Fizzy - Reworked

A Mixed media canvas, featuring a salvaged piece from a previous painting and a finger knitted/ couched border

And Back to work...

Its been a bit of a rough couple weeks for me, so my creative production level dropped to bare minimum - a bit of spinning and one brief foray into watercolour were about the best it got.

Happily, the art engines are now ticking over once more (or at least revving) ,  so last night I got some of my older paintings up onto the hallway wall which means they're both stored and displayed rather than stacked on various surfaces, pushed from pillar to post and inevitably damaged.  Since it's the upstairs hallway the ceiling is nice and high allowing plenty of room for lots more paintings in the future: I intend the hallway to function as a working progress storage/gallery so not all the space will be used all the time and the paintings can be from different series or maybe even unfinished.  This is helped/hindered (depending on perspective) by my tendency to hang paintings close together (much like old estate houses with collections of dark oil paintings).

Strangely, ever since hanging these last night I've felt like painting, something I have't had the inclination to do since February (when I restarted the produce patterns canvas - enthusiasm for which is somewhat tidal = it comes and goes), I've been so absorbed in the school work and a major textile vibe that painting got sidelined a fair bit - hopefully not for much longer...   

'Produce Patterns' or maybe I should actually finish that...

Consider this the before photo, evidence for use in the future - to prove how much work is needed on this painting. Its been a few years since I last touched it (literally) and during its exile the canvas got fairly abused, left dusty and dented in my back-room.  A combination of making the canvas bag and a conversation with a student at my work placement has re-kindled my desire to see the painting reach completion; in  many ways the hiatus in painting is beneficial since I can now cast a critical eye upon it and make some improvements, such as making the background not black ( I now wonder why it even started out as black, I must have been having a little moment - to borrow a friend's phrase).

So now I've re-stretched the canvas and removed the pesky dents, I can crack on with painting and with a little luck you won't have to wait long to see the after picture...

Canvas Bag

I made this shoulder bag the other day as a gift for my old textiles teacher, its made using a canvas painting I abandoned half finished when I was a student ( at least 5 years ago), I removed it from the stretcher frame, hacked and machined it (complete with lining). In its former state it was a painting which my teacher hated, loathed, despised and ordered to be removed from her sight... looking back I can see her point ( its hardly my best work), though I'm still 'proud' of certain elements and the links to more recent works are fairly obvious: an affinity for the household object in abstracted formats. The happy news is that when I presented the finished article to my old teacher she didn't instantly throw it back at me or aim for the bin, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if she secretly quite likes it (though its longterm wearability is questionable - the paint is already showing signs of abuse), plus its helped to re-kindle my interest in another of my old canvases ( a better one) that I now plan to finish painting! (the before and afters photos of which i'll post up soonish)