2016 art intentions

I have been sleeping in my studio over the Christmas holidays - I don't do this often and it is usually because I have extra visitors. But I love it! My studio is the third bedroom in my house but I have a bit of block about letting anyone sleep in there so I happily give up my bed when I have extra visitors and vacate to a very comfy fold up bed - it feels good to sleep with my work around me and it is also an opportunity to have a good tidy up so I can organise a small space to put up the bed and my few night time things.

I woke up this morning (the last in my studio as I return to my own bedroom tonight) thinking about my 2016 art intentions (not resolutions as they feel like a struggle whilst intentions feel exciting!). I have been struck down by ill health over the past few months so it feels very important to get back into a working routine. I have also struggled with establishing a routine since the completion of my MA in July this year. So it feels like the right time to establish some boundaries and adventures for the next year ahead!


Art intentions 2016
Give my blog and website a make over
Write a weekly blog post
Do a drawing everyday (even if it is only a quick 5 min sketch)
Research and produce a new body of work to include drawings and prints
Use my journal each week
Spend 3 days in the studio each week (min)
Submit work for 4 exhibitions
Visit at least one London exhibition (this didn't happen this year for financial and health reasons)

In terms of professional developement I have booked a weekend workshop to make some new collagraph plates with Mary Gillett mid January and I intend applying for the Dartmoor Arts Summer School in July (I had such a wonderfully creative time last summer and met some lovely people too). I will also continue with Richard Allman's very enjoyable and challenging drawing course as I missed several sessions last term.

It feels like a positive start - I haven't made the list too long as I want it to be achievable - I intend to add to list as the year progresses

So I wish myself and anyone reading this - A very happy, abundant and ARTY 2016 

Week 4 Drawing

 

Last week Richard asked us to bring ink, sticks, etc and we explored what ink can do..... On wet, dry and different kinds of paper blowing ink through a straw, drawing with different wooden sticks, blotting ink and other numerous ways of drawing with ink.

 

We then collated all our small samples on to a large sheet of paper

 

 

 

I also made myself a bench hook last week with the intention of starting a linocut.

However, I picked up a virus a couple of weeks ago and have been lacking in energy. The result is a dissatisfaction with what I've achieved and I'm hoping this week will be more productive!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Week 4 Drawing

Last week Richard asked us to bring ink, sticks, etc and we explored what ink can do..... On wet, dry and different kinds of paper blowing ink through a straw, drawing with different wooden sticks, blotting ink and other numerous ways of drawing with ink. 

We then collated all our small samples on to a large sheet of paper

I also made myself a bench hook last week with the intention of starting a linocut.

However, I picked up a virus a couple of weeks ago and have been lacking in energy. The result is a dissatisfaction with what I've achieved and I'm hoping this week will be more productive!

Posted with Blogsy

Drawing group

This weeks exercises were a lot of fun working to some extent quite differently for me ( although I am known for my love of ripping work). Richard gave us 6 small squares of paper and asked us to make 3 quick gestural marks with a large 1inch brush in black ink/ paint - we kept one and put the others in a group pile from which we selected 5 - we then fitted them together ramdomly and glued them down on a sheet of white paper

We were asked to use charcoal to draw the design - I bent the rules by using the window as a light box and tracing the image (using compressed charcoal)

For the next exercise we selected a cardboard shape and made similar gestural marks first in black then white

These were then all piled together in a large sculptural form and we selected a section to draw

Since then I've continued with the exercise and torn the cardboard into smaller sections - there are so many exciting configurations - these are a few

Now to do some drawings!

 

Posted with Blogsy

International Print Exchange

This is the first year I've taken part in this exchange and it has been a very worthwhile and positive experience - last week I received 8 prints from artists across the world - thank you to all the artists who took part and made this happen and particularly to those whose prints I received John Pindar, David Symonds, Barbara Follette Adams, Kelley Folger, Caroline Masterson, Faith Chevannes, Maureen McAdams and Cynthia Lessard

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Drawing

I haven't been doing enough drawing so I've joined Richard Allman's drawing group - we meet for 2 and a half hours every Thursday. I really look forward to the challenges he gives us - last week we drew the negative spaces in giant flower arrangements (long stems of flowers like agapanthus and verbena) I wish I'd taken some photos of the flowers as the arrangements were thrown together in a rather wonderful wild way! I tore my drawing into 2 separate drawings which worked much better

This afternoon's session was equally challenging and enjoyable - more of that in my next post

 

Posted with Blogsy

Back on Blogger again with my MA show

I have given up with wordpress as I can no longer access it on my rather ancient Mac! It is so frustrating when you have a computer that works perfectly well and then you can no longer use it for certain actions - in the last few months I have been unable to use Skype, Dropbox and update Adobe Flash - now Wordpress is added to the list. I suppose at some point I need to get a new computer but quite honestly while this one is working I don't feel much inclined to spend money (at the moment just for these few things!). It was going to be my final post on Wordpress anyway as I have now finished my MA in Contemporary Art Practice and I was only using it to post about my MA practice.

So I am back to using good old reliable blogger and this post is just to show some photos from my MA show in July at Royal William Yard, Plymouth  

A busy PV  

A Circular Walk 2014 Artist Book, Collagraph

A Simple Method is adapted from the original by Karen Howse

A Long Walk 2014/5 60 collagraph prints  

A Long Walk detail 

A Long Walk detail

A Long Walk detail 

Way Markers 2015 series of 6 collagraph prints

Way Marker 2015, Collagraph with blind embossing 

Prints-on-the-go 2014/5 Monoprints

Prints-on-the-go detail 

It was a brilliant opening and I really enjoyed myself - after all the hard work it was finally time to relax
I'd like to finish this post with some words sent to me after the show - it was so kind of Richard to take the time to give this review.

‘The challenge of using the space and creating, installing was brilliantly done. Your walk installations transformed the space, watching people interact with your work, walking the line or circling the light added to their energy’  

‘A Long Walk’ installation.

 People were studying individual prints but in doing so bowed in reference to the qualities of each individual (print). There was a spiritual space, about a metre from the work where they stooped to look, a prayer wall, thought wall, feeling wall, or simply a diary or record of moments in time with nature. Lots of individual elements, but looking down the line, seeing the beginning of the journey and the distant end, the perspective playing with the angled prints and the linear repeating patterns of decaled edges of pristine paper, the whole and the sum of the individual parts only added to the spatial dimension of the work and the space it was within. The identity of one print was added to by the relationship with its neighbour sometimes close sometimes farther apart, the vertical prints vibrated, had a pattern, a signature, a beat. It is an infinite horizon line which if walked will continue to adapt and change to the responses to time and place’.

Richard Sunderland

Artist

http://www.richardsunderlandart.com