Although I am officially on a sabbatical / career break from my teaching at Uni, I am currently also juggling freelance work, my job as an external examiner and an outstanding Uni related essay that will give me a higher education fellowship ( FHEA). So I am starting my days in the studio assessing where I am at with the DYCP, Arts Council funded project (working on my picturebook process as an author) and where I need to go. This is not always clear so I am following my nose until clarity comes knocking! Until then I wanted to share what was happening in my studio quickly. I have different stations that do different things and offer me a space to go to when I need a change of scenery. I also have a lot of different ideas in my head at all times of what I ‘could’ do, (unless I am hyper-focused on one thing, which gives my overthinking brain a break). Right now I am still in overwhelm of overthinking, so everything is up in the air right now and my studio is reflecting that! When I say overthinking, this looks like having too many ideas, overthinking those ideas and therefore being in creative paralysis. Whizzing between the ideas a bit erratically and therefore going between my studio stations. So where I am at now is working in my blog writing station, where I would normally do my freelance work and picturebook artwork and sketches, another painting station that is flat and is just about painting, a drawing station where I am drawing the bits and pieces from my morning walk (to see what may happen when I look more closely at the micro details - which are already compelling me to collage the shapes) and a make shift exhibition bookcase for finished pieces. The other spaces are storage for piles of books and numerous other project ideas in notebooks!
The workshop in Erlau, Germany with Jesus Cisneros and Studio Schmal reignited my love of painting and especially with oils. Jesus brought a new style of painting with oils into my creative world. Using relief transfer and rubbing and building up careful layers rather than expecting it all to come good in one layer. I love this way of working, a dance of what to paint over and what to leave, working with negative space and careful and considered application. It suits me well. I have also been using procreate to see if I could enhance the details in the paintings, but I was actually able to add more on the artwork by scraping away the paint to add the smaller paler details. I thought the artworks weren’t enough on their own, but I have come to love the subtleness in the colour and detail so will leave them as they are now. I will design them into a story and add thumbnails to perhaps make the story longer. I am not sure yet?
Going backwards I started the DYCP project off by drawing my garden as a starting point. It is just outside my studio and connected to my project intention of celebrating nature and also Jesus and Maria brought us to the idea of us creating an illustrated metaphorical garden that housed our values and beliefs, to define what our garden was to us. This resonated fully and a theme I will continue, thinking my story could start here.
Then I had a meeting with my friend and DYCP mentor Rebecca Cobb. I started talking about a story I have been writing and illustrating and how I was enjoying the green parts in the story, so she suggested to start making the end papers as I love making them. They can be super fun, or as simple or intricate as you like. So I have started working on that story too now, and will see what occurs over the coming weeks.
Anyway that’s where I am at. Starting to think how I want to use my new studio in the Buttermarket in Redruth and how I will continue to use my studio at home? watch this space for more next week : )
