Kindness and Kale

I don't usually have a 'word' for the new year as I know many people do, but this year I have decided I will. my word for the year is KINDNESS. To begin with that means being kind to myself.
In a busy stressful word it is easy to forget that looking after your body and mind is the best way to stay happy and healthy.

 So I am now well into my puritanical January, or veganuary  as I have signed up to be vegan for the month!
 I have been vegetarian all my adult life and eat vegan meals regularly but have never tried going the whole way and doing without any animal products.( Vegan means no meat, dairy,eggs or fish )
 I'm not a preachy sort of vegetarian but I have often wrestled with my conscience about dairy farming, so being KIND to my animal friends for a month is a good start  Thr.ee weeks in and I am feeling better physically and mentally.
To aid me in my new Vegan adventure, my new best friend the nutribullet....

yes.... I know I don't often get excited about kitchen appliances but this one is great! It whizzes up just about any veg/fruit/nut stuff into juice...

I'm Drinking lots of Kale and spinach combos.... it really isn't as bad as it looks. ;)

I also have been using the excesses of Christmas in creative ways..........

What did you do with all your discarded gift wrap?
I saved mine to use for collage and paper cloth making.

The paper cloth will be sewn into ' wild' sewing pieces, the collages are WIP at the moment for forthcoming exhibitions.
I asked a number of my friends to save paper for me this year, which they duly did ( Thank you so much my dear buddies)  Saving paper from the re-cycling bin means being KIND to the environment, turning waste into good things. That has got to be a good thing!

Did you decide on a word for the year?

Highland Mist and a happy new year

Highland Mist

 Happy New Year!
Thought I would share my first piece of 2016, although I actually finished it over the holidays as it was a Christmas present for my daughter. She had seen my previous First snow stag collage and wanted one of her own. She is moving into a new flat in Aberdeen soon and deciding on colour schemes. She settled on greys and yellows so wanted something that would fit.
 Iv'e never produced a commission to fit with a colour  scheme so that in itself was a bit of a challenge!

She seems to like it and when renovation work finishes in the flat it will be hung in the living room.

It is made from hundreds of pieces of torn paper, mixed with a bit of acrylic paint, gesso, silver flakes and love. ;)
I spent Hogmanay  ( new years eve) In the Scottish borders, It has been ridiculously wet in the northern part of the UK for weeks now and flooding is a real problem.

Teviot river 1/1/2016

The river Teviot on New years day was still swollen.

Although this photo shows where it had reached earlier in December... right up to the track by the riverside and over the hedge into the fields!

Scott's view St Boswells 1/1/2016

The weather on New years day was cold and murky, the panorama from Scott's view was rather gloomy, you can see in the foreground yellow gorse in bloom! It is January! What is going on!?

Near the viewpoint there is a woodland walk to the William wallace statue...It is not the most accurate representation of William Wallace I have ever seen, I think it makes him look rather like a Roman centurion! Perhaps like mine your idea of William Wallace is more Mel Gibson ( Braveheart) than Roman soldier!

A large funeral type urn partners the statue inscribed with the  words


The peerless Knight of Ellerslie 
Who wav'd on Ayr's Romantic shore
The beamy torch of Liberty
And roaming round from Sea to Sea
From Glade obscure of gloomy Rock
His bold companions call'd to free
The Realm from Edward's Iron Yoke

Very rousing, although the weather was a little cold and damp to feel too roused... decided to hurry back to the fireside before frostbite took hold.

2015 round up

Yes, it's that time of year when I do a bit of a round up of my creative year.
This helps me to see where I have been and the direction I am heading. It also may let you catch up on a few bits you may have missed.

January

January got off well with me discovering how much I enjoyed working with papercloth. This was to be a life saver for the months to come, as January began to go downhill rapidly as I became ill with pneumonia
.After a miserable few weeks February began...only to see me breaking my foot after a tumble down some stairs. Stuck in a plaster cast unable to bear any weight on my foot for weeks on end sure focuses the mind......

get well daffodils

Painting and gluing was almost impossible because of mobility issues but I discovered I could machine embroider with my foot elevated,

wild sewing

So that is what I did, relentlessly!!! I made loads of little panels which I call wild sewing pieces. I also learned to crochet via you tube! 

April poppies

By April at last things were improving, I was starting to walk and paint again! Yipeeeee

April forget-me-nots

May at Abbotsford

May and I was back enjoying life, painting outside in the Scottish borders, Spring was horribly wet but after being cooped up inside for so long every sunny day seemed magical!

Buttercup hare

I worked hard during May and June creating many new pieces for Skyeworks Gallery.

Bluebells in May

And also a few new pieces for galleries in Lancashire. This piece
was made for Drift gallery in St Annes.

June

June saw me trying my hand at glass fusion, my first attempts.

July

July and Skyeworks has made a wee space for my bits and pieces... I really like them grouped together.

August

August continued to be wet and unseasonably cold..... Summer is usually the time when I am out and about taking photos and drawing outside... most of August looked like this....

Wet day in August

September

The days were beginning to darken and I began to work on a new series of work for exhibitions 2016. Most of these I will keep underwraps till next year although I did finish these two canvas collages for Skyeworks.

October

November

And finally December.
We have arrived at the years end....This piece was made for a winter exhibition in St Annes in Lancashire.

First snow detail

I

first snow

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year,
What am I wishing the new year brings?
calm waters,
blue skies,
bright horizons.

Christmas, glue and sparkle

Hello!
 December is as ever a busy month!
I finally managed to find a little time to make my christmas cards. This year a bit of a cheat. I planned to carve a snowflake linoprint, however found this snowflake decoration made of wood and foam type material. It was the right size to print using white printing ink. Then added some ribbon, buttons and  liquid pearl accents, super quick and easy. I know many of you out there take months making beautiful cards, I would love to have had more time, but I am quite pleased with my improvised cards.

 Earlier in the month I hosted Drift gallery's Christmas party night.

lots of glue, paper and Christmas sparkle mixed with some tasty festive food. An opportunity to make wooden or slate gift-tags or tree decorations, and perhaps use some new materials. The object of the night was very much, forget 'less is more'.. just go for more!

I have also been working on several new pieces. Here is a sneak WIP peek.

At last Christmas tree is finally up....

So I'll take this opportunity, to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas.

First snow

I was asked by Drift gallery in St Anne's for whom I have led previous workshop events, if I could make a winter themed canvas for an exhibition space in the town. I have a lot of work on at the moment but thought it would be lovely to be able to make a piece just for Christmas.

I  am presently working on a series of pieces for a solo exhibition next year  at Skyeworks gallery in Portree on the Isle of Skye. The volume of work  I have to complete sometimes seems daunting but I am confident it is achievable, and so far have kept all of the completed works underwraps. ( not easy for me ;) )
 As the series progresses I have noticed  my style is changing. The constant themes return again and again, but evolve. I think the very act of making a back to back series of works make this happen, but thrown into the mix are personal experiences and feelings.

The way an Artists style develops fascinates me. Picasso very famously went through his blue period 1901-1904 where his work took on a more sombre tone, his sadness during that time led to his use of predominately blue palette warmed only by a very small amount of colour. Of course the period was relatively short lived and soon the colours came flooding back.
 Mood and season can  influence in subtle ways.
My 'First Snow' piece began a few weeks back in warmer hues, paint, thrown, dribbled and sprayed in merry abandon.

As the paper layers went down, the seasons had begun to change,

A biting wind,
A hard chill.
Cold, clear, water,
Mist, damp.... Winter.

I am working more loosely, using palette knives and splatter teqniques to apply paint freely over collaged paper fragments. the physical application of paint mirroring the wind and rain.

Of course there is still metallic sparkle in my work. Silver flakes merge with ice blue paint, but it is more muted.

 The finished work was hung in the exhibition space in Aston Pavilion on Wednesday and sold, I am told, as it was being put on the wall! Yay!!!!!
I took the photo below of ' first snow' propped up on my sofa to help show scale a little better...

first Snow