Artist of the Week

I am Artist of the Week on the Twitter 140 Art Show blog.
Sheree Rensel has done a great job!

#MailArt2

At this stage of making the postcard paintings I have painted the fourth layer of acrylic paint, still wet.

This is 3 of the 10 postcards sent from the series Leaves From My Street.


The #MailArt2 mailart project was organised on Twitter. In September and October 2009, the 29 participants in my group, from the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada, mailed each other art.

Each artist made 28 unique postcard-sized artworks and posted them (without an envelope, so they would show the signs of the mail system and wear and tear).

I made two series:

Leaves From My Street is a series of 10 unique pieces.
The postcards, made from 300lb smooth watercolour board, are painted with layers of transparent acrylic paint and acrylic resin gel, built up over a few weeks. This creates a depth that gives a three-dimensional aspect to the paintings. The lower layers create a green landscape with blue sky. The top layer has the branch of a tree painted in the foreground. There is also a small autumn leaf embedded in the top layer of clear gel, floating above the scene. A poem about blue skies and trees is handwritten on the back. They are each signed and numbered.

The Whole Picture is a painting cut into 18 pieces.
I cut the 22x30 inch painting, made by pouring and layering transparent acrylic paints and resin gels onto gessoed 300lb smooth watercolour board, into 18 pieces. Each was given an identifying code as to its place in the picture. Each postcard is an individual painting, but it is also part of a greater whole. The pieces were posted to 18 different cities in four countries. Perhaps one day they will be re-united and the recipients can see the whole picture.


This is the original image intact, 22x30 inches. Acrylic on gessoed 300lb paper.

This is the painting cut in to 18 parts for the series The Whole Picture.

A detail shot, some of the 18 small paintings / postcards.

CREATE at Lake Garda!

I will be in Italy next week for the next CREATE training conference: Training Course 5: Colour Heritage and Conservation, hosted by the Università Degli Studi Di Milano. A whole week at Lake Garda (think: backdrop for the last 007) learning and sharing ideas about colour! Heaven!

4 year blogiversary

It doesn't seem possible but I have been writing this blog for four years now. Wow.

Not working builds up pressure

"When an artist is not working, there is mounting pressure that nothing can relieve but work." -Julia Cameron

This quote was tweeted on Twitter last week. The sentiment is true for me. I get more and more difficult to live with (or so I am told) if I go through a patch, for some reason, where I cannot go to the studio and work. I think it might be this: I use a part of my brain when making work that I do not use in regular life. When this part is used it keeps a balance in my brain. When it is not used I become "unbalanced". (Mostly irritable and snappish).
That's my thinking on it for today anyway.

Tiny Touring Print Show

I have a 5cm square print, Autumn Leaf, in the Tiny Touring Print Show in Bristol. It is a group of tiny prints exhibited in a travelling trunk. Its first stop will be the IMPACT print conference in September. Then it's off to see the world!