When I am starting a new piece I collect my source material. A large part of that is photographs and little thumbnail sketches that I take on my walks through my local woods. I also gather words that I feel are relevant. These can come from conversations I have or overhear. Bus travel is a good source or people watching in a cafe. Sometimes I write poems about the theme. I always do a mind map of words starting with the theme in the centre and adding boxes out from this centrepiece. I love the visual evidence of this. It is a process of very random investigation and allowing sparks to glow in my consciousness. I am never sure what I will end up with but each work is an adventure and quite often a surprise. Sometimes I produce a sketchbook but at other times I have just a collection of material.I have recently expanded into paper pulp and paper making.
In the past my work has focussed on the structure of the brain and neurons and also the patterns and landscapes of psychology. You can see examples of this in “Cellular 1”, “Cellular2” and “Brain Wave”. These sit on the edge of abstraction where I combine symbols of recognisible elements such as pigeons or dragonflies with shapes, colours and patterns, as shown in “Damsel”. I often use words or phrases cut out and placed on the canvas as you can see in “Whispers and sighs” and “Jigsaw”.
For the Christmas event I have been working on three collages around the theme of Sanctuary. These are called "The Cove" and there is a poem that goes with them. It begins
"Eroded to raw edges and frayed ends,
I stumble around the cliff path bends"
To find out how it continues come to our event in November. I look forward to seeing you.
Welcome to my little corner of the Artweeks website.
I am someone who has enjoyed making things all my life. From happy hours as a child in the 60s creating constructions out of sticky tape and cardboard boxes to last term where I spent happy hours doing much the same thing. I am a maker of things. Whether that is knitting, baking, cutting little pieces of paper to make stencils or gluing bandages onto a canvas to create a collage my hands and brain are always busy making.
So I am 61 years old and the very proud grandmother to 6 grandchildren. I attend Sunningwell School of Art and study with Allyson Austin in the Images and Ideas course. I find that the discipline of attending classes and having deadlines helps me to keep the focus of my work on theme while learning new techniques to expand my skills.
My journey towards exhibiting with Artweeks has been interesting and fun. I was introduced to South Oxford Arts group for May 2024 Artweeks and they kindly agreed to let me become a member. I very much enjoyed getting to know and work with the group and the very vibrant Community Centre where we are based. I also joined the poetry group based at South Oxford Community Centre, Lake Street. We have the opportunity to read poems on a chosen theme 2 times a month and read our own poetry once a month.
We are having our Christmas Artweeks event on the 23rd and 24th of November 2024. Some of us have been exploring the theme of Sanctuary for this event. There will be poems as well as artwork on display.