Studio Notes

September sun

I love September, I think all the different months have their own flavour but September just seems to bring together so many little delights together, from the low yellow sun that dances through the leaves, pine cones and the trees starting change colour. I have been spending lots of time this month on local walks with my children collecting acorns with and shiny conkers and just enjoying the last of the days when you don’t need a jacket.

I find often in September i have a really strong back to school feeling - a shiny pencil case, some new pencils and a plan - this year I didn’t feel anything close to having a plan! I have been trying to work out how to give myself more time amongst running workshops to focus on creating my own personal work but i feel sort of pulled between different projects and thoughts and ideas with no sense of forward motion. I would really love to get to the end of this year feeling like i have created a collection of work that somehow all ties together so i have been trying to write myself a sort of mini brief to set some constraints and pop my ideas together. Its a work in progress…

I started off with some of the basics this month, simple observational drawings of natural objects that i had found on walks, i often go through drawing exercises when teaching and running workshops to warm up and get everyone into the flow of making marks on paper so it seemed a good start for me too. I found I really loved drawing the pinecones! The are a total joy as they are so wobbly and full of texture. Also gathering together an autumn colour palette has been really useful and i’ve found some new colour combinations to work with for more drawings.

I wanted to push these observational drawings forward a little bit, I had lots of photos of details from a walk through a wooded park near our house so i tried to draw and collage these on lots of pieces of small square paper, i ended up making loads of them. There’s something about a repeated motif with lots of separate compositions that always works with my brain!

I want to continue to explore these drawings, the graphic cut out collage and the mark making combined feels like perhaps i could make them into larger collages or a print

I started some new small paintings for a group exhibition coming up next month and i have been working on top of some older paintings from last year. I am enjoying the rich colours and trying to get a sense of autumn places i have been with these ones.

A few other autumn favourites from this week.