(Mixed) media storm

Over the last couple of months I've been working on all manner of projects - wall sculptures (there's now about a dozen), tattoo design (part 3 to come), poetry and jewellery commissions, and even trying to complete the occasional canvas. It's the latter I want to share here and is an oil with a few mixed media/collage elements. Though in many ways it would be technically easier to put the collage on last, I like embedding these elements in the paint, therefore they are added at an fairly early stage for me to paint round, or indeed partly over. I hope you like this one; it's called 'The Wreck of the Hope' and is intended for an exhibition in late spring 2015 (details nearer the time).

The Wreck of the Hope, oil and mixed media on canvas, 39 x 45cm.

Detail from The Wreck of the Hope.

Investing in skills, the DIY way

I like buying art materials. If I go into an art supplies shop, I can rummage through all the peculiarly shaped palette-knives, never-before-seen types of pen, and obscure brands of parchment paper. I am highly likely to buy something if cash allows, and maybe even if it shouldn't/doesn't. However, skills - things we all need - can get put to one side. I must admit I hadn't really noticed this tendency until I started looking at the selection of paintings I had produced with a future exhibition in mind. Some of them, quite a few in fact, needed framing. I started totting up a rough estimate of how much it would cost for me to get them framed, even with a bulk discount. The figure entered the realm of four figues. Serendipitously, while at a friend's house, he mentioned that he had a hardly used mount-cutter for sale at a very reasonable price. That was it - I'd get that and a mitre saw, some corner clamps.. and so on. So I did, all for less than the price of just one of the required frames. I got a book on picture-framing too. I already had some suitable wood, and so I began measuring and cutting...

...and that, as they say, was that. Well sort of. I'm aware that the story isn't quite that simple - I already have reasonable DIY skills, but even if I didn't, a basic course and all the tools would still be cheaper than a couple of the frames, especially the big ones. I do have the space (just) and I can (again, just) manage to find the time. I appreciate that not everything can be learned by getting the kit, and a book (or video tutorials), then having a go - but in the world of art and craft, a lot can and it's a good use of scrap materials. So, however I look at it, the outcome's the same - if at all possible, learn the skills. Since then, I've improved my silverworking (tools and some one-to-one tuition needed for that one) too and that's already paid me back, so have workspace improvements, and there are other areas I'm thinking of investing in - the question I keep asking myself is along the lines of "how much extra do I need to sell to make this pay for itself?" and the answer is generally "not that much".

A selection of self-framed pictures ready to go.

Take one long poem and some disturbing current events...

...and mix well. I have been reading Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and already have an interest in current affairs in the Middle East. So, images of dark towers, skeletal fingers casting gold lucre, and oil in the burning sky, but also tiny plants flowering amid the chaos, combine to form my latest oil painting Childe Harold in Gaza. Hope you like it. I don't discuss politics on this blog, but if you're interested in views similar to mine, PSC is a good place to start.

Childe Harold in Gaza (2014). Oil and gold paint on canvas, A4 (approx)

If music be the food of art materials

...get on and play! I was recently presented with the innards of a very dead piano by a friend who specialises in festival installations, interactive noise-making sculptures and other joys over at the Gypsyjam Collective.

Piano innards awaiting my tender ministrations

Lots of pianos meet a splintery end as they're hard to shift, no-one wants them etc, but at least this one would get used for something. I had no idea what, but, well, all those lovely little levers and springs... so I started dismantling and organising.

Piano bits all neat and tidy.

At this stage, I knew more about how a piano worked, but still didn't know how the components would be used except that there would be (a) articulation, and (b) non-piano additions. I began to tinker. And then some more, until...

Here it is Pianomechanical #1

...yes, wall-hangings - it's more-or-less flat, so hangs easily, and I shall be making a series of them, all numbered 'Pianomechanicals', and all different. They're for sale, so if you are interested, do get in touch. Right, back to the workshop...

After the learning, the doing

Last week I was the happy recipient of some excellent one-to-one silverwork tuition. This led, of course, to an online shopping trip to get some new soldering kit so I could practice my new-found skills. So, when the box of lovely stuff arrived, I went to my workshop and decided it really needed some serious reorganisation, not least because too much stuff increases the chances of knocking things over, setting fire to debris and so on. Not good, but easily remedied via a tidying-fest.

My workshop (before) - lots of stuff, no space to do anything!

My workshop (after) - rubbish in the bin, materials reorganised and stored, new jewellery space set up. Hurrah!

So, I now have a nifty little selection of new tools, our unused dust-gathering slow-cooker is now the pickling vat (non-ferrous inside to avoid those nasty iron ions!), and I already had other bit and pieces like the quenching tub and some silver sheet. Time to saw, file, polish and solder...

Pendant being cleaned/pickled. Nothing ferrous to be dipped in here - those horrid iron ions again.

Joining multiple pieces of silver was a good test of using the different grades (easy, medium, hard) of solder with their different melting points. Starting with 'hard' then moving towards 'easy' means that the pieces soldered first aren't heated so much they drop off when the other pieces are attached. After cleaning, some polishing - not too much as I like the organic/industrial feel of a lot of what I make (plus I'd fiddled with the texture of the surface to make it ever-so-slightly stippled) - and a ring added, gave my first post-training pendant.

Silver pendant full of lovely soldering.

I'm quite pleased with it to be honest, especially as my first silver-soldered piece without instruction. It will be interesting to see how my designs develop - I use a lot of steel so will need to be careful not to contaminate the pickle, and thus combining steel and silver won't be straightforward, but I have experiments in mind and new pieces will be coming soon.

Learning my craft

If you've been here before, you'll know I make jewellery out of recycled materials. These tend to be steel and brass, but can be anything, and I do acquire scrap silver from time to time. However, as I'm self-taught, there are some gaps in my knowledge and skills, especially when it comes to precious metals - trial-and-errors great when materials are cheap, but silver, gold and beyond require more care. So, to fill some of these gaps, I booked a day's one-to-one tuition with the talented Joanne Tinley who works largely in silver and (luckily for me) has her studio in my home town.

The remit was to test some of my basic skills (sawing, designing, patterning etc) then work on a piece that would go through various soldering techniques. Some of this was familar, but it was great to get hints and tips from someone who does this full-time and is very experienced both as a jeweller and a teacher. Little things like how to set up a work-space make a lot of difference if you are working there for many hours, and some aspects really need to be taught practically - like listening to the sound of the metal that indicates your sawing technique's good. Turns out mine's pretty good, but with a tendency to be too tense - relax, let the saw do the work...

Hard at learn: fiddly tapping and a nerdy t-shirt

Working through the different soldering types systematically was fascinating, and a working knowledge of chemistry meant it was clearer why certain things happened the way they did. Then the solder, snip the solder, choose the right type, apply flux, apply solder-chips ('pallions'), heat, put flux on the larger piece, place small piece, heat again until it's soldered (look for the silvery join-line), quench and pickle (clean in weak acid). Kind of straightforward (ish), but something I really wasn't happy with from video tutorials. Now I am, even though there are lots of little points to remember along the way, such as don't let steel touch the pickle as it causes electrolysis and unwanted gilding happens!

Soldering trial-piece - copper and brass on silver

I also the got the opportunity to try some fiddly chain work, starting with thick wire and making rings, soldering them and decorating them. Fortunately, I made chainmail back in my historical re-enactment days, so winding wire, cutting and fitting rings was oddly familiar. With about 15 rings made, they formed another trial piece so I could try out more delicate soldering on the ring ends, again using various methods. Once the chain was formed, it was a matter of decorating them - something I'll continue doing in my own workshop to form a kind of 'swatch' of designs.

So, the outcome? Shiny items aside, new skills were gained, a few old ones improved, a stock of cool hints and tips collected, and I have a jewellery-tools shopping list so I can try out a host of new ideas! Tuition with someone who really knows their craft and enjoys teaching - highly recommended and even from a purely financial point of view, I reckon it's cheaper than trial-and-error with expensive materials...

The beginning of the decorated chain

To bin or to pimp, that is the question

We all accumulate unwanted stuff - clothes we don't wear, broken bits and pieces that look like they might be useful some time, jewellery gathering dust and so on. And why not - it's how a lot of artists collect art materials! So, what's to be done with them - bin or pimp? Well, I dug a plain black Next jacket out of the wardrobe the other day  - nothing special about it - I'd picked it up for a whole £1 years ago and barely worn it, only to find a line of moth holes down the back... grrr... However, I had recently picked up a couple of bags of pick 'n' mix buttons from the Art House (yes I mention the place often cos it rocks) and was wondering what to do with them. I also have a sack of fabric offcuts and some old braid and edging including from muchly ancient French ecclesiastical garments.

Bag of crafty joy - £4 - more than in a charity shop maybe, but I get to choose the ones I want...

So, out with the scissors, needles and threads... First remove most of the boring black office-wear buttons. Then cover pocket flaps with silk and add edgings. Then sew on splendid newly acquired buttons. Spinggg - 'tis revamped!

Newly pimped jacket - a bit punk, a bit military?

Some detail of the pocket, cuffs and buttons.

Shiny cabinet of shiny shinies

The period after New Year is a quiet time when trying to sell art and craft (unless you've got a really generous January sale maybe!) So, I took the opportunity to look through my stock, remove a few early pieces from sale because they no longer meet the standards I've set myself along the way and expand into new areas, particularly hair-wear.This doesn't mean I'm making hats, but I am expanding my range of one-off fascinators and hairbands (now known as 'plaitinators' courtesy of fellow artist Lisa Thorne... As part of this, I've replenished my cabinet in the Art House (AKA 'my second home') in Southampton. Here's some of what's currently available - enjoy!

Pendants - steampunk and blacksmith styles.

Mini-me in a frame.

The cabient in all its shiny glory.

Purty fascinator with mesh, bows, checks and rhinestones.

Cyberpendant.

Cyberbrooches.

'Plaitinators' made of leather offcuts from Conkers Shoes in Totnes.

Mighty steampunk mechanical brooch.

I built this city from, er, stuff and paint

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a new painting/mixed media piece entitled 'City'. It was one of the more technically challenging pieces I've attempted, encompassing painting, ink-drawing, collage and some unfamiliar techniques/materials so here's an insight into the stages it went through.

The initial collage layout - plastics, polystyrene, card and wood on laminated hardboard.

Everything was spray-painted white. It makes a good photo, but in reality looked like what it was - a blank-but-heavily-textured canvas.

Sections of text from a lecture on NGOs and environmental law, and graphs from scientific papers on ecology were photocopied onto acetate sheets, then cut and attached to the discs already present.

The background was painted in black oils.

The black background highlights key features such as the organic structures made by applying solvent-based (but non-toxic!) products to polystyrene.

'Stars' and 'galaxies' are added in white spray, oil and acrylic paints. It is now a city in space!

Details at this stage include a fox and an angel... to my eye, anyway - to yours?

The final stage - 'circuitry' details in black ink.

The finished piece - 'City' (80 x 60cm). Texture is a huge part of it, and a photo doesn't really convey this, but I hope you like it. Once framed it'll be up for sale...

The Great Gigeresque Ink Project (part 2)

Following on from the preliminary concept and sketches, to get an idea of the proportions of the tattoo (as Giger's design does not map onto a real human very easily!), I opted to paint a rough sketch on the person who will be getting the tattoo. This turned out to be essential as the proportions in the original meant that instead of extending from foot to hip, it would have reached far up her rib-cage. So, I need to know what proportions to use, and a mock-up is useful so she can see if she actually likes it!

Paint-job done

Does it work when stood up/full-length? I think so...

It's good to relax...

So, we agree that the design works - in the end it needed the thigh section of the original image to be shortened but other than that it is much the same. This is still at an early stage though - the image will have a surrounding 'background' and that's where the real creativity comes in as it'll be my original design. As I intend to draw it full size, it's time to find a nice big sheet of paper... more soon!

The Great Gigeresque Ink Project (part 1)

I was recently asked to design a tattoo - nothing especially unusual about that, except that it's a full-length hip-to-foot piece. It's also in the style of H.R.Giger - you know, the guy who designed Alien (there are lots of tattoos around inspired by his work). The size and intricacy of the piece means it's going to be a lonnnnnnnggggg project (months), especially as I may decide to draw it full size. So, with the eventual-canvas's permission, it feels like something well worth documenting as it progresses.

The core of the design is the microphone stand that Giger designed for Korn frontman Jonathan Davis. You can already see how this might work along the length of someone's leg, albeit with some tweaking to the proportions.

Concept art for the mic stand, full length

Concept art for the mic stand, detail of the top part

Giger's work is known for its intricacy and detail/realism (if 'realism' is the right word for images that are clearly a dark fantasy, but you know what I mean) but that's not a technical challenge as such - it simply takes more time. For me the challenge comes in fitting the design to the person so it looks right - after all, it's going to be there forever, and creating a background that can be blended into the surrounding skin and which will enhance the centrepiece. So far I have a preliminary concept sketch - very scruffy and scribbly, but it's something concrete to work on. Next step - fitting it to the recipient...

The first concept sketch...

So, more soon hopefully, and in the meantime, if you're wondering what 'KooKoo pins' means on the sketch, have a look at this album cover by Giger...

Artists as transducers

One of my recent ink drawings is entitled Terrain II and records a local bus journey over a few miles, the pen acting like a phonographic recording stylus, translating the bumps on the road into lines on the page.

Terrain II, A4 ink on paper

Obviously this isn't a strict or 'pure' record - I've chosen the line spacing and shading to turn the original lines into a visual landscape - but the shapes are derived directly from the movements of the bus/road. Along with Terrain (also a bus journey rendered similarly to this) these were my first forays into anything that could be considered 'land art', and were somewhat inspired by the Uncommon Ground land art exhibition when it came to Southampton City Gallery last year. One of the pieces that intrigued me, though not my 'favourite' and certainly not the most spectacular, was Roger Ackling's Five hour cloud drawing, made by focusing sunlight onto card using a magnifying glass moved regularly from point to point, back and forth over the card. This burns an image of the sunny and cloudy periods (fainter or unburnt areas) and therefore captures the light conditions at that particular place and time. An understated work of intense concentration and precision that presses my ink-drawing buttons.

Roger Ackling's Five hour cloud drawing

There are clear parallels here - though one uses bumps along a road, and the other changes in sunlight levels, they are both one-offs - recording that couldn't be repeated in another time or place. With this in mind, I was drawn to the Sound Matters exhibition currently at Solent University's Sir James Matthews Building as it explores ways of turning sound into other art and craft-forms. Most relevant here are probably Landscape and Weave Waves.

Landscape, by Max Eastley, uses a motor and magnets to create forms from tiny metal fragments on the surface of a horizontal painted canvas. So, magnetic fields turned into a record of their influence. Mmm... science...

Landscape, Max Eastley

Weave Waves by Scanner and Ismini Samanidou presents a textile depicting - in fine detail - the sound of their breaths, digitally recorded, then translated into instructions for a weaving machine. The outcome - another transduction - is a thing of subtle, contemporary beauty.

Weave Waves by Scanner and Ismini Samanidou

The exhibition's subtitle is 'exploring sound through forms', so head along and have look (it's in Southampton until 8th March 2014), and why not explore movement, light, magnetism and anything else as forms as well - transduce!

All my ink is not science

A few months ago when I started this blog, I posted about some of the ink drawings I'd been working on, all clearly sci-fi inspired. Since then things have moved on - I've sold a number of them as prints (they are all numbered and signed in limited editions of 25, and you can get them here), am working on an exhibition next year (fingers crossed) and have a selection of prints for sale in places such as the Art House (AKA my second home). I've also been exploring some other influences, for example with my ink drawing entitled 'Matador'.

'Matador' A4 ink on paper.

This is a little sparser in the level of detail than many of my drawings but I was interested in capturing the movement and the merging of man and bull - not glorifying bull-fighting (which is a cruel and repellent activity), but the idea of contesting reason and passion as seen in some of the Cubist works of Picasso and the Surrealist painter Oscar Dominguez. It may be a mere scribble in comparison with those that inspired me, but I'm happy with the outcome and it sparked some interesting online chat - so, from my point of view, a win - I hope you like it too.