I love being part of Cambridge Open Studios – I love see all my work up together, I love talking to visitors about my process, my printing press, even my garden! I usually share with another artist and it is great to hang out with them.

But mentioning to someone outside of the Open Studios that it was a lot of work got the reply  ‘Why?’

So I thought you might be interested in what goes into having a successful Open Studio.

First of all, there is making the work. I work quite slowly so I am planning from January what I will need to do. I also like to have at least one new piece for loyal friends who have gone to every other exhibition I have ever done!

This work all needs to made in time to go to the framers. All the framers in the area will be up to their eye teeth in work for Open Studio. I got mine in at the very beginning of June and that wasn’t really early enough – they were ready one day before our ‘hang’ on 12th July!

Meanwhile, there is advertising – collecting Guides and posters and distributing them to other artists, plus taking my own allocation to venues where people may pick them up – libraries, coffee shops, dentists etc. It is important to do lots of promotion on social media too – plenty of people want to see Open Studios but forget to check which weekends their favourite artists are open.

A couple of weeks before, I make sure that I have other things to sell as well as the artwork – cards, gifts etc, and that all the unframed prints I will need are wrapped up and ready to go.

About a week before, we start the Big Tidy (and clean). More houseproud artists won’t need to do so much cleaning, but before the pictures can go up we need to rearrange furniture, tidy away clutter (and valuable items), move the artwork we normally have on the walls.

A few days before is The Hang. This takes several hours of moving pictures around and adjusting their positions. Our house is so old and wonky that it isn’t possible to have all the pictures at the same level, but we do try to level up ones that are on a flat bit of wall. But positioning is also about flow – what pictures enhance each other if hung side by side, what pictures look good or bad in particular lights. As I share with another artist who makes very different work, that becomes an even more interesting puzzle.

The day before I need to complete all the paperwork tasks, and find everything I will need. Nicely presented labels for the pictures take a LONG time, then there is a catalogue and artist’s statements to do. Flags and a banner for outside, red dots, other labels, gift bags, all the cards and so on to go on the ‘merchandise’ table, receipts, signs that say things like ‘welcome’ and ‘private’, drinks and snacks to offer people … and more tidying and cleaning up too!

On the big day the dogs need to be taken to kennels for the weekend, and there will be a supermarket delivery arriving too. Then we have a couple of hours to do all the final touches – put out the card rack and gifts, arrange some flowers, put up the signage outside and inside, put some soft drinks in the fridge to chill, remember to put clean clothes on. I set up demos of some aspect of my process – this year I talked about ‘rainbow rolls’, and my partner Allison Henderson did a portrait of her daughter.

And then it’s 11am, and I can breathe!

Next time: new work featuring an owl!

 

 

 

 

 

Well, once upon a time, I found a miniature printing press on Pinterest. So then I managed to find it on Ebay – in the USA, and the next thing I knew I was building an entire miniature printmaking studio to put it in! Almost everything in it is hand made by me, most of it from scratch (the house itself was a kit).

It’s almost ready for Cambridge Open Studios next week! Do come and see it!

I’ve just been away in Cornwall, and as usual have come back with a few sketches of variable quality, a lot of photos, and a lot of ideas in my head. Thirty six views of Stonehenge is one possibility! Tintagel is something I’ve wanted to make a picture of for many years, but Restormel is lovely too, and we also visited the stunning gardens at Heligan and the Eden project. Not to mention the beautiful fishing villages…

Anyway, I’m going to focus on Tintagel first, as I would like to have a new Castle picture ready for Cambridge Open Studios in July. Watch this space for updates!

I’ve just been away for a weekend in Paris – glorious weather too. I’m going to talk you in detail through a sketch I made in the Louvre. I always have a good look at my sketches once I get home, to learn from my mistakes.

I found a bench where I had a good view out onto a sunny courtyard of sculptures. I liked the light, it wasn’t crowded with people, and there was more than ‘just’ art in the scene. It was also a challenge because I hate perspective drawing!

I took this photo from higher up in the building.

I did a sketch in soft pencil, ‘measuring’ sizes and angles to try to get the perspective right. I blocked out geometric outlines of the statues, and the trees, and quick rectangles to show a few people passing through.

I then went over it with a fineliner pen, re-drawing the shapes and putting the details in. I ‘fudged’ the arches at the back, because having drawn the first one I had to make the others match it! As you can tell, I don’t use a ruler. For the people, I had to remember roughly what had they looked like when I drew the rectangles.

I erased all the underlying pencil drawing and put in some shadows with blue and brown brown graphite pencils. Then I stopped because I was tired!

I was pleased with the picture but not 100% pleased.  I’ve done some illustrations to explain the mistakes.

Here I’ve drawn some lines perspective on the picture. The green ones I’m pleased with (for me), the yellow aren’t toooo bad, and the red ones are way off. The thing I focused on – the statue of the man on a winged horse – I did pretty well,  but by the time I got the other side of the page I’d completely lost it. Note to self: pay equal attention to all areas of the scene, not just the most interesting element.

The people. I have been very inconsistent with their perspective. The feet of the people are higher and higher up the page, as they should be from my angle, but the heads are all over the place! Of course, people are naturally different heights, but if they are just part of a scene rather than the main subject, sometimes it’s better to fudge that in order to make them look ‘right’.

On the right I have resized and moved the people. Putting a very faint line across the page as I’ve done on this altered version would have helped me judge at what level to put their heads and feet. I think it’s an improvement.

Finally, colour and tone. At the time I considered making the trees green and the colours more distinct.

Glad I didn’t! In fact I wish I had used one colour for all the shading, instead of two.

But what I had really failed to capture was the contrast between light and dark. I thought it would muddle the picture too much to put much shading in, but I think I was wrong… what do you think?

So I hope you liked this photo essay.  See you next time!

Jackie

 

 

 

Creative Reactions is a project I love – it pairs artists and scientists, and the artist produces an artwork about that scientist’s research. Last year I got a scientist researching the effects of obesity on offspring, and made a cyanotype series called ‘Sugar Mice and All Things Nice:

For this year I have been allocated a scientist working on DNA replication. Noooo! I thought, no double helixes!

I have come up with an idea involving prints, hand made books, and the plates which make the prints. I just hope it won’t be too difficult to hang at the exhibition!

Here is the main print (provisionally titled Mitosis) and its plate, both still drying. I have deliberately not cleaned the plate as that is how I want to exhibit it; I just carefully wiped a little extra ink off the body of the man, using a cotton bud.

As you can see one of the prints is darker than the others – the paper was too wet, I think. But I can still use it as material for the hand made books.

I look forwards to showing you the final installation in a couple of weeks time!

It’s time for a change. I’ve been working on a new logo (bottom), and I am going to  relaunch my website (here on WordPress) in the near future. So be patient if you spot any glitches in the next month or so!

 

 

I am at of my favourite events of the year – the British National Science Fiction annual convention, commonly known as Eastercon. And this year, more particularly, Follycon, since it falls over the 1st April weekend.

I am showing 7 brand new pieces, the result of frantic work over the last couple of months!

Happy Easter!

Easter is one of my busiest times of year. I exhibit and sell at the biggest UK Science Fiction Convention, and also submit entries to a local Drawing Society which has a large and popular exhibition in Cambridge. So I aim to make at least 7 new pieces of artwork to set me up for the year – plus lots of hand made cards and gifts.

Here is my hare collagraph plate. I have a confession – I like the collagraph more than the prints, so I’m going to frame it and sell it as mixed media collage!

I hope to see some of you at one of these exhibitions. 

Jackie

 

Work!

It’s very difficult to stop working, as an artist. There is making. There is setting up making and tidying up afterwards. There is thinking of ideas (which tends to go on ALL the time!) and working them out on paper and then often Photoshop. Plus doing the accounts, counting the stock, ordering supplies, organising storage, applying for fairs and markets, doing fairs and markets, framing. Open Studios means an EPIC amount of tidying and cleaning and moving furniture etc around, plus then two full on weekends of talking to customers all day. The amount of time spent on these activities often swamps the amount I spend actually making art, and squeezes into any crannies of time I have between non-art things. Sometimes it’s exhausting.

Is it worth it?

Yes!