heritage mosaic

I am doing a large interpretative mosaic for a local project. This is the layout for the first panel of three, I've roughly clumped the content into three ages, ancient ( this one ) , old, and modern. having enough Glass shards in nice colours will be a challenge. each panel is 61cm x 122 cm. Another challenge will be weather proofing it. On Saturday I'm doing a workshop to tie in with a biodiversity thing & will start this one off .

Bristol Comic Expo

Friday 21st May we headed off to The Bristol Comic Expo. We look forward to this event as its the first one on the calender after the burn out that is Hi-Ex...

talking of Hi-Ex we got Dates organised with Eden Court last week - its 26th 27th March 2011, put it in your diary's NOW. I've also taken over web duties for now so, thats going to be fun..

talking of fun, Bristol.. the volcano was behaving itself we tore ourselves away from work, flight no problems, a nice warm Inverness to ...bang! a sauna of bristol- Scorchio! It got to 29 degrees over the weekend. mmm you can imagine how that smelt in a crowded room full of comic fans, yes.

This Con has scaled right down the last couple of years & is now divided into to venues, 'small press' and...'comics stuff' with different sets of organisers. Its great for us to be able to enjoy a con without the hassle of organising it, to stay up all night with the big boys and schmoooze all day. We both had various editors to talk to and projects are flying around. It was lovely for me to go to a discussion panel where one of the projects I'm working on was being talked about, it makes it seem more concrete.

Susanne & Sasha at Time Bomb comics

I'd re jigged my port folio just to show some recent illustrations and colouring work, less is more. All artists are self effacing, so when I say my strip work isn't strong enough, folks think I'm just being modest..trust me guys! compared to the talent thats knocking on the big editors doors I have some work to do yet before I find my niche. Although theres always a wide variety in the small press scene where I could sit... problem is it doesn't pay, so onwards & upwards. Enjoying Colouring though, more my comfort zone!

I attended some other panels out of interest and with my Hi-Ex hat on, we want to cook up some web-cast, digital comics, pod-cast mix for Hi-Ex 2011 so I enjoyed the 'digital comics' and 'podcast' discussions. As always Al Ewing on the 2000ad panel was highly entertaining, although Tharg couldn't make it due to his skin shedding, but Al was able to channel Tharg through his shriveled head skin...thats Thargs head not Al's.

The legendary Pat Mills talks about his work on Requiem & European comics scene

One of the things I love about these events is being able to talk art with other artists, oh joy! what pens to use, what ink, colour inspiration, resources & references and of course the struggles of deadline, freelance time management and being perpetually broke. I think I'm slowly synthesizing all my recent art frustrations into some semblance of a direction...maybe !

info;  The Eagle comic awards are now open for voting ( Richmond's comic Futurequake is up for one again ). I will be on the international judging panel for a new initiative to encourage new talent as part of the 'Eagle initiative' details to follow.

Eddie ( Com.X ) and John Higgins ( Watchmen ) relaxing during a lull 

There is also some great courses happening at Dundee in computer art, concept and comics art, this is the future folks ! they are tutored by friends of ours & highly recommended.

I'm afraid I failed to get any great photos, too much going on.
meanwhile this week;
I have to get a pin up done for Richmonds 'Turning Tiger' collected edition.
Design a LARGE interpretive mosaic panel, which starts at a workshop on Saturday, bio-diversity & heritage.
Crack on with colouring 'Slaughtermans Creed' a comic which will be released on PSP first.
and do some of my own work before I go Maaa-aaa-aaaD !

Angus Puff the book launch.

Angus Puff is a fire safety Dragon. I have worked at ' The Skye & lochalsh Young Carers project' for a few years, a dynamic project which offers real support to Young carers on Skye & in Lochalsh. Wearing both my hats, I created links with the Fire & Rescue service a few years back, this partnership has flourished and with input & ideas from the projects Art worker Caroline Deer, Angus Puff was born. He started off as a garden sculpture & the children wrote a story for him. I was asked to illustrate the book under the children's direction. I had to change the initial design as he looked too ' gay' , yes equality & diversity has yet to reach the Isle of Skye.  The Fire service has published the book which will be given out to Highland schools & may even go much further afield. 

Saturday 15th May was the projects anniversary & the books launch. The Assistant Fire Chief David Gill along with many other speakers "VIP's" gave the book their endorsement and support.

Once all the important people had done their speeches, and had their presentations - I did a drop in 'How to draw dragons' workshop, carried boxes and moved chairs. I'm good at carrying boxes.

One parent came over to comment about how they liked the books illustrations, which I drew, this was very nice of them & cheered me up.

 It was also lovely to eat cakes and to see the Young people I'd worked so intensely with, all growing up a pace.

now I'm busy with the next project, turns out I'll get a creator credit with this one, apparently this happens sometimes.

Eddie and my picture

Those of you who know me might have noticed that I am a bit of a complete Pearl Jam fan-girl. I didnt particularily grown up with them, they were over there doing there thing, and I was out there struggling on in the wilds, often with little in the way of music, means to play music or people to introduce me to music. But then came the internet, and decades to catch up on. Pearl Jam became my allies, my sound track through tough times, Eddie became a role model for someone who can go through a world of blackness & then channel it into a creative force, still hanging onto to life and love, open about it, dealing with it, helping others, with rage and attitude. There is a lyric for everything thats happened to us. Seeing them play for the first time last year with my youngest daughter, london 02, second row mosh pit crush, was an incredible cathartic emotional experience, we both cried a lot...and screamed. and I had a moment with Eddie during the song Alive... a song in particular which has meant a lot and kind of summed up the feeling at a time, when...well... Alive its an important song for Pearl Jam, and for me personally.

So the PJ fan club runs competitions, this one was for up to 3 entrys, on board paintings about PJ songs. The one above is the song 'Given to Fly' which is about not giving up, taking the hardship & " he still gives his love he just gives it away, the keys to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere ". I thought it was pretty crude, that there board is hard to paint on.The 3 winners were announced a while back, but I was just So happy to think that I'd given something back for the music & that maybe Eddie had seen it, its connecting across the barrier of fame & distance. But then today I got this photo in the post, with a letter saying this had been one of his top ten favorites. WOW. emotional.  I think whats important for me is that anything is possible, that one isn't stuck on one side of the fence, we can be who we want to be, get our work out there, make those connections, the barriers can be got around.

 Right next stop, going surfing with the boys, selling the movie rights, and having a holiday some time... okay okay maybe not everything is possible.

3- 2- 1 and SCREAMMMM

This rather Rocking gentleman was to be one of the reinvented Viking God set. I started off with Thor smashing a guitar but he looked more like grandad chewing his own arm off, so I stood him up straight ...this primal howl is what I could happily do after a frustrating few work weeks!  anyway we're going to go back & start again with Thor and a hammer or guitar or something, and I'm looking forward to starting some lovely goddesses...although I'm not sure how to modernise a distaff... those Viking ladies are all a bit too domesticated for my liking.

Birch Trees

Day 6 of the Open Studios Exhibition, busier, election day seems to have bought people out. Not getting much work done as a result. Heres some birch trees, also working on an illustration & landscape painting.

drawing in the dark

day Five of the Open studios week. Things still very quiet compared to last year's event in June. Still lovely to see the visitors that have popped in. While manning the fort I've been playing catch up, this panel is from a sample page which I finished today & sent off to the writer, another page from an earlier chapter to do & then fingers crossed the editor gives it the green light.

Hares and...boats.

some slow progress in the painting room today. Heres a couple of wee things. Sailing boats because they are popular & I'm working up to big canvases. The Hare because I'm in a Hare mood, after digging out some Hare sketches I did last year for an illustration, they are currently hopping about the house ( through the medium of blue tac ) and are asking for me to draw them into a story. They keep reminding me about the viking goddess and local witch stories, its all very spring fertility pagan myths, but they will have to wait- bread & butter art must be done first !

Also today, inked up a comic page , progress with a painted illustration ( creepy ! ) and pondered Thors manly action pose some more. details to follow.

Here be dragons

This Dragon lino print was done when I was around 15, thats nearly 30 years ago folks! The thin paper has yellowed a lot. My parents recently found it, a coincidence as this month see the launch of a childrens book I illustrated for a Young Carer / Fire service project about a Fire Safety Dragon.

meanwhile; Day one of the Highland Open Studios Week , this is when the Artists of Wester Ross are opening their doors to the public. Typically, I got up early to get everything ready and signs out- but got a fire call out instead. No problems though as the first day was a slow starter last year too. Had first visitor and sale though so all is well.

more photos later. details here

Open Studios week.

I've been busy this week setting up for the Open studios week exhibition. Last year was held at the Fire station and was a great success, It tied in nicely with the firefighter theme of most of my work last year and the unusual location drew in plenty of people, and importantly donations for the Firefighters charity. This year I've been painting a variety of subjects, and ironically time spent doing work for the Open Studios committee and designing a trail leaflet for the local artists has left me no time to paint or prepare!

The Fire Station would have been more difficult this year as we have a lot of new equipment, including a new digital communication set up which requires the Fire Appliance to remain on charge at all times, leaving No room for exhibiting. I had provisionally organised another venue, but realised at the last minute that I simply have too much work on to up sticks for a week, and no time to prepare the venue. So this year I am exhibiting at home, its far from ideal as there is no parking space and no access for people with mobility difficulties, and of course my boisterous dog. Hopefully we can work around these things & some folks will pop by. Its always great to see the work out of bubble wrap and on a wall, it helps make sense of it all seeing it together. I am also looking forward to being stuck at home manning this exhibition for the week and hope to get caught up on lots of work. My Framers, Geoff & Ann did an amazing job at turning around lots of frames in 3 days this week, they are Brilliant !

Happy Beltaine ! XX  Hope to see some of you this week.

Shinty Boys

no sooner was the paint, not even nearly dry & this was wheeched off to the framers for this weekends exhibition. Folks from Lochcarron will no doubt recognise the young man in blue. more Shinty scenes to follow...but what I really need is Bikers to pose for me... shiny shiny Bikes

sailing boats

heres another one finished today.

SciFi Art Now & todays paintings

wee cows painting. and a bigger snow scene painting finished.

And the good news today is one of my illustrations is to be included in the next 'Sci Fi Art Now' book edited by John Freeman, due out in October. Its an honour ( and scary ) to be included next to some fantastic high caliber artists. details, amazon pre-order link etc here.

a boggy walk.

not featured; twisty geology, blaeberry  flowers, knarly lichens, otter runs and a billion ticks crawling about the dog.

painted sketches

Saturday. Some wee painted sketches to warm up, I've got until Monday to get paintings to my Framer to get them in time for Open Studios Week 1st - 9th May. Only 2 bits of art paper left ! Could do with another month really to work through things, I can feel a change in the wind, more walks out, more time alone is pushing me nearer to the more expressive work I want to do. Plus theres a shift internally, layers and decades worth of " she's not a proper artist she's only a Potter! " , I never felt like a proper potter, then not a proper artist, certainly not a proper comics artist or illustrator, or proper business woman, or designer or digital artist..or ...or... Whoa! there !  other peoples stupid comments combined with the artists fragile ego/self esteem = layers of rubbish. I think I needed to go right back to painting basics, traditional & representational, to make a point to all the opinionated critics, and make a point to myself. Okay so I can paint stuff that looks like stuff very nice, heres a highland cow, heres a view, Now if you want a picture postcard ask one of the others, I think I'm about ready to just go play.

'Belle' The Bio Beast

Thursday 22nd April. Earth Day, I did a workshop for the Highland Eco Schools Forum #8

there was a fantastic selection of activities for around 80 pupils from 13 schools to choose from. 

I had decided to go for something bigger scale than the usual individual take-home recycled crafts things I do. So the project was to build a ' Bio Beast ' , basically a willow & hazel rod skeleton structure, like a shelter, but we'd turn it into a monster/ creature/ beastie, using whatever rubbish people bought in.

I had concerns that the structure wouldn't be stable enough, the youngsters wouldn't get it, or that there wouldnt not be enough junk.. completely unfounded. It was a brilliant success. 

Many pupils elected to join us for morning and afternoon sessions, in fact we couldn't get them out of the beast at going home time. He sort of evolved throughout the day, one pupil had found a fresh stag angler outside on a session/walk with the countryside ranger, so this was also incorporated. Some folks worked in teams, building a head, building wings. Some worked on making furniture inside the beast, some were focused on tools & cutting things up, some provided decorative elements, one gathered nominations & then votes for a name- which was 'Belle' the Bio Beast.

 It was decided that the Beast roamed the earth gathering rubbish. The point was ?  doing Art, having fun, letting the imagination run, making things, converting rubbish, building things, making things without glue, paint, nails or tape. how to build a shelter, and much more.

taking it all down , re-sorting the rubbish for recycling and tidying up was another story! but well worth it. Thanks to Elanor & Robert for all their help & letting me do something this big & mad at their event !

Open studios event 2010

Open studios week details above, also on my website. what will feature in the exhibition depends on what I get painted between now & then !

Other news t-shirts are now available from Asgard crafts of the Odin design I painted for them. HERE

I also had a groovy meeting today, looks like I'll be tutoring some accredited arts courses later in the year. All inspiring stuff. details to follow.

painting zone

Finally getting into the painting zone again! trying to finish off all the half done paintings before I start any new work, which is frustrating. think sunset & seaweedy one is just about done. then theres sailing boats, more heilan' coos, and a snow stormy sky.

also on the boil is a black & white painting illustration.
a couple of comic page layouts.
a big canvas rocky mountain top
a big canvas snowy stags
summer wee canvas stag

jostling for position is water...I want to paint water, but it will have to wait.

Cow quota

finally! cleared the decks to start some painting again. Its not the boxes of clutter thats the problemo, but mental clutter, its very easy to feel like the forces of ..er...something are conspiring to stop me painting, but its just me, and time, and workload, and adjusting to the routine of an empty house. ( and not having a  working thing to play music in the art room ArrrGH ! )

new rules; 1) volunteering = " NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!"
2) No taking on new projects without clearing some of the piled up existing ones.
3) No starting new paintings without finishing some of the half done ones.
4) Go outside exploring & looking at stuff every day.
5) take time to interact with people ( not the vampiric time-sucking ones in the rule 1 category - sometimes its hard to tell the difference )
6) take time to read, watch, look at & research stuff.
7) most importantly - DO what I want TO -which is a tough habit to break, especially when the demand for Highland coos and tourist cliches is what it is. I'm thinking I get the highland cow quota done & out there to sell then concentrate on sploshing colours or painting water or whatever floats my paper thin origami boat...which sort of rather dilutes (7) but paying the bills is a must after all.

tomorrow hopefully a snowy sky one finished.

working too hard to work

Lost a weeks art time on the South West Ross 'Arts & Eats' Leaflet I'm working in ( words provided by a colleague whos good at this sort of thing ! ) Also missed The Highland Open Studios booklet launch in town, which involved some public- & sounds like fun.  Its Ironic that all this promotional work has left me no time & energy to organise my own venue or work for the Open Studios event 1st - 9th May. So I'll be running the exhibition from home to enable me to crack on with work. 15 days to create an exhibitions worth of paintings ?

Have also lost days & a billion calories with firefighting in dry weather up the hills, pix here.

Have also got my name in initial nominations round for best colourist on Eagle awards ( Baftas for comics ) . Which is embarrassing as I've only had a couple of pages published in last year. I hope next year to deserve such a thing as theres loads of projects poised...

How many artists to change a light bulb?

managed to get an afternoon this week to paint & clear the studio. This chap above is me, practicing painting in black & white, and thinking ahead to a great comic strip I have to do for 'Something Wicked', think african tribal zombies. Living up here where not only is there not much diversity of skin colour ( a whiter shade of grey ), but in fact everyone is a MacKenzie or at least a cousin of one, well basically I am unfamiliar with painting black skin tones, much to my shame.

Trying to work on all fronts simultaneously, both work to develop drawing skills, illustrations, tasks in hand, touristy paintings and paintings for my own satisfaction. Much of the frustration & lack of progress seems to be a simple matter of not getting time to simply Do art, despite it being my main occupation. However everything is on hold as my youngest child is leaving home in two days. The empty nest will mean that I will howl at the moon a lot, but after 25 years of mothering- means I don't have to put everyone & everything in front of my own work anymore. It means peace, space, silence to paint my socks off. ( silence apart from the howling of a middle aged woman who's primary role has gone ).

But who needs children when there are committees and groups who likewise only remember you when they want something. I'm currently working on a wee leaflet / brochure for an Arts Trail around the area. Which is all dandy, but when I don't actually have a studio or public premises or time to paint, I wonder why ....why? Do I need them or do they need me?
heres a wee map which might be part of the final design.

I like maps.

drawing practice

so I thought I better see if I could draw in black & white paint, I also tried painting outdoors, and in the living room. advantages and disadvantages with all of the above. sheesh. enough ! I'm having some of the evening off.