Mid Winter tidy up

Almost Christmas and seemed a good time to smarten up the unit.
I wanted to bring my Port d'Étropal model layout into the unit. It is big, loud and will attract attention. It only just fitted in. A good time to sort through helving etc. The smaller layout would go where my work table was. This would also make it easier to take out for displays.

A lot to think about for 2012. I am working a project which should hopefully put Accrington on the Art map. Inspired by the Manchester cows a few years ago, I wanted something along similar lines for Accrington. At an art market we had downstairs in market, whilst talking to friends., someone mentioned Bristol having gorillas, so I thought Accrington, Acorns, Squirrels. And they would be Red Squirrels dressed to represent all that Accrington should be proud of, from Accrington Stanley to Tiffany Glass at the Haworth.
Second project is to adapt my France inspired artwork to something inspired by Accrington.
Only have to look at some of the old buildings and there is plenty of inspiration in the variety of windows and doors.

And plenty more. Spent an hour or so walking round town, and took loads of photos, despite the cold rain. Given the cold weather it seems appropriate to add a bit of the Mediterranean, and bring a bit of sunshine to Accrington. It is the shapes, not the colour that will inspire each picture.

Back after a while

Been busy since last post, created a lot more artwork and tried out some new ideas.And been down to france again, then the weather got a lot worse and it is dark in the evenings.

Experimenting with creating sunflowers as border

One thing I have found is that the workshop/studio/shop seems to be getting smaller

So I am creating greeting and christmas cards based on the postcard size

Adding the card backing dod not work very well, so now just painting back while. These fit easily in jiffy bags and go though post OK. I now display some outside workshop

Using my cookie cutters I have also started making Christmas decorations to sell, The string is made from plastic/metal crisp bags.

Also something bigger to go on wall

Using this seed tray size, I have also created some notice boards

This is how they look before painting and decoration, and finally something not specifically for Christmas, although the message is one spread at this time of year

By pressing the still wet letters into the wet base, they stick together without glue, so I am now testing this idea with some postcard size items, using various shapes. 

No photos but one of my big pictures has been accepted for Howarth Open. Hopefully this will leed onto to more opportunities.

Back from France

Just got back from France. 2 weeks in mostly sunshine, but the house I am doing up will ultimately become the base for RuE_CREATION .



No time to do any artwork, not even moulding some paper, so here the main reasons for moving eventually.

The local scenary. The first view of the mountains on road from Beziers

The view from bedroom over town of St Pons de Thomieres

And plenty of space. This downstairs room, will hopefully be the art gallery/studio.
And the weather is normally no worse than Lancashire, and a warmer in summer. St Pons is just within the South East of France, and weather is controlled by Mediteranean, not the Atlantic, so hopefully no low temperatures of minus 17c in winter, unless I go further up into mountains.

From Mash to Art

Just a short bit showing the two different sized pictures created using the moulded paper plaques

 The above used the postcard sized plaques.

these are the bigger plaques. The overall zize of picture is 21in by 33in.


And to speed up production of the paper mash, I soak torn up paper for at least a day then use a cheap liquidizer to mash it up. This is not only quicker but also produces a wetter, finer mixture. This is better for detail, but harder to squeeze out as much water as possible

Banners in the market

On Wednesday 13th July banners produced by school children were unveiled in the market as part of Accrington Pride.

Events in the Market

On Tuesday Steve Davis came into market as part of North Lancs Training event. Snooker table set up and Steve was there for 2 hours.

It took less than an hour to take the table apart!
Event did bring people into market, but not many came upstairs where the view was better