Monday 14th March.

Things are going very fast at the moment, with very little time to think about anything. I couldn't get the pictures off the wall this morning and so I had to revert to brute force and use the hammer and chisel. The picture fell off the wall and bashed the corner of it on the floor, and therefore it got damaged and I had to cut the corner off and repair it, added to this it almost pulled half the wall off aswell, luckily the next lot of students managed to exhibit their work without to much diruption to their exhibition.

Time consuming.

It has been a little while since I posted a blog, simply because I am so busy at the moment. I have had the seminars regarding testing the work and it went very well, however this seems to have just increased the work load at the moment and the pressure too. I think at the moment this can only get worse, the positive side is that it is only short term. This is all I have time for at the moment.

Monday 7th March.

Had a weekend off , no art at all, no camera, not even at Scarborough or Whitby. Monday was a little distastrous in that when I arrived into university, my painting I had stuck up on the wall on friday was npow lying on the floor. So I had to use alternative ways of adhering it to the wall. I didn't want to use the mirror plates as I don't always think they are professional, so I have decided to use no more nails, but I have a feeling that when I try to take them back off the wall on friday, that half the wall will come down with the paintings too. I have managed to do some printing today. The plates have a ghostly squre on them, so I suspect at some time they were used for something else. I will consider the options later on in the week after the other prints have been run .

Interim exhibition.

I have not been able to get much work done in the studio today, perhaps due to the fact I painted a whole wall in which I am exhibiting my work. I am not yet certain how to hang my work on the wall. I will have to look at leaving a gap between the work to see if this presents a different view to the overall effect of the finished piece. I do not feel the piece of work that I have ripped is even my work, this makes me feel very uncomfortable about it,and I am not sure it even works as a finished piece.

Thursday 3rd March 2011

A really busy week and it is not over yet, Ihave not come up for air this week and I have worked at full steam on printing and painting. Had a tutorial with Steve Boyd on wednesday, which seems to have thrown everything up in the air for me, I feel it is too close to the degree show and I am stressing over the whole thing at the moment. I don't feel i have the time to be reflecting on anything at the moment.

Interim exhibition meeting.

This went well with all the students collaborating and putting ideas where their work would best be situated within the gallery. Ian, Sarah and Stuart suggested ideas to us all about how best to exhibit our work.

Truly Inspirational

Today we had a presentation from Sarah Key and it was truly inspirational and refreshing to actually get information from a practising artist "in the real world". I think this has been the best presentation by far and I have learnt alot from this.I have decided to send Sarah an e-mail as I thought is was so good.

Wednesday 24th February 2011.

Early morning start, so I thought I would just sign on and post a new blog. We have these self directed led seminars today and which to me are tedious and long winded, it may be good to get feed back from other student's, but quite honestly I think when there are so many tutorials to be had, they just get in the way of things. Lecture theatre, this afternoon for  John Lavell, viviting artist. I am really pleased I am not at Stafford College this week as it has given me a break and I really needed it.

Tuesday 23rd February 2011.

A more productive day, spent in the studio on a series of paintings. Working from one to another enables you to stop getting too precious about the work. Worked on the larger painting, I feel I have to take out large chunks of this painting, it is slowly coming together, but the horizon line is far too solid and I need to break it up .

Monday 22nd February 2011.

Worked from home today as the computer side of things needs updating. Researched for professional practice module and put a few things in place ready for printing.
On the whole it has been a productive day in the studio, cutting wood and glueing canva's togather. I may have to invest in some proper wood cutting materials, to enable me to get the angles correct on the corners and to give it a more professional look.
Started another painting, which I left outside for a while to dry and get rid of the fumes. Sometimes it is much more productive working on lots of things as I seem to get a much better result from the work.

tough week!!!!

I have found this week very tough, I feel so much work has been took on with the computer side of things and it seems to be taking over. I was so relieved on friday when Sarah took over the meeting and made it clear that the module was not quite as bad as we are making it out to be. The meeting on wednesday for our graduate catalogue did not go according to plan and we seem to have seperated into two groups at the moment. I am happy for Sarah and Lynne to proceed with things as they will get the catalogue sorted, that's for sure.
Short term, I think a blog could work as a website, but I'm not sure you will get the relevant people viewing the blog. I have decided to update the blog weekly instead of daily, just to take the pressure off me and to concentrate on other thing's.

Mundane computer work.

Right now I feel there is far too much time spent typing on the computer,to the different networking sites and all, it is very frustrating and difficult to keep everything up to date. It is taking up a great deal of time that realistically should be spent on the painting side and the art work ready for the degree show. Ido not feel happy about this at all, so keeping this brief as I have work to do.

Professional Practice

This is a very intense day but a very useful day with lots of information to digest . Chloe Brown gave the first talk which was very interesting. Sam Lovell used to work at Stafford College, so I remembered her from here, she was a very inspirational speaker and gave you lots to think about not just the art side, but the financial side of things too. The afternoon was taken by Anna Francis and we divided into groups of four to discuss our CV'S with one another and point out where we could improve on our techniques. It was very useful and I need to update and improve on a few section's before submitting to Sarah Key next week.
This seems to be taking over much of the time we have.

Pressure starts.

I have spoken to Chris Wright today concerning my work as all the tutorial lists have been taken up by other student's as soon as they have been posted, I have mansged to get one with Steve Boyd in March. The pressure has started to build up this semester, I do not mind the painting and printing side, but all the computer side of things is really starting to give me a headache and take me away from what I really love to do and I feel that there is little time to actually paint at all. I have postes a blog tonight and the thought of now doing a C.V is not thrilling at all at 9.oopm in the evening, when I am already feeling so tired.Still it has to be done so I will crack on.

Tuesday 8th February.

I decided not to go in to university today as I have alot of work to catch upon and experimental work to do. I got cracking at about 8.00am this morning which was a good start and given the fact I would be catching a train and travelling to university I have actually saved alot of time. I have stretched 2 pices of watercolour paper ready to be painted on. Using watercolour paint and acrylic inks , I have put these onto the paper, letting them bleed together. Working on a much larger scale has given me much more freedom and the results are very random with little control.

Monday 7th January 2011.

A body of work has been created from the visit on saturday out in the elements.In my view I have a major leap with this what I consider to be a starting point. I feel the charcoal drawings have not been altogether successful because they still have the horizon line seperating both land and sky and I am really struggling with this and find it difficult to move out of this. By turning the drawings round and cropping these works, they straight away become a different landscape, with a feel to being in the landscape rather than just another landscape drawing or painting. The next step is to recreate the same work but on a much larger scale and this again will bring me further out of my comfort zone . I am looking forward to seeing the results from this body of work and then taking it forward into the printing process.

Kinder Scout Saturday 5th February 2011.

The weather is not particularly very good, rain has been forecast for much of the day and very heavy at times. Arrived to a very wet Edale in the Peak District, started off with a cup of tea in Penny Pot Cafe and strated the walk just after 11am. I t feels good to be out on the hills and I don't mind the rain as it's not that cold and I am wrapped up in several layer's of clothing. The river up the valley is in full spate and smaller rivers are feeding into it. After reaching the stepping stones which have totally disappeared under the water we make a descision to walk further up the hill and shelter in some rocks because the river is too dangerous to cross. Started working with the peat and water on watercolour paper and different cloths, but it is now teaming it down and nothing will stay on the paper. Did a few drawings in charcoal, but the rain is just washing everything away and by now I am starting to get very cold. Took several photographs of the area and packed away and headed back down the valley.

Thursday 3rd February.

This is the first chance I have had to publish a post in a while, as I seem to be too busy at the moment to do anything. Studio practise work is coming on fine and I just wish I could spend alot more time on it, at the moment other issues within the module seem to take over leaving little time to actually work on the paintings.
I am working on some MDF board just trying to come out of my comfort zone, which is painful but I am sure that's how it should be.Trying to get the piece on moutains finished ready for the buyer to collect. Just logged into my portal to find the catalogue essay results posted and I didn't want to look. I know I didn't do very well but even if I only pass that will still be a result for me, . I enjoyed the research on other artist's, but found it incredibly difficult to put it together, however I kept telling myself that if I gave Alan Boulton paper and paint and to go and paint Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, what would the result be. When I finally looked at the result,Ihave to admit I would have been pleased with a 7, but I actually got a 9, so I am very happy with this result.

Monday 31st January.2011

Today has probably been a turning point for me, I have been discussing print work for the biggest part of the day. There is potential in the print work, but it is knowing how to take it forward. The scale is important at this stage to justify the sort of work I do, but there are limitations at Stafford College because of the print bed sizes. At the weekend I am taking a trip to Kinder Scout in Derbyshire to work within the landscape, I am hoping to find shelter within a "grough" which is a large ditch of eroded peat. I am not worried about the weather as it can create a much better atmosphere if it is much more raw.
I am hoping to take a variety of materials to work on and mediums to work with to give a variation with effects and textures.

Tuesday 25th January.

Iworked on some printing I had been experimenting with using wax crayons as a resist, but I am not totally happy with this, I have printed off the original plate I worked with at Glasgow print studios to experiment with this, using it as a starting point.So I don't know at this stage where it will go.
I have also done quite a lot of research on printing and using photography within my work. This will be posted at later date.

Monday 24th January 2011

My feedback tutorial is with Chris Wright which I am really pleased about because she has seen my work on previous tutorials. The tutorial went well and I am pleased with my result. I understand that I know have to push boundaries to progress with my studio practise. The techniques that I have acquired throughout level and the print making techniques could in some ways be combined, I fully understand about limiting myself with the landscape I walk in and therefore shall remain very open minded about venturing into pastures knew. It is at this point my head becomes full of ideas and I have to walk away from the painting to put these ideas into some order or else they become lost in an explosion of thought. So tomorrow 25th January I will not come into the studios, just so I can get my head around some of these thoughts.

Semester 2 level 3.

This is a blog I set up for the purpurses os the movement, image and sound module with Michael Day, at the end of the module I transferred everything onto a disc so this is the beginning of the new and last semester of university. The first week started very slow and with I feel some confusion with communication in the studios, I had attended university in the morning of 17th January but very little was happening and I left at lunch time to later find there had been a meeting with only 7 students in the afternoon, but nothing had been posted on blackboard previous to this, so it was a real shame I had not stayed in the studios for the meeting.
The following day was a little disappionting in the fact there was lot of waiting around and the external examiners didn't return into the studios much later that day and a real shame that all students don't get the chance to have a some time for a tutorial with the experience and knowledge with these people as I think for one would have greatly benefitted from this experience. Meetings for the rest of the week were also cancelled so all in all it has been a very slow start.
I have been in my studio space priming up boards in preparation for some ideas I have and want to develop.