The poetry of decay

So here I am by the sea again, this time in Eastbourne, on this great four-day course with Christine Chester at Studio 11. The course, developed by Christine and Jo Lovelock, is all about creating exciting surfaces for stitch and mixed media work, exploring decaying and weathered surfaces and using them as inspiration. We have a limited palette - black, white and brown/rust - but that is the only limitation. The ideas, processes and inspiration are endless, and Christine is an extremely knowledgeable and generous tutor. I haven't had time (for which read 'I haven't remembered - I've been too wrapped up in the doing'!) to take many photos, but here are a few for starters ....

Stacks of cards with their first processes - marks, flat 'colour', beginning to distress the surfaces at the end of day one. It's all about layering ....

And this is the drop sheet - happy accidents always worth saving.

Real live rust and decay on Eastbourne pier ('it's closing in five minutes, you won't have time to walk to the end AND take photos' - this from the guy who was locking up - don't think he could work out why I was photographing the lamp posts!) 

Great sky!

More later - I'll remember to take more photos tomorrow!

Sketchbook Part 2

The sketchbook arrived safely!

And it has been catalogued at the Brooklyn Art Library with a call number of 148L.5-5 (whatever that means!). In time it will also be digitalised, so able to be viewed on-line. The full Sketchbook tour starts in the US in April, and the European books will come to London in October. Exciting!

The Sketchbook Project

My book for the Sketchbook Project made it to the post office by the skin of its teeth - 4.15pm yesterday - the last date for postmarking. The theme is Along the Line and I decided to narrow this down to the shore/coast line so I could work with an old favourite - after all it was supposed to be enjoyable.

Sketch Book Project

As usual despite all good intentions I left it till the last minute and it was a mad scramble to get it done on time - never underestimate how long it takes to fill a page. Thank goodness for matte medium photo transfers - a relatively quick way of creating a background for text. All papers are not equal - the paper in this book was less equal than some! It's fine for drawing on with pencil and drawing pen, but doesn't like wet media at all. I took it apart and replaced some of the pages with 140gsm cartridge paper and thick tracing paper - with hindsight I should have done them all, and included watercolour paper too, but I was wary of making it too bulky. Inevitably, with mixed pages, I ended up wanting to put wet media on the drawing paper - which went straight through. This is why the pebbles have a green background!


Here are a few close-ups - the rest are in the album above. Had trouble photographing these as the book wouldn't lie flat. Of course, I should have scanned it, but I didn't think of that in my rush to meet the deadline. More haste, less speed . . . 

Ammonites at Lyme Regis - Brusho and pen on tracing paper

Seascape - acrylic applied with credit card on cartridge

Gulls on a telegraph wire at Dungeness

Old groynes at West Wittering - brusho and pen on cartridge and tracing paper

Mackerel - pencil and brusho on drawing paper (the one that bled trough!)

Boat at Clovelly - pencil on cartridge