Painterly

Week 7. Exposition Research Week

Document

Reflect

Evaluate

Sketchbooks & Blogs

During this week I took a trip to the southwest of England and immersed myself in deepest English countryside. I stayed in a tiny hamlet near Watchet, Somerset. The Georgian farmhouse is 200 years old and is filled with original artwork reflecting it's beautiful setting. Surrounded by 3.5 acres of lush green countryside with a small river running through the bottom of the garden. The walls were one metre thick with low beamed ceilings. The floors were creaky 200 year old floorboards upstairs and natural stone downstairs. I walked barefoot for the three days that I was there both inside and around the grounds.

Lowood farmer's cottage with it's original artworks by unknown artists.

The cottage was filled with paintings & sketches on the walls but unfortunately not signed or any written information about the artists. The bluebird work seemed to be painted on two wooden large panels with hinges in attaching them together.

It was also a two minute drive from Golsoncott House, an Arts and Craft home built in 1908. From 1912 it belonged to the Reckitt family where artist Rachel Reckitt (1908-1995) lived. She was a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, the British Blacksmiths' Association and an honorary member of the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen. The British museum holds several of her prints and her ironwork can still be seen around the local area in pub signs and church candelabras.

Rachel Reckitts niece is the Booker Prize winner (Moon Tiger, 1987) Dame Penelope Lively. Her book A House Unlocked (2001) is an autobiography/memoir of her time spent at Golsoncott House growing up observing the change of use over the years.

I was invited there as a wedding guest of the new owners. It was also where I was delivering my commissioned book for the bride and groom.

The commissioned book was ordered by the mother of the bride after seeing a prototype I had made on one of the earlier modules on this course. I hand painted the covers on raw canvas before bonding the artwork onto recycled Amazon cardboard. I had intended painting on raw linen but the way the paint absorbed & dried into the fabric made the covers too dull for a wedding gift. The linen was imported from Belgium, the pages were handmade in India from cotton rag. The ties were a cream velvet ribbon. The poem Westerly was taken from a poem I wrote a couple of years ago & I adapted just two lines for the newly weds. The poem was originally written about sisterhood with one of the lines "sisters in arms" changed to "eternal lovers in arms". The book was presented inside a silk dust bag protected in a large white box & wrapped in natural handmade paper with a purple ribbon. Inserted in the pockets were photo corners to create an album, some fresh cut lavender, poppy seeds labeled 'from our garden to yours'. Some of the pages were also personalised. I have uploaded a mock up of the book using the prototype as reference.

The wedding was being held in the vast grounds a beautiful quintessential English county garden.

Week 6. 2nd visit & seminar from Professor John McClenaghen

Tutorials

Workshop

Intertwined memories. Wire sculptures, thinking of a memory and revisiting that memory. The different colour wires depicting the before & after memory. My first memory being the big tree in the coppice that I could see out of my childhood bedroom window. The darker bronze wire represents the tree's roots. The silver wire representing it's foliage reaching up to the heavens. Every time I returned to my childhood home I could no longer see the tree towering above the others in the coppice. I just presumed all the other trees had caught up & overshadowed this great tree. It was until I took a walk in the coppice that I realised that the tree had storm damage & had been sadly uprooted. It's trunk still lies there today but I have recently found a family photograph with my mighty tree in the background. Maybe the silver wire of the 'memory sculpture' really represents the heavenly skies.

This week I have been working hard on sizing up & making my sketchbooks. I began making three but was not happy with the sizing so I began again. The first book is dedicated to my childhood hood & my first memories of my strong affinity to nature. I will be referencing the post war Housing Acts & the development of Europe's largest"garden council estate". During my research I have realised that the highly detailed, vivid memories I have of my early childhood are quite rare & not everyone can recall. I have looked into whether this would be recognised as 'hyperthymesia', the condition of a highly superior autobiographical memory enabling you to easily remember daily life in glorious technicolour! It was this period in my life that I lived in Malta a tiny rocky island in the Mediterranean sea, before it was overrun by tourists & built up beyond recognition.

The second book will be dedicated to my unwilling return to England & moving to a newly built 1970s housing estate next door to a farm. It was at this time I began horse riding. My formative years were also inspired by my history lessons at school particularly the Agricultural Revolution & Land Reforms and the building on the historical Carrington Moss. My close connection to horses remains to this day but sadly I can no longer ride as I am extremely allergic to them. Most of the riding schools have closed down now for various reasons but my love for horses has never wavered.

My third book will be looking at my adulthood connection to nature, seeking it out whilst living in a city centre environment watching wildlife also adapt to change of use of land. And then finally settling in a suburban setting surrounded by farmland again, even though I can feel the city & industrial parks creeping closer. I will be looking at the effects of this on society & the decline of biophilia.

Week 5. Archive and Memory. Concrete Poetry

Statement of intent/exposition proposals/group crits

Deadline for 70 word Creative Statement and image for e-catalogue

Workshop

Week 4 Visiting Professor John McClenaghen

From Silent Studio to Gallery Representation

It was great seminar from John McClenaghen to hear his first hand experience with art galleries. He really went into detail about building a relationship with gallery curators and how to approach them (or how not to) and the practical or business side to juggling several galleries at once. He also talked about online presence, open calls, contracts and 'entry fees'.

Exhibitions and galleries is the direction I want to take when my Master's is completed so this was invaluable information for my personal and professional development. I have begun planning a new website and social media sites to accommodate my new work and new name. In the past 25 years I have been professionally known as Sally Turner. I have exhibited, sold work and published as a poet under this name. My new work has dramatically changed although the theme of the natural world and landscapes has been a continuing factor throughout. That innate connection to nature, that I now know as biophilia, has always been present. Without being pushed and challenged on this Master's course I would not have been able to passionately talk and discuss my work with a clear understanding and direction that I have today.

I changed my name for a third time in my life when I got married just before I began my Master's. I have never been married before, my previous names came from my mother's maiden name and then my stepfather's name. With this new identity as a married woman, new name and in my third stage in life, I decide to resurrect or relaunch my art career and finally begin my Master's degree.

The third stage of life I regard as 'grown adulthood' previously known as middle age. The first stage of life being 'young childhood' and the second stage being 'young adulthood'.

My exposition will therefore have three sketchbooks and three pieces of work. Through this method of research I will be collecting and archiving my own innate connection to nature in the three stages of my life. I will be commenting on the decline of biophilia in recent years.

'3 is the magic number' so it seems as I have previously talked about it in earlier modules on this course. I have mentioned the Holy Trinity as a reference to me teaching at a Catholic High School, I have also talked about a tight family unit of three being myself and my two sons. The three elements of air, water, earth being present in my creative work. I even subconsciously furnish and decorate my home with three elements of wood, glass and metal moving away from anything plastic.

The Welsh National Opera state that the number 3 has always had a unique significance. They go on to explain that Pythagoras, the ancient greek philosopher considers the number 3 as "the perfect number, the number of harmony, wisdom and understanding.... the number of the divine"

I could write a whole essay all about the significance of the number three from fairy tales to Shakespearean literature, from music to mathematics and philosophy to religion but suffice to say the number three will be featuring in my final exposition.

Making of book one completed with the research and object filling the pockets.

Week 3.

"Not everything made of steel is a battleship". Knowledge and the Artifacts

I love the term 'sensuous knowledge' - a synthesis of rational thinking, emotional intelligence, the senses including intuition & art!

Drafting creative statements for the exposition e-catalogue in 70 words is a lot harder than you think!

And being asked to chose three images that represents our work that we haven't even made yet!!

To top it all off, think of a name and theme for this group exposition. Who do they think we are!!!

Well, 'they' think we are quite capable of completing the tasks in question. As a group we have begun discussing the very lively topic of the name for this years Master's show, our exposition.

I prefer the term brainstorming as opposed to mind mapping. The term brainstorming has been outlawed in the teaching profession and academia as "it is thought to be offensive to people with brain disorders" such as epilepsy according to The Guardian in 2005, and is on the banned list of words of the Welsh Development Agency.

But I think it it is a term that best describes my method of correlating information and how I create. A passionate explosion of organised creative chaos.

Mind mapping reminds me of planning a journey, expecting an end result. I prefer to take the 'path less travelled' route and see where we end up, a bit like Blue Sky thinking. Planning too much hinders creativity, my studio floor resembles this. To the untrained eye the floor of my studio looks like complete chaos and anarchy. I do however try to refine the way I work when in group settings.

A pretty looking 'mindmap". Results of a workshop trying to get us thinking differently on our approach to writing creative statements.

My organised creative chaos of my studio floor.

Week 2 Keeping Focused

Starting to think about how the Masters Show is going to look, how the body of work and research will be exhibited.

My most important development for my practise during module 724 was recognising how I gather my research material and how I keep it all in one place. Understanding that I use physical items, notes on scraps of paper, sketches on various materials it became apparent that a 'traditional' paper sketchbook was inconvenient. During lectures, seminar workshops and discussions I inherently write notes & thumbnail sketches on any type of scraps of paper. I would look across the room at my peers with lovely organised books with neat writing and try to convince myself that if I was more disciplined I too could have a perfect notebook with well written notes. My peers tried to help me by suggesting that I use a lined notebook for my lecture notes alongside a sketch book.

I tried. I failed. I went to an exhibition where woodblock artist Anthony Ratcliffe proudly exhibited his own concertina sketchbooks at Kirkby Gallery, Prescot.

I even made my own paper concertina sketchbooks with folded pockets after attending a workshop. They were an improvement but not substantial enough for the way I work.

I began making small paper concertina books with pockets as gifts, carefully choosing the book cover material and velvet ribbons ties. Soon a commission came for a wedding book. It was whilst working on these books that I was able developed my own personal style of sketchbook to suit my eclectic or multidisciplinary practice. I needed a larger scale at least A4 size, deep pockets to collect my found objects and material to be able to handle wet, heavy paint.

I was really pleased with my prototype. It was a large, slightly bigger than A4, raw canvas sketchbook, with pockets held together in places with safety pins. I had intended to neaten up the edges with a sewing machine and even put a couple of stitches in the pockets to keep them in place. The book covers were recycled from Amazon delivery envelopes (I order a lot of online shopping!) and were covered in leftover raw hessian.

It worked!

I love the raw, frayed edges. The safety pins were an ingenious way of allowing the sketchbook to grow. If the pages were sewn together I cannot add any more between the book cover.s With the safety pins I just unfix and attach more pages if necessary. On the pages with pockets I can keep my scraps of paper, objects or articles/printouts. On the other side of the sketchbook (the side without pockets) I am able to develop my painting style for my larger pieces of work.

The unrefined element of frayed edges, held together by safety pins, recycled card, raw canvas and hessian is in keeping with my current work on larger canvases.

Raw Hessian, recycled Amazon cardboard envelopes & copious amounts of glue go into making the book covers.

Module Launch

I can't believe this is it, this is the end, the final module, the last stage of the Master's programme. How did we get here so quick. At the first opportunity I 'cleared & cleaned' my home studio in anticipation of the coming & final module. The tidy neat order lasts only a matter of minutes before creativity began again. During the first half of the Module ART724 I began to realise that health problems were restricting my practise & it was not just a feeling overwhelmed or 'out of sorts'. The undercurrent of stress at work due to an impending Ofsted visit & the Headteacher's notice of retirement did not help.

It was during the Easter break that I had finally got a diagnosis & the correct treatment. The weight of worry lifted & I threw myself into what was left of module. I went into overdrive, working through the weekends and after work as the summertime daylight hours allowed. At night before bed I world write my blog, reflecting on each module trying to keep up the pace as I was still missing out at being physically present at uni.

Almost at exhaustion point I was able to submit a body of work that I felt was a turning point in my praxis and a newfound confidence in my methodology.

The Tuesday return of lectures with an all staff & student meetings means that I am finally back in the fold with my peer group and the first session being a Peer Discussion. It was great to reconnect and share experiences of the last Module ART724 and more importantly the initial group discussions of our Exposition.

The thyme in my garden is in full bloom and all the bees are working so hard at collecting all that pollen. It is so nice to see all the different types of bees all working together in one place with one focus.

The presentation of my body of work included:

...a triptych - acrylic on linen, large painting titled Indigo Skies & Sodden Earth' acrylic on linen, three rolls of canvas (collaboration with nature) and handmade canvas sketch book and tools of my work, three jars of carefully mixed tones deepest indigo blues, darkest earth and dense forest green, and the found and fashioned branches that replaced paintbrushes.

Little Saviour

At the end of this module I was away clearing all my equipment from my outdoor studio (my garden) when I heard a kerfuffle. Two bluetits flew past my shoulder fighting in midair, missed the hedge and slammed into the garden fence. One ricocheted into the hedge and smaller one bounced in the dustbin and landed of the handle.

It stood motionless, dazed with it's beak wide open two feet away from me. We looked at each other for a short while and I gently said "what was all that about?" It was still motionless so I quietly walked away out of sight around the nearby garage wall.

A minute later I peaked at it still in the same spot, with it's beak wide open looking around as if to say "what the hell just happened!?"

Our garden is a thoroughfare for the local cat population so I began to get worried that it would not end well for the little bird so I began to to approach it. I spoke to it softly and gently as it held onto the dustbin. It did not move.

It did not move when I carefully scooped him up in my hand and softly cradled him. We stayed like that for a few minutes, him protected in the warmth of my hand and me in a calm awe. I didn't quite know what to do next. He still seemed dazed. His beak was now shut and he was looking around so I opened my hand for him to fly off. He still didn't move.

I walked over to my kitchen window hoping to find my husband there. Some more minutes past and when he finally saw me and what I had in my open hand he took our photo. All the while I was talking softly to this little bluebird as if he was my small child. My husband even came out and sat on the garden bench with us.

I tried to place the little bird near the rosemary bush thinking he would find it familiar as we regularly feed our garden birds. He still sat in my hand, not perched. Sat with his legs dangling through my fingers comfortably looking around as if to get his bearings. I turned him around to face the peanut feeder and another hedge I know all the birds frequent thinking he would find that a familiar sight and in the blink of the eye he was off!

Week12. Group Crits, presentation -body of work Individual Tutorials

Instead of group crits at the university a fellow local artist visited my home studio. Diane Kirby is a hyperrealist nature artist who uses high grade coloured pencils came to my indoor studio for a coffee and a catch-up and to check up on the progress of the commissioned wedding book. We have lots of things in common; the love of nature, being outdoor and passion for creating artwork but our style, approach and practice is so different so it is good to get some constructive criticism from my peers.

By this stage in the module I had left the embrace of the coppice after working in there for 2 weeks. Each time I left, between the sessions, the canvass was left stretched out in situ for the elements, fauna and flora to do their work before being rolled up and put into storage.

In the last couple weeks of the module we had some gorgeous spring sunshine and every blossom tree sprung into action. I set up camp in a wild section of my own garden and began the same process again.

Week11. Visiting Lecturer Dr. Zuzanna Walas, Polish Japanese Academy of Information Technology

It was I really useful lecture and workshop. Taking part with my peers in the workshop I have a much better understanding of how to prepare a foolproof brief for any future collaborations. We used roll play to stage meeting with clients which I found really insightful (and hilarious as my character).

The workshops also reminded me of a complete failure of collaboration because of a design brief that wasn't thoroughly discussed at any followup meetings.

In short , a Community Youth club Leader visited one of my workshops with a group of youths. I was facilitating workshop session was inside Zion Arts Gallery, Hulme, Manchester as a lead project manager. The youth group and Youth Leader were really impressed with the workshop and work produced - mural on the inside gallery wall. The Youth Leader asked if I would collaborate with her. She would facilitate art workshops at her community centre based on my work with her youth group and when they had their sketches complete I would come over as artist in residence and with the youths I would "paint their sketches on the community centre wall". We agreed a fee, day and time.

I turned up after an hours drive with my equipment and acrylic and emulsion paint, enthusiastic to get started. What she failed to tell me was that it was an outside wall!

And I failed to ask her that it was an inside wall not outside in the carpark of the community centre.

She obviously had not done a risk assessment for work in a public carpark and I assumed that because she had visited my workshop inside that she understood what she was asking of me.

I still did the work with the youths and still got paid but the work washed away with the rain the next day.

Moral of the story - make sure your design brief is water tight, foolproof with no room for misunderstanding and lack of communication.

Week10. London Visit/ Gallery Visits

At the Tate Modern with my eldest son to see Máret Anne Sara, Goave-Geabbil Installation at the Tate Modern. It was a special moment as I have not seen my son for over 6 months and my mood has been very low. I am lucky that he loves visiting art galleries as much as I do. The installation was an immersive piece where we were encourage to walk around, touch, feel, sit, smell (raw & earthy) and listen to a talk.

"....shaping the relationship between people, lands and animals."

Triptych painting by Joan Mitchell.

Week9. Formative Feedback

I really value these feedback sessions. Sometimes it seems as though I am not doing enough or other priorities such as my job and family get the majority of my physical & creative time. I seem to be always exhausted since this virus & feeling low & anxious. Not seeing my sons for over 6 months has not helped & the looming threat of OFSTED has put more pressure on us at work.

The support from the Formative Feedback was a good reset, positive words & great encouragement:

"Keep blogging", which I am terrible at

"Keep up your sketchbook", which I am making a new one

"Keep making work", which I enjoy, creating

And "invest in a gorilla grip for your camera" which I will do, as I actually like filming now!

Two small muddy canvass I left in the meandering brook just to see what happens after a couple of weeks.

Week8. Transdisciplinary/ Interdisciplinary Practice: Positioning Practice/Individual Tutorials

After walking & wandering around for days in the really wet boggy land, the day I was available to set up camp was really unexpectedly sunny. It was if nature grabbed this long awaited opportunity & finally came alive.

The sodden earth, indigo skies and sparse turf began to realise it was actually spring & they were late to the party! I was prepared to work outside for hours on end in all weather but was secretly pleased that it was dry as my health has been steadily getting worse. I have just recovered from a horrible long virus but still not feeling right.