UPCOMING - Christmas 2019

That’s this years Christmas Card sorted. Been meaning to make one on a healing theme for a while… So happy holidays everyone 🙂

WORKSHOP - Christmas Cards at the Stroke Unit

In today's workshop in the Stroke unit we made some very beautiful Christmas Cards, it was a very interesting day for me, this amazing card made by one the patients who had lost the use of her left side really made an impact on me. I was fascinated that she would not engage with the left hand side of the card, the decoration which she put on the tree was all orientated towards the right hand side. I find the brain ever fascinating.

UPCOMING - Open Studios

We are having a Christmas Open Studio up on West Pier, so please do come and join us for a little mulled wine. You'll find us all on the balcony of the clock tower on Scarborough's West Pier (next to the RNLI).

The Badgers of Bohemia (number 11), Captain Ants and Nina Hughes (number 10) and Karen Thompson (number 14) are all throwing open their doors and welcoming everyone on Saturday 14th December  

WORKSHOP - Christmas Sparkle

A few busy days working for Create Arts Ltd and Scarborough Council running elf making workshops at the seasonal Christmas Sparkle event, here's some that made me smile

               

           

 

WORKSHOP - Stroke Unit

This little penguin made in a workshop today in the Stroke Unit at Scarborough hospital really made me smile... I'm really enjoying running these workshops.

DRAWING - On Glaze Tile

I sold this tile at a recent Art Fair, I would love to focus on experimenting with surface decoration at some point soon in my ceramic work. 

OUT & ABOUT - Pigeons

Hmmm... I wonder if I'm encouraging the pigeons outside my studio a little too much!?

WORKSHOP - Stroke Unit Workshop at Scarborough Hospital

Pat's drawing was a bit of a star in today's Stroke Unit workshop, this workshop was inspired by Quentin Blake and it was great to see everyone get so much from the session. It's hard to believe that Pat had never really done any drawing in the past, this gave her so much confidence!

WORKSHOP - Ryedale Folk Museum

I really enjoyed running some Stone Age to Iron Age clay workshops at Ryedale Folk Museum recently. I even got dressed up for the part, think the costume may be making an appearance on this years Christmas Card. 

AIM & CLICK - Highland Cow

I love Yorkshire 💓 Always brilliant photo opportunities await, this was taken at Levisham, a really special and beautiful place.

NEWS - Hospital Workshops

I've just joined the team at York NHS Teaching Hospitals as a freelance artist to run a series of workshops in the Stroke Unit at Scarborough Hospital. It’s the first time I’ve delivered workshops in this kind of environment and I’m really looking forward to working with patients at the hospital to aid in their recovery. I’ll been programmed in to run these workshops in the Stroke Unit at Scarborough Hospital until February 2020.  

OUT & ABOUT - Catherine Bainbridge

I bought this lovely little knitted pigeon from local Scarborough artist Catherine Bainbridge. I installed it outside my studio door to see how my little pigeon chums would react, they were very skeptical and went to great lengths to avoid it, that banister would normally be filled all the way along! 😂

WORKSHOP - After School Club

Love this little character created by a young girl in the After School club today... it really made me smile on an otherwise stressful day.

DRAWING - Improved Fit

I came across this image I had drawn in one of my old sketchbooks, I had made the original drawing and a few years later felt compelled to put in the purple spot. A few years later again and I understand the drawing on a level I was not conscious of when I made it. The purple spot I see refers to the crown chakra and the piece is referring to spiritual growth.

EVENT - Illustration Included in Forthcoming Book

A little illustration I drew of Emmanuel Cooper and sent him as part of my Badgered project has made its way into this book just being released.... I look forward to getting a copy and chuffed that I have been included 😀

INSPIRATION - Mustard Pot

I absolutely adore this! I happened upon it at a car boot sale and it cost the grand total of £1, I'm the very lucky new owner... yay

AIM & CLICK - Light Parade

The view from my studio door on the annual Light Parade, every year I have a prime view and it's always fascinating watching the crowds gather and streaming in on the evening.

WORKSHOPS - 'Breathe' Land Art, Ryedale Council

I worked with MakeMore Arts in August to deliver 5 land art sessions for Ryedale Council. These were around the theme ‘Beathe’ and were commissioned by Ryedale Council to tie in with playgrounds in Ryedale going smoke free. We set up the installations in some beautiful sites working with enthusiastic children and parents. 

    

 

INSPIRATION - This Woman's Work

Help! I can't stop listening to this song....

EVENT - Arts Fest

AIM & CLICK - Internal Wiring

I love walking past those phone box cable cabinets and seeing them open whilst an engineer is working in them... this feels like my brain at the moment

WORK IN PROGRESS - Preparing for Art Fairs

Tiger theme going on in this kiln firing. I'm decorating some of my porcelain mugs with tiger stripes for selling at some upcoming Art Fairs. I'll be at the Arts Fest at the Monument in Newcastle this Friday and Saturday. 

AIM & CLICK - Cormorant at South Bay

I'm fascinated by cormorants, I love being by the beach and catching glimpses of them, this was a rare treat to watch, this cormorant spent ages on the RNLI slipway today with outstretched wings. It did almost feel like it was modelling for me at one point 😀

INSPIRATION - Emma Kunz @ the Serpentine

A friend told me about this exhibition when I was in London and highly recommended that I visit, suggesting that it was completely up my street. Emma Kunz was a clairvoyant and spiritual healer who used a pendulum to create huge geographic drawings which she used to assist in her healing, referencing these drawings as ‘portals’…. Well, this is indeed right up my street! Completely! Having taken a 3 year hiatus from ceramics to pursue a healing and clairvoyant path myself, this exhibition spoke more profoundly to me than anything I have seen in some time. Without question there is something to these drawings. I could not tear myself away, I stayed at the serpentine for 3 hours, finding myself drawn into working in a healing capacity with these images, zooming between rooms in strange sequences seeking and seemingly knowing which drawing should follow the proceeding one (this I found all the more interesting as Emma Kunz never dated any of her drawings or provided any information, when asked to describe them she would say that they were “shape and form expressed as measurement, rhythm, symbol and transformation of figure and principle”). I found this to be the oddest experience I’ve had at an exhibition . My impulse and instinct to work with these drawings in a way unfamiliar to a gallery context felt strange. I was responding to this exhibition from the perspective of a healer more than an artist. I was magnetically drawn to certain intersections in the images, my hands hovering, my fingers drawing energy from various points. This was a very personal experience which felt at odds with the ever changing influx of vigilant invigilators, one of whom told me off for touching the glass.

These powerful artworks find me at a time when recent spiritual events have brought me into an unanticipated place. I needed to interact with these drawings, that this work exists I found breathtaking, even more so that the work is retrospective. Kudos to the Serpentine Gallery for bringing this artist to a modern day audience….and especially to me.

I loved the added touch with this exhibition of the creation of the stone benches, importing large chunks of the healing rock AION A that Emma Kunz discovered. The simple form of these benches summed up by co-curator Christodoulos Panayiotou, “I shall add only a series of benches for Emma Kunz. I see them as viewing devices. They shall allow vision rather than being seen”…. for this he referenced Paul Klee- “Didn’t Feuerbach say: For the understanding of a picture, a chair is needed? Why a chair? To prevent the legs, as they tire, from interfering with the mind”. As crystal is also an amplifier it will indeed help allow vision 🙂

                                     

WORK IN PROGRESS - Portable Goveshy

Spent the past couple of days constructing a portable Goveshy to take to the London environment protests, just finishing off... the original Goveshy is too cumbersome but as I have some #michaelgove busts left from 2013 and now Gove is environmental minister seems fitting ... and I massively want to go and #protest #mustrebel #goveshy #craftscouncil #political installation ...I'll be heading to #parliamentsquare tomorrow as the last day of protests there 😀just need to decide on a slogan for the bottom board... is "Smash the Gove-rnment" too confrontational?

EVENT - Beer & Beard Festival

My Tureen Heads and Painting are having an outing to the North Yorkshire Beard Festival and the Cambra Beer Festival this weekend at Scarborough spa. This is rather a different setting than they are used to being shown in, I'm sure my creations will be keeping their eyes on everyone's goings on and shenanigans!