Tell us a bit about yourself and your work:
I teach Art & Design and have been in the same school for my whole career, but, as is the nature of the subject, it has been an ever-changing, evolving experience which has meant I have felt like I have never stood still. My background is in Fine Art, focused on printmaking. This has informed my practice through a concern with surface and pattern in a range of media. In recent years, I have been elbow-deep in clay with Ceramics work taking up all of my personal creative output. I am passionate about getting clay back into the classroom, and we now have an established programme with students working up to A-Level in school. I joined Sketchbook Circle for the first time this year, and the mutual support and creativity have proved invaluable during this ‘unprecedented’ year.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I’m a firm believer that inspiration can come from anywhere. I think artists notice ‘things’ around them and often see the world with fresh eyes. Like many of us, I can be walking down the road and then get left behind as I stand taking photos of something or other that I’ve noticed.
Practically, though, I am often led by the materials that I am using. I came across James Elkins’ book ‘What Painting Is’ during my MA and his language of alchemy and the physical/sensory experience of painting resonated. I will start with a notion of what I am going to do, then the qualities of the media (whatever it is) start to mesmerise, and I’ve gone off on a tangent. I tend to work in series. So, I might prepare multiple backgrounds and then develop them in parallel for a while, eventually focusing on one at a time and recycling ones that don’t feel quite right at a later date.
My work this year has certainly been influenced by Covid-19. Working regularly on paper, at a small scale, proved really good for my wellbeing. Retrospectively, I realised that much of my output early in the year was a reflection of my concerns. What started in January as a tentative step into the Sketchbook Circle with abstract colour and shape, progressed through wandering paths and into an obsession with protective glasshouses.
What is the first thing you remember making?
I have early memories of standing at an easel and daubing paint, though I am not sure how much of that is my memory or imaginings based on childhood photographs. I did spend much of my childhood drawing, sewing and generally making, sitting at the dining room table next to my mum stitching away on her sewing machine.
What’s your favourite tool to make art?
At the moment, a silkscreen. I have been using a few screens throughout the year to make surfaces for working into, mainly different scale half-tone dot patterns. I was reminded about the possibilities of mono-printing with screens by Rossie Edenbrow in Sketchbook Circle’s first online workshop. This has led to playing with cut stencils and mark-making transfers. To be even more specific, my current obsession is a tiny squeegee, only 12cm, which I use to print isolated areas of a screen.
If I’m allowed another tool, then a needle and thread.
What are you working on at the moment?
I have been slowing down with stitching since the start of the academic year. Like everyone, the return to work has seen my own output diminish, but I have realised the importance of scraping together time for personal creativity. I have a piece of work in a hoop next to my comfy chair and a few moments engaged with it does me a world of good. Inspired by another online workshop, this time with Jessica Grady, I have been incorporating alternative media into my embroidery. There is still an obsession with paths and glasshouse, but wild (neon) gardens have also appeared as I have begun to explore stitching onto silkscreen prints on fabric.
Where can we see more of your work?
Instagram: threadpaintclay
