My work is up and on the wall in time for the end of year show.

I feel like everything this past year I have made it by the skin of my teeth. I have had a lot going on at home and it has really distracted me from some of the elements I’ve needed to concentrate on. I was probably crazy following my out of the blue source and make my own paints and repurpose items to create with.

Yet it has been a rewarding process to follow, with lots of problem solving alo g the way. Do I feel its my best work? No, but I am my own worst critic with most things I do including learning the piano and horse riding. Have I learnt from the experience? Absolutely.

Artists that inspired me, honestly I can’t really say that I’ve researched any in depth specifically for portfolio. Susannah Crook a local artist that sources her own pigments and was kind enough to give me a quick workshop on creating paints from pigments. She certainly encouraged me to explore this route and I will definitely like to continue.

My inspiration was the landscapes of Scotland and with that in mind I did look up a few Scottish Landscape artists and they are quite diverse in their styles. Rosanne Barr (not the actress), Nael Hanna, Peter King and Jean Feeney are ones who I looked a little further at their style and use of colour.

In the end though, I found myself using colours in my own photos and experiences of the Scottish Highlands.

Creating my own oil paints was not without its frustrations and the pigments are all different. I love the fact that one have more texture and feel gritty, but that isn’t suited for every painting. Some I still need to do a lot more experimenting with as I go through my creative career. There is always going to be something to learn.

Sourcing wood to repurpose as a canvas. I had 3 different types and the preparation for each needed to be different. Through this I now know to do that little bit extra at the beginning. It may, it may not, remove some issues further in the painting process.

Am I still committed to creating a sustainable practice going forward? Absolutely! I am looking forward to looking for pigment sources over the summer, gathering bits of wood and scraps of materials to use as canvases. I’m also going to practice refining my papermaking skills and sourcing any ither equipment from sustainable, free trade and ethically minded organisations.

The next step is working out how I can move this into other areas of my creative practice.

In the meantime, my work looks good in position. There are 3 R’s in Art – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

This piece I have struggled with from the get go. Part of it was my choice of wood. Treated manufactured oak flooring offcut. I knew I had to sand it, which I did, to remove the top layer. However I still had issues with the oil paint wanting to soak in rather than sit on the surface. I think k I needed to have sanded it more thoroughly with a power tool sander, rather than a sanding block.

I also found the more earthy muted colours just blended I to the natural tones of the wood. I had to go brighter, darker colours with a thicker paste application. I mai ly used a pallet knife and as I layered the different colours, wiped and scraped the top layers back.

This painting was definitely one where I needed the layers to dry before applying and worming on the next colour.

I have struggled to feel what the paint is trying show me. It isn’t my favourite of the three paintings and if I could have not included it in the show I would gladly have left it at home.

Yet others like it. They like the textures and strong colours. It is included in the show. It may grow on me. Maybe I need to work out why I don’t like it? Is it a reflection of the inner turmoil I feel at the moment, not really knowing where I want my painting style to take me. Not being able to define the style, has me frustrated and maybe thats what I see here.

I loved this one, it just flowed and the landscape I’d envisioned of a Loch coastline just started to emerge.

I mainly buses a sponge and cloth to apply and winter oil paint. I used a pallet knife to add some of the finishing touches.

I think that the background paint was not white, it helped with the earthy tones I wanted to achieve.

Definitely in my happy place creating this one. I really like the muted tones.

I started by pouring/dribbling used engine oil on the board, then sponging it, following the directions of the drips.

Next step was making the paint from woad pigment. It was a bit gritty and didn’t apply well using a pallette knife, however when I used a sponge to wipe/apply it to the board. It it left a really nice shade of blue.

I was working on all three paintings at the same time so I didn’t have much in the way of left over paint needing to be stored in tubes.

This painting was very easy to layer and apply the different colours. I left negative space and used the white background to add to the highlights.

I didn’t base it on David Hockney, but it does remind me a little of some of his tree landscapes.

The idea of this is that I wanted to source my own natural pigments locally, that’s what I started to explore in my negotiated project. However, I’ve been beset by health problems – nothing serious thankfully, just enough to make juggling everything around doctor and hospital appointments was hard.

So I compromised, I sourced natural pigment powders and made my own paints using linseed oil from these.

My inspiration was the landscape of Scotland as it’s the one place I really feel at peace and calm when I holiday there. I needed to use muted colours.

Using the powders was not without uts own challenges. I found red madder really difficult, almost impossible to mix and I will in future grind it down into an even finer powder to use. Woad was also hard and it was very gritty. However, on researching the use of pigments and directions on how to make your own paints, Jackson Art supplies was extremely helpful for this. I found that some pigments are known for being grittier in texture.

I feel that everytime I approach my art and making my own paints, I will be continually learning.

My portfolio practice is about using reclaimed materials as a canvas. Whether that’s wood, or materials that can be used to make a canvas on a frame.

For these pieces I wanted to use reclaimed wood. I had an idea on the size and one was fairly easy to find as it was an offcut from the piece of work I did last year. Its a piece of mdf board, and already had acricly paint on it so the wood was already primed and the colours mad a great base layer for the image I had planned.

The second piece I wanted it to be as close to 1m x 1m as possible. Luckily there was an old piece of exhibition board that wat able to be repaired well enough to use again. This was also painted with emulsion, I decided to leave the marks and imperfections as they were, in the hope they will add rather than detract from the image.

The third bit of wood was some old wooden flooring. This was cut from our living room floor when we built our extension and had to match the new floor to the existing.

I am using an app called Trello to help me with my project management. It is relatively easy to use and follow. I can set up automated rules for my to do tasks and then mark them as complete once I’ve done them.

I don’t like adding lots of apps on my phone but I actually like how easy it is to use, and it syncs very smoothly and almost instantly with my laptop version.

The key here to its success is me remembering to update it. Which I will openly ad.it could possibly be my downfall.

16 March 2023

I am proposing to do one large piece of mixed media work that is based on themes of nature that mean a lot to me.   The landscapes of the Scottish Highlands are where I feel most at home and will be inspiration for the colour palette I choose.   I also feel that as I am establishing a sustainable art practice where I make my own paints, from natural resources some foraged, others purchased from sustatianable resources as much as possible.   I would like to represent wildlife as well.  As I am choosing the Scottish Highlands as my colour palette it makes sense that the Golden Eagle features as one of our endangered species.  

I will be making use of off cuts of hardboard and handmade paper some purchased from sustainable sources, and some will be homemade.   I am also looking at experimenting a little with used engine oil and application.   This is a nod to Jackson Pollock and his use of the pouring acrylics designed for the car industry.   The main medium I shall be using is linseed oil based paints and I will be experimenting with how to make up the colours and whether I can mix the pigments to create my own colours, rather than mixing the colour once the paint has been made.  Another technique I will be looking at is using egg tempra, these will either be smaller pieces to compliment my main piece of work, or even integrated in the larger collage.

I am committed to creating a portfolio of works that is made from re-purposed, re-cycled, re-claimed, home made mediums from natural and sustainable sources, either foraged or purchased.

I work better when I just get on and work through feel,  as yet I don’t have a final detailed image in mind, just the key items that I wish it to incorporate.  It will possible take on some inspiration from the fauvism, abstract and surrealism art movements.  Hopefully a nice blend of them all.

23rd February 2023

Due to the Portfolio module following on directly from our Negotiated Project, we had to write a review of our work.

My aim was to investigate being a sustainable artist using natural resources and reusing found, or waste materials. I wanted to move away from using mass produced artist materials and see how easy it is to create a piece of art using more sustainable products and methods.

I found some of the processes to be quite therapeutic, however it was very easy to etc myself get bogged down in how broad this subject matter was and a little lost in which direction I wanted to follow. Looking at how to make my own paints from natural pigments was the first hurdle. I really enjoyed this thought process yet quickly realised that the colour palette is very limited and some colours although available in nature and geology aren’t necessarily light fast or easy to source.

I was disappointed that I didn’t take more time in learning some of the techniques with the different paints egg, egg tempra, that would have made my paintings look less naive and have more pop with proper blending of colours and creation for tones and shadows.

However I was very I suited by final piece and will be investigating how to use waste engine oil and introducing colour and texture going forward.

I actually need to have more confidence in my own abilities and trust in the fluid processes a little more. I work a lot better once I do and my paintings sem to just flow from my own imagination and the heart when I do this.

I am determined to be a more sustainable artist ad make my own paints and find materials to work on and with. However, it isn’t going to happen overnight and in this first year I will buy in some of the pigments, and paper from sustainable and ethical sources. Make what I can and recycle what I can.

I think it’s very hard to change the way of working and practices immediately. It takes time to learn, understand, perfect and you also need to be able to experiment and have a lot of throw aways in order to learn. I struggle with allowing myself to experiment and be free. I struggle to make the time.

9th February 2023

This week is the launch of the Portfolio module. The aim isn’t consolidate what we have learnt during our Negotiated Project and expand on our creative practice.

The concluding outcome will be a piece or body of work that encapsulates that practice. With evidence of experimental outcomes, research and a million other things that just thinking about sends my mind into a kind of panicked overdrive.

In a little under 18 weeks I need to get it together, come up with a proposal, project plan and a finished outcome. I will be basing it around a sustainable art practice and that in itself is a challenge.