MATS BOOTCAMP MAIN ASSIGNMENT - PART 1

Monday saw the arrival of our main assignment for Bootcamp in our inboxes and the brief is to design journals. This gave me the perfect opportunity to concentrate on completing another piece for my website homepage: flowers in vases for the journal cover. I wanted to design a vase for my flowers with a Springtime theme to complement the magnolias.

We’re lucky enough where I live in Devon to occasionally spot little yellowhammer birds darting around. They seem to be shy little birds and so often it’s just a glimpse of their yellow underbelly, but they’re quite unmistakable. I find them absolutely captivating and get really excited every time I glimpse one! Sadly though, they’re on the endangered ‘red’ list here in the UK as their numbers have been declining rapidly in recent years. So, I decided a yellowhammer it was to grace my vase which obviously had to have a vintage feel to it!

It’s actually got me thinking that I might quite like to get into the ceramics room and hand-paint some porcelain, because I’d rather like this vase to grace my own home! The Blue is a deep ultramarine, another colour I have tended to use little of in the past and have fallen quite in love with!

I also had a play in photoshop with my original magnolia design and spurred on by a dear friend, created a repeat pattern.

Next, I will be concentrating on putting this image onto a journal cover and creating some hand-lettering for it, so off to work I go… but I’m nearly there, you never know I might actually have this one ready to submit early, which will be an absolute FIRST for Mats Bootcamp!

Mats Bootcamp February Mini - Magnolia's

I have always adored Chinoiserie, so much so that I would love to create my own. Imagine how utterly elated I was then, when I discovered that for this months mini exercise in Bootcamp my mission was to paint magnolia’s.

I decided for that reason that I’d like to keep my flowers for this assignment relatively representational and I thoroughly enjoyed getting back into my watercolour paints, after several months of learning new processes in the textile print room at college. I also decided to try two new colours that have been sitting in my palette all this time and yet I never use them!

Admittedly, I probably don’t have time to develop this into a Chinese style wallpaper design just yet, but most certainly have visions of coming back to it in future months.

Happy New Year 2019!

There is something so cathartic about this time of year. It always feels to me like the opportunity for new beginnings, a fresh start. There’s a lot of change ahead in this crazy world of ours, but may the coming year be full of joy, love, friendship and many blessings. Happy New Year!

Etsy On the Horizon ...

It has been absolutely sweltering hot in my little studio and since my windows don't actually open I have been slowly melting, add children's school holidays into the mix and the result is not a lot has been getting created!  However, I have been managing to rework some of my existing images in the cooler evenings while mulling over the idea of preparing to open an Etsy shop in the near future.  For now, here's my little folk tin with an update all of its own, including a new background!

Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search 2018

This years first round of the GTS is finally upon us!  We received the brief two weeks ago and deadline was today.  A journal cover which included; Japanese Anemones, Stag-horn Ferns, Hand Lettering and an optional figure.  I've been hidden away, immersed in creative bliss and enjoying every minute of the process and am pleased to have a new piece of work for my portfolio.  Meanwhile, the results of the first round will be published on Friday, along with the gallery of entries which promise to be a feast for the eyes.  There are only 50 artists chosen to get through to the next round and the standard of work is just incredible, I have been genuinely blown away as my Instagram feed fills up with visual gorgeousness.  The judges are going to have a difficult task ahead of them, I certainly would find it very hard to whittle down.  This is the stuff hopes and dreams are made of and I wish all of my fellow artists, many of whom are friends, the best of luck as we all hold our breath and wait until Friday!

Repeat Pattern in Blue & White

It's been 3 days since the snow came to Devon, the first snow in 5 whole years and our first ever 'Red' weather warning. Everything really came to a standstill, the UK isn't equipped to deal with these weather conditions. All the local schools closed, much to the children's delight and we now have igloos and snowmen scattered around the garden. In the meantime, I have taken the opportunity to stay warm and concentrate on learning about seamless repeat patterns in photoshop. I've taken some of the icons from my vase of flowers to make this repeat pattern to be used as wrapping paper with my Mothers Day card for Folio Focus. It's taken forever to learn, but I have finally achieved what a year ago, seemed like the impossible!