I'm not sure if other artists do this but...I (mostly) only name my paintings if they're going into a show! Unfortunately naming my work comes last, its a bit of an afterthought with some. I have used song lyrics, a poem, a feeling, something from a film, inspiration from a gallery or other place I have visited as my chosen name. I don't keep lists, (I now think I should), but I have an envelope of text I have cut out of an old book. I started cutting out the text and using it with a finished painting to create the narrative and its name. I still have lots of the cut-outs as they seemed too good not to use one day. However, my work is process-led, I have never chosen a cut-out sentence and made a piece of work to fit. Often, 'my practice pieces' come out as the best ones. The approach to my work and the process means I can't replicate the marks exactly.
Copying my practice piece tends to lose its 'essence'; it becomes stiff and flat. These practice pieces are usually in my sketchbook and that's where they stay. It becomes a library of time and skill development. However, recently I have been sharing these on my Instagram account. I have been naming my sketchbook work after the place of inspiration. The painting 'December Morning, Tehidy' was painted from a photograph I took one morning of a vivid sunrise through the bare-branched trees. The piece, 'Over the Hedgerow' is a viewpoint I often stop at on my countryside walk, over the hedgerow I often see a rabbit in the field and lots of wildlife around the Cornish hedge where I stand. Both of these are still in my sketchbook. See more of my images with narrative on the Krowji Residency page
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My reoccurring motif in my work is the tree. As a child, I always loved playing in the woods, as a teen I would hang around the woods with friends, now I enjoy having long walks and nature spotting with my family through the woods. It seems only natural that trees frequently appear in my landscape work. I tend to paint my trees in the distant and without foliage; silhouetted in the landscape, breaking up areas, adding to the composition. I should do more studies adding more detail and making them more of a feature of the work as part of progressing my creative skills. Here are some trees I have created: I knew I would enjoy this prompt when I saw it; I have many art books, exhibition catalogues, creative magazines, tattoo magazines, other informative books and novels. Photographing my bookcase made me realise the shelves are starting to bow, I’m not surprised. I love buying books. As a dyslexic person, I enjoy dipping in and out of art books or just reading a few pages in bed rather than sitting down and reading for a long time which I find hard to do in my noisy house anyway. For this prompt, it was too difficult to pick just one book. Some books I bought at university, some I bought for work research, some were left outside by my neighbours during lockdown; many of us made free boxes of books and puzzles, some books were gifts and some aren’t mine! I do know I need more storage. There is a bookshop by Tate Modern I highly recommend called Marcus Campbell Art Books stocking rare and second hand art books. My choice for this is Art and Artefact: The Museum as Medium
I bought this book to help with writing my dissertation; ‘An investigation into how museology has evolved, allowing artists to disrupt the narrative of the museum and the consequential engagement of the audience'. This book is full of artists who have used the museum to inform their work, site their work, history around the display, highly recommended. I work in a museum, however, the dream would be to work with collections in a big London museum. Kurt Jackson Place and Sketchbooks 2003 – 2004 I discovered Sketchbooks 2003 – 2004 at college and was at the starting point for my love of working with the landscape. I loved the way Kurt captured the Cornish landscape before I was a painter but the book was out of print. Eventually, I found a second-hand copy and ordered it. When the book arrived, I discovered the book had belonged to a local library, made its way to Scotland for a while and then back home to Cornwall to me. It is signed too! I bought Place after seeing the exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro. The idea behind the work resonated with how I used the landscape in my practice; painting landscapes where we have a connection, nostalgia and a sense of identity. Jeremy Gardiner I discovered Jeremy's work at University. This book contained art based around Cornwall as well as other places. I was creating landscapes on broken pieces of wood and layering media as part of the process. Although Jeremy worked with different materials on board, I was fascinated by the results of his abstract layered landscapes. Peter Lanyon At work, I spend many hours admiring the Lanyon paintings. They contain so much information and hidden messages and motifs in their compositions even though Lanyon’s style and approach changed over time. I have many Lanyon books; I bought this book, now out of print, whilst working on Out West. Catherine Hyde, The Hare and The Moon I’m not sure when I discovered Catherine’s work but I had this book bought for me a year ago, I knew I had to have it when I spotted it whilst Christmas shopping. The style of work is a little more illustrative than my usual inspirations. The connections to the seasons and how the land can change piques my interest, especially as I am fascinated with pagan traditions and ancient lands and nature which Catherine captures beautifully. Robert Macfarlane, Underland I have read Roberts books The Old ways and Landmarks so when I saw this as a new release, I immediately reserved it at my local library. However, I was borrower number 60+ in the queue to read it and as I’m not a fast reader I couldn’t get through it before it was someone else’s turn to enjoy it. I requested the book for Christmas so I can enjoy it at my own pace. For a long time, my interest has been what grows and lives near the surface. I have owned and borrowed books on archaeology and evolution (I love Time Team and history documentaries). Now I’m interested in exploring what is underneath and allowing that to take a new dimension within my work. Did you know the term 'shelfie' is a thing now? My rainbow Shelfies: For my second post in the ‘Meet the Maker’ series I had the opportunity to put forward some questions to my colleague Sayra Begum who will also be at Tate Modern for the staff biennale 28th August to 3rd September. CAN YOU GIVE US AN INSIGHT INTO YOUR CREATIVE PRACTICE? I would class myself as an illustrator. Since graduating from Falmouth in 2016, I’ve been focusing on one project, Mongrel. I started writing Mongrel on my MA and it’s been the focus of my creative energy since. I have around 100 pages left to illustrate and I’m hopping it will be released in Spring 2020 by Knockabout Comics. WHAT WAS YOUR PATHWAY TO THIS; HOBBY, A WORKSHOP, EDUCATION, SOMETHING ELSE INSPIRING? I became really fascinated with graphic literature in my third year at Plymouth. I was comparing Islamic manuscripts with graphic novels, using the broad definition of Islamic art. The pages either had to be based on Islamic culture, set on Islamic land or have characters that belong to the Islamic world. For example I compared pages from Marjane Satrapi Persepolis to The Ta'rikh-i Alfi, (History of a thousand years). Both these pages communicate horrific scenes of violence but Satrapi’s story telling is from a personal perspective. The following year I became obsessed with women’s life writing in comic book form. I was interested in why so many women were turning to the medium to share such personal and honest stories when the medium has a long history of being male dominated. I researched the story telling devises the medium had to offer to creators and the drawbacks. And so inevitably I chose to share my own story in the graphic novel format, that’s Mongrel. I couldn’t help noticing in both lines of research how the purpose of sharing auto/ biographical stories had evolved from providing people with an exemplary life, how we should aspire to live such as the life of The Prophet and Jesus, to sharing frank stories of everyday life. Something that’s more relatable to make us feel less awful about ourselves by that someone else has been through the same or worse. The Modern obsession with impurity. INFLUENCES IS THERE A STORY OR A THEME BEHIND THE BRAND/MAKER? In my work I’m interested in exploring auto/biography with a focus on female and marginalised voices. I use personal narrative to provide a way in for the readers to experience a place, a way of life, a world which may not be familiar to them. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR PROCESS FROM IDEA TO FINISHED PIECE AND DO YOU WORK FROM HOME, OUTSIDE OR A STUDIO? In my home I have a little studio room where I have my large drawing table and desk, amongst all my other arty possessions. I’m really grateful that I have my own space to get away and focus. My process starts in word doc. Not very exciting I know. I start writing the script, what each character is saying, directions for my future self when planning the layout and illustrations. At this point I’ll also be working from lots of scrap bits of paper when I’ve come up with ideas of what to include in the book. In the next stage, I’ll start creating thumbnails, using the thumbnails to decide the pacing of the story, the layout and very rough outline of what I want happening in the panels. I will then create a clearer draft, developing the initial layout and illustration in thumbnails. The drawing will become a lot clearer so other people can decipher what’s going on. Finally, it’s pencilling the illustration, darkening the outline, shading, scanning it into Photoshop to clean up then, dropping it into InDesign and placing the text. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE INTERESTED IN WORKING IN THIS DISCIPLINE/INDUSTRY? It takes a lot of hard work and persistence. You’ve probably already heard that a thousand times but it’s true. You will have to really love what you do to ride out the difficult journey and get to the publication point. ARE THERE ANY ARTISTS/MAKERS YOU ADMIRE, WHAT IS YOUR INSPIRATION? There are so many illustrators that I am influenced by … Marjane Satrapi, Craig Thompson, Lynda Barry, Dominque Goblet, Phoebe Gloeckner… And Persian Miniatures… TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SAYRA YOU CAN CLICK THROUGH THESE LINKS Website |
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