The first pieces of work I sold were small commissions for friends and family just before I went to college. However, it wasn't until after graduating that I waited to sell from my studio.
Open Studios in Cornwall is a twice-yearly event; a week in spring/summer and a weekend around Christmas. It's a brilliant way to discover new art, meet the creators and see where they work. The test was whether I would have buyers who were not friends and family. I set up an Etsy shop for artwork, a Spoonflower shop for my fabric and wallpaper designs and participated in Open studios where I had everything on display and it worked! I have also sold from galleries, private sales and art shops. Artists often go through stages of not knowing whether the process is right, working alone for long hours or when to stop and put down the tools. Feedback from my customers and photos of my work in situ is a reminder that it was worth sticking with it. I haven't sold on Etsy for a long time and I often debate whether to reopen my shop or upgrade and use my website. However, my Spoonflower shop is still open and hopefully, I can take part in more shows soon. Here is some feedback I have received: Arrived today, wonderful! I'm really happy with your work..so creative! Absolutely gorgeous - the photos show true colours, lovely detail, very pleased with my purchases. Beautiful piece of detailed, affordable art. Shipped on time and well packaged ...they had to be mine!! it's even more lovely in real life I couldn't stop thinking about it, I had to come back for it
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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: I have decided to start the new year by joining in with the 21 day art challenge set by Tara Leaver over on Instagram; you can sign up via Tara’s website or screenshot the prompts and get going. Most people are doing the challenge by posting photos to their Instagram page however, I decided to do it as blog posts and sharing links on my Instagram. I haven’t joined in an art challenge before but I had several reasons to join:
So the first prompt of the challenge is called A Favourite Painting. I’ve probably considered myself a painter since my last year at university; around 6 years ago when studying for my Ba Hons. It doesn’t feel that long ago but that’s a lot of paintings in that time! I find that whenever I’m working on a piece of work, whether in my sketchbook, on the table or at the easel, I will leave it on display for a while. It’s like leaving it to breathe; even if it’s already dry I’ll keep looking at it from various angles. Whatever I’m working on becomes the favourite; I’ll keep giving it attention, tweaking the composition, wondering whether I can call it finished and share it on my Instagram and Pinterest pages. However, if I’m creating a body of work I will lay out all of the pieces and pick a couple of favourites and some that I think don’t work now but could become something else by cropping or working over the surface again. One painting that will remain a firm favourite of mine is one that I no longer possess; I sold the painting at the private view of its showing and I’m really happy that someone now has it on display in their home than it being stacked with others in my studio. The painting is called Towards Zennor and is the canvas I exhibited at Tate Modern in 2019 (you can read about it here) it is mixed media on stretched canvas. This painting isn’t a favourite because it was exhibited and sold in London but because of the experience of creating it. Towards Zennor is one of many pieces made as part of a mentoring project I did with landscape artist Liz Hough; a colleague from when I worked at St Ives School of Painting. We drove just out of St Ives town to do some sketching up on the hills whilst following the journey artist Peter Lanyon made. The grey clouds were looming, it was biting wind and it felt like a race against time to do as much as I could before we had to run back to the car. We sketched in various spots between St Ives and Zennor and once I was back in the studio I started picking through all the pieces to see which pieces stood out to be worked from. This particular composition was created several times; the original in my sketchbook, the canvas, a mixed media on wood piece (also sold) and a piece on paper. All worked from the same sketches made onsite but all are different because of the creative process used for each, not all of them were intended to be finished pieces but its common to have several pieces as studies or prep work. When the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown came into place I was still working in the art gallery where we had the exhibition of Naum Gabo, Russian constructivist; “...the first extensive presentation of Naum Gabo's sculptures, paintings, drawings and architectural designs to be held in the UK for over 30 years. The exhibition marks the centenary of the Realistic Manifesto 1920, a set of pioneering artistic principles launched in Moscow by Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner. The statement declared that authentically modern art should engage with and reflect the modern age. ” - Tate St Ives During our time in quarantine, my colleague, Alice, decided to put together a film of the museum staff reading the realistic manifesto translated from Russian to English, not only marking 100 years since it was written but also how relevant it is today. The manifesto was originally written by Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner. I took part; it has been a joy and a privilege to be able to collaborate. It was really sad that the exhibition was missed by many and on my last day I found this written in the exhibition catalogue, I shared this to my Instagram: "Art should attend us everywhere that life flows and acts...at the bench, at the table, at work, at rest, at play; on working days and holidays, at home and on the road...in order that the flame to live should not extinguish in mankind" Naum Gabo, from Constructions for real life exhibition catalogue 2020 You can find out more about Naum Gabo here. References https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/exhibition/naum-gabo https://www.moma.org/collection/works/173291 text for gabo pic 1 …Naum Gabo Head No.2 1916, enlarged version 1964. The Work of Naum Gabo © Nina & Graham Williams / Tate. Photo: Kirstin Prisk. Happy New Year and happy new decade! I thought I would do a roundup of 2019 and what is instore for 2020 post. I don’t generally do resolutions as such but last year one of my goals was to be more active with my creativity. I didn’t have a clear set plan of what I was going to do or a timescale which sounds really rubbish, in fact I was very vague because my art has to fit around my job and family. I felt if I was too rigid and things didn’t go to plan I would feel too defeated. However I had some great successes last year and a few low lights but that’s to be expected, as they say; a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. I think it’s important to acknowledge what didn’t work rather than erase those bits and paint a ‘perfect picture’ for the world. I wrote about it here in my post 'How to deal with rejection as a creative practitioner'. In 2019 I was lucky to have 5 exhibitions in Cornwall;
When I went back to college I remember being nervous and telling myself several times I wasn’t good enough so to have exhibited and sold my work at Tate St Ives and Tate Modern were definite career highlights and experiences in 2019. The paintings I submitted for both Tate exhibitions were painted as part of a mentorship I did, one sold at the private view and the other about a week later! ‘From Trevalgon with Lanyon’ shown at Tate St Ives I had to take my artwork to London so I spent a few days there and also enjoyed the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, a few days is never enough though. I love London as it just opens my mind to more artists and I always come home with lots of new ideas. In February, many months before the exhibition at Tate Modern I went to see the Don McCullin photography exhibition at Tate Britain. This exhibition will be at Tate Liverpool 5th February – 6th May 2020. I know Cornwall has so many artists and galleries but it’s nice to get away from seascape themed artwork and look at different perspectives. So what’s the plan for 2020? I made a list a few days ago;
‘It all works out in the end, you just got to deal with the rejection every now and again’ This is something I have had to tell myself several times. Nobody likes rejection but you have to put yourself out there otherwise you will think about the ‘what if…’ With such easy access to what people are doing now through social media it’s easy to look through someone’s Instagram or Facebook page and think that other people are doing better but you have to remember it’s only the highlight reel; not everybody talks about the not so great stuff. I’m guilty of that too because if something goes well for me I want to shout about it because I feel good and there’s nothing wrong with that. There has been several times when I’ve said to myself or my friends: ‘I’m a rubbish artist’ ‘Nobody would want to buy this’ ‘Why am I wasting my time?’ ‘Maybe I should focus on having a ‘proper’ job’ I haven’t discussed these feelings on my creative social media account or about any of the rejections I have had as creative practioner. There have been a few I have experienced but not many people generally talk about it. I submitted photos and an artist statement to apply for an exhibition where a group of people rejected the whole proposal, no explanation of why and it hit me hard. I know several people on that judging panel and felt embarrassed. I had worked towards this for nearly a whole year and without the reason of why it wasn’t good enough I felt I couldn’t improve or progress, I wasn’t sure what to do other than cycle through those negative thoughts and feel stupid for putting all my eggs in one basket.. However later on I submitted two of the paintings for shows at Tate Modern London and Tate St Ives and they were successful! I had some amazing feedback, one sold at the private view and the other one sold the week it was on display. If I had let those negative feelings consume my thoughts I probably wouldn’t have tried to get in the Tate Gallery as that is a big step up from a small town independant venue. Only a couple of months after that I submitted a painting for an exhibition which wasn’t accepted. I felt a bit low but I did better to reason with myself; I had submitted one large painting rather than a couple of smaller ones where the gallery may have been able to squeeze one out of the two in, I took a risk which was better than not trying at all and wondering whether it would have been accepted. I sat at the bus stop with my large painting wrapped in a bin liner (not very professional but the reality is that I don’t have the funds for archival wrapping and a courier to take it for me). As I walked through the door feeling thankful that it had stopped raining long enough for me to get the painting home, my phone picked up the Wi-Fi and I received a message; a commission request! I went through quite a roller-coaster of emotions that day! I found a book at work in our Wellbeing box (so grateful for this) which really helped me and I recommend reading if you can get hold of it. The book is called Ways of Being by James Cahill, Advice for Artists by Artists and covers the early days being a student, getting their first shows, becoming successful, inspiration and lots more through short artist quotes. I do recall a few quotes that helped me and reminded me to just keep going with my art no matter what is going on in life and how busy I am, just do something creative every day. For me that can be just a quick sketch, discovering a new artist and making a note to look up more about them, supporting another artist by buying a print or book, visiting an exhibition, discovering images on Pinterest that sparks a new project…anything to just keep going. It helps to remember that:
If you need some more positivity, inspiration and reasons to keep on with your creative practice visit my Creative Help & Inspiration Pinterest board, save them to your phone, laptop, tablet or pin them to your own boards! This week Tate St Ives are hosting an exhibition showcasing the creative talents of its staff based on the theme environments. I am really pleased to have a painting on show! The exhibition also includes sculpture, jewellery, photography, painting, performance, film and more. The exhibition runs from 24 - 29 September 2019, Foyle Studio, Level 3. From Trevalgan with Lanyon by Stephanie Croydon My exhibition piece is mixed media on wood and was made during a mentoring session with artist Liz Hough. We went to a high point in St Ives to sketch; between rocks, fields and with the sea at the horizon. Nearby is a memorial plaque dedicated to St Ives born landscape artist; Peter Lanyon. Statement; 'The coast, woodland and the countryside are places I often use as inspiration to create, working outside directly in the landscape. Primitive places unoccupied by technology and consumerism; particularly up on the hills and in fields where the landscape still feels raw, still bearing traces of how our predecessors occupied and moved through the landscape'. 'I use these areas as a place for quiet contemplation, places where we can be still from the world. ‘From Trevalgan with Lanyon’ is taken from a larger body of work; Out West, and was created with the starting point of looking in more depth at the ancient Cornish landscape. Following Peter Lanyon’s map along the Penwith Coastline, I started from Trevalgan near Lanyon’s memorial plaque, information gathering directly taken from my surroundings'. 'Evolving from my previous work; looking at how the world touches us on an emotional level, working outside leads me to question our movement in the landscape at a time when it has become critical to question the future of our environment. How we move through the landscape every day; our footprint and the wider impact we are creating with consumerism, waste and the impact of climate change'. The private view was really busy and there were performances of music, poetry and other reading on the night. On Friday there will be another performance at 12.30pm by the wonderfully talented Alice Ellis-Bray which is not to be missed! The show has numbers next to each piece rather than text but there are sheets and a booklet available for visitors to find out which piece belongs to which artist, the booklet gives a short statement about each artist. The exhibition is family friendly and free with a paying ticket which will give you access to the rest of the galley. Modern Art and St Ives and Otobong Nkanga: From Where I Stand are the exhibits currently on show. Although this isnt a selling exhibition, there are no prices listed, I am happy for this piece to be displayed in a permanent home should a collector be interested. The exhibition is featured on the Tate website Whats On section HERE The instagram page for the exhibition which also features more artists can be found HERE I recently travelled to London from Cornwall to take my painting ‘towards Zennor’ to be exhibited at Tate Modern and spend a few days in the city. The exhibition was the Tate Staff Biennale by the Inside Job Collective and based around the theme of Movement showing work by collegues from all 4 Tate sites; St Ives, Liverpool, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. The exhibition was held on floor 5 of the Blavatnik building from 28th august – 3rd September 2019. The private view evening was really busy and although it wasn’t a selling exhibition my painting sold that evening and has now gone to its new home! In total 6,070 people visited the exhibition and was featured on the museum and heritage advisor website. The work varied from painting, sculpture, film, textiles, prints, photography and also workshops. I attended 2 of the workshops by my colleagues; Annabel who lead a cyanotype workshop and Sayra who lead a comic book making workshop. I interviewed Sayra recently in another blog post. There are more photographs on my instagram page. I have decided to run a meet the artist feature on my blog as I thought it would be a good idea to introduce how others found their pathway into the creative industry and what their niche is. I could just put this straight into my about section but to start the first post off I thought I would write briefly about my practice and my journey so you can see what to expect from future posts. If you would like to be a part of this drop me an email at [email protected]. My creative practice is mainly painting at the moment however I like to try different techniques and experiment particularly with textiles, printmaking, mixed media, sketching and fabric design. I work from a small studio from my home in Cornwall. My pathway into art started from a love of drawing as a child (I still have some of my childhood books with scribbles in) and art was my favourite subject at school. I did art at GCSE level with a predicted A grade but I never took my schoolwork seriously; too busy socialising, and I didn’t enjoy sixth form so I dropped out. I eventually came back to art much later when I started receiving commissions from family and friends and I was encouraged to see an art exhibition at the local college. I signed up to an access to HE course and I had to apply for University only 3 months into the course. I was really unsure about which degree to choose, I couldn’t decide between fine art or textiles and several people said I should do illustration, I was really confused. The degree I chose was Ba (Hons) Contemporary Creative Practice (now called Art & Design Practice) with Plymouth University. This degree is interdisciplinary; a combination of subjects which gave me the time I needed to start to define what my practice was and become more autonomous. At the end of my degree I went on to win a one year residency at Krowji studios where I focused more on painting and taking part in open studio events. My story or theme behind what I do is mainly landscape based. This exerpt is taken from a recent painting submission; 'The coast, woodland and the countryside are places I often use as inspiration to create, working outside directly in the landscape. Primitive places unoccupied by technology and consumerism; particularly up on the hills and in fields where the landscape still feels raw, still bearing traces of how our predecessors occupied and moved through the landscape. I use these areas as a place for quiet contemplation, places where we can be still from the world'. I grew up in South Yorkshire and my best childhood memories were playing in the garden and then going into the woods and other local nature places with friends. When I moved to Cornwall I was surrounded by a different sort of landscape plus the coast so I started to try and make connections as I put down new roots. I found a quote that stuck with me for a while; ‘to make visual how the world touches us’ by Merleau-Ponty, 1993. My last project ‘Out West’ looked further into this. I am inspired by other types of art such as street art, figurative, ceramics; if you follow my Pinterest account you will see it’s quite varied! The process from idea to finished piece starts with ‘information gathering’. This is mostly sketching outside but also collecting poems/words, being inspired by other artists/places, collecting images, visiting exhibitions, making notes. It can vary which keeps it interesting, then I’ll make a pile of all that I have collected and when I go through it I will pick bits that stand out and start experimenting with materials. The advice I would give to someone interested in working in this discipline/industry is to keep drawing, keep a notebook, sketchbook a file on your computer; whatever works for you and keep adding to this to develop your practice. Even if you don’t know what your practice is yet add to it regularly. I had to take a portfolio to my college interview so having a selection of sketches and paintings showed how I work but that there was potential for it to develop- it doesn’t need to be perfect. I also recommend following other artists through Instagram, it’s a great platform to be able to see other creative people and so many people use it as their ‘sketchbook’ as well as to sell their products. You can see my recent instagram images in the sidebar to the right. Even if college or university isn’t for you Instagram can really build your following and generate some commission work. Pinterest is good for finding different styles of work and ‘collecting’ and building boards as well as also sharing your ideas. Local libraries and book shops have lots of art books, if you prefer not to go down the digital or social media route. Attending exhibitions, reading creative magazines and articles and networking are all good for building up your knowledge and discovering opportunities. My inspiration is mostly landscape as I am surrounded by beautiful countryside and beaches but as I work in an art gallery and museum my introduction to other artists is increasing with each new exhibition. I also go to a lot of other local art exhibitions. I have started to look more into feminist and political art, buying books and researching online around this subject but I haven’t yet started to introduce this into much of my work. I have written a piece for a zine and I would like to be involved in doing more work like this. I think it’s important to go with what feels right; follow the path if it’s something that you are surrounded by or calls to you in some way. This year I have been involved in several exhibitions and I have a few yet to come which I am really excited about. So far this year I have exhibited at; The Sloop Inn; St Ives, Penwith Gallery; St Ives, Penlee House; Penzance University of Greenwich. This year I will be exhibiting at Tate Modern; London and Tate Gallery St Ives. I don’t have any big projects planned at the moment, just a few ideas I would like to finish off and I would like to reopen my Etsy shop to sell original small pieces to make room for new work in the studio. I am hoping to start writing more ‘How to’ posts on my blog but having some more in-depth tutorials that can be downloaded from Etsy as I don’t have the space to teach workshops from my home studio. My plan is to head up to London this month for my Tate exhibition and attend other shows whilst I am there for more information gathering. I am hoping that in the future I can exhibit outside of Cornwall more often and find work in a museum or gallery in London even if just a temporary placement for experience. I am really happy to announce that this year I will be exhibiting at Tate Modern, London! The exhibition is the Tate staff biennale and will be open to the public from 28th august – 3rd September; Level 6 of the Blavatnik Building of Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG Times do vary so check with the website first. "Responding to Tate Exchange’s theme for year 3, Movement, The Inside Job Collective have been invited to take over Tate Exchange and pull together the work of staff across all Tate sites into one exhibition. The exhibition showcases the often-hidden skills of staff members at Tate and allows you to see the impact of working with Tate’s collection has had on their practice". "Approaching the different strands of Movement through varying mediums, there will be a dynamic series of live performances, workshops, installations, film and 2D works, as well as an evening of specially curated music and performances from staff for the August edition of Uniqlo Tate Lates" -Tate website. Responding to the theme of movement I will be showing a black and white landscape painting. This painting is part of a bigger series called Out West and was made looking over towards Zennor from Travalgan, St Ives. I went sketching here with Liz Hough as part of a mentorship program with help from Cultivator Cornwall. This weekend I was interviewed by The Rebel Magazine about the exhibition and what this painting is about, you can read it HERE |
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