Inspired by ... Jennifer Judd McGee

The Magical Journal Journey continues again in 2014 as myself and eight other artists continue to send our books around the globe to share our art.

This year our theme is Inspired by... Each of us chose an artist we love and that we felt would provide suitable creative lessons to our friends. We are studying their work closely then producing our own from the inspiration gleaned

I took Matisse as my maestro. Kat Wright, whose journal I received first, chose a living artist who fresh, lively and fun work she felt truly drawn to. Jennifer Judd-McGee is passionate about nature and her patterns.

Now, here is confession time. I looked at her work and thought it would be easy to create something inspired by it. I couldn't have been more wrong! I laboured long and hard to create this first spread. I pulled my hair out as nothing quite sat right next to each other or fit. I pulled off collage and layered more. I swore... I know, naughty me... I got really angry when my base layer of book page came unstuck too!

Things got a bit better on the other side, but I still wasn't entirely happy:

But then finally I felt I got into my stride. I stopped looking too closely at Jennifer's work and let my Muse pull the strings. We'd soaked ourselves in JJM tea and now it was simply time to pour.

It's a fine line to tread between copying the style and being influenced it - "making it your own" as TV talent show judges are so fond of saying! I'm not entirely sure where this work ended up but it was a challenge from which I learnt about the power of the line, the 'doodle', positioning and colour choice.

 

I loved the organic shapes of her work and the simplicity which hid a carefully planned composition.

 

Jennifer Judd-McGee - I am your newest fan!

 

Final part of the project promises to be the most nerve-wracking - we are collaborating on painting the covers of the journal. I guess I was lucky to have a blank canvas so didn't have to put anything over anyone's work. Although, I did cover up Kat's painstaking layers of gesso with a sheet of paper I had created a mono-print on... Sorry Kat!

 

 

I wonder what my artist friends will add to this! I felt it was the kind of background Jennifer would approve of!

 

Before I go, I thought I'd also share these greetings cards made once the inspiration was fully flowing through my veins.

 

 

 

Getting in a scrape

The white streak stood out starkly against the shocking red background. It looked like a heavily laden brush had swept across. It might have made a rather interesting abstract... had it not been the door of my car which I'd just scraped against a pillar in the car park...

Kat is inviting us to use what stressed us today for inspiration in our writing. I was torn between the lack of my parking skill, the two and half hour journey to work and not having opportunity to draw breath the entire day, then there was the rushing home to pick up my son from swimming only to find he hadn't gone because he'd managed to lose his kit since this morning... It was tough to just pick one!

I did try and start this post with a different flavour and see the bright side, but found myself getting a soaking in the draglines of the day. I guess I am tired, but it is so long since I've had time to blog that I can't forego the opportunity.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, a scrape here and there is but a mere drop in the ocean of trauma. In fact, thinking about it, I feel better already! I've been rather busy this past week - I've even globe-trotted all the way to Madrid and back for a little Spanish fiesta time.

I have also managed a little paint flicking as antidote to the hectic nature of my days. Nothing much to show for it yet - just rather a lot of amazingly therapeutic backgrounds that require little concentration and much wild abandon (a bit like my parking!).

I could have posted a photograph of my nicely scraped car with ruined paintwork, but that would be too much of a gentle self torture. Instead, I thought recreating it in PhotoShop was the way to go. Can you see why I got just a tad annoyed with myself this morning?

In hot water

"Polly, put the kettle on" laughed Gran as if it was the first time she'd ever used that line on her. Polly flicked angrily at the switch and flounced off in the best kind of huff a 16-year-old can manage. The empty kettle growled and sizzled in protest before gasping its last. It wouldn't be making any more tea that day.

In exasperation, Polly, gasping for a hit of caffeine, unhooked the dusty copper kettle that was hanging above the cooker hood. It was supposed to be purely decorative she guessed, but needs must. Gran's friend Elsie had just turned up too and everyone knew she could drink Starbucks dry. Boiling water was called for and now. Being 16, she'd not quite formed the common sense that would stand her in good stead throughout adulthood. Heating water in a saucepan or the microwave just didn't pass conscious thought in a brain full of dreams of pop stars and overpaid footballers.

She dusted it off with a white tea towel, giving it a quick Aladdin-style polish - no genie, but quite a bit of grime on the cloth. She shoved it behind the fruit bowl, grabbing a quick grape, and headed for the sink. The spout was really narrow so she'd have to remove the lid. No easy task, it seemed rusted on. Did copper rust? Sophie wasn't sure - chemistry lessons were usually spent mooning over James Tindal. She had a real Twilight Bella and Edward in the science lab fantasy going...

Just as well sexy vampires were invading her mind as otherwise the water wouldn't have missed the now open hole in the top of the kettle and run all over her arm. Then she wouldn't have looked down and seen what was lying quietly inside the innocent kettle. A yellowed newspaper was wrapped in a parcel around something.

She pulled it out and opened up the crisp paper, noticing the date went back about 25 years. Someone had doodled across the top of the page Kaz ♥ Dan T.LA. It looked like her Mum's writing... Surely not? Since when had her Mum - Karen - been known as Kaz?

Polly turned her attention to the contents of the parcel and almost dropped it in shock. A red packet of rizlas, a couple of tired looking cigarettes and something hard and brown wrapped up in crackly cling film...

Polly smiled the kind of smile only a 16-year-old can smile when she discovers her straight-laced mother's long-forgotten drug stash...

Another prompt from Kat Wright's Ticc Tocc. A 10 minute exercise of the imagination with a copper kettle. What surprising thing might you find inside?

Why not join us and share the secrets of your subconscious. It doesn't have to be writing - anything creative goes!