Bookmark

I had a bit of a clear out this week. (Not too much Mum, don't get excited), but I didn't manage to clear half a cupboard in the sideboard which I fully intend to fill with art supplies currently cluttering up every available surface.

I must admit it did feel good and I vowed to tackle next the spaces filled with yellowing paperbacks. It's just it's not quite so easy to part with magical prose... and I will read them again... probably... someday...

Thank heavens for my Kindle I say. In the same way that iTunes has prevented CDs from taking over the house, this flat little electronic device is saving my home from turning into the British Library. And while it's not quite the same as holding paper in hand, it more than makes up for it on the ease of use and storage.

All Kindle need to do now is create some digital bookmarks and I'll be a happy bunny. Maybe they could start by using one of these I made earlier... for the Artist Playroom.

I make a lot of digital bookmarks. I love to chop up my work in PhotoShop to focus on the finer details or layer up a new look for an older image.

Recurring dream

I'm either back at University and it's the end of term or I need to pack up to return from holiday. The trouble is... I seem to have amassed an enormous amount of... well... stuff! But it's mainly books. Hundreds of books weighing down shelves, under the bed, inside cupboards. Words and pictures. Academic, children's picture books, fiction.... there's no rhyme nor reason. Well, there probably is among that pile. I'm sure I spotted a book on the romantic poets the other day.

So, there I am in this dream and on a deadline. I need to move out, load up the car, but I have nothing to put all these books in and no space to transport them. I can't bear to part with them. I panic, I rush, I wake up...

Amy prompted us to creatively depict our dreams for The Butterfly Effect. It's been a bit of a week, so this quick digital play is all I've had time for this week, but if I didn't get to make at least one piece of art this week I was going to fade away! I'm lacking in energy and willpower, so will quickly post and link this, then I'm off to bed.. Night night....

The books are coming to get me..... Help!!!!

A moment

In the last couple of  years I have amassed a steadily growing collection of books on art and creativity, mixed in with a few copies of gorgeous Stampington magazines and copies of Uppercase - I've even read some of them.

I found myself enjoying a 'moment' a few nights ago. I had gathered a stash of these weighty tomes from various points around the house where they had accompanied me on my thoughtful meanderings. As I was about to return them to their home in my bedroom, that little dreamer inside me (who hates tidying up) thought my time would be better spent having another browse.

So, I sat on my fluffy marshmallow duvet surrounded by the paintings of Waterhouse and Froud and instruction and inspiration from my art heroes. I sank into a deep bliss of contentment. Art makes me happy. Books make me happy. Life is good.

Happy spells

Well, it's Friday and tradition has it that I write a Happy Friday post.

I am sitting here with quite a glow about me. Following on from Wednesday's declaration to start exercising again I am fresh from quite a workout. My joints have been a-creaking and a-groaning but it felt so good. Those muscles sure needed a stretch. I had intended to start on Wednesday but work was a bit too busy to take time out at lunch, then we went out in the evening. Yesterday I left the house at 7.15am and returned at the same time pm and crawled over the doorstep, so no leaping about last night! Excuses I know... I shall have to be stricter with my time management and not allow complete and utter exhaustion to get the better of me! Ha! Some hope...

I remember when Fridays meant wild nights out. These days it's usually a struggle to stay awake past 10 o'clock. I can't even enjoy a glass of wine without it knocking me out.

I'll tell what put a spring in my step this week though. I was thrilled to bits to be featured on Victoria Pettella's art blog - Enchanting the Invisible. She put me in her creative spotlight. I feel quite humbled to be such illustrious company. Victoria (aka Kiki) paints mystical figures and weaves enhanchments with her words.

Have you read 'Garden Spells' by Sarah Addison Allen? I really think you should... It's quite magical - just remember never to eat any of those apples though! I've had my nose immersed in it all week just before bedtime. I could probably have finished it much sooner, but I was enjoying my nightly excursion to Bascom so much that I wanted to prolong my little holiday for as long as possible. Can anyone recommend anything similar?

I posted a giveaway yesterday to spread my happy, so do join in if you are interested. I'm inviting for you to share one (or more!) of your favourite artists to help feed my voracious appetite for inspiration and creative loveliness.

I took this picture last summer, but it seemed perfect for this post - I added a few spells in photoshop :)

This, that and the other

I wanted to blog tonight. I was having withdrawal symptoms. I was also having 'can't think of anything to write' syndrome.

In search of inspiration, I grabbed my not-very-well-thumbed copy of the Art Spirit by Robert Henri. It's a series of notes, letters and ramblings about art. The first quote that jumped out at me (err the truth is it was about the fifth - but where's the story in that?) was this:

"Ever since the beginning there have been artists who have found in the simple life about them the wonderful and the beautiful, and through the fact of this inspiration have sensed the way to make the combination of form and colour we know as art."

Well, knock me down with a feather (a big one) if that wasn't just what I was trying to get at in my previous post (if a little less poetically).

While I'm on a ramble - for it seems this is becoming one - let me tell you about a giveaway on another blog... Now the trouble with telling others about this is naturally that it reduces my chances of actually winning. However, I do like this author and I think you will too, so pop along and visit a funny lady from Australia - a big round of applause for... Comic Mummy. (See, told you I would give you a plug if you were a good girl!).

Finally, very excited that my most recent art purchase dropped through t'letterbox today. The Drawing Lab. I'm off to scribble...

This blob may become something... or it may not... I was using up some spare paint on my palette. In the spirit of Robert Henri (and indeed my previous post), I'm seeing primeval predator or just a curious cat. I guess we'll have to wait and see...

The Cool Hunter

I can't quite believe I never knew of this site's existence, but there you go - I guess we can't know everything!

So, readers, why not step inside a world of creative inspiration this very day and let this team of 'cool' hunters take you on a culture safari that is definitely outside the box. Open up your mind to the colour, design, innovation and originality of art, offices, architecture and lifestyle.

I was directed to the site as part of a project I am working on for an office move - we're opening our minds to what makes a unique and special work environment and there are some wonderful examples here. Some require six figures, but there are plenty of others that any business could adopt - whatever their budget. Thinking differently, after all, is free!

The pic I used was a personal favourite. Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather's offices in Guangzhou offices. Imagine how much more creative your output would be having a meeting in that room compared to the usual grey box we think sufficient for extracting innovation from the deepest, sleepiest corners of our mind. I remember a few years ago I was working for Siemens. I hadn't been there long when I was invited to a communication session where the Board encouraged us to feed back on what we thought about the company. Without really thinking I piped up "Can't we do something about all this grey. The walls, carpets, furniture - they're all grey (a lot of the people were too, but I did resist mentioning that). It's like working on a battleship..." I did wonder if it was perhaps a career-limiting move but you know what, they did actually listen. OK, so the result was a only a few splashes of colour here and there - but better than nothing I say, better than nothing.

Anyway, I digress. From the cool office spaces showcased on the site, I naturally couldn't resist a quick peek at the art page. Go take a look - some wonderful stuff!

Today was also 'exciting post day'. I just love shopping online and then coming home to find that cardboard wrapped, book-shaped package on your doormat! So, I will settle down later for a browse through Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachary and maybe get through the first hundred or so of 1000 Artist Journal Pages. I also have a further confession to make - and I blame Natasha May for this one (in a nice way of course). I sort of bought another art book which hasn't arrived yet. You see, she wrote a lovely blog post reviewing her favourite art books and this one called Drawing Lab kind of caught my eye (and my credit card). So, I just sneaked onto the Book Depository and it forced me to buy it - I swear it did... Honest!

Getting into the spirit

I once started a book group. It was at work. I made some posters, sent out emails and got a fair few people signed up. I can't remember who chose the first book, but I suspect it was probably me - His Dark Materials by Philip Pulman. It was a cracking read. I arranged the first meeting and the grand total of one person, other than myself turned up, and she hadn't even read the book yet. That was the end of that book group.

Efforts since then have been considerably more successful. Last year saw my gleeful and enthusiastic participation in the Wreck this Journal Group run by Jamie Ridler. What incredible fun that was and who knew that it would be the start of such a wonderful creative journey and the introduction to some lovely new friends?

The Joy Diet followed, but like most diets, I fell of the wagon near the end. It was fun while it lasted though and in particular I just loved reading what everyone else felt and then jumping up and down with glee when they felt the same as me (in other words, I was pleased I wasn't alone in my strange attitudes!).

New Year means new books and, even better, new groups. I have to admit though that I have a whole cupboard full of books I haven't read yet. It's not that I don't read, in fact I've usually got several on the go at once, it's more that I just can't resist... Yesterday for instance I was walking past a charity shop and saw a sign in the window - ALL BOOKS 50P - well, how could I say no? It would have been rude and uncharitable not to (picked up a Barbara Erskine, Valerio Massimo Manfredi and a touring guide to Britain full of lovely maps which I suspect will be finding their way into my artwork sometime soon).

So, back to the Groups. I am now reading The Art Spirit by Robert Henri and hope to have submitted my application in time for another Jamie Ridler extravaganza - The Happy Book. The latter is a mailaround project with each participant having the book for just one week before passing it onto the next.

The Art Spirit is a bit like having a bona fide famous painter giving you lessons in the privacy of your own home. There's no pictures, no colour guides or step by step painting building. It is simply written advice and shared wisdom. Interestingly, there aren't any chapters or any form of index - it just sort of rambles and is really a collection of letters, essays and articles written by the great man. I find this slightly odd, but by the same token it does mean that this is a book that you can just dip in and out of at your leisure. I've only read the first few pages so no proper post on my thoughts or progress yet but watch this space...

I'll leave you with a quote from the book to have a ponder over.

"For an artist to be interesting to us, he must have been interesting to himself. He must have been capable of intense feeling, cand capable of profound contemplation.... Nature reveals to him, and , seeing and feeling intensely, he paints, and whether he wills it or not, each brush stroke is an exact record of such as he was at the exact moment the stroke was made."

Robert Henri