Spent many sunshine hours studying the patterns and textures of the plant life of Lanzarote over the xmas holidays. I used a really restricted colour palette, and went into real experiment mode using seawater to smudge stuff ,and using colour in new ways to fill a whole sketchbook. Working prolifically like this is great practise in not being too precious about mark making.
undoubtledly this work will end up in a mural somewhere in the world at some point but i'm in no rush.
Sketching and painting with my mum for the last 3 weeks has been great fun and a great learning curve too.!
Getting back into the feel of looking properly, seeing better and most importantly bonding through drawing. It's all good practise
Got a bit focused on the 14 x14 cm sized digital canvas this past few weeks and the result was this mix of old and new designs on blank greetings cards. i'm sorry i don't have an online shop:
Why i don't have an online shop:
If anybody has ever worked in a medium to large sized company that works with products, that has different departments, for example Marketing, Sales, Production, Dispatch, and Human Resources. It is clear to see that these different roles are filled by very different types of people. It is glorious that we live in a time when we can all identify and apply our varied skill sets in an individually recognised way like this.
Each of these stages within the job of making and selling a product, requires specialist types of space, or equipment, or training and knowledge. And of coursedepending on the size of the company, each requires time. Yes the HR department works full time, the production department works full time, the marketing and/or WEB department is full time actually no it is EXTRA and OVER time because the web never sleeps.
For each piece of creative work, be it music or art, in analogue or digital form. once it has got to the stage of being enjoyed by you, (the viewer/listener/ buyer if we're lucky), it has gone through numerous stages other than simply being dreamt up by the creator. hours and hours of the other work involved with getting creative work "out" . The online side of things is compulsory these days and finding extra time tobuild/attend/update the web as well as concentrating on making is pretty difficult. especially if you are not that type of character.
I really really like making pictures, and i really really like working in production. I always have. factory work and repetitive/boring actions over and over, enough to make me mad or at least a bit angry and then out the other side, totally at peace with the world. is my thing. This is why i've always liked repro-graphics, screen-printing, painting in-fills of tiny pattern over large spaces alongside my main " bottom-rung" employments of t-shirt printing and folding, lifeguarding and factory work.
I COULD design my own online shop, i COULD start andrun my own design company i COULD start my own food blog i COULD do a hell of alot of things because if you know me you know i am goddam determined, organised and bossy enough. As well as lucky enough to have these options availbale to me. But i can't sacrifice the precious time i have for making. the simple and necessary repetition of production work. Making, that requires patience and commitment and yes most of all patience. this is what i need to practise and what will nourish me, more than making £2.50 a time selling cards.
Because time and space and inspiration hardly ever come all at the same time.
My fellow foody art friend at Falmouth uni has reminded me of the joy of collage!
See more of Julias awsome collage work on instagram HERE
I have a new desk andmy most recent extra-curricular cooking spree for indigo herbs has shown me that chopping up and organising ingredients is not unlike chopping up stuff for collaging.
RE-creating leafy patterns from printy left overs. fun quick and tasty. like a salad.
I just spent the last weeks of summer , stopping traffic in the industrial end of Glastonbury whilst painting this 15m mural .
inspired by, and with support from my job at Indigo Herbs, i attempted to design an effective repeat tile using images of some of my favourite superfoods and herbs to cheer up this bleak part of my town..
Once i'd decided to hide a message inside the mural, the repeat got left behind and i concentrated on my subliminal font.
A first for me to use such large lettering and a message within my work.
Super stoked to have found this space, and the time and support to paint big again as its been a while and ginko biloba is just the coolest damn leaf shape ever xx
FINAL PICS TO FOLLOW
http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/glastonbury-artist-faye-suzannah-paints-mural-inspired-by-power-of-plants-and-herbs/story-29739106-detail/story.html#kHRb5Gcw1SwuCyL5.01
Have just finished this epic bathroom transformation! My back hurts but i couldn’t possibly be any happier with the result!
Have just finished this epic bathroom transformation! My back hurts but i couldn’t possibly be any happier with the result!
I am so thrilled that i will get to walk barefoot on this pattern for years into the future.
5 years ago i roughly sanded the wooden floor and filled the gaps inbetween the floorboards with bathroom silicone sealer in order to make a complete surface for pattern-designing.
The wave pattern was rushed and had all kinds of hairs stuck in it! i used basic masonry paint and didn’t plan very well which meant the room was still totally in use whilst i was painting and the edges got smudged and started to chip off even before the paint was dry.
This time around, with a few years more pattern-design and paint experience under my belt, i went all in with the prep. Sanding all over again and priming the floor boards with multiple coats of solvent based Universal Surface Primer.
The design was formed from a repeat tile taken directly from my recent times spent in North Africa, i transffered the tile design repeatedly via good-old tracing paper and pencil, and painted with water-based eggshell paint which i managed to find in the most delicious shades.
I get asked ALL THE TIME what paints i use and it varies a lot from place to place whichever emulsions are available to colourmix. Although i am still very faithfull to many of the Dulux colours as a handful of them have become my "pallette" without realising.
But Valspar have been very kind to me in the past and sell 250ml masonry paint colourmixed for £2.25! cant argue with that.
Another brand i cant argue with is Polyvine varnish. their waterbased emulsion varnish is available in many diy and trade stores and is so damn easy to apply with a clean roller over almost anything i paint. Here are some photos 7 years apart of an exterior south facing wall in Camden London where i have applied the ( interior!) varnish to only just beyond the painted skulls.
This is not an endorsement although sure as hell sounds like one! i was just genuinely impressed with this!
For a week in July i worked with 7 other painters in a freshly renovated building in the heart of Shoreditch East London. We were painting the designs of Israeli Artist Ivo Bisigano all over the walls ceilings and staircases whilst the polish builders were in. This building will open in September as Londons first pay-by-the-hour work/ofice/meeting space cafe/bar. With walls like a nightclub.!
I battled with my own ego in part of a team on such a hectic project and also battled with my own adrenal glands waking up way to early to catch morning swims in heated luxury lidos before these long days on hands and and knees. This week brought up a lot of memories of my old london life and even more sentiments about the years i spent sleepless living there , high and anxious 24/7 on the endless possibilites and expectations of each one of the 11 million resients of the city.
Happier than i've ever been to return to my home in the country having had the chance to paint big and fast on behalf of somebody else and fry my brain with the city buzz knowing it would come to an end.
https://www.facebook.com/shoreditchplatform/
Some recipes of mine published online. i would show more pics but i'm afraid of turning into a food blogger
https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/goji-and-cranberry-chutney
https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/fennel-iced-tea
https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/super-healthy-tomato-ketchup
https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/moreish-mushroom-pie
https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/perfect-pumpkin-pie
Brexit, 18 hr shifts,extreme mud, and no sleep all mixed in together made for a wonderful festival weekend for me this year. Have you ever noticed that times of struggle enhance unity?
of the 110 hrs onsite, 60 of them were spent working and i couldn't have been happier. Content in one small corner of a huge temporary city full of people who all struggled together to survive.. and have the time of their lives.
Painted a few signs too. but that's not why i was there.
i worked selling drinks out of this window with these guys and shared the love.
Space, lines, time alone. A proper holiday in the basque country to aid my creative recovery.
Art brain won't get started again after i fried it with screen-printing last month!
In 2006 i spent the longest, warmest, most reflective 6 months of my adult life walking/skating/swimming the streets of Bilbao whilst on a Eurasmus exchange programme at the UPV Leioa.
In that time i was drawing constantly, producing over 200 postcard sized drawings and sending many of them by post to my loved ones in various corners of the world. i collected these up, complete with correos( postal) stamps and grub and marks to tell tales of their journey.
Exhibiting this series of drawings at Bristol UWE in may 2006 did not go well as i had left my heart and brain on the beach in Algorta. i forfeited any completion of any degree course in exchange for as many spanish speaking summer days skateboarding in La kantera as possible. And i don't regret this one bit.
This year i went alone without my board or my camera and the lighest handluggage yet.. and sat and listened to old and new vocabulary in Castellano float over me, sat in the sun in silence, and drew shapes.
I felt the simplicity of line drawing was delicious after the print process id got so involved with in April.
Here are some of the original screen-prints i made for the Paper Gallery show.
I work over-printing on many sheets of paper at a time, almost a collage approach, arranging the shapes as they come in waves of varying colours inbetween cleaning off my screen.
i forget to breathe whilst i'm doing this. which may explain why it has taken me so long to recover from the whole exhib process!
Etsy shop of these prints and others coming soon...ish.
Faye Suzannah Vs Hidden Temple exhibition was a success! a great evening followed by a raucous birthday tapas meal was a great end to a manic week.
We went in blind hanging the show, unaware of how our work looked together and were pleasantly suprised to see that between us we had actually produced a very cohesive and varied body of work. Our graphic styles and similar imagery matched wonderfully. ! nice one mate!
Although other areas of life had to take a back seat for a few weeks whilst i did some serious hours in the studio. I have never been happier than when i was printing away for days on end at my desk with a real end result in sight and rushing around like a loon with Sam buying picture hooks and finishing skateboards off 10 mins before the van arrived..
I had a chance to say this around the tapas table but i missed it. That i feel so so lucky to spend time with, and proud of everyone i know that is working HARD doing exactly what they love, running their own businesses and projects and following dreams, riding the freelance wave... It is not the easy road thats for sure. Working on what you love doing GIVES you energy rather than draining it. It is energy that spreads, and is priceless.
Thanks everyone
2 weeks to go untill we hang our show. Me and Sam Witts AKA hidden temple clothing are DEAD excited to have the chance to exhibit our work in the centre of bristol!
Paper arts Gallery Broadmead BS66AS
We have been working towards exhibiting old paintings and prints as well as getting all inky hand having fun making new work on paper. Will also be a chance to show of the samples of my patterned products made by US company Society6.
The show runs for a week, and on the eve of the 12th we will be laying on drinkies not only to celebrate being real artists, but celebrating our 32nd birthdays.
http://paperarts.org.uk/faye-suzannah-paper-gallery-interview/
