Banana canopy

I always find it so hard to know what to write about mural painting! it is such an up and down process ( quite literally) that when i get to the reflecting part after i’ve finished a project i’m a bit lost for words.

I have had my eye on this wall for years and everything was perfect about this job…it fit into my complicated life schedule perfectly and the main research i had to do into painting banana leaves, i could do in my garden during naptime.

Eventually i’m realsing now that i will stop referring to all of the ways and reasons i used to do my art work pre-baby. because life is certainly not as simple as “ before” and “after” .

It still feels like it now.. that pre-parenthood i had more time, more energy, more inspiration, more space in my mind to procces stuff effectively, more space in my house to process stuff effectively ….. this means that everything i achieve these days feels AMAZING because for at least a year i was just drowing in nappies and couldn’t see a way out, nevermind locate my sketchbook.!

But those measurements of space time and money only applied up untill 2018. It’s not helpful to reffer to how things “used to be” as the chances are , that children or not, you’ll never live that same life again.

This wall has helped me see the way out of the dark place that was the first year of mumming. it was like the universe ( or kim von coels) sent it to me to say…..

“you’ve still got it”

Thanks to all involved

fshhhhhhh

Creative block/ baby brain/ PND whatever you want to call it has had me in a right pickle over the past year.

I knew the clouds were clearing when i found the time and space to paint this in the corner of my “art-room” and hand it over officially to my daughter.

she sleeps in this coral reef corner and her first word was definitely Fshhhhhh.

india series

I painted these 3 large paintings in 2013 and have just sold the 2nd in the series to a yoga studio in Brighton. which is fantastic news.

Starting again. Lyme Regis

Totally blessed that this little mini-mural came along when it did.

Just enough painting, just far enough away to restore my faith in muraling from my new position in mum world.

Boy what a new world it is. i can't even begin to describe how my life has changed. i’ve started and not finished writing this blog post 5 times in the last 2 months. thats’ how much time i can find for working online these days.

So here are some oriental poppies in a cute little cottage by the sea. The customer was lovely, made me a lot of tea, entertained the baby and had some very good ideas.

maternity leave

please bear with me whilst i concentrate on raising my first child.

currently i'm focusing on NOT FREAKING OUT about being a parent and also.. because its the type of work i can do in tiny bursts of time, one handed, whilst standing in my kitchen.. i'm being a recipe creator and food stylist for indigo herbs. i knew the food was good in our house but it suprises me and makes me majorly grateful each time i'm getting paid to cook and eat!

back to screen-printing at some point i the summer i hope x

SAW 2017 At the Dove Centre

Myf we wish you were here!

Over this summer i have re-visited many of the different screen-printing techniques that i have learnt since Diana Milstein first taught me to mono-print in her attic in Bristol when i was 8. Throughout my youth I have dipped in and out of the print-industry and print-study and had times of no-print-at-all as ihave tried to find my place in the world . It had been amazing to have this project as a reason to confirm my print-passion and knowledge. 33 years after first visiting the Dove as an infant, i am finally making and presenting my artwork here and it feels like exactly the right place for me.

Being asked to join in with this years SAW project was a heartwarming confirmation of my official "landing" back in Somerset, and more specifically, Butleigh, after many years out in the wide world searching for.. well something!.

My work is very process-lead in that i set up the image-making techniques that i know and love, and then let loose as i over-print last weeks , or yesterdays work, so a suprise collage effect occurs out of a variety of images that i have carefully chosen. This i feel creates a suitable layering of pictures, a bit like dreams or memories that often mix together in the mind.  It is a very prolific approach and a far-cry from the reproductive reason print was invented in the first place as almost all of my work ends up as unique pieces.

My sketchbooks work in a fairly similar way. I always over-work pages and overlay materials and collage as much as possible to gather as much of a "complete" record of my visual experience. The majority of the sketchbook for this project was created within 1 week staying in the Door-house in early spring. It was a magical week when not only was i watching the blossoms and the wildflowers opening infront of my eyes, joking to friends that i'd found the portal to the next dimension of beauty, but i also conceived my first child.!

Thanks to Myfannwy Morris who i only really met a handfull of times, but who clearly lit the fire under the concept of a new generation of artists entering the Dove's Amazing Space.

http://www.misssmithart.co.uk/

http://lauraburke.info/

Lentils and Greens in N4

As well as making new work for the upcoming Amazing Space show and attending my regular shifts in the IndigoHerbs kitchen, i have been designing,planning and painting this Private mural commission in North London. AND at the same time growing a baby! yes i'm 5 months in to my first pregnancy and just spent a week up a ( not very high) ladder painting a ceiling and 3 walls!  Don't let anybody tell you what is and isn't possible!

I'm putting my continued energy down to a combination of lentils, rice, greens, tahini , seaweed salad and all butter-croissants. all available very easily in London Town and usually easy to pick up on the way to, or from a swimming pool. ive had a long week of happy days,early nights and nutritious dinners that matched the colour palette.

Amazing space

I have been invited to take part in Somerset Arts Week this year alongside some of my longstanding local creative role models. Over the coming summer months i will be doing little residency bursts out in the amazing space that is Dove Studios Butleigh and responding with a series of screenprints and an artists book. To all be exhibited as part of theSomerset Art Works festival from september 23- october 8 2017. With great honour i will be doing all this with support from, and in the company of Bron Bradshaw Diana Milstein.

Dove studios isn't simply a beautiful rural space that has housed and supported creatives over many decades, it is no more than half a mile from where i was born and raised!

Studying and responding to this familar land has already been a glorious experience and i can't wait to see what works comes out of it.

During the late easter week this year, me and Mango dog did our first residency stint in the meadow at the Dove, staying the the funny little door-house and i got a very prolific in my sketchbook gatheringinformation about all the plants that were literally waking up from winter slumber before my very eyes!

Since then i have been getting printy, getting my squeegee around personal representations of the wonders of the various nature spaces at the dove, its all still very much in progress so watch this space.. this Amazing Space.

Etsy shop open now

first baby steps of online selling.

follow this link to my ETSY shop where you can buy cards and tote bags and more in the future.

......>>>>> BUY TROPICAL PATTERNS ON STUFF HERE <<<<<<......

1 colour x 100

A recent commision to design and screen-print 100 wedding invites.

Very happy with the outcome of this project as i usually only do wonky small run prints in my bedroom and this has ended up looking very professional.! Who else out there is getting married?

Islas Canarias.

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.

Drawing with Mother

Sketching and painting with my mum for the last 3 weeks has been great fun and a great learning curve too.!

Mango Dog Drawings

Getting back into the feel of looking properly, seeing better and most importantly bonding through drawing. It's all good practise

why i dont have an online shop.

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.

Cutting and sticking

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.