2014 in the studio

My continual battle with being organised in the studio is getting a new habit in 2014. That's now by the way and its in action. Not that I am distracting myself from this task by blogging! No infact I'm getting clarity and making a public declaration.

Time just moves so fast that the time I have for my personal work needs to function as creative time

I'm making space for my personal arts practice. It does n't matter if I am the biggest critic as long as the work gets done. I am the biggest factor in getting my work out there for people to see and buy. If I am not making and sharing my art then I am not growing my artistic practice.
There was a very small bit of water in the studio yesterday. A box of recent must keep bits and pieces got wet. I need to stop hoarding keepsakes. If they are worth keeping they need to go in a notebook, collage or piece of work.

I'm trying something new, retrieve it, document it, stick it, bin it.

I'm navigating my way through the first few days of 2014. My work space has to get stripped back. Filing, bin, recycling and donating are my policies, I need to be strict about implementing them. No mercy. But what do artists do with old canvases? Work unsold, half finished paintings, half thought out textiles. Bags and boxes of potentially useful materials. I'd rather sell the work or barter it. More on that shortly.

One of my words for 2014 is COURAGE.

You can see my words over on my new visual blog at http://roisinmarkham.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/2014/ add your chosen words there. I'd love to hear about them.

What am I making besides an organised space? At the moment I am using my iphone camera a lot. Not a great habit but an easy one to form. Looking forward to chatting with an college mate more about photography, instagram and the art form and communication tool that is photography.

I'm focused on learning to edit.

That is my second word that has picked itself I think. A new way of working is revealing itself.

Its winter now

Winter made its presence known this morning. Gruffly whipped Autumn's mantel from the trees like it was being too decadent and had partied to long. All of a sudden its dull, grey, stormy and cold. 

But I beat winter I am capturing Autumn in the studio, remembering the riot it caused and how it made my heart sing as I drove the back lanes as I whittled by the streets, gardens and villages into cities. Yesterday in my parents garden I gathered some Liquid Amber leaves, grown for its wonderful colour this year it sang and radiated. I'm working on the layers of colour in felt and textiles, I like the idea of using pinned layers, so individual cobweb felt pinned for framing or perhaps some light stitching felting... experimenting the colours make my soul sing even with winter howling at the door.

Leaf motifs have long been a favourite and while I may not make leaves (yet) the semblance is there. If you are on Pinterest you may like my Leaf Motif board with great inspiration and making from illustrations, textiles and paper.

This work ties into a project I did five years ago for a school around a 'Poet-tree'. At the time I wanted to make leaves with each of the children but it was too much work for no funding, the project may be revived. 

In my personal arts practice the leaf motif that presents itself in paintings like 'Being doing' or 'Conversations' represents change and I have blogged about it before. 

Not that the work I make in the studio needs to be linked but it tends to be and often the links are part of my creative process, so to the studio... looking forward to the lightness of the fleece and experimenting.

Studio time

Been enjoying some time in the studio recently. Getting there with painting.

Two favourite brushes.

My favourite paint and colours I'm mixing at the moment.

Current inspiration...

And here it is

The altered book, notebook gets doodled in regularly. I experiment with writing, charcoal, paint, oil pastels and pencil. Mixing mediums toying with words.

Tonight instead of tossing and turning or stupid TV I decided an hour in the studio. 

I got lost in the sensuous blue pastel with pure white emphasising, merging to hues of blues. 

The circular shape resonates & almost hovers off the page.

A very satisfying hour or two in the studio.

Who knows tomorrow I may paint...

A sense of urgency

Roisin Markham © 2013

I get to the end of the week, now.
I feel an urgency to be in my studio.
But I don't get there
Making things, painting, drawing. I'm sitting here now writing when I should be gone to bed. An early morning alarm call at 5.30am.
But I am not making. I am not painting. I don't get there its been going on for a few weeks now.

I have started one new project It's out there being published. Not here or over at http://creativedynamic.blogspot.com. No. the project is simple, personal and I'm not sharing it directly just yet.
So I still think I am not making or producing anything yet I am. Its not commercial, its just my daily dip into a specific theme.
I'm also feeling my hands are restless they want to be stitching or felting or beading...

I've started dreaming colours again.
It won't be long now...

Fallow fields

It's Autumn the hedgerows have started be dipped in colourful hues of browns, oranges and umber. Berries and haws drip after plenty of summer sun. Deep purples and reds. Autumn reaps the rewards of a bountiful summer. The air get colder and the wind picks up again.

Fallow, my work has been small token like. I have been absorbing. Watching. Like the way one would crop rotate in a small holding or as in the practice of western farmers to leave land fallow to let it grow wild and recover, restore, rejuvenate before planting, growing and cultivating again.

You can use it I'll never show it...

I had the most hilarious conversation with Sandra Austin during the week of Bloom about the possibility of using a small process painting that I considered not finished and not worthy of developing...
I'd been working with The Community Garden Network with a few things recently. Mainly because Dee of Greenside Up and I, are mates. We've gotten to know each other the last few years via social media and well yeah we are firm friends and business associates now. We got to know each other via twitter a couple of years ago and then started meeting up regularly with a small group, Dee is the kind of person whom gives so much to community and her work the sort of person you'd bend over backwards for.
Anyway I spent the pre-Bloom Tuesday yarn bombing their show garden for Bloom 2013 with a group of 12 teenage girls from Navan. Great bit of fun although I did feel the pressure to get it done and looking good.
The great news is the yarn bombed tree was getting a response, which is fab!

The Community Garden Network Bloom 2013 postcard garden build.

The funny conversation I had with Sandra that Wednesday evening centred around the background board which is painted cream and was considered too blank.

The Community Garden Network Bloom SHOW Garden work in progress

After tossing around a few ideas via text and email that afternoon. I stood in my studio and dug out a lightly yellow painted canvas with mono printed leaves in blue and green on it. Took a photo of it and emailed it to Sandra as a possibility for the background. She loved it! 

While discussing it Sandra checked with me if I was okay to have a canvas outdoors for five days... my response 'yes its a light painted acrylic on canvas I'll never show it' then I burst out laughing! erhmm Bloom has an expected 80,000 visitors to attend  as Sandra pointed out and here am I saying I will never show it. 

These are the images from when I was making it.

Dee has written a great post http://greensideup.ie/bloom-2013/ and you can read my posts over on my CreativeDynamix blog here.

We agreed in the end the piece did n't work and reverted back to some yarn bombed items. 

I still don't think the canvas is very good, must ask Sandra if she wants to keep it! 

Just thought you'd appreciate the story... 

The shape of things

Sometimes all you can make is the shape of something...

I sat last night in the studio wanting to paint - but being fatigued I sat listening to silent brushes, unopened tubes of paint and flat unmoving paper. I finally reached for a map from recent travel. Have you heard of that theory the only way to fold a map is the wrong way. Well I considered that and then I went to making boxes which I often do when working with people.

With the very creased and used map it was a little trick to fold. I wanted sharp crisp lines.

Sharp folded corners I created a box

The process and looking, photographing went something like this...

Opposite

I loved the total contrast, the smooth lines of a random crunched up ball of paper. While turning and looking it presented areas of intrigue. the contrast of print, folds, light and dark.

X - Design Museum, London

Further observation, sitting with the object. Processing. There is no depth of field with the i-phone camera app - the shoots were a simple record. I think the paper playful exploration might be worth a longer study and a decent camera. The making of something 3D with my hands translated into images through lens based work is a reflection of process. 2D - 3D - 2D negative positive space moving between structure and composition.

folded depth a hint of culture

Again pulling the paper not caring in the end demanding the used disposable map deliver on some vague promise of the shape of something

almost floral

the promise was subconscious but I expected something concrete. The issue was how fast was the creative enquiry delivering?
On typing now I am reminded about the Visual Theatre Workshop last year and when painting was too flat.

just reshaped, same map

And so what of it? I pulled the paper it ripped a little, I wanted it to stand... did it look like something? Did I care? After all its just some paper play.
The map is no accident either the paper playfulness is a way to prototype thought, action and  further exploring the 'texture of my map'.

It's finished! or is it?

Chris at Gaslamp gallery and  in 'Gorey
measuring one of four pieces I have in Artfest

Do you make creative work? For yourself or for others? Just to make work or to sell it commercially?
When do you consider your creative work is finished?

Dross

In the process of being creative as I reconnect to a medium or just actual time physically making I always feel I have to practice through crap first. An artist friend of mine always referred to it as dross.
The problem is I'm grumpy about being in that creative stage I want to be constantly brilliant. I am impatient to get to great work. So this morning I'm sultry, not for long... but for now my best work awaits to be brought in by practicing through dross.

Space

look at it differently, Roisin Markham 2012

Its almost the end of January 2013 and this is my first blog post for my personal practice! Whats going on you may ask - well work and volunteering. Its been a huge month. Hope the rest of the year is going to live up to it!
January is always a good buzz.
But alas my studio remains cluttered. The skip has been ordered and the plan is to be ruthless - yes I winced.
I realised before Christmas last year that I would be busy and not getting studio tie for a while choosing to be reasonable and allow myself slow down and not be in such a hurry. So right now doodling, digital photography are gathering momentum but painting it still lies in the tubes. But the dreaming has started and the waves of colour flowing as I day dream. Each night before I climb the stairs I hanker to come into the studio and paint. But I wait... allowing myself the time to regroup. Allowing myself space, to take my time, to edit what I keep to toss stuff away, to offer work for sale, yes to regroup. Yes space and time as I'm not making my best work yet.

Playing with not photoshop

For a while now I have been capturing and manipulating images on some iPhone photo apps:
Camera+
Considered the best camera app for the iphone sees me leaving my camera battery uncharged and preferring my iPhone for shots and passing images I decide to capture.
Snapshot
I prefer to instagram, I think it gives you a wider range of manipulation and filters. I use it as a photo manipulation app and straight up I love using it!
Paper camera
(as recommended by Suz @vibrantIreland) is a great app and appears initially as a playful photo editor but it can punch its own weight, besides being fun I love it's ease of use favouring comic boom, gothic noir, sketch up and pastel perfect filters. Not as controlled as photoshop but a great place to start. I often combine it with snapshot flicking between the two to push and pull graphic filters.
Phonto
I looked for a long time for an app I could add my name, text, subtle layers of words to images and eventually settled on this one. Basic unsophisticated but adds text.
InstacollageFree
I seldom use recently I've used it for showing several images from an event or the progression of creative digital editing.
My point is play with apps. Find inspiration from the original image, apps and what's going on in your head get creative, explore your self expression.
Create images beyond photography.

All who wander are not lost. J.R.R. Tolkien

All who wander are not lost. Roisin Markham 

I came across this quote during my internet wandering a few weeks ago. I liked it so much I wrote it on a beach stone and it now sits on my desk.
What does it mean to you? let me know in the comments or tweet me
I keep bumping into it... For me it resonates deep into my need for exploration, pottering about, being in nature and nurturing my soul.
Last week as work projects came together and milestones were meet the Christmas season rolled into town. Everyone in our house has been sick and in and out of school/work... so preparations have been less then on target. Ah it will be all fine on Monday midnight and if its not it will be what it is and we shall have a 5am start anyway.
Unusually for me (being self employed) I had a Christmas party to go to - I have a small group of twitterbloggerFBratti that have become good friends, we try to meet up every month or so and keep tabs on each others blogs, work and lives. Suz @VibrantIreland suggested that we should go to #Winterville and in October it seemed like a good plan. It turned out be be a great plan,I'd trust her implacably to plan a tour and event anywhere. About two weeks ago I suggested we make it an over night plan which developed into complimentary rooms at Dooley's Hotel on the Quays in Waterford, it was wonderful to be looked after so well. Catherine @Foxglovelane and Dee @Greensideup are part of the posse and this time out we were joined by Susanna @ZwartablesIE.

We had excellent lunch and drinks at Bodega. We had such a laugh sitting in the window, enjoying good food and great company. As with social media mavens they were photographing their food and tweeting it - I still find that funny! Then there was chat about devices, apps and the best of! As we tweeted and chatted @Bodega joined in and as Lunchtime became well 4pm Colm came over and introduced himself. I enjoyed that.
As we left to go and enjoy the festival on the street of Waterford it was dark and felt very festive. While they flew down Helterskelters and went on merry go rounds I enjoyed the bright lights and laughed along side them.

Light show at Winterville, Waterford.

When people are together hanging out cameras, phones capture laughter fun and the scene around them. But what we experience is just ours. Even in a group our experiences are collective and individual. There photos were joyful and playful as were some of mine but... my favourite shot is the one of shadows...

showing the development of the top image

Even in a city of bright lights with lots of people about I find a moment to capture a shadow of nature and the illusion of a person reflected on to a very different streetscape. Sometimes it suits me to wander...
Have a lovely Christmas I hope it is full of all those things you love.

Rain, rain...

It's been raining a lot. Which is typical for this time of year...
The rain as I watch it from inside the house or inside the car - I notice it filters out certain colours and accentuates others. I've started to photograph it the landscape through the glass the rain a textured filter it's pattern on the glass, particular.
At the moment client projects and community based work mixed with family stuff keeps me out of the studio. I crave a few days creating freely but until then I take photos and draw in my notebooks. Dreaming work into reality before I make it!

Daily doodle

My daily doodle tradition continues and provides me with insights and reflections on whats going on:

Roisin Markham Daily doodle 21 September 2012

This week twice I was reminded about who I am, sometimes I forget and get a little bit dejected. They were both strangers talking to me for the first time, hearing about my work and experience. So thank you for that universe. I'm impatient but learning to walk and skip rather then run...

Painting for me is never just about painting.

exploring the dross, process painting © 2012
Roisin Markham

...right now its about everything.

 A few years ago I used to be able to go into the studio and pick up a paint brush and paint for 20 minutes and stop. Then again at that time where I painted was in the garden shed between the washing machine and the motorbike. Around that time two people started poking and prodding at my process - is that all you paint? is that all there is? They were people I trusted an artist friend and one of my sisters. They made me question what I was doing they made me search for more but in that search have I lost my connection to the purity of just being able to paint?
My process was deep and thoughtful the painting flowed because I was in the flow. My work was selling well.
Now painting is never just about going into the studio and painting - do I meet a deadline? what about working on that project? what about cleaning the house, playing with my kids, driving them of somewhere, what about, what about ... everything else but painting! and then I had fallen out of the habit of painting yes I was still being creative making textiles, working on community based arts projects but I was n't painting.
Painting begins like a yearning deep in my soul. 
I dream about it talk about it and gather my cells together to convince myself to open the paint tubes and dip my brush in water. The brushes in my studio have been dry too long. Now as I attempt to start to reconnect with my painting I have to clear a space, my studio is full of ideas works in progress and other abandoned.
So now full committed to making the time and mental space to paint I decide on paper, what weight? what size what texture? I think about what size I want to paint. Does it matter small/big? yes it does matter so I veer away from the A4 size that surrounds me in my paper trail and I go for some wonderful Fabriano paper heavy paper a wonderful lightly textured 160gm.

journalling before I paint is typical 

Do I write - yes it is another component of starting to paint. Typically I do a type of journalling, a beginning of searching within my soul for rhythm and colours and emotion and shapes and textures, tone and pace. It is all part of the process that I describe as painting. I know the words will be lost behind the painting but I photograph them now as they too feel important.
So I start. Routing in my paint box an old wine crate that I brought back wine in during the early 1990's. I find all the colours lumped in together I separate out the greens and bring them to the table where I am exploring white paper words and colour. Even the size of the paint brush is important. I start. The leaf motif presents itself. I get cross something old and familiar I want something fresh and new. I stay with it for a while as the greens move from water colour to deep opaque and from fresh spring growth to dark winter holly. Sometime later I think that my painting starts from where the last painting left off. But in the moment it felt like the dross poured forth - I was restless...
The painting tight, tense and controlled. I start a new page. More fluid but still tight. the flow is not there. So I pick a smaller piece of paper and let go. Diving into the sense of constrained framing aspects of the painting with strong primary colours. Switching from frustration to exploration meeting that sense full on. The children drift in and out of the studio, I allow that just to be part of my space. I return to the painting process easily this time still frustrated their distractions have not pulled me off centre but given me some space to step away and return.
Then at last I find I want to use the blue tube of ultramarine - a colour I work well with and have a particular reputation for painting with. I hunt for that square textured piece of paper that I cleaned away earlier. The leaf symbol appears again an aquatic boat all in blue. I'm done getting there with reconnecting but not fast enough and not fluid enough but for now its a start...impatient woman that I am.
Light greens the darkest hues, playful shapes then circles of red, deep dark red into brown and orange. The red circle also reappears in 2005 I stopped painting for a while as no matter what paint colour I put on my palette I ended up painting a red circle... its like to start this new round of work I need to connect in with old paintings and I bring them to mind by repeating elements of them. Along the way I think of making things of how the creative process of making things and crafting textiles is different. I continue...
Only slightly frustrated I am sort of content with my progress. Each brush stroke takes me closer to better work. Each painting removes a layer of dross - it has its own pace and I must work with it. I try to find balance it's elusive.

I wrote most of this post yesterday today I added the photography and I can see more clearly the links to past work as a preparation for future work. This morning walking in the bright sunshine of this fine April day I came across something it too has added to my process.

process as just that

...yesterday was Mothers Day in Ireland and my perfect gift was time to myself in the quietness of my studio. An odd way to celebrate being a mother perhaps but after an intense week where everyone in our house was ill it was what my creative soul really needed.
I've been wanting to paint for a while but getting around to it has not been so easy.
Sitting with two hours stretched ahead of me painting was not something I could slip into.
So I started where my brain was at and a sort of continuation of a letter to a friend.

Process 1, took the letter and shredded it. Roisin Markham

This shredding is not something foreign to my process but it may or may not be connected to the paper play process from the visual theatre workshop I took recently in Waterford.
Being really open with process means that I allow my creative energies to wander undirected rather like a form of doodling. So not taking out my paint brushes to paint was a little frustrating but it did not seem right.

Process 2, looked a bit like the nest I had designed in my head
....but  obviously flat

I wanted to combine the torn letter, my thoughts from yesterday and have a different voice within it hence the choice of the sports section from an Irish news paper. I started thinking about patterns of behaviour and how we break them or make them. Patterns...

the play continued and eventually I did paint on top of the nestled text, but it was horrible no rhythm rime or symmetry. Very displeasing to the eye, muck or as I oft refer to the painting process #dross. But processing the dross has commenced which means it brings me closer to painting fluidly again. I look forward to that.
After the studio session I took the dog out for a walk it was lovely to see the blush of Spring on the trees:

Springs blush appears on the trees @ Ballygarrett finally. 2012

I saw this and wondered

Do you have a creative muse? What is it or whose is it? Along with a patron I think I'd like one.

the trees tell a different tale

terrible exposure it fails as a photographic exposure but... I love it!

this is more visual commentary then text, written or verbal...

further south the buds have appeared

 the relationship with camera, tree and me continues

a letter to a friend

I sat in my studio thinking about you this morning. I thought about your comment "shaking Winter off"... as I mentioned hibernation and nesting both came to mind. Preparation in different forms.
Of course there are always elements in the studio to move around, prompt, group, draw - photograph.
The nest was given to me as a gift from a dear old friend at the opening of my solo exhibition"Of Earth and Soul"  in 2010. It is a wrens nest carefully crafted with sticks, moss and sheep fleece.
The little nest half way down is needle felt it came about from a needle felted ball that I made during my show "of words and stitch" in 2011. When making the hug tokens in February this year I cut one in half and discovered it was hollow so it seemed obvious to needle felt it into a container, a little boat, a nest. It is Buchon de Cher a springy type wool. The outside has a Hebridean fleece needle felted as a sparse layer. The oak leaf is one I collected last autumn from an oak close to the studio.
As I sat in my studio this morning I thought what would we do if we had to make nests - what would we create them out of - I was thinking both in making an object de art and the concept as an analogy. I really wanted to paint but found myself dreaming of making an object. A lacy interwoven nest with sheep fleece and strips of paper - with written words a long. A sophisticated crafted wonder... But instead of making it a jewel I wondered about sitting where I was at the table in front of the windows and just making a nest out of things I could reach? Discarded paper on the floor, string, some scraps of fabric, pinku fleece, cushendale fleece... so the process started. I unwrapped the wrens nest to remind myself of what an amazing artist nature is. I keep it in that very bright pink tissue paper in a box that is the perfect size for it. I started photographing it and that always leads down a side track - a fruitful one usually.

Yes that is a bicycle wheel behind it... my studio has many curious things in it. This morning I enjoyed quiet solitude writing, shaping, making and photographing.