Bath and West Flea Market

Had a wander around the Flea Market at the Bath and West Show Ground, Shepton Mallet, today. Masses of stalls selling vintage, retro and antique stuff. Her are some photographs of the stalls inside, and there were even more outside. Lots of lovely things, but we came away with just books this time (and large wooden spoons!). I would have liked a nice herringbone tweed suit, or black ornate picture frames.

Next big flea market is at Bath Racecourse for those interested. http://www.bathfleamarket.co.uk/home

Had a nice chat to a lady stallholder who has a blog, shop and organises vintage fairs. http://thewasherwoman.blogspot.com/

http://www.dairyhouseantiques.blogspot.com/

 

Ceramic tree crowns

Another thing I have been working on is ceramic sculptures based on the drawings and paintings I have been doing of a medieval type of tree. They vary in size, between 6cm and 20cm in height. I have attempted to create flowing spherical forms, covered in patterns of leaves.

All the examples here are designed to stand on a flat surface, others I have made are designed to hang on a wall. At present they are just biscuit fired, and I haven’t arrived at a suitable finish yet. I have called them tree crowns for now.

Not quite sure if or how they will develop at this stage. I did think of placing small ones in the decorative books I have been painting.

Evening Dog Walk 20 August 2011

Several quick sketches I did whilst out walking the dog in the fields behind our house. Water soluble pencil in an A6 book. Sketched in the field (a couple of minutes) and then worked on back home (another five minutes).

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Starts with a stile, then a picturesque view of the telephone mast, followed by a country lane, then several gates and stiles.

Tree Spoons

Another thing I have been playing around with is painting on wooden spoons. I started picking them up in cafes, and doodling on them. I realised the shape was similar to a tree, so transformed them accordingly. Not quite sure whether they are exhibitable or sellable, or just playful things. I have incorporated some into my painted books, though.

Cornwall Sketches August 2011

Here are some quick sketches made during our recent holiday in Cornwall. I have used water-soluble pencil on A6 cartridge pad. These took a few minutes, very hurriedly done, and some were worked on for a few minutes later. Added difficulty includes drizzle, mist and wind, having a dog tied to me pulling in different directions, and impatient children!

A slideshow of the images is available here.

Holiday Reading

Some light reading from my recent holiday. Dan Brown page-turner (the symbolism and esoteric knowledge appeals to me),  a painful tale of loss and recovery against a contemporary English and Nigerian background, and two sci-fi novels (glimpses into frightening possible future worlds!). All enjoyable reading in different ways.

Evolution of a tree

This is a simple slideshow of the development of an image of a tree in a sketchbook. As with alot of this work I was attempting to give a sense of growth from seed to maturity. I worked over the image so only the final version remains, and my poor photographs as a record of the process.

Apologies for the poor picture and editing quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EEea2jRx8s

Sketchbooks and work in progress

What I should have been doing on this blog is putting regular postings of my art work as they develop and progress towards completion. I will endeavour to do this in the future. So here are a couple of images of recent work still in progress.