Artists & Illustrators Letter of the Month

Although I'm late posting about this I'm still thrilled that the letter I e-mailed to Artists & Illustrators Magazine was chosen to be letter of the month.

It gives me a nice feeling of completeness to the project I set myself last year of the exhibition at Central Library, Wolverhampton.  A real confidence booster.

Studio Shots

As well as the ACEOs I have been working on larger pieces and experimenting with using colour more in my work.  I am using mostly FW Artists Acrylic Ink or Liquitex Acrylic Ink with dip pen for these drawings and using coloured line.  The drawings I am working on mostly at the moment are urban scenes which include trees or some natural form.  I am also exploring an old favourite of mine, the use of words or letters in my artwork, usually in the form of grafitti, though I have an inclination also to include drawn versions of printed matter, posters etc.. The drawings in the photograph below are a simple landscape (bright and cheerful) and the tree beside Tipton Baths that I made a drawing of previously.  This time I am using coloured line, and thinking about how else I want to use colour so as not to swamp the drawing.

I am trying really hard to divide my precious time between my creative work, my work on ACEOs (and other Itsypics projects I would like to tackle) and everything else.  I am keeping a note of time I spend on each task, you can see it below, next to my precious old marble mouse which I've owned for about 15 years now and it's been invaluable to me.

 What I look at when my eyes drift away from the computer screen (like now).

I visited the Rembrandt exhibition at the National last year and it was packed to capacity.  Someone actually fainted when I was there and everyone had to wait until the man had recovered.  Rebel Visions was an exhibition of CRW Nevison's work of the First World War which I saw at the Barber Institute this January.  The Barber Institute has a wonderful collection of art, including a beautiful Gainsborough.  You can see many of the pictures in the Barber's collection on-line at the BBC Your Paintings website.

ACEO Studio

 I have been working on my ACEOs and have (joy!!!) sold a few at auction via Ebay, where I am selling as Itsypics.

I am so happy that someone likes my work enough to bid for it.  I have had some really lovely feedback too, which is very nice indeed.

The ACEO above is based on a photograph I took of Southwold Lighthouse while on holiday there in 2009.  Southwold is a lovely seaside resort with a glorious pier.  There was a quirky amusement arcade on the pier when we visited which was full of crazy one-off amusements made by a local artist.  G and me spent a fun filled hour or so in there.  Don't know if it's still there now.  David Morissey married Esther Freud on Southwold Pier, Esther Freud has written about Southwold where she spent her childhood holidays.  Her novel The Sea House was set in the area.

I keep the materials I use for my ACEOs together in this old bag.  It's one of my countless attempts to organise myself so I can stay on track with my creative work.

And here is the old WH Smith filing box I keep my finished ACEOs in, along with the tiny easel I photograph them on and the little plastic sleeves I ship them out in.

I am designing a Certificate of Authenticity to send out with the artwork I sell.  This is the one I am creating for my ACEOs.  I have never produced one of these before, but I have read that they are valued by collectors so feel that I should try and produce something along these lines.  It will be the size of an ACEO but folded like a greetings card, with the information printed across the inside of the certificate.

ACEOs and Urban Trees

This week I've been working on drawings of urban scenes.  The drawing above is called Souper (it's the word on the poster) and it's based on a photograph I took in Birmingham just after christmas.

I cropped the photograph quite severely to print out, then cropped it again on paper for this drawing.  I plan to do a second drawing with the design extended upward, following the trees in their journey alongside the windows of the modern building.  I deliberately kept the drawing as minimal as possible and used dip pen and coloured acrylic ink.


I'll be posting another couple of my tiny ACEOs on Itsypics soon.  One of them is a drawing I made from a photograph I took at Burnham-on-Sea of the Low Lighthouse  (also known as the Lighthouse on Legs).  I love walking on Burnham beach when G manages to drive us up there for a daytrip.  I love the space and the light bouncing off the wet sand and the mudflats out to sea.

There are people all around but there's still space enough to be alone.