WOYWW - in the studio

Today I am working in my friend's art studio at The Mustard Tree in Ancoats, Manchester. [I'm usually over there on Tuesdays but I had a fabulous day out to The Cubby Hole, Crewe yesterday with a couple of friends :)  We had such a fun time :)  ]  I am gathering together shapes and patterns to use in my pieces for my exhibition, and practising working BiG!!!

It's a wonderful place to work in, full of inspiring objects, and surrounded by fun people - we have a good laugh as well as supporting each other in our work.

Graham is a really talented artist, and is currently working on commissions for John Lewis and The Hilton Hotel - if you know Manchester's Betham tower well enough you can just spot it on Graham's easel in the background.

going BiG!

I was given a very large piece of wood to paint on with gloss paints today.  I decided to just 'play', like I do in my journals, to see what happened.  First I collected some junk from around The Mustard Tree building, and used some of it to print with in my piece.

I'm still not convinced it's finished, but it was finished for today with the colours I had available.  It is going up on the outside of The Mustard Tree building in Ancoats, Manchester with pieces from the other artists who work here.  Lots of talented people congregate at The Mustard Tree.  Just look at this giant head, still a work in progress, but absolutely amazing!

Welcome to the Second Annual Blog Hop and Awards Event by The StampMan!

Welcome to the second annual blog awards event at The StampMan!  This is such a fun and popular event at this time of year, especially since it doesn't require you to make anything!  We just want you to choose your favourite/best project from 2010 and enter it on our challenge blog, and if you'd like to be eligible to win a prize too just

• Join in the actual challenge with your best/favourite projected linked with Inlinkz
• Follow your way around the blog hop collecting all the letters you will find on each blog. Write these down then work out the answer when the hop is finished.
• Leave a comment on ALL the blogs you visit in the blog hop 
• Post our event blinkie onto your blogs or a post about the event with your best/favourite project
• Take your award blinkie with pride
• Email the answer to: thestampman@btconnect.com by 9pm (GMT) on Thursday 13th January 2011.  Please put bloghop answer as the title

You should have come to my blog via Kay Carley's over at Kay's Crafty Corner.  There's a bit of a blip near the beginning of the hop, you start at The StampMan with Jill, hop a little until you reach Vix.  From there you should visit Frankie but her post has gone awol so make a note of the letter 'a' and head on to Michelle.  Then it's Brenda followed by the ATC swap, then more hopping until you get to meeeeeeeee!


I had a bit of a tough time choosing my favourite project from this year but eventually chose this collection of canvases as it signified a major change in my work.

I'd wanted to produce a piece of wall art for a long time now, but it took me ages to be able to settle to doing what I do in my journals on a canvas.  Somehow putting my work on canvas was a major, major step.  In the end, I chose one of my favourite journal pages and translated it onto a canvas.  After this it was a lot easier to work, imagining I was just working in my journal!

Next year I have four pieces of work in an exhibition at The Mustard Tree, Ancoats, Manchester in April, and my first solo exhibition (how scary THaT sounds!!!) in June at The Cubby Hole, Crewe.

My 'letter' to be collected is

!

If you've visited all the blogs on the hop, you should now have 13 'letters'.  

Unscramble the phrase

 and email it to 

thestampman@btconnect.com

 by 9pm (GMT) on Thursday 13th January 2011.  Please put bloghop answer as the title.  

And don't forget, you need to have commented on each of the blogs to be eligible for a prize (and yes, Jill has us all checking ;)  ) and have our challenge blinkie on your sidebar.

starting my first BiG painting :)

1m x 1m canvas

The vicar at my church saw my paintings last week and asked if I'd paint one for the prayer room in church, during a service!  So last night saw me painting on the stage, trying NoT to get paint on all that lovely wood panelling LOL.  I'm thrilled with what I managed to get done as I've wanted to work on a large canvas for ages but it was a bit of a scary thought!

I used my usual materials - bubble wrap, sequin waste and acrylic paint [but not my baby wipes yet] and cut my own stencil from funky foam.  Next step is more stencilling, and creating some large letter stamps and masks :)

It really felt like I'd come 'full circle' doing this as it was as I watched Graham Hudson from the Mustard Tree painting in a service in May 2010 to raise money for a trip to Mexico that I realised that I could do what I do in my journals on a canvas!  Thanks Graham, for the inspiration :)

EDIT:  Thanks so much for your lovely comments everyone.  I thought no-one liked me anymore as there were no comments all day, then Julie reminded me I'd put comment moderation on!!!  I've been having problems with spam comments advertising unsavoury things, so need some kind of moderation, but I've gone back to word verification instead so I know you are there :)