< 2025 Studio
22.01.25
Yesterday I spent the day at MK hospital with my volunteers removing more bamboo from the Snail Garden. We had lunch together once again, half way thru the day. A prospective new volunteer also joined us in the afternoon for a taster session.
In the evening I spent some time in my cold studio. I started picking out figures on the boat of the larger panel painting I am working on at the moment. As well as doing another layer of yellow on one of my Kent Brockman paintings.
20.01.2025
On Saturday I was up early for another art session at Conniburrow Community Hub. I had a little time after setting up and before people came so I made a little poster to put in the window. There is a car I park next to that definitely has someone sleeping in it which is really sad especially as its so cold atm.
In this session, continuing the Vanessa Bell theme I have been rolling with, we worked on producing our own fabric designs based on Bell’s. All sorts of materials were avaliable including crepe paper and stickers for collaging. Was a chill session I am really enjoying them!
On Thursday I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre for the first session of a five week workshop for 11 to 13 year olds on animating and AR. Sam from Playbound.studio was there to give us a talk on animation and AR after which we made some flip books the analogue way. Some of the books the kids made actually blew my mind. As this was the first time doing this workshop it was interesting to see what worked and what didnt. From this I will be able to fine tune the session for future groups.
16.01.25
Yesterday evening whilst working a few hours at Milton Keynes Arts Centre, opening and closing for a workshop. I made a flip book version of the animation Sam, from playbound.studio, and I made for an upcoming workshop later today. I used the thermal printer my parents got me for Christmas to print out each frame.
15.01.25
I was back at the Hospital on Tuesday working in the Creative Courtyards. My volunteers are still keen on coming in a couple of hours early so we can get the bamboo out of the Snail Garden.
We took our lunch in the busy hospital restaurant together:
13.01.25
On Saturday I was in Conniburrow on a freezing cold morning for the next ‘Creative Space’. It was a truely beautiful morning. I had selected some items from my parent’s cottage, which is filled with knick knacks, to put together a still life. Based on Vanessa Bell’s still life paintings which can currently be seen at MK Gallery.
I had four participants and we had a pretty good time drawing the Still Life and chatting about all sorts of things from Patois to the how Cadbury’s looked after its workers back in the day. One of them was doing creative writing and when I ask what in particular they were doing they replied ‘producing a still life like you guys but with words’, I thought this was cool as fuck.
Spent a little time in the studio on Saturday and Sunday working on the large panel painting below.
09.01.25
This morning I was in the studio finishing off the last frame for an animation test for an upcoming workshop.
I had a couple of sessions in my studio as well. Each lasting a couple of hours at a time. It was just too cold in there to stay much longer!
08.01.25
Yesterday I was back with the “boys” at the Hospital. They were very keen to have a longer session so we met at 10.30am and finished up at 3 pm. I showed them all the new stuff we had got over the Christmas break and then made our way to the Snail Garden where we dug up as much Bamboo as possible. Anyone who has ever done this knows its a pig of a job. We chatted, joked about and had lunch together so it was all actually quite fun!
05.01.25
I have spent a few very cold evenings in the studio since New Years. I found another painting I started 8 years ago only finishing the underpainting. I had completely forgotten that I had done it, so it was a lovely suprise to see it again and start working on it.
I have also been producing some frames for an animation for an upcoming workshop at Milton Keynes Arts Centre. This is something I have never dabbled in and am excited to see how it turns out.
04.01.25
This morning I was back in Conniburrow for the first “Creative Space” of the year and my first since November. There were a couple of people I hadnt met before so it was fun to listen to what they had to say. The night before my beautiful girlfriend and I made a couple of examples for the session. My plan was to talk abit about Vanessa Bell and specifically her “Famous Women Dinner Service” then provide all the materials necessary for people to produce there own plates with portraits of noteable women to them.
I was at the hospital on Thursday (02.01.24) where I litter picked in all the gardens and swept the paths. I made room in our shed for the new trolley we have got and also changed the lock on the door. I planted about ten ground covering plants in the Camel garden which will hopefully complement the bulbs I put in last month.
One of the winter shrubs I put in the Snail Garden has started flowering and I was admiring it whilst picking up a load of dog ends.