< Studio
09.11.24
Today I was in Conniburrow for “Creative Space”. I ran a workshop on Appliqué. I got scrap fabric from MKPA scrapstore and decided it was time to get rid of some of the many single socks I have collected over the years.
On thursday I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre helping out at an event celebrating South Asian Culture. Interdisciplinary artist Tanvi Kant led a participatory Rangoli workshop. While Debbie Ganguli-Patel, performed a dance inspired by the works created in the workshop.
06.11.24
Today I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre for the monthly Art Journalling for wellbeing session I run. This month I decided we should produce prints from linocuts.
It was such a FUN session there were thirteen participants, which is the most I have ever had. The work that they produced over the 2 hours was both suprising and excellent. Below are some videos I took of the reveal of some works along with photos of all the work produced.
Yesterday I was at MK Hospital with my fantastic volunteers in the creative courtyards. Having finished off tidying the Meadow Garden last week we moved over to the Snail Garden this week. The aim of the day was to cut back and dig out some Bamboo to make space for planting new flowers in the spring. I also used the tool sharpening block my sister kindly got me to sharpen our Loppers and Shears.
I am always finding new ways around the rabbit warren that is MK Hospital and therefore finding new art as well. Below is a lovely oil on canvas painting by Stephen Gregory called Fast Lines which was produced in 1982. The painitig is over 40 years old but still feels fresh and looks just like the station in MK when im waiting for a train to take me to London.
23.10.24
Today I had the absolute pleasure of joining artist and legend Julia Collar as she lead the first of a series of sensory tour workshops with young visually impaired students from two local schools. I love getting to do this the kids are so nice and have such interesting observations about the work. Today was an introductory session which will lead on to them making there own sensory tour on their favourite art work in the exhibition. I feel very lucky to get to do things like this for work it makes me extremely happy. Vanessa Bell was Virginia Woolf’s sister - so so so cool! Below are some of my picks from the exhibition but honestly all the work is really good.
Yesterday I was at MK Hospital once again in the Creative Courtyards. I sorted some boring admin stuff out contacted the relevant people as a used syringe that I reported a week ago had still not been safely disposed of. Then spent 2 hours with my regular volunteers working in the Meadow garden clearing a corner around a Buddleia.
21.10.24
This evening I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre facilitating a workshop for Wellbeing for Young People with artist Ciara Callaghan. Ciara gave a fantastic session as always. Im only going to show a few bits that I did during it because I feel like her workshop was really personal and cosy and its not mine to show.
On Saturday I was back at Conniburrow Community Hub for “Creative Space”. After setting up, Laura gave us a workshop on portraiture, we were doing ten minute sketches using Biro. I like not being able to rub out lines and just having to live with the marks you make. I know it frustrated some of the participants but its actually very freeing and moves you away from perfection. There are a couple of quite young kids that come so we set them up with paints which kept them very happy. By 12.30 we were all packed away and done for another week.
15.10.24
Today I was at MK Hospital working in the ‘Creative Courtyards’. We needed compost in the Sensory Garden so I bought some on the way and used my parents garden trolley to get it from my car to the garden:
We used the compost to finish planting some strawberry plants in one of our planters. And then planted a few other flowers we had hanging about. When we were in one of the gardens one of my volunteers found a used syringe - people be crazy!
Yesterday I was at the Milton keynes Art Centre assisting artist and friend Ciara Callaghan with a session of Art and Wellbeing for Young People. Ciara gave an amazing workshop on Indigo dyeing. If you want some fantastically interesting facts on Indigo history and uses Ciara is the person to go to! We got to have a go at several Shibori Dyeing fold techniques such as The Itajime Triangle. Ciara also gave me some spare canvas she had which I was very happy to recieve. Thanks Ciara!
I also started making the below. Hopefully I will sew it next week. I was lacking when it came to doing the running stitch in a circle in the above Indigo dyeing, So would like to improve a bit.
13.10.24
Yesterday I was in Conniborrow for the second session of ‘Creative Space’. It was a really fun session I showed everyone how to make accordian style ‘zines. We had thirteen people come for the entire time which I think is really good as we have only just started! There was alot of creativity in the two hours, people also added to the large canvas we have ongoing of the Conniborrow Community Space Annex.
After a quick coffee I made my way over to Milton Keynes Art Centre and spent a very enjoyable three hours helping to prep for some future workshops.
11.10.24
I spent my Friday evening prepping for the GLPC’s ‘Creative Space’ tomorrow.
10.10.24
Today I was at Milton Keynes Play Association for a course on first aid for schools. It was a six hour or so course and was so incredibly interesting! We learnt about assessing a situation, giving CPR to adults, children and babies, treating all sorts of injuries, using an AED and so much more. The man who was giving the course was so pleasant and knowledgable and his abilty to speak to a group for that long was so impressive.
OBV I’m not a trained professional but honestly if you can get the training through work or by some other means I would strongly encourage you to do it.
After the course I shot over to Milton Keynes Art Centre to open and close for an art workshop and serve hot drinks half way though.
Yesterday I drove to MK Central library to affix a label to the wall underneath the painting I hung last week for Arts for Health MK:
I then travelled over to Kiln Farm to visit the MKPA Scrap store. As I have recently started co-running the new Creative Space in Conniburrow I needed to get some art equipment and materials for our users. The scrap store has so many interesting things in and I managed to get some of the items we require for a really cheap price.
On Tuesday I was back at MK Hospital with my usual volunteers working in the courtyards. We had a good two hours in the Sensory Garden cutting back bushes and weeding. We also went to visit some corporate volunteers who had borrowed our tools to clear a garden used by the Physical Therapy Dept. at the Hospital. As soon as my volunteers left the heavens opened so I retreated to Costa to do some admin with a black coffee:
07.10.24
Today I was at MK Gallery for a full days training in Makaton. Makaton is a language program that uses a combination of signs, symbols, speech, facial expressions, eye contact and body language to help people communicate. It is of particular use when communicating with child or people w learning and communication difficulties. It was fun as fuck to learn. There are some similarities with British Sign Language. I had a very limited understand of BSL as someone who I went to college with in Oxford back in 2007 was deaf and I learned a couple of things whilst communicating with them for two years. As I was seventeen I didn’t make as much of an effort to learn beyond my own name and a bunch of swear words which frankly shows my maturity levels at the time. So it was really nice to build on what I already knew and to take it much much further than I did eighteen years ago.
I also got given the clay tile that I made during a session of Our Studio I worked at supporting Artist Emi Fujisawa who kindly took it away to fire it.
I then travelled over to Milton Keynes Art Centre to help artist Amy Walsh with her second session of Art and Wellbeing with Young People. I arrived early so sat and did some work sitting on the steps outside utilising MKAC’s wifi.
The session went well, we were continuing with the ‘zines we started last week adding text cut out from magazines.
For the second part of the session we each made a separate page for a ‘zine which would then all fit together forming a collaborative work. The theme of the ‘zine being the “Key to Happiness”. Alice recited a beautiful poem by Rupi Kaur from her book “Home Body”. The young people lost their shit when they found out they were going to get to work with spray paint to produce these. Unfortunately for me I was unable to produce a page for the ‘zine as I was supervising and helping the young people with the spray paint, we were doing it outside staying up wind and wearing gloves, they each came out multiple times I think because they were enjoying it so much.
06.10.24
Yesterday was the first session of GLPC’s “Creative Space” which is in the Conniburrow Community Hub Annex in Milton Keynes. We had one person come and we sat and chatted and started working on a large canvas together.
04.10.24
Yesterday I was being an Art Technician for MK Arts for Health. I collected a small oil painting from MK Hospital and transported it to MK Central Library Where I hung it. I started visiting and using MK Central Library in the last few years; I mostly used it as a place to go and work when I was feeling especially lonely or disconected from people. It reminded me a bit of using the library whilst I was at university, something I used to love doing. The library has so many nice paintings in it by artists Boyd and Evans and I have spoken to people about them being part of their childhood memories when using the library, which I think is so lovely.
My mathematical ability is not fantastic and to hang a painting properly a fair bit of math is required to make sure it is in the centre of the wall as well as the mid point of the painting being at 150cm (though I think this is a bit ableist) and everything being straight. I got there in the end though.
The painting I was hanging is called “Testing Hattie” and is by artist Martin Grover. I really like it especially with its chunky dark frame.
02.10.24
Today I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre (MKAC) for the monthly Art Journaling for Wellbeing session I run. It was nice and warm in the barn whilst the rain came down outside. I put a lo-fi playlist on and all nine of us spent a very pleasant couple of hours experimenting with using oil pastels as a resist for watercolour and ink.
On Monday night I was at MKAC assisting artist Amy Walsh with our weekly Art and Wellbeing for Young People session. Amy was giving us a crash course on Zine making. We were mark making and learning how to fold our work into concertina and accordion ‘zines.
On Tuesday I was back at MK Hospital with my usual volunteers. It was absolutely bucketing it down so we spent 2 hours having a hot drink, talking about our plans and wishes for the courtyards and taking a tour of the hospital corridors looking at all the art which is on display. Below are a couple of works I really like:
Table and Chairs
Oil on Canvas
30.09.24
On Friday I was at MK hospital again this time with a group of corporate volunteers. They were with me for a good 3 hours and we got A LOT of weeding and tidying up done in both the Meadow and Snail Gardens. As it had been so wet I set up a dry station with all the tools and gloves etc.
Meadow Garden
Snail Garden
The volunteers were so fast I didnt get the chance to take any before pictures in the Snail Garden but here are some I took during and after their efforts.
25.09.24
So it was Jarrod Vincenzo Rebecchi’s last episode on Neighbours today. “Toadie” as he is more widely known has been in the show since 1995. There was a point in the episode where he stood on the cul-de-sac and I could feel a montage coming on and boy did it come! Him saying goodbye to Karl and Susan Kennedy and giving them a portrait of himself from 1995 to hang next to the one painted by Helen Daniels, of Malcolm, Libby and Billy, was so sweet.
Anyway, yesterday I was at MK Hospital mostly shaping some Bamboo in the Camel Garden. Though other jobs included disposing of a dead pigeon in the Meadow Garden, collecting post from the hospital post room, litter picking in all of ‘our’ gardens and multiple email chains. Towards the end of my time shaping bamboo a man pushed his elderly mother into the garden and gave her a pre-rolled cigarette. I was really happy that this didn’t trigger me at all; in fact, I waved at them as I was leaving. It is my greatest desire to not let external forces change my mood towards the negative. Mind you, I am more than happy for them to change it towards the positive.
Just to show how much it had been pissing it down the couple of days before this, I left some plants in an empty garden Trug the last time I was at the hospital and this is what I returned to:
On Monday night I attended my first ‘Wellness for Young People’ Session at Milton Keynes Arts Centre. I’m obv not a young person I was working supporting the ever cool Alice from No Outcome Art. We were doing mark-making, with paint and anything but a brush. This was the kind of activity I alway fought against my whole academic career but as I get older I am really starting to see the value in it and take any opportunity I can in sessions like this to have a go myself.
23.09.24
Over the last couple of evenings I finally got to spend some time painting in the studio. On Saturday I listened to Anthony Joshua get smashed at Wembley, during which I worked on the below, specifically the yellow light of the window beyond the foliage:
Last night I really just wanted to start something new. but I have to stop doing that and finish a painting at some point. I therefore spent a little time sorting out the black lines on the “Balloon” painting. I was using a very dark brown/black so decided to use this in the “Self Portrait w Apes” as well.
19.09.24
Having returned from an amazing long weekend in Brighton celebrating the marriage of two of my favourite people it was time to get back to work. On Tuesday I was at Milton Keynes Hospital once again. my aim was to dig out some rogue bamboo in the Snail Garden. This got me SWEATING.
It was necessary though to make room for some new plants.
09.09.24
Yesterday I was in a wet and stormy Milton Keynes. I was happily helping with Art and Us again at MK Gallery.
In the morning session I was with the lovely Ciara Callaghan she had designed a session around producing super hero capes. I think we all had fun making them.
We set up for the afternoon session which unfortunately got cancelled which was a shame because it was looking super interesting:
Instead I worked with Alice from No Outcome Art, whom I had not met before which was lovely, we made fast food items out of mod roc.
During the morning session one of the kids made the below. I honestly think its beautiful and would be so happy if I had made it. I would also love to own it which is rare for me when it comes to art.
07.09.24
This morning I was at MK Gallery giving an Audio Descibed tour of MK Calling 2024. Im usually pretty chill but I’d say an hour or so before I had a little peak of worry. This soon goes and I really enjoyed taking people round the exhibition, having some back and forth about the works I had picked and just general chit chat around art.
05.09.24
Its been a busy and joyful couple of weeks for me. Im going to condense it into one post because I have other shit to be getting on with, first and foremost planning for my sensory audio description tour at MK Gallery on Saturday.
Yesterday morning I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre to run the monthly Journaling for Wellbeing session. It was the smallest group, 3 people, I have had for anything so far and it may have been been more nerve racking than having fifteen participants. But we got there in the end. I set up 2 still lifes and we drew those and chatted. Below is what I drew:
I then went to MK Hospital and painted a bench and trimmed some bushes (though not the tops as I’m too small). Whilst I was doing this an open window on the garden allowed a lone male singing voice to permeate into every space of the garden. I think it was Islamic and judging by the number of people gathered it was for someone’s imminent passing. It was genuinely beautiful. I am very grateful to be alive and in good health.
last night was my first time back in my studio for over a week:
Last week
On Tuesday I was back at MK Hospital I painted a bench and the pallet that the planter came on. Then with a volunteer cleared some Lemon Balm which had frankly started taking the piss with how much it was spreading.
On Wednesday I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre helping the amazing Ciara Callaghan with a summer workshop for children where they got to make a concertina sketchbook. This was one of the best workshops I have witnessed. The children really enjoyed it and the two hours flew by. I made two sketch books.
On Thursday I had the pleasure of helping out with ARioT which is a young people’s project at MK Gallery. They were getting artworks finished for an upcoming exhibition in the project space at the gallery. A couple of members were missing so I helped to paint their clay birds that they had made in a previous workshop. It was a lovely chill session. I painted the below bird like a black swan as I had had a conversation with a friend that week during which I had incorrectly denied the existance of Black Swans.
Spent the weekend in London with my good friends:
22.08.24
I have a day off today. Yesterday I was at Milton Keynes Arts Centre helping artist Fiona Balding with a Cyanotypes summer workshop for young children. It was alot of fun and a completely new one for me.
There is alot of time to kill when doing this, so we also did some drawing. I particularly enjoyed copying some of the Pikachu’s the children were drawing. A little girl also showed me the mobile phone she had made out of cardboard. The paper screen can be replaced, she had one with a messaging app on for example. Honestly thought it was one of the coolest things someone has ever shown me that they had made:
I have been painting lots, nearly every evening actually. But this update has already taken long enough so will show the results another time. Big shout out to Ellen who is a friend of mine who fancies the edgy fish from Finding Nemo:
19.08.24
It has been a busy few day work wise for me. On Thursday I was back at the Hospital finishing putting together the donated planter. I have dry knuckles, sue me, I think I washed my hands too much during the pandemic, as well as liberally covering them with hand sanitiser any time I even came close to touching another person. The result of this being that they bleed super easily so if you see any red in the below video that is my blood.
On Saturday I was at MK Gallery for the day helping the IPA team with Our Studio, a monthly studio programme for neurodivergent young people aged 14 – 25yrs, and those with additional support needs. It was such a fun day! there were two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In both we were lucky enough to have Emi Fujisawa a textile and ceramic artist/designer. She had brought all the equipment needed for the young people to make something out of clay, be it 2d or 3d, as well as examples of work which had been produced by adults at Camphill Milton Keynes. In the morning session I sat outside in the sun helping/encouraging a couple of young people with what they were making. After Lunch the afternoon session’s participants needed a little less encouragement I therefore took the opportunity to make my own 2d clay tile. Which I thouroughly enjoyed doing.
On the Sunday I was back at MK Gallery this time helping out with Art and Us which “... invites families with children aged 5+ with complex needs to work directly with an artist, allowing family members to enjoy spending time together in an environment which is creative, accessible, fun and understanding of everyone’s needs”. In the morning set some stuff up, then I hung out with artist Ciara Callaghan whilst she set up the space for her session with a family in the afternoon. I can’t even begin to say how clever I thought what she was doing for the young person was.
14.08.24
Spent a very hot day working in the courtyards at MK Hospital yesterday. The first hour consisted of carrying one hundred and forty four litres of water to the two courtyards which have no access to water. This means lugging two full watering cans (14 and 10 litres respectively) through corridors past several wards making sure not to spill a drop. After a quick bite the volunteers joined me we picked up a planter which had been donated months ago but went missing somewhere along the line from the post room.
Whilst waiting for the battery for the drill to charge we planted a couple of Goldstrum in the Meadow garden and removed some Lemon Balm which is trying to take over a corner of the Sensory Garden. In the time we had left together we got three sides of the planter together.
In the evening I went to the studio, I put the back ground colour on the below.
11.08.24
Yesterday Arts for Health MK had a 4 hour volunteer drop-in session at MK hospital. It was alot of fun - four people came for the entire time and we actually got a lot done. We went to town in the Camel Courtyard, weeding and cutting back. The two camel sculptures were also cleaned. We then moved to the Sensory garden where we rubbed and sanded down the benches ready for painting (spitting rain meant I made the executive decision to leave this job to next week). The remaining time was spent weeding around the different grasses we have, giving them space to breathe.
Painting wise I finished the first pass of the painting of a collage of a still life:
I wanted to take a group shot of all the volunteers I worked with yesterday, I have an apple watch so I set my phone up and took a picture using that so we could all be in it. Thought I had put the timer on, I had not. This is how I look in the picture, What a dickhead I am (nice forearm tho):
09.08.24
Yesterday I was in the mood to paint something new. I decided to do a painting of a collage of a still life. I wanted to force some abstraction into my work as it doesn’t come naturally. To add to the abstraction I painted it upside down so I was purely thinking about form and colour, though not being too precious about exact dimensions. I pre-mixed my colours (except green which I totally forgot about) which is something I never do. It was fun as fuck.
08.08.24
Spent some time last night fucking around with the right hand side of the below painting. Whilst listen to a Neighbours podcast I heard that the actress who played matriach Lyn Scully had died. Which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t matter but in my own sphere of reality/nostaglia gave me pause for thought.
07.08.24
Today I was in Great Linford at Milton Keynes Arts Centre leading the monthly journalling for Wellbeing session. We were producing collages this time. I wanted to do something abit more chilled compared to the printmaking session we did last month. People could work from a refrence photo or if they preferred I also set up a still life with some stuff from my abandoned allotment.
The time flew by and I think people were suprised by what they were able to produce. Selection of works produced below:
01.08.24
I have been to the hospital a couple of times this week. The hot weather means I have had to add watering to things that need doing which means trips from one area of the hospital where there is access to a tap with two watering cans to all of the gardens. Its upping my step count at the very least. The volunteers and I spent time on Tuesday clearing areas of the Meadow Garden especially around the doors. My hope is if we do this people feel less comfortable smoking as they are on show a bit more. Though in reality this is unlikely. I was in disbelief walking through the hospital corridors to see the man I mentioned in my last post, who had an argument when someone asked him not to smoke, carrying a new born baby and a helium balloon celebrating its birth. I wish that kid all the luck.
On Friday I spent a bit of time in the Sensory Garden as it is the most shaded and it was hot as fuck. I brushed up leaves and started rescuing the beautiful grasses in there from the weeds.
I am still painting just having a bit of a crisis of confidence with it, will post some updates when I have supressed this.
27.07.24
On Tuesday this week I was at MK Hospital, I spent some time with a couple of volunteers in a space called the Equilbrium Garden that I had not realised was part of our creative courtyards. We cut back the bushes that had taken over the space. The aim being to be able to see the sculpture, that is in the centre of it, whilst walking past. A buggy pulled up whilst we were doing this and I got to have a chat with the two grounds people for the hospital who are both lovely. The Equilbrium Garden is right next to an area that people absolutely love smoking in. A lady who volunteers her time to the hospital taking patients to appointments etc told three men that they shouldn’t be smoking there and that there were plenty of signs stating that fact. The men all well above 40 looked at her and one of them pleased as punch with what he thought was a very clever come back said “I can’t read”. He then for some reason lit a second cigarette as an act of defiance. She said “there is a ward above you and the smoke will be going in through their windows”. The man’s answer to this was that he did not believe her. I hesitate to call them middle-aged, because I think they are well passed that, but middle-aged men are literally my least favourite things ever. They have a self-inflated view of themselves and are down right rude, buoyed by the type of arrogance that teenage boys mistakenly carry round with them. Anyway, forget them, as a doctor said to me, the more they smoke the quicker they die and stop costing the NHS money.
On Wednesday I was in Great Linford at Milton Keynes Art Centre helping with a painting class for 8-12 year olds. The person running the class setup some still lifes for the children to paint using acrylic on canvas. Someone was sat on her own so I sat with her and painted the below:
Thursday found me back at the hospital, as when I discovered the Equilbrium Garden earlier in the week, it got some dusty synapses firing in the right side of my brain and I remembered that I also had a small outside space in the Eye Clinic that fell under my remit. My volunteers said they didn’t want to work there so I had to tackle it on my own. It is in the main part of the hospital and it feels genuinely strange to be walking past patients being wheeled to and from surgery whilst I am carrying a bag full of garden waste and a broom.
There is so much great artwork in the corridors of MK Hospital. Below is one of my favourite paintings in the collection:
22.07.24
Spent some time yesterday listening to the Hungarian Grand Prix and working on the mid-ground of the daisy painting below:
20.07.24
Life is a little empty/slow for me at the moment. On Tuesday I was at MK Hospital, I decided that cutting back in the Snail Garden was the order of the day. I want the spaces to be enticing for people (other than smokers) when they walk past the windows. In the morning I tackled the bamboo around the bench and the below Laurel bush:
Then my two favourite volunteers joined me twenty minutes early for their two hour session and we went nuts on the rest of the garden. The main aim being to clear the pathes so they are easily navigatable for everyone:
Been fucking around with the top third of the below painting:
and the balloon in this one:
13.07.24
On Friday I worked a couple of hours at the hospital planting up more of the donated plants. A man was smoking in the corridor sitting in the doorway to one of the gardens.
During the last week or so I have taken a break from the daisy paintings and have been working on the second pass of the below instead.
10.07.24
Yesterday I was at MK Hospital again working in the Creative Courtyards. While walking past the Camel Garden I noticed the weeds had started to take over so spent a bit of time tidying it up, before working with the volunteers to clear more of the Meadow Garden.
07.07.24
The last few days I have been popping in and out of the studio. I can’t seem to string a good painting session together at the moment. Regardless, I have been chipping away at the Daisy paintings. The Neighbours fan podcast I listen to has gone bi-weekly which is frankly devastating.
The below daisy painting is larger than I normally work on. It is also on a fairly flimsy canvasboard. I have had to make adjustments to the easel I am using as it has fallen off several times resulting in a couple of dings.
06.07.24
On Wednesday I ran a “Journalling for Wellbeing” session at Milton Keynes Art Centre. It ran for two hours with eleven participants. Below you can see the printing plates that were made along with the prints we got from them. People were a little unsure to begin with as they had no idea what they would be doing on arrival as we change the activity every month, but once we peeled the first print from the ‘Tetra Pak’ plate everyone in the room seemed to collectively understand the process and I think they really enjoyed getting lost in printing for a couple of hours.
In the evening, buoyed by the successful session earlier in the day, I went to the studio to do a little bit of painting.
03.07.24
Yesterday I was at MK Hospital. I did some litter picking and then decided to start properly clearing areas of the Meadow Garden to make room for some new planting and to give the below sculpture room to breathe.
I had a volunteer join me for a couple of hours and together we continued with clearing and cutting back.
In the evening I was finalising my process when it came to printing on Tetra Pak ready for the class the next day.
Below is a short video of an embossed Tetra Pak printing plate pre-inking, as well as the small sketch used to produce it.
01.07.24
I spent this morning at MK Gallery with Julia Collar and VI students from several schools in Milton Keynes. It was such a VIBE today. The kids were ready to work and after everyone had experienced each others sensory aids they had requested from Julia for their tours, which ranged from water bead orbz to Lapsang Souchong Tea (which was being used as a sensory tool to imitate the smell of gun powder, which is what they must have been using at places like Warwick Castle to give authentic olde timey feel - as on smelling it I was immediately transported to visiting as a child) they cracked on with putting their tour together. Once this was done everyone went into the gallery to practise infront of their chosen art works. Next week they will be giving the Sensory tour to a select audience and I am really looking forward to it!
Yesterday I was in the studio. Whilst listening to the Austrian Grand Prix I was working on the second pass of the two daisy paintings, specifically the darkest parts of each painting. Whilst doing this I was also experimenting with printing using recycled cartons, specifically those made of “Tetra Pak” for a class I’m leading this coming Wednesday.
29.06.24
I’ve had a really busy week again, which is obviously positive and I’m grateful, it is just taking some getting used to. Finding time to paint inbetween work commitments is my priority but not always easy. On Monday I was at MK Gallery with Julia Collar for our second session with visually impaired pupils from several schools in Milton Keynes. We went into the gallery to experience the MK Calling 2024 exhibition. The students were instructed to chose an art work that they liked, with the idea that they would use that as a base to give a sensory tour/explanation of the work for other visually impaired people.
On Tuesday I was at MK Hospital; I really needed to crack on with planting the perennials. I had been in the previous Friday, to move them to a cooler spot in the courtyard and to give them plenty of water. During one trip with a watering can down a hospital corridor I spilt some water, no one was around and I didn’t want to leave it so I took my shoe and sock off and used my sock to mop up the spill all whilst standing on one foot hoping (not hopping) no patients would be transported past me whilst I was doing it. Wet sock back on I spent the morning clearing space for planting in the Snail Garden. One of my hardworking volunteers came in that afternoon and gave me a hand for a couple of hours. We also took down a small tree which had to be bagged up ready for removal. Needless to say I didnt get all the planting done that I wanted so returned on Thursday to carry on.
It’s unbelievable the number of people who smoke at the Hospital, both patients and people who work there. Indeed whilst I was working a woman knocked on the door to ask if she could come out and smoke. It turns out the Snail Garden is extremely rocky and a lot of time is taken up by getting these stones up.
Painting wise I have been working on the two daisy paintings:
20.06.24
Its been a pretty busy few days for me outside of the studio. On Tuesday I was at MK Hospital working in the creative Courtyards. I enjoy every moment of working there. In the morning I went to a couple of meetings including seeing the new cancer centre’s garden and hearing how they plan to maintain it. I also saw the garden that MK Friends, an independant charity which supports patients, families and communities at Milton Keynes Hospital, had made for pharmacy staff at the hospital to enjoy on their breaks. Then in the afternoon my two legendary volunteers and I worked in the Camel Courtyard. There are three big bushes of bamboo in there so we spent a couple of hours in the hot lovely sun digging up any bamboo that was spreading away from the main bushes. Especially those growing up and into the hospital building itself. We then went and unloaded my colleagues car which was filled with perennials from a very kind lady who donated them to us.
In the evening I decided to start two new paintings because I have freewill and agency. Probably around four years ago I painted a tryptic of daisy paintings. It was the first time I had tried any kind of floral painting. I made plenty of mistakes. Including overpainting, using white as a colour (this is probably the most reprehensible of the mistakes) and when varnishing one of them I used too much varnish which pooled. Despite this I like them. I therefore wanted to see how I would go about painting a similar series of paintings now. So in the time I had I started the underpainting of the two below. A neighbour, who actually used to be my art teacher in the early 2000s, kindly gave me some larger canvas boards. One of which can be seen on the right.
Yesterday evening I covered an event at Milton Keynes Arts Centre.
They were a very nice group of people and gave me their left over vegetarian sandwiches when they were finished. Which were delicious.
On Monday I went to my allotment which I have had for five growing seasons now. Its a place I have spent ALOT of time and have built a rapport with other alloment owners around my plot. Its seen me through alot of hard times and loneliness and has given me something to focus on. Unfortunately one man has taken against me. On a day a few weeks ago when he greeted me and I said hello to him three times he decided this was not friendly enough and called me an arsehole (explaining to him the irony of calling me an arsehole whilst simultaneously saying how friendly he was did me no favours). He went out of his way to antagonise me this trip and I called him out as being a bully. This was like a red rag to a bull. He went on and on about how much he was loved by the entire allotment and then proceeded to repeatedly call me scum and worthless and essentially sub human. During this tirade I remembered that I had an allotment for recreation and this pot-bellied, no jawed, bug of a man had stopped my trips there being recreational. I am waiting for my broad beans, which I put in in February to mature and then am going to give up the allotment. Nothing lasts forever, and when something stops being fun stop doing it.
16.06.24
Yesterday I spent the day at Milton Keynes Art Centre covering the cafe there. It was a pretty squally day so not very busy but I spoke to plenty of people and it gave me the opportunity to update my diary.
In the evening I spent a little time painting the parquet flooring of the painting below.
14.06.24
This morning I made my way to MK Hospital. I had decided on Tuesday, with my volunteers, that I would tackle the extremely overgrown area of the Snail Garden today as they did not fancy doing it next week. I therefore cracked on with it for a couple of hours in the sun and rain. It was super satisfying and enjoyable to be in the lovely courtyard space.
All weeds were bagged ready for collection and I finished up by brushing and cleaning the moss from the snail below.
I then made my way across Milton Keynes to Arts Central in Kiln Farm where I spent a couple of hours finishing off the priming I have been doing there.
13.06.24
The last couple of days I have been helping a friend with a project at Arts Central in Milton Keynes. Which involves alot of priming. So have only snatched a few hours in the studio in the evenings.
12.06.24
This morning I attended “A Supportive Conversation with Dr Esther Aslan: Mental Health and Arts Participation” at Milton Keynes Art Centre. Which was really good. Dr Aslan also provided banging cookies and two small elephants which I love. They are going straight in my studio. The cookie went straight in my mouth.
Last night I got a bit of time in the studio so managed to do a small amount of painting. I worked on the dark green of the shadow in the background whilst listening to a podcast about the latest episodes of Neighbours.
Yesterday I was at MK Hospital working in the creative Courtyards. I spent the morning in the Camel garden, litter picking and weeding. The volunteers came at one o’clock and after putting the signage, which we made the week before into the herb planters of the Sensory garden, we went to the ‘jungle like’ Snail garden and started tackling the weeds in there. After two hours we had three big bags full.
10.06.24
The last few days have been pretty busy for me. On Friday, before going to MK Hospital, I went to Arts Central which is an artists studio space in Kiln Farm MK, to meet an artist friend Ciara Callaghan, and see her excellent work which is being produced for an upcoming event taking place on Midsummer Boulavard East on the 23rd June called Midsummer Festival. I also got to see some new work by artist Tom Guilmard which looked cool as fuck.
On Saturday I had the pleasure of being part of a Bio-Blitz with MKAC. We set up near the underpass between Netherfields and Beanhill on a beautifully warm and sunny morning and spent a lovely day with people of all ages, looking at the flora and fauna of the area. There was the opportunity to identify leaves and then print them onto canvas, with artist Ciara Callaghan. Phil from Milton Keynes Parks Trust was on hand for any queries and gave a very informative talk on the vegetation of the local area...
... Lastly I was on hand to facilitate badge-making which was honestly so fun. It was great seeing what kids and adults alike drew from what they had discovered that day.
Ciara also made a multi leaf print on canvas of the individual plants growing in the area. Which she donated to Netherfield Chapel, who kindly allowed us to use their facilities during the day.
I got back into the studio yesterday and whilst listening to the Canadian Grand Prix, I worked on the Alonso painting below. I had been putting off sorting out the top left corner because my brain had told me it would be hard. My brain is a dirty stinking liar. It was fun! I thought I had scratched one of the lenses of my glasses during painting and had a mini breakdown about that as I do not want to fork out for new ones. Turns out, when I got home and cleaned them properly, the scratch was just caked on dirt. So I took that as a win.
07.06.24
Last night I was very happy to be back in the studio again.
I mucked around with the blue in the sky especially around the chapel that sits on top of the Island for a bit. Then I needed to sort out the cistern in the painting below. I had not really allowed for the lid of cistern and to be honest my sticker placement was a bit off all round. So to help my future self I tried to correct this.
Today I did a few hours in one of the creative courtyard gardens at MK Hospital. Im going to refer to it as Brachiosaurus Yellow Car garden for now as they were the two toys I found in a bush. I chose to work in one of the gardens that needed a bit of a clearing it was very satisfying. Had a chat with an old man who was using it to smoke and he named the trees that are in there as he used to be a tree surgeon.
05.06.24
The last couple of days have been taken up by things outside of the studio. I started working with MK Arts for Health at MK Hospital yesterday which was so much fun. I got lost in the hospital maybe four times. Had a lovely induction with a colleague and met the gardening team who look after the whole site (just the two of them)! The volunteers and I spent a good couple of hours in the Sensory Garden. Weeding, clipping back bushes and finding bits of scaffolding which had been left after all the windows surrounding the garden were replaced. A lot of hard work has gone into that space prior to my arrival.
The only bit of painting I did over the last couple of days was reducing the chroma of the paint on the beach in the little palette knife painting below. It was just too bright and intense previously like it would be on a sunny day, not on an overcast day in October.
Today I had the opportunity to lead a workshop at the beautiful Milton Keynes Arts Centre. It is a monthly art journaling session for wellbeing. We had a lovely group of people join us. “Nature” was our rough prompt. I therefore liberated some flora from the Graveyard in the village I live in and made still lifes for us to draw. We spent some time loosening up with activities like drawing with charcoal on the end of a two foot stick, using our non dominant hand and finally drawing with our eyes closed. This allowed us to be less judgemental of what we were producing and think about mark making and gesture. Then people cracked on with working in their sketchbooks. I produced the ink study below.
02.06.24
Yesterday I spent some time in the day pushing paint around on the “window painting”. I have been thinking about Plato’s allegory of the cave all throughout its production. Indeed, that is what I was reminded of when I decided to paint it. Not really sure how relevant that is also I honestly have a pretty basic layperson’s knowledge of his Republic as a whole. My brain just WAS NOT listening in my lectures about it. Anyway, before long my fancy was taken by another painting sitting on the drying rack ready to go...
... The painting of Godrevy from St Ives has got to be close to finished. I needed to take the grey clouds in it a few tones lighter as they felt too heavy and solid. It’s all part of trying to have a tiny bit of subtlety. Also messed around putting some sky in the sea and vice versa.
30.05.24
29.05.24
Last night having recently found an old palette knife I was able to crack on with the dead orange leaves of the painting below. I had stopped working on it as I had broken all of the plastic handled palette knives that I had. But whilst cleaning my studio I happened upon a few wooden handle ones that have been with me since my community college days in Oxford circa 2006. NEVER BUY PLASTIC HANDLED PALETTE KNIVES.
28.05.24
The last couple of days I have gone back to the old style toilet cistern painting. Getting a bit more detail on the stickers. Frustratingly I have had a general feeling of malaise in my life recently and this has been slowly seeping into my painting sessions, truncating them.
Here is the most recent iteration of the wrestlers painting:
26.05.24
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the 20th Anniversary Celebration of Arts for Health Milton Keynes at the Milton Keynes University Hospital. I wish I had taken some photos but I was fully concentrating on being an adult human being who is fully capable of small talk with grown-up strangers. It was a lovely event and I was pleased to meet so many nice people. In the last few days I have been working on a painting of a wrestler giving another wrestler a receipt for a botched move. Specifically the head of the man recieving the receipt.
I also finished Aquila series 2 which was great, so many interesting sci-fi concepts. But boy oh boy puberity hit the two lead actors like a train between 1997 and 1998.
22.05.24
Last night I had the first six episodes of the late 90s childrens tv show Aquila on in the background whilst I painted. What an unbelievably good show that was. I remember watching it in 1997 and being at the age where I knew it couldn’t happen but dichotomously, also fully believing that it could.
21.05.24
Yesterday I was in the rare mood to clean my studio.
Then I did a tiny bit of work on this.
20.05.24
Last night I listened to the Manic Street Preachers 2002 compilation album (which reminded me of my formative university experience circa 07/08) and then the Imola Grand Prix on the Radio. I did a little work on this tiny portrait:
I then changed my palette from Linseed to Walnut oil and started working on the self portrait below. Specifically finding the forms of the primates. I have been looking forward to doing this the whole time I have been painting it.
16.05.24
Last night out of all the painting I had available to me to paint I chose a weird little portrait.
I have finished all neighbours episodes on youtube that I want to watch. For a moment I thought about going through them again but sanity won out. I do have to keep my youtube usage in the studio to 144p as I am using my mobile data rather than wifi. I thought therefore that some late ‘90s live music would be best. I watched/listened to two Elliot Smith live concerts. Live at Reading Festival in 1998 and Fuji Rock in 2000 (which I think is one of his best live performances. It is also a beautiful backdrop for a concert). The portrait is of a friend from a photograph taken at a New Years Eve party. I thought it was interesting because of the light sources there are no skin tones. It is painted on a piece of wood I cut from the old slats of my bed.
15.05.24
I recieved linseed oil in the post which means I can continue with at least ten paintings that I was using that as the medium. I had put my previous linseed oil in a non air tight container, in which it had too much contact with air so it had begun forming a crystalised skin on top. Saying that the small amount of painting I did last night was on the tiled toilet specifically a sticker for Timothy Taylor’s Ale which for some reason has an image of Chairman Mao on it. This painting uses Walnut Oil as its medium.
14.05.24
last night I embarked on Neighbours eps from 2001. Alongside this I painted a bit. adding some stickers to the tiled wall of the toilet I am painting. Madge dying was genuinely sad.
13.05.24
Last night I went back to this old style toilet cistern painting. As the first pass/block in was completely dry I started adding some detail. I also finished all 97 Neighbours episodes available to me on Youtube from 1998. Which I am genuinely gutted about.
On Friday night I stood out the front of my parents’ cottage with them and we witnessed the Aurora Borealis. I had never seen it before and tbh it wasn’t a desire of mine at all to do so. I didn’t know it could be pink, it was truly beautiful to look towards the north star and see this huge block of colour. It gave me a numinous feeling. I wonder if it was there everyday how long it would be before people literally didn’t give a fuck about it.
09.05.24
Last night I carried on blocking in this painting. Earlier in the day driven mad by the hot weather and the fact that my hair was so long, I had to wear a beanie hat when running/being on the allotment. I took a sharp pair of scissors to my mop which was liberating. I think I know how a sheep must feel when it has been shorn, except I’m not breed for my meat or slaughtered on an industrial size scale so some cunt can have a Keema Naan. The slap that Susan gave Karl must have reverberated around the world in 1998.
08.05.24
last night, I decided to celebrate my good day by starting to block in this painting. Whilst doing this I watched Toadie tell Billy Kennedy that his dad Karl had been cheating on his mum Susan. Karl’s midlife crisis has taken six months at least to be found out. FUCK KARL KENNEDY.
07.05.24
Today I had the privilege of helping MK Gallery Associate Artist Julia Collar with a sensory tour of the Saul Leiter: An Unfinished World exhibition. The young people from St. Pauls, MK College and Slated Row schools were all lovely, enthusiastic and engaged. How could they not be with Julia giving such a tremendous tour filled with intriguing sensory props based around motifs in Leiter’s work and allowing the willing audience to fully experience Leiter’s work using all of their senses. We could smell the streets of New York, petrol, hot dogs and wet concrete; hear the sounds of a bustling metropolis; feel the cold of snow; experiment with light and use frames to crop in real time what we could see. Julia had many more sensory experiences in her trolley that we all got to discover. Do you know the five core senses? What about the others like vestibular system, proprioceptive system, interoceptive system, themoception and numinous. Numinous being the sense of awe - a sense I am always grateful to experience, however fleeting.
06.05.24
Last night I paused the Neighbours episodes from 1998. Instead I listened to the Miami Grand Prix whilst I painted. I was exploring how the light affects the background directly around it, how it creates a halo. I also added Phlato Blue into the mix. Normally with Phlato I add it and then think, shit I should not have done that. Satisfyingly that was not the case this time.
02.05.2024
The last few evenings I have gone back to a painting I really want to finish quick sharp as I want to enter it into some open calls. Definitely have an issue when it comes to the last 10 percent of a painting. I have been sorting out the wood of the lampost and the light itself. Once that is done I think at least one more pass on the leaves in the background should do it. Just went and voted in the Village Hall. Man told the two Poll clerks that he had his first pickled egg in the hall many years hence when he was a kid, hadn’t been in there since.
29.04.2024
Last night whilst the underpainting was still wet I worked a bit of colour into it. Mostly to increase contrast between shapes. Tbh this is a bit naughty, I should really be letting the underpainting dry, but I was enjoying painting and literally NOTHING MATTERS.
27.04.2024
Last night after cleaning two palettes, something that I am way too slack on. I started a new painting. I decided to use a mix of Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna as the base and then figure out shapes by wiping the paint away using a rag and my finger. Once I had done this I added a few lines to start placing the important elements of the painting. The photos below are at an angle because the light in my studio was creating quite a glare on the painting.
26.04.2024
Last night and yesterday afternoon I finished off the first pass of this painting:
Here is a detail shot of the chain:
25.04.2024
last night I finished up the tiles on this painting, not sure why so many of my paintings are light with dark straight lines atm. It feels a bit like a form of self flagellation. Once I have rendered the chain, which I plan to do this afternoon, the first pass of this painting will be done and I will set it aside to dry.
Thought I would show what I mean by a rudimentary scribe:
The paintbrush above was kindly given to me in a bag of loads of used brushes by the Mouth and Foot Painting Artist, Keith Jansz. Once I had used it up as a brush I repurposed it.
I spend a not insignificant amount of brain space on the Voyager 1 space probe. So was super happy to hear its trasmitting data again.
23.04.24
Yesterday I primed some crappy shop bought canvas boards with a final layer of high quality grey primer.
Then last night once they were dry I started a new painting. I have several ways that I begin paintings but for this one I put down a layer of oil paint (high in turps v low in walnut oil) then using a rudimentary scribe I scratched out a rough outline of the lines and basic forms.
I have to stop myself from doing too much of this. I then move on to using a paint brush to indicate shadows and erase any of the terrible lines I have put down.
The last couple of weeks I have also been dabbling with a sketch of the exterior shot used in the 1990’s and early 2000’s on Neighbours for Erinbourough Hospital. Generally only do it when im sat in Tesco Cafe and I have nothing else to do. Ignore the outline of a horse with a big cock which is just visible through the page.
18.04.24
Last night I spent a bit of time picking out the shadows of the boulders and blending the mess of green. Also flying through the 1998 episodes of Neighbours. Madge having an aneurysm is worrying times.
17.04.24
Yesterday I force liberated some snails from my alloment. I put them on a log by my studio, it only occurred to me later that I had essentially put them on a platter for birds. Hopefully They got off it quick sharp.
Been working on alot of skies recently. Hopefully getting a bit better at them. There is a subtly of both form and colour that I am really trying to get to grips with. With this in mind after a weekend in London I have been working on a painting of “The Island” in St Ives. I drew it whilst having a beer in Porthmeor Cafe last October. This is the first pass I have done on it since blocking in the colours. I am very unsure how I feel about it tbh, I go from thinking its passable to despair over my inability to control paint with green pigment in it.
11.04.24
Last night I finished the 1997 episodes of Neighbours and moved on to 1998 ones. Karl cheating on Susan at the same time Billy was cheating on Anne is peak Neighbours. I also worked on the sky of Godrevy Lighthouse painting.
10.04.24
Last night I picked up on a painting I have not touched in a couple of months. It’s of a view across St Ives Bay of Godrevy Lighthouse and Godrevy Head on a very changeable day in October 2023.
Godrevy is one of the lighthouses Virginia Woolf was inspired by when writing “To the Lighthouse”. Indeed she first visited in 1892. Have you ever tried to read “To the Lighthouse”? You are a better person than me if you finished it.
I am writing this after running round a wet and windy Willen Lake. In a coffee shop the likes of which I have never seen in Milton Keynes, Canal St. Campbell Wharf. Delicious long black and cool atmosphere.
9.04.24
last night I messed around putting some skin tone and features on these guys in the background. I know the guy’s shoes are too big, but Im leaving them as long as possible because I like them.
In the last week I have also been slowly adding some shadow to the ceiling of the painting below.
I also have at least one other person, or bot, who is on the same level as me:
29.03.24
last night I cracked on with a painting I have given very little time to. In fact blocking the colours in has taken me months, simply because I leave it for swathes of time - it is bottom of the heap of paintings I have on the go.
I didn’t quite get it finished. I spent this morning at a community cafe in the village I live in. An 85 year old man sat down and proceeded to tell his life story. His wife leaving him and moving to the US with his son. His sweetheart dying in his arms at a hospice. His next door neighbour who must get a piece of cake or she wouldn’t be making his dinner. His cancer that they will not operate on because he would die on the table. I had an Almond and Honey cake with a cafetiere of coffee. I then went to my studio and got to work finishing the blocking in.
I am most pleased with the bag and jumper hanging on the side of the shutter. Now that it’s blocked in, the painting can go to back to the bottom of the heap.
28.03.24
Last night I spent a small amount of time blending the stewards in the background and feeling out the gaps in the green fence behind them.
But to be honest I was not feeling it so moved on to the study I am working on of “The Island” from the cafe in Tate St Ives.
I was also watching more episodes of Neighbours from 1997. I cannot understand why Karl ever cheated on Susan Kennedy.
Anyway here are some detail shots of the yellow lichen on the rooftops.
Did you know lichen is an example of a symbiotic relationship?
Below is a detail shot (honestly its abstract AF) of the corner of Norway Square in St.Ives. Also visible is the entrance to several of the studio spaces in Porthmeor Studios. A place I hope to spend some time painting in at some point in my life.
27.03.24
Last night I worked on this oil painting of Fernando Alonso’s world falling apart in 2012.
Specifically the race stewards in the background. Whilst doing this I watched old Neighbours episodes from 1997. Remember when Karl had to do an emergency tracheostomy on his son after a freak accident at Lou’s Place?