We will do this course when the situation improves. It is a course I love doing because the techniques are those I use in my own work. Jan and I found ourselves writing another book 'Just One More Thing' - it was designed to remind people of some of the things we feel important. I am often asked how I do things and I am happy to share but people are often surprised at how many layers and processes are involved in what on the surface might seem a deceptively simple image. We will construct an image using bonding, layers and stitching. We will also highlight some innovative uses of the embellishing machine, it's time to get them out of the cupboard and really go for it. I will bring an embellisher for anyone who does not have one. Beware if you have not used one before, it is addictive!

A personal Message for Jean

My friend Jan and I had an exhibition before Christmas and struggled at the beginning of this  year with new pathways and then came self-isolation and everything changed. Many people feel that life and death struggles have made other aspects of life insignificant but I am so grateful to have something in my life that absorbs, fascinates and sometimes frustrates me.

At first I thought I would have endless time but this is far from the case. In the first week I cleaned, polished and planted seeds and anything to distract me from tackling the new work. It was back to basics, drawing and researching and I am now recovered from the demented housework and have settled into a work pattern. I worked on celestial patterns, the moon, sun, cusps, equinoxes at a time when there were major changes in my personal life. There was comfort and peace in reflecting on the fact that whatever happens in our lives, the  moon continues to rise and the sun shine. I have gone back to this theme and am concentrating on the moon which has always fascinated me. The recent Pink moon was amazing and I am thinking about how to use the information.

I started with design ideas and created background fabrics using dying and discharge printing techniques. These will be further developed with hand and machine stitching and of course the embellishing machine. I try to organise my work so that designing, dying and printing during the day and hand stitching in the evening. I am not sure how this is going to turn out so watch this space.

Jean Littlejohn

April 2020

I have been making the most of the extra time that has materialised since the lockdown. Firstly I have been catching up on some commissions. I was waiting for the tulip season to start - which of course it has done now - before embarking on some tulip portraits. I think of all the flowers, tulips are perhaps my favourite - along with the iris family. However, tulips are stunning at all times of their flowering cycle - in bud, flower and when they go over. Always elegant, with an amazing array of colours, which change with their age. I am putting these images on my Instagram account ruth.kirkby

 

Alongside this, I have been catching up with some reading - art books of course. I am a huge believer in looking at the work of others and reading about their techniques. One can gather a great deal of very useful information from other artists, and how they approach their work. My mind is a bit of a magnet for anything arty, and it all goes into the mill which is my brain, and gets regurgitated at some stage!

 

Whilst my workshop this month won't go ahead, I firmly believe that the one which will replace it in September will benefit from this input. I have so many new ideas I want to try, and this will be my next target - to spend some hours experimenting - using some scrap paper to try new techniques. The joy of watercolours to my mind is the layering you can do, with each translucent layer building up to the final picture. There will undoubtedly be many failures, but that's the joy of having so much spare time - much less pressure to produce a final outcome and more time to investigate the possibilities.

My final piece of advice for those of you who have a bit of time on your hands is to look at the wealth of ideas currently available online and on YouTube. One particularly interesting site is isolationartschool on Instagram. Artists of all genres are giving demonstrations and talks on their work. Fascinating!

 

Keep safe and keep busy!

Ruth