Snaps from my city.

I'm really loving my journey through Newcastle and down to the Arts Centre and each morning I will either take lots of pictures or if I'm laden down or time is tight I will plan images for the next trip. Doing a project like this makes you look at the city you live in, in a new light. You start to notice the small things or things that you step over every day and other people's routines. I'd also not realised that we had so many plaques commemorating so many great people who built or influenced our gorgeous city. 

I'm now going to incorporate some of these finds into my drawing project. 

Another thing I'm going to do is explore how many routes from my starting point there are down to the Art Centre and investigate interesting architecture and details along the way. I have two routes at the moment and there at least two more I can explore.

Decorating, experimenting and exploring.

Hello all, sorry it's been a while since my last post. The art shop has been keeping me busy and I've also been decorating the house, well the hall, stairs and landing to be precise which was a fairly big job! Anyway that's all done for the time being and I can get back to Ballistic Owl and creating beautiful pieces.

My favourite bit of the landing after the redecoration.

While I've been painting walls I've been thinking about what I can be doing for my next project and mapping out ideas and collecting images. I've also been out and about with the camera taking snaps of lovely things to inspire my new project as well as future ones.

I've also been experimenting with various techniques and also working on some embroideries, here's a snippet for those who haven't found my facebook page yet.

The three images above were part of an experiment using cyanotype, which is a fun technique to try out on a warm sunny day. I have then selected certain sections and embellished them with stitch. The birds linking them altogether, but they don't have to be together as will stand alone quite nicely.

This rather fun and you never know what's going to happen technique is done using photo paper, dye and ink. I loved the depth it produced and the gorgeous mini images you find within the piece. I'm now working on how to incorporate this into a piece.

My new project is looking at an old favourite, architecture, but looking at it from a different view point and trying out some of these new techniques I've been exploring. My one of my first drawings is this one exploring the angles of the Co-op building in Newcastle town centre.

Keeping it simple, but with a ping of colour.

Alongside a friend from work I'm also exploring my journey to work and taking pictures of things that catch my eye that day. It may be a road sign, a tree or a building, but all form part of my journey. Myself and my friend's destination is the same, but reached from different parts of town, so it's interesting to see the pictures as they're gathered.

My first few pictures taken on Friday 16th May.

So as you can see I've been pretty busy and  I have not been neglecting the creativity, just nurturing it a little bit and giving it some tlc.

Keep in touch and keep popping by, see you next time.

Creative spectacular

Happy New Year to all my fellow bloggers and followers! I hope you all had a great festive period and are now raring to go and be creative in the year ahead.

Christmas time for us, as with many people is a busy time and we piled on the miles as well as a few pounds as we travelled the country seeing our family and friends. Now I'm home and the clothes have been unpacked and washed it is time to turn  my creative head on and get some drawings and ideas flowing.

It was a significant birthday for me just before Christmas and as a real treat we flew out to Barcelona for a week and had a fantastic time. I've loved Gaudi's work ever since our art history lecturer did a presentation on him and have always wanted to go and see it all for real.

My poor camera and probably poor husband were taken all round the buildings that I most wanted to see. For me it was a feast for the eyes, everywhere you looked there was an interesting piece of architecture or a fascinating detail. A VERY small selection of my photographs are below.

 The Passion facade at Sagrada Familia

 Casa Batllo

 Ceiling in the living room at Casa Batllo

 Gorgeous windows at Sagrada Familia

 Chimney on Palau Guell

Surreal art at the Dali museum

So now with renewed creative vigour I have tidied my table in the studio, so I can actually work on it and will put together a mood board and start drawing. I have been so busy on the run up to Christmas with my other job that Ballistic Owl and my drawing have been a little neglected, but I will redress the balance. After seeing all the spectacular work of Gaudi and his sources of inspiration I may even visit some old favourite topics with renewed enthusiasm and I'm itching to get started.

I also have a bundle of fabric that was printed last year for the embroidery show and I'm now gathering thoughts as how to use it and then hopefully sell the finished article. So any suggestions as to what I could do with it would be great.

So if you are ever stuck for a holiday destination and you've never been to Barcelona, I would highly recommend it and make sure have a big enough memory card in your camera!!

Inspired by Bawden

Edward Bawden is my favourite illustrator and artist. I love his use of colour and the fact he used lino cuts on occasion. He has really inspired my present project at college, which is based on architecture and the mix match of old and new buildings we find in our cities.