About me

As a mature student and a busy mum returning to college, the prospects of the Foundation in Art and Design was exciting. During the past months I have learnt a lot, experimenting in different areas. This has opened my mind to many aspects of Art and Design I had not experienced before. I have worked on projects with themes, the first being to develop ideas from a place or event that I had recently enjoyed, which was a holiday in Cornwall with my family. The second was from a field trip to Pembrokeshire and currently I am working on ideas based on ‘The City’; a recent trip to Dublin helped with that. Within each project I have produced work in photographs, working with photoshop to alter images, Collagraph printing, textiles, ceramics and painting each time developing the ideas from sketchbook work. In Art History I have learnt how to analyse paintings and also use the influence of other artists to help with a point of departure in my own work. Currently I am influenced by Anselm Kiefer as I like his use of materials; in a recent painting I have painted parts of a Georgian door and used polyfiller, tile grout, copper and emulsion paints to produce a triptych.

Running alongside the project work and for the first time, I have also had the opportunity to do life drawing. I have thoroughly enjoyed the challege. I have recently started using underpainting and then adding flesh tones.

Working with the younger students has also been a refreshing experience, observing the way they see things and how modern influences help them develop their work. I have learnt a lot from them too.


In conclusion, my experience on the course has given me the passion to continue my studies at University so that I can fulfil a dream of achieving my degree at Art School. One day I would like to be able to teach or use my degree in Art therapy for health.


Monday, 1 February 2010

Sketchbook Work for Collagraph

Working from a study of the sea and using watercolours, threads and bits of scrim I developed a simple design that helped me with the design for a Collagraph.

Collagraph Print of Sea

Collagraph print design based on the sea in Cornwall. I used drypoint card, string, textured paste, PVA glue and bubble wrap to make the plate and then I tried blending the inks on the plate before rolling it through the press.

Charcoal Still Life

Working with charcoal this was an exercise I did in observing negative space and chiaroscuro method.

Sketchbook Work of Rocks

Graphite drawing of the rocks in Pembrokeshire which I developed to a Collagraph design.

Collagraph Print of Rocks

In this Collagraph print I made a plate using textured wallpapers to create the rocks and glued sand around the texures to create the line and shadows around them. I experimented with differant wallpapers to find the best textures and mixed the inks to try differant colours.

Sketchbook Work for Textile Design

I really loved the form and colours of the pebbles in Pembrokeshire and made several studies of them when I was on the field trip. I took the basic shapes and colours to design a textile piece.

Textile Design of Pebbles

For this textile I started with a base of felting in pebble shapes and then I built on top of it with stitch, felt and found objects incorporating text form an old book which had etchings of pirates and relevant words.

Sketchbook Work for Ceramics

Using the studies of the textures and shapes that you see in and around the rock pools I developed the design for my ceramics. I practised using different coloured slips, oxides and glazes observing the different effects that I could achieve to use on my finished pieces.

Ceramic Work based on Pembrokeshire Field Trip

My ceramic pieces evolved from the visit to Pembrokeshire and through the studies I made in my sketchbook. I have always loved rock pools with their hidden creatures and plant life with different colours and textures. I worked with crank clay and used oxides with barium blue glaze to create the feel of the rock pools.

Sketchbook work of Dublin door

Working in my sketchbook I developed my idea to do a painting of parts of a door in Dublin. There are many beautiful old doors in Dublin and with one of them I was inspired by the peeling paint contrasting with the new yellow door and the beautiful glass work that this study was based on. I decided to work with heavy textures and practised using differant materials to achieve the effect I wanted.

Study of Door


This is one of a Triptych study of a part of a door in Dublin. I worked with many different media to create the textures such as plaster, tile grout, cotton,oil paints, emulsion paint and weathered copper.

Life Study

Working with oil paints to create flesh tones and using the underpainting technique whilst observing other artists such as Jenny Saville and Lucian Freud.

Followers