SAW 2017 At the Dove Centre

Myf we wish you were here!

Over this summer i have re-visited many of the different screen-printing techniques that i have learnt since Diana Milstein first taught me to mono-print in her attic in Bristol when i was 8. Throughout my youth I have dipped in and out of the print-industry and print-study and had times of no-print-at-all as ihave tried to find my place in the world . It had been amazing to have this project as a reason to confirm my print-passion and knowledge. 33 years after first visiting the Dove as an infant, i am finally making and presenting my artwork here and it feels like exactly the right place for me.

Being asked to join in with this years SAW project was a heartwarming confirmation of my official "landing" back in Somerset, and more specifically, Butleigh, after many years out in the wide world searching for.. well something!.

My work is very process-lead in that i set up the image-making techniques that i know and love, and then let loose as i over-print last weeks , or yesterdays work, so a suprise collage effect occurs out of a variety of images that i have carefully chosen. This i feel creates a suitable layering of pictures, a bit like dreams or memories that often mix together in the mind.  It is a very prolific approach and a far-cry from the reproductive reason print was invented in the first place as almost all of my work ends up as unique pieces.

My sketchbooks work in a fairly similar way. I always over-work pages and overlay materials and collage as much as possible to gather as much of a "complete" record of my visual experience. The majority of the sketchbook for this project was created within 1 week staying in the Door-house in early spring. It was a magical week when not only was i watching the blossoms and the wildflowers opening infront of my eyes, joking to friends that i'd found the portal to the next dimension of beauty, but i also conceived my first child.!

Thanks to Myfannwy Morris who i only really met a handfull of times, but who clearly lit the fire under the concept of a new generation of artists entering the Dove's Amazing Space.

http://www.misssmithart.co.uk/

http://lauraburke.info/

Lentils and Greens in N4

As well as making new work for the upcoming Amazing Space show and attending my regular shifts in the IndigoHerbs kitchen, i have been designing,planning and painting this Private mural commission in North London. AND at the same time growing a baby! yes i'm 5 months in to my first pregnancy and just spent a week up a ( not very high) ladder painting a ceiling and 3 walls!  Don't let anybody tell you what is and isn't possible!

I'm putting my continued energy down to a combination of lentils, rice, greens, tahini , seaweed salad and all butter-croissants. all available very easily in London Town and usually easy to pick up on the way to, or from a swimming pool. ive had a long week of happy days,early nights and nutritious dinners that matched the colour palette.

Amazing space

I have been invited to take part in Somerset Arts Week this year alongside some of my longstanding local creative role models. Over the coming summer months i will be doing little residency bursts out in the amazing space that is Dove Studios Butleigh and responding with a series of screenprints and an artists book. To all be exhibited as part of theSomerset Art Works festival from september 23- october 8 2017. With great honour i will be doing all this with support from, and in the company of Bron Bradshaw Diana Milstein.

Dove studios isn't simply a beautiful rural space that has housed and supported creatives over many decades, it is no more than half a mile from where i was born and raised!

Studying and responding to this familar land has already been a glorious experience and i can't wait to see what works comes out of it.

During the late easter week this year, me and Mango dog did our first residency stint in the meadow at the Dove, staying the the funny little door-house and i got a very prolific in my sketchbook gatheringinformation about all the plants that were literally waking up from winter slumber before my very eyes!

Since then i have been getting printy, getting my squeegee around personal representations of the wonders of the various nature spaces at the dove, its all still very much in progress so watch this space.. this Amazing Space.

Etsy shop open now

first baby steps of online selling.

follow this link to my ETSY shop where you can buy cards and tote bags and more in the future.

......>>>>> BUY TROPICAL PATTERNS ON STUFF HERE <<<<<<......

1 colour x 100

A recent commision to design and screen-print 100 wedding invites.

Very happy with the outcome of this project as i usually only do wonky small run prints in my bedroom and this has ended up looking very professional.! Who else out there is getting married?

Islas Canarias.

Spent many sunshine hours studying the patterns and textures of the plant life of Lanzarote over the xmas holidays. I used a really restricted colour palette, and went into real experiment mode using seawater to smudge stuff ,and using colour in new ways to fill a whole sketchbook. Working prolifically like this is great practise in not being too precious about mark making.

undoubtledly this work will end up in a mural somewhere in the world at some point but i'm in no rush.

Drawing with Mother

Sketching and painting with my mum for the last 3 weeks has been great fun and a great learning curve too.!

Mango Dog Drawings

Getting back into the feel of looking properly, seeing better and most importantly bonding through drawing. It's all good practise

why i dont have an online shop.

Got a bit focused on the 14 x14 cm sized digital canvas this past few weeks and the result was this mix of old and new designs on blank greetings cards. i'm sorry i don't have an online shop:

Why i don't have an online shop:

If anybody has ever worked in a medium to large sized company that works with products, that has different departments, for example Marketing, Sales, Production, Dispatch, and Human Resources. It is clear to see that these different roles are filled by very different types of people. It is glorious that we live in a time when we can all identify and apply our varied skill sets in an individually recognised way like this. 

Each of these stages within the job of making and selling a product, requires specialist types of space, or equipment, or training and knowledge. And of coursedepending on the size of the company, each requires time. Yes the HR department works full time, the production department works full time, the marketing and/or WEB department is full time actually no it is EXTRA and OVER time because the web never sleeps.

For each piece of creative work, be it music or art, in analogue or digital form. once it has got to the stage of being enjoyed by you, (the viewer/listener/ buyer if we're lucky), it has gone through numerous stages other than simply being dreamt up by the creator. hours and hours of the other work involved with getting creative work "out" . The online side of things is compulsory these days and finding extra time tobuild/attend/update the web as well as concentrating on making is pretty difficult. especially if you are not that type of character.

I really really like making pictures, and i really really like working in production. I always have. factory work and repetitive/boring actions over and over, enough to make me mad or at least a bit angry and then out the other side, totally at peace with the world. is my thing.  This is why i've always liked repro-graphics, screen-printing, painting in-fills of tiny pattern over large spaces alongside my main " bottom-rung" employments of t-shirt printing and folding, lifeguarding and factory work.

I COULD design my own online shop, i COULD start andrun my own design company i COULD start my own food blog i COULD do a hell of alot of things because if you know me you know i am goddam determined, organised and bossy enough. As well as lucky enough to have these options availbale to me. But i can't sacrifice the precious time i have for making. the simple and necessary repetition of production work. Making, that requires patience and commitment and yes most of all patience. this is what i need to practise and what will nourish me, more than making £2.50 a time selling cards.

Cutting and sticking

Because time and space and inspiration hardly ever come all at the same time.

My fellow foody art friend at Falmouth uni has reminded me of the joy of collage!

See more of Julias awsome collage work on instagram HERE

I have a new desk andmy most recent extra-curricular cooking spree for indigo herbs has shown me that chopping up and organising ingredients is not unlike chopping up stuff for collaging.

RE-creating leafy patterns from printy left overs. fun quick and tasty. like a salad.

Natures' pharmacy

I just spent the last weeks of summer , stopping traffic in the industrial end of Glastonbury whilst painting this 15m mural .

inspired by, and with support from my job at Indigo Herbs, i attempted to design an effective repeat tile using images of some of my favourite superfoods and herbs to cheer up this bleak part of my town..

Once i'd decided to hide a message inside the mural, the repeat got left behind and i concentrated on my subliminal font.

A first for me to use such large lettering and a message within my work.

Super stoked to have found this space, and the time and support to paint big again as its been a while and ginko biloba is just the coolest damn leaf shape ever xx

FINAL PICS TO FOLLOW

http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/glastonbury-artist-faye-suzannah-paints-mural-inspired-by-power-of-plants-and-herbs/story-29739106-detail/story.html#kHRb5Gcw1SwuCyL5.01

Taghazout Tile. Marroccan disco

Have just finished this epic bathroom transformation! My back hurts but i couldn’t possibly be any happier with the result!

Have just finished this epic bathroom transformation! My back hurts but i couldn’t possibly be any happier with the result!

I am so thrilled that i will get to walk barefoot on this pattern for years into the future.

5 years ago i roughly sanded the wooden floor and filled the gaps inbetween the floorboards with bathroom silicone sealer in order to make a complete surface for pattern-designing.

The wave pattern was rushed and had all kinds of hairs stuck in it! i used basic masonry paint and didn’t plan very well which meant the room was still totally in use whilst i was painting and the edges got smudged and started to chip off even before the paint was dry.

This time around, with a few years more pattern-design and paint experience under my belt, i went all in with the prep. Sanding all over again and priming the floor boards with multiple coats of solvent based Universal Surface Primer.

The design was formed from a repeat tile taken directly from my recent times spent in North Africa, i transffered the tile design repeatedly via good-old tracing paper and pencil, and painted with water-based eggshell paint which i managed to find in the most delicious shades.

Polyvine varnish rave review

I get asked ALL THE TIME what paints i use and it varies a lot from place to place whichever emulsions are available to colourmix. Although i am still very faithfull to many of the Dulux colours as a handful of them have become my "pallette" without realising.
 But Valspar have been very kind to me in the past and sell 250ml masonry paint colourmixed for £2.25! cant argue with that.

Another brand i cant argue with is Polyvine varnish. their waterbased emulsion varnish is available in many diy and trade stores and is so damn easy to apply with a clean roller over almost anything i paint. Here are some photos 7 years apart of an exterior south facing wall in Camden London where i have applied the ( interior!) varnish to only just beyond the painted skulls.

This is not an endorsement although sure as hell sounds like one! i was just genuinely impressed with this!

Shoreditch Platform

For a week in July i worked with 7 other painters in a freshly renovated building in the heart of Shoreditch East London. We were painting the designs of Israeli Artist Ivo Bisigano all over the walls ceilings and staircases whilst the polish builders were in. This building will open in September as Londons first pay-by-the-hour work/ofice/meeting space cafe/bar. With walls like a nightclub.!

I battled with my own ego in part of a team on such a hectic project and also battled with my own adrenal glands waking up way to early to catch morning swims in heated luxury lidos before these long days on hands and and knees. This week brought up a lot of memories of my old london life and even more sentiments about the years i spent sleepless living there , high and anxious 24/7 on the endless possibilites and expectations of each one of the 11 million resients of the city.

Happier than i've ever been to return to my home in the country having had the chance to paint big and fast on behalf of somebody else and fry my brain with the city buzz knowing it would come to an end.

https://www.facebook.com/shoreditchplatform/

Food art?

Some recipes of mine published online. i would show more pics but i'm afraid of turning into a food blogger

https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/goji-and-cranberry-chutney

https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/fennel-iced-tea

https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/super-healthy-tomato-ketchup

https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/moreish-mushroom-pie

https://www.indigo-herbs.co.uk/recipe/perfect-pumpkin-pie