less than 3 weeks from enquiry to mural completion is my kind of project!
Incase you were as puzzled as me by the request of a mural at a lazer school here is the website:
Rejuv skin lazer treatments and training
Thanks to Heather for trusting me to get the colours right for her space. and the Bayhopper bus service for being amazingly reliable and remaining free to use.! Work commutes for me are distinctively different looking to almost everyone else in this country!
The New Zealand version of Covid-19 lockdown 2020 was a powerfull process, in that alot of “noise” went away. No fear, barely any illness even, just quiet. Among ALOT of social commentary, what happened in my mind was that suddenly i was inspired to just draw pictures for my own good without any need or desire to share them on social media. Part of the noise that went away for me was pressure to create. This is what i made and i don’t care if i never use these images for anything. ! what a relief!
Having only JUST landed in the Bay of Plenty to live with my family… i was very lucky to get involved with this local mural festival at the very last minute….
I left almost all of my creative intention back in the UK, with the hope of making our transition into an entirely new way of life on the other side of the world a bit less complicated. Art in all it’s forms is essential to me but also comes with a lot of invisible, and relentless work, ( like updating websites for example!). I was planning on avoiding the ups and downs of creative living for a while, especially having left ALL of our free childcare back home…. BUT…. all of a sudden i was being sent photos of big walls and being invited to opening ceremonies and artist’s breakfasts. 16 other artists were to be painting murals around Tauranga and Mount Maunganui at the same time as me and some of them had been flown in from the US and Italy.
Stumbling into my biggest project to date, with no time to prepare was a bit nervewrecking of course but having the support of a team of organisers and working literally alongside lots of other artists, was a real help. I had 5 days countdown untill NO childcare so the pressure was really on and the ladder i was using was heavy!!
The theme of the Festival was
“ Although small, its is precious”, which luckily fit in with the plant and seed observations me and my daughter had been making since arriving in this new home of ours. I didn’t have any time to delve deep and theoretically into the brief, So i used a tried and tested pattern forming method of overlapping and intersecting botanical shapes using a cool colour scheme. As usual tried not to complicate things, but most probably did . I have been wondering alot about this since my brief conversations with artist Askewone (NZ/NYC) over mushroom dumplings at one of many artist dinners we had during the week... Bringing art back to its simplest form is probably the hardest. The greatest abstract art looks simple but most definately isn’t, mainly due to the long road the artist has been down to get back to basics.
Alot of the other murals were portrait based which is totally awe-inspiring and followed a general theme of most street art here, of honouring your ancestors in order to reconnect with lost or hidden culture.
I was trying hard NOT to think about connecting with my own culture or roots as clearly i was no-where near South West England. Had i neglected the binds i had created over the last 4 years of being based in Glastonbury by coming on this adventure? Or was what i’d learnt from those more stable years enabling all of this?
I listened to Brene Brown podcasts and tried to think broadly about human nature and just kept painting in the lines…
Here are some of my favourite shots taken by a variety of people whilst i was busy up the ladder, or busy eating vegan burgers or taking breaks in the air-conditioned gym whos wall i was painting.
Amazing work by all involved, and incredible effort by Jah and Lovie Smith of Street Prints to get this kind of project funded 5 years in a row.
Mural is located in Phoenix Lane , Mount Maunganui behind the Natural Fit gym and Save Mart op shop.
for further info and lots of amazing pictures visit www.streetprints.org
Watching Italian artist MILLO painting, actually painting as i watched, was a mega highlight of my year . Shame i didnt get to hang out more with him and the rest of the international team due to toddler duties
such a gentle man, making such gentle art, in such a brutal medium.
look at his work here > www.millo.biz
November 2019. Country kitchen still going strong. We’re about to stretch our wings again though.. off to NZ o see what the Bay of Plenty can offer us. i will miss this view more than any other….
10th Novemeber 2010- Dark times make us stronger in the long-run. The kitchen of 38 Bove Town is heavy with history and packed with paternal presence but slowly it is starting to shine...... i'm making it mine :)
Whilst i was working for Indigo Herbs, cooking, chopping and cleaning alot at home as well as in a commercial kitchen.. i discovered a new way of working with my art on paper..
chopping up prints and rearranging them just like salads.
These are 3 collages i have made over the last 2 years . Personal work doesn’t come very often in my life as i tend to be busy working on commission.so i’m really happy that these square framed objects are now in my life like a little family .
New Dawn
Original Green Salad
Milk and more
Local paint producers Thorndown paint were very kind to donate the materials for this new Glastonbury mural.
https://thorndown.co.uk
Thanks to the organisational skills of Kim Von Coels with the support of the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce and a whole host of local sponsors, there have been new murals popping up all over Glasto all summer which is slowly turning our town into the creative colourful place it has always had the reputation of being!
https://www.facebook.com/theglastonburymuraltrail
What an amazing weekend we all just had out in the Print Workshop at the Dove in Butleigh!
have so much thanks and praise to write here but am now busy organising the next one!
a big re order and 3 new card designs based on new work making me feel like i’m making progress!
love these square cards they are my best and most useful marketing tool ever!
I always find it so hard to know what to write about mural painting! it is such an up and down process ( quite literally) that when i get to the reflecting part after i’ve finished a project i’m a bit lost for words.
I have had my eye on this wall for years and everything was perfect about this job…it fit into my complicated life schedule perfectly and the main research i had to do into painting banana leaves, i could do in my garden during naptime.
Eventually i’m realsing now that i will stop referring to all of the ways and reasons i used to do my art work pre-baby. because life is certainly not as simple as “ before” and “after” .
It still feels like it now.. that pre-parenthood i had more time, more energy, more inspiration, more space in my mind to procces stuff effectively, more space in my house to process stuff effectively ….. this means that everything i achieve these days feels AMAZING because for at least a year i was just drowing in nappies and couldn’t see a way out, nevermind locate my sketchbook.!
But those measurements of space time and money only applied up untill 2018. It’s not helpful to reffer to how things “used to be” as the chances are , that children or not, you’ll never live that same life again.
This wall has helped me see the way out of the dark place that was the first year of mumming. it was like the universe ( or kim von coels) sent it to me to say…..
“you’ve still got it”
Thanks to all involved
Creative block/ baby brain/ PND whatever you want to call it has had me in a right pickle over the past year.
I knew the clouds were clearing when i found the time and space to paint this in the corner of my “art-room” and hand it over officially to my daughter.
she sleeps in this coral reef corner and her first word was definitely Fshhhhhh.
I painted these 3 large paintings in 2013 and have just sold the 2nd in the series to a yoga studio in Brighton. which is fantastic news.
Totally blessed that this little mini-mural came along when it did.
Just enough painting, just far enough away to restore my faith in muraling from my new position in mum world.
Boy what a new world it is. i can't even begin to describe how my life has changed. i’ve started and not finished writing this blog post 5 times in the last 2 months. thats’ how much time i can find for working online these days.
So here are some oriental poppies in a cute little cottage by the sea. The customer was lovely, made me a lot of tea, entertained the baby and had some very good ideas.
please bear with me whilst i concentrate on raising my first child.
currently i'm focusing on NOT FREAKING OUT about being a parent and also.. because its the type of work i can do in tiny bursts of time, one handed, whilst standing in my kitchen.. i'm being a recipe creator and food stylist for indigo herbs. i knew the food was good in our house but it suprises me and makes me majorly grateful each time i'm getting paid to cook and eat!
back to screen-printing at some point i the summer i hope x