I have fond memories of being in your glass studio when we came to visit your mum and dad. I loved all the colours of glass and the flame from the torch! I loved the feeling of warmth and the lighting in the studio. As you know, I still have the earrings you made and I still wear them. Every time I put them on I think of you!
Oh Sheila, happy memories! Sometimes I find I’m missing my torch flame - hmmmm, particularly in these December temperatures, ha - but it’s soooo lovely to hear that my work is still out there and being worn and enjoyed. You’re so kind! Sending love. xxx
Ah yes, the uncontrived nature of it is such a big thing, isn’t it - I hadn’t thought of it that way! And thank you so much for the poppies compliment - Mum and I did a session of an online course together and that was the theme - it was such fun! I used to be very careful in my approach to arting, but ever since I took a year-long mixed media art journalling course in 2020 I have always gone for a ‘more is more’ approach.
I used to tell myself ‘less is more’, and ‘know when to stop’ - but pfffffff, these days I’m the total opposite. Bring it ON!!!!!!!
I love picking random colour schemes too and happy accidents! I leave my gouache pallette to dry. When painting with acrylic paint I keep adding to a pallette until it is thick and heavy and peels off into it's own work of art!
Love your poppy Painting, absolutely stunning! ❤️Xx
Oh, I LOVE the sound of that! I’m going to dig out my acrylics and have a go at making a paint peel - is it acceptable for it to not be a craftermath but an ‘I set out to do this in the first place’ thing? I do hope so! I’ll keep you posted!
And thank you so very much. I absolutely loved making the poppy picture, and am throwing myself more into scribby lines in my arting now. I’ve been having outrageous fun with Bic biros in bright pink, purple, blue and green - I dug them out of my art stash a while ago and haven’t been able to put them down. Last week I noticed my online grocery delivery people had a special offer on a four-colours-in-one version of the same pen - so (of course) I treated myself to it. I quite like the messy, blobby individual ones, though - they blob everywhere and there’s nothing I can do about it, and that is REALLY GOOD FOR ME! 😘
It'll take a while to layer up your pallette! So satisfying to peel off when it's thick! I love scribbly lines and looser looks in art, so pleasing! Look forward to seeing more of your art x
This was delightful and brought back so many memories of the watercolor painting I played with. Sometimes I do get that urge to pull out and dust off the cloth-covered board, wet some paper, and dribble medium all over it. Let it pool, expand, bleed, stain, blend. Maybe run a blade through it to score the paper ... see what that does. Oh I had fun as long as I didn't attempt to paint the arrangement the instructor had set up. Your mother's story added even more fun to this article. I envy ... no ... I covet ... her beautiful scarf.
Oh Sue, how lovely - and ooooooooh, follow that urge! And LOL to arrangements set up by instructors - mine would never look ‘how it was supposed to’….!
I too covet that scarf - I’m still astonished that Mum trusted me with it long enough for me to snap the pictures of it! 🤣 She’s got it back now, honest! 😉
This can happen in music, too. James Brown built the rhythm of his song "There Was A Time" out of the vamp that concludes the song he had just previously recorded, "Let Yourself Go". Listening to them back to back makes that fairly obvious.
Exactly 💯!!!!!! Whenever I see interviews with artists in their studio and it's completely neat and tidy I'm sympathetic “you worked hard to clean up prior to the photos and I'm betting that it'll be three days after the photos before your studio is fully working and you can find things again.”
The wood engraver in the studio next to Jim’s photography studio has an open studio event on at the moment, and I popped in to see the exhibition the day before it opened. The artist was busy labelling everything and let me have a look around, and I kept saying ‘something’s different, something’s different - it looks amazing but it FEELS different’! He laughed loudly and told me that it hasn’t been that tidy since this time last year, and that was because he didn’t have enough wall space for hanging unless he put a load of his everyday work stuff into the lock-up at the back!
My studio with 5–2’x4’ folding tables, encircle—or rather ensquare the room—and always have remnants of “Craftermath” on them. I just did, a couple three weeks ago, purchase some clear plastic bins with which to organize my stencils, Gelli prints, ephemera, and stamps into. My acrylics, watercolor pencils, colored markers, scissors, and a plant take up the space of half of two tables placed crosswise to one another into a corner.
I have a box of stamps I just created the other night joining the rest of a vacant spot there. A sewing machine and boxes and another bin of sewing stuff take up a whole ‘nuther table.
The past week I had been working on making up my Christmas cards, along with following tutorials on YouTube with Cate Field, a teacher from the UK—she’s taught me to be even more creative in ‘more is better’ as in your poppies picture—love it!! I now have three large paper plates on which I allowed my acrylics to dry. After reading your post about letting your paints dry where they are, and your Mum making her beautiful cloth… I went in search of the paper plates and took a look at the dried Craftermath paints each in their own circular design. I see a huge potential there for a masterpiece!
Oh Gail, I have BATHED and BASKED in your description of your studio and its contents - I can imagine it sooooo well - it sounds wonderful!
Oooooh, I haven't heard of Cate Field - I'm going to look her up right now - and I absolutely love the sound of your paper plates! I'd really like to have a go at mixing acrylic paint on glass (I have a little bookcase with sliding glass doors and use one or two of them every time I'm making a cyanoprint to hold stuff down on the paper without blocking the light. I think if I mix paint on one of those (not using a palette knife, though, for fear of scratching the glass) and keep an eye on both the top surface and the smooth, flat surface of the underneath of the paint puddle where it's against the glass, well, I could have some jolly good fun! 🤩
I have just now cut out the interiors of those 3 circular paper plates. Oh Rebecca, I’m going to have to just do a picture post substack on the Cate inspired paintings I did. I already have the perfect title to the collage! 😂🤫
I can see where your creative side comes from. (Hello Rebecca’s Mum!) Definitely a post for my interests. I only clean my watercolour palette when the mud gets too muddy. I love coming back to different tones of greens and blues and interesting premixed options. And I adore your Mum’s silk ‘rag’ / scarf. Her teacher is amazing and so smart! And those weaving pieces!!! Yes I’m someone who prefers more ordered results, but anything is art, even crayons on sand. Having a phone handy these days to photograph anything and everything is such a joy.
Awww Beth, thank you! I love that you only clean your palette when the mud’s ‘too muddy’ - that’s such a lovely way to express it!
I’m in love with Mum’s weaving pieces - they’re all samples for her further projects, and that excites me hugely! And the squares are such fun - she’d wrapped yarn (silk, I think) onto thick board to test out colour combinations without committing them to the loom immediately.
You’re so right that anything can be art! Even something that doesn’t look much like art, but to which intention for art has been attached, even more so!
Like you I love greens and blues - I think I must get that from Mum! x
Aww, thanks so much - and I’ll pass the compliment on to my mum!
There’s so much ‘art’ out there, isn’t there? The purchaser of that banana taped to the wall ATE it - now, that really was money for nothing! 🤣
I’m going to chuck some toast on the floor right now and then put the buttery patch up for sale for millions. Wanna be my agent, Kerry? We could retire on the proceeds!
Rebecca! I simply loved all of what you shared with us. And I’ll no doubt think of this brilliant piece the next time we “Run To Write” together. Oops! For some that may require explaining. If that’s not to be in 2024, may the child-like wonder be with you and yours!
It’s great, isn’t it?! I came along so late this last time, but it was still such a wonderful part of my day. It’s so nice to devote specific time to writing in company - such a gift from Julie! 😁
Delightfully freeing concepts here, Rebecca. As someone whose 2-dimensional art is typically done with a camera rather than brush, I thought of you and others recently when I purposefully gathered up bits of this and that from the woods so that I could craft "Give Thanks" in leaves and twigs. It took a few days to fully come together, and I left the work in progress spread out on top of a sideboard in our living room (and felt grateful my hubby wasn't eager to sweep it off). What fun it was to play like that!
Today, I joined a dear friend and others who held an open studio at my friend's house. The place just oozed creativity. My friend is a very talented free spirit who started out as a metal/jewelry artist, moved into mosaics and found-object art, and has recently started on fiber arts using salvaged fabrics. Her yard -- which houses many of her supplies -- is a "mess" by many standards, but gosh, the beauty that comes out of it makes it all worth it!
I can't remember if I knew you were a glass artist, but ~swoon!!~ :)
Wow, I love everything you’ve written here! And that post of yours - just stunning, absolutely stunning! Thank you ever so much - I’m very behind on my reading (still! Again!) and am so glad that you’d linked to it here. I’ve read, commented and saved it so as to drool over it again and again! ❤️
I love the sound of your friend’s open studio - and how wonderful that her work crosses genres. I love that!
It’s on freezing cold days like today that I hanker to be back in my hot glass workshop! One day I shall get back to my torch flame - I wrote about my desire to do that in this post, but I’m no further on in that journey. One day, maybe. I guess I’m just not ready yet.
What a comment, Rebecca! Thank you. I'm honored. And what a treat to read about your time as a bead-maker. So centering, that work. Tactile with visually stunning results. Readiness will find you if it's meant to. I trust you have a collection of beads somewhere all the same.
Awww! You’re welcome, and thank you! I loved melting glass at the torch flame - I still have beads, and a stash of glass rods, and I’m sure I’ll get back to it one day, but this time as a hobby. x
I have a floordrobe too! Ha, I love this word that will be a new addition to my vocabulary. Rebecca your poppy painting is amazing! If I didn't live in Canada I would be driving right over to buy it and I love how you randomly got started on it.
The paint rag story reminded me of one of the recommendations in Stephen Potter's One Upmanship. In, I think, a section called Exhibitionship, he says that if you to a modern art gallery you should ignore the art and stand there admiring a fire extinguisher.
Rebecca,
I have fond memories of being in your glass studio when we came to visit your mum and dad. I loved all the colours of glass and the flame from the torch! I loved the feeling of warmth and the lighting in the studio. As you know, I still have the earrings you made and I still wear them. Every time I put them on I think of you!
Love Sheila
Oh Sheila, happy memories! Sometimes I find I’m missing my torch flame - hmmmm, particularly in these December temperatures, ha - but it’s soooo lovely to hear that my work is still out there and being worn and enjoyed. You’re so kind! Sending love. xxx
I love art mess, creative beyond belief. I think because it's so uncontrived and therein lies the beauty.
By the way, I really love the poppies.
Ah yes, the uncontrived nature of it is such a big thing, isn’t it - I hadn’t thought of it that way! And thank you so much for the poppies compliment - Mum and I did a session of an online course together and that was the theme - it was such fun! I used to be very careful in my approach to arting, but ever since I took a year-long mixed media art journalling course in 2020 I have always gone for a ‘more is more’ approach.
I used to tell myself ‘less is more’, and ‘know when to stop’ - but pfffffff, these days I’m the total opposite. Bring it ON!!!!!!!
I love picking random colour schemes too and happy accidents! I leave my gouache pallette to dry. When painting with acrylic paint I keep adding to a pallette until it is thick and heavy and peels off into it's own work of art!
Love your poppy Painting, absolutely stunning! ❤️Xx
Oh, I LOVE the sound of that! I’m going to dig out my acrylics and have a go at making a paint peel - is it acceptable for it to not be a craftermath but an ‘I set out to do this in the first place’ thing? I do hope so! I’ll keep you posted!
And thank you so very much. I absolutely loved making the poppy picture, and am throwing myself more into scribby lines in my arting now. I’ve been having outrageous fun with Bic biros in bright pink, purple, blue and green - I dug them out of my art stash a while ago and haven’t been able to put them down. Last week I noticed my online grocery delivery people had a special offer on a four-colours-in-one version of the same pen - so (of course) I treated myself to it. I quite like the messy, blobby individual ones, though - they blob everywhere and there’s nothing I can do about it, and that is REALLY GOOD FOR ME! 😘
It'll take a while to layer up your pallette! So satisfying to peel off when it's thick! I love scribbly lines and looser looks in art, so pleasing! Look forward to seeing more of your art x
😁
Love this from start to finish!
Awww, that’s ever so kind of you - thank you! ☺️
This was delightful and brought back so many memories of the watercolor painting I played with. Sometimes I do get that urge to pull out and dust off the cloth-covered board, wet some paper, and dribble medium all over it. Let it pool, expand, bleed, stain, blend. Maybe run a blade through it to score the paper ... see what that does. Oh I had fun as long as I didn't attempt to paint the arrangement the instructor had set up. Your mother's story added even more fun to this article. I envy ... no ... I covet ... her beautiful scarf.
Oh Sue, how lovely - and ooooooooh, follow that urge! And LOL to arrangements set up by instructors - mine would never look ‘how it was supposed to’….!
I too covet that scarf - I’m still astonished that Mum trusted me with it long enough for me to snap the pictures of it! 🤣 She’s got it back now, honest! 😉
This can happen in music, too. James Brown built the rhythm of his song "There Was A Time" out of the vamp that concludes the song he had just previously recorded, "Let Yourself Go". Listening to them back to back makes that fairly obvious.
Oh wow, yes! I love how past work can influence the new, and that’s such a great example, David! 🎶
I read an article once about the messiness of creative people being an essential element of the creative process!
Also, “floordrobe” is genius and very me and I’m adopting that word as my own! 🤣
Ahhhhh, messiness is ‘an essential element’ - I’m taking that and running with it - and almost certainly spilling it as I go!! Thanks, Jen! 🙌
LOL floordrobe! I love the word rather more than I love the permanent need in this house to tidy up, I have to say! 🤣
Love it all!!!! 💚💚💚💚💚 All power 💪 to the creative mess making!!!!!
Awwww, thanks, Sue! Show me a mess-free artist and I’ll show you a unicorn! 🦄😁❤️
Exactly 💯!!!!!! Whenever I see interviews with artists in their studio and it's completely neat and tidy I'm sympathetic “you worked hard to clean up prior to the photos and I'm betting that it'll be three days after the photos before your studio is fully working and you can find things again.”
HAH!!!! I think you’re absolutely right!
The wood engraver in the studio next to Jim’s photography studio has an open studio event on at the moment, and I popped in to see the exhibition the day before it opened. The artist was busy labelling everything and let me have a look around, and I kept saying ‘something’s different, something’s different - it looks amazing but it FEELS different’! He laughed loudly and told me that it hasn’t been that tidy since this time last year, and that was because he didn’t have enough wall space for hanging unless he put a load of his everyday work stuff into the lock-up at the back!
🤣😆💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚😘
OMG! Craftermath? Rebecca, Sheer Genius!!
I loved this article.
My studio with 5–2’x4’ folding tables, encircle—or rather ensquare the room—and always have remnants of “Craftermath” on them. I just did, a couple three weeks ago, purchase some clear plastic bins with which to organize my stencils, Gelli prints, ephemera, and stamps into. My acrylics, watercolor pencils, colored markers, scissors, and a plant take up the space of half of two tables placed crosswise to one another into a corner.
I have a box of stamps I just created the other night joining the rest of a vacant spot there. A sewing machine and boxes and another bin of sewing stuff take up a whole ‘nuther table.
The past week I had been working on making up my Christmas cards, along with following tutorials on YouTube with Cate Field, a teacher from the UK—she’s taught me to be even more creative in ‘more is better’ as in your poppies picture—love it!! I now have three large paper plates on which I allowed my acrylics to dry. After reading your post about letting your paints dry where they are, and your Mum making her beautiful cloth… I went in search of the paper plates and took a look at the dried Craftermath paints each in their own circular design. I see a huge potential there for a masterpiece!
Thank you for such inspiration! 🤗🫶🏻
Oh Gail, I have BATHED and BASKED in your description of your studio and its contents - I can imagine it sooooo well - it sounds wonderful!
Oooooh, I haven't heard of Cate Field - I'm going to look her up right now - and I absolutely love the sound of your paper plates! I'd really like to have a go at mixing acrylic paint on glass (I have a little bookcase with sliding glass doors and use one or two of them every time I'm making a cyanoprint to hold stuff down on the paper without blocking the light. I think if I mix paint on one of those (not using a palette knife, though, for fear of scratching the glass) and keep an eye on both the top surface and the smooth, flat surface of the underneath of the paint puddle where it's against the glass, well, I could have some jolly good fun! 🤩
I have just now cut out the interiors of those 3 circular paper plates. Oh Rebecca, I’m going to have to just do a picture post substack on the Cate inspired paintings I did. I already have the perfect title to the collage! 😂🤫
Oh, FANTASTIC!!! x
PS ‘ensquare’ the room - what a fabulous word! 🙌
😘
I can see where your creative side comes from. (Hello Rebecca’s Mum!) Definitely a post for my interests. I only clean my watercolour palette when the mud gets too muddy. I love coming back to different tones of greens and blues and interesting premixed options. And I adore your Mum’s silk ‘rag’ / scarf. Her teacher is amazing and so smart! And those weaving pieces!!! Yes I’m someone who prefers more ordered results, but anything is art, even crayons on sand. Having a phone handy these days to photograph anything and everything is such a joy.
Another terrific read. Thanks so much.
Awww Beth, thank you! I love that you only clean your palette when the mud’s ‘too muddy’ - that’s such a lovely way to express it!
I’m in love with Mum’s weaving pieces - they’re all samples for her further projects, and that excites me hugely! And the squares are such fun - she’d wrapped yarn (silk, I think) onto thick board to test out colour combinations without committing them to the loom immediately.
You’re so right that anything can be art! Even something that doesn’t look much like art, but to which intention for art has been attached, even more so!
Like you I love greens and blues - I think I must get that from Mum! x
😘
I love your poppy painting and your mom’s scarf! And if a banana tapped on the wall can be art, why not a butter-soaked toast shape on the carpet?
Aww, thanks so much - and I’ll pass the compliment on to my mum!
There’s so much ‘art’ out there, isn’t there? The purchaser of that banana taped to the wall ATE it - now, that really was money for nothing! 🤣
I’m going to chuck some toast on the floor right now and then put the buttery patch up for sale for millions. Wanna be my agent, Kerry? We could retire on the proceeds!
Rebecca! I simply loved all of what you shared with us. And I’ll no doubt think of this brilliant piece the next time we “Run To Write” together. Oops! For some that may require explaining. If that’s not to be in 2024, may the child-like wonder be with you and yours!
So kind, Gary! I missed the last Monday Write Together, and I’m not around again next time either - but I sure love those sessions! 😁
I find the writing together (Zooming) so beneficial. See you next year! 🎏
It’s great, isn’t it?! I came along so late this last time, but it was still such a wonderful part of my day. It’s so nice to devote specific time to writing in company - such a gift from Julie! 😁
Delightfully freeing concepts here, Rebecca. As someone whose 2-dimensional art is typically done with a camera rather than brush, I thought of you and others recently when I purposefully gathered up bits of this and that from the woods so that I could craft "Give Thanks" in leaves and twigs. It took a few days to fully come together, and I left the work in progress spread out on top of a sideboard in our living room (and felt grateful my hubby wasn't eager to sweep it off). What fun it was to play like that!
Today, I joined a dear friend and others who held an open studio at my friend's house. The place just oozed creativity. My friend is a very talented free spirit who started out as a metal/jewelry artist, moved into mosaics and found-object art, and has recently started on fiber arts using salvaged fabrics. Her yard -- which houses many of her supplies -- is a "mess" by many standards, but gosh, the beauty that comes out of it makes it all worth it!
I can't remember if I knew you were a glass artist, but ~swoon!!~ :)
(Find the Give Thanks results here: https://elizabethbeggins.substack.com/p/all-the-way-in-and-back-out-again
Wow, I love everything you’ve written here! And that post of yours - just stunning, absolutely stunning! Thank you ever so much - I’m very behind on my reading (still! Again!) and am so glad that you’d linked to it here. I’ve read, commented and saved it so as to drool over it again and again! ❤️
I love the sound of your friend’s open studio - and how wonderful that her work crosses genres. I love that!
It’s on freezing cold days like today that I hanker to be back in my hot glass workshop! One day I shall get back to my torch flame - I wrote about my desire to do that in this post, but I’m no further on in that journey. One day, maybe. I guess I’m just not ready yet.
https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/21-reigniting-the-flame
What a comment, Rebecca! Thank you. I'm honored. And what a treat to read about your time as a bead-maker. So centering, that work. Tactile with visually stunning results. Readiness will find you if it's meant to. I trust you have a collection of beads somewhere all the same.
Awww! You’re welcome, and thank you! I loved melting glass at the torch flame - I still have beads, and a stash of glass rods, and I’m sure I’ll get back to it one day, but this time as a hobby. x
I have a floordrobe too! Ha, I love this word that will be a new addition to my vocabulary. Rebecca your poppy painting is amazing! If I didn't live in Canada I would be driving right over to buy it and I love how you randomly got started on it.
The paint rag story reminded me of one of the recommendations in Stephen Potter's One Upmanship. In, I think, a section called Exhibitionship, he says that if you to a modern art gallery you should ignore the art and stand there admiring a fire extinguisher.
Beautiful scarves!