week 5 - time to focus

Already its week five!! We had a break and returned yesterday, my brain is too full ~ nobodys fault but my own ~ it goes over and over and over even when I should be asleep ~ I know its good to have lots of ideas but sometimes its too much.

I need to focus and so its with a smile on my face that I can say I am focusing!! Hahahahaha I can hear my friends say yehhhh right ~ I am going to try really really hard. My brain does play tricks with me though. So I had to pick a photograph, picture or something that appealed colour wise ~ how hard can that be ~ but for me it was too hard to pick just one. My pictures are from Australia ~ from visiting my son and his wife last year. I had photos of rainbow lorakeets to beautiful seascapes very different but my choice was easy in the end because before we finished last term my tutor suggested we write down words which represented the photo, my words were all about the sea and the sand and the glistening waters and dustiness and muted tones and the heat and so my picture is chosen!!!

this is one of my own photographs, I remember the heat, the glistening water as if a million diamonds were sprinkled on the surface. Empty beaches and a horizon that never ends.
The sun and its warmth and the sound of the waves hitting the shore,
Peaceful calmness happiness.

I have another photograph to show but it belongs to an awesome award winning photographer ~ I have emailed him to ask permission to show it here so keep your fingers crossed that he says yes. His photograph really represents the colours I remember, where mine is too subtle.

Painted papers are the first thing for me to do now ~ I've got to try really hard not to think ahead to how the finished piece will look ~ I must let it evolve through the design process and NOT work backwards. Here are some papers I've made today working with wax crayons, oil pastels, candles, acrylic paint, brusho, inks, brown paper, tracing paper, baking paper, watercolour paper etc etc

My first project is going to be an expandable book I want it to be alive and a real piece of three dimentional art both on the outside and on the inside where it will be filled with treasure from my trip and will grow with each journey I make to Australia in the future.

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My tutor also talked about the history of colour showing us four of her favourite books. One of her favourites, The Craftsmans Handbook Il Libro dell'Arte Cennino D' Andrea Cenninia, a 15th-century handbook, written by a working artist of the day, it reveals the secrets and techniques of the masters in drawing, oil painting, frescos, panel painting, gilding and casting. Things that so many of us take for granted or dont even know about ~ all we have to do is go to the art store to buy our supplies; our tubes of ready made paint in every conceivable colour and medium, canvas already stretched, pads of papers in any weight required, some even available in supermarkets, or we buy numerous books and magazines on techniques or go to weekend workshops where we learn new ideas with soldering irons, tyvek or heatguns. Of course Im at the work shops and I buy the books (too many) and even use the internet but listening to her talk makes me realise how little I really know about Art and the amazing artists that went before us, she is passionate about her subject and a real pleasure to listen to and I think its about time I started reading. My shopping list has started!

Next week we study LINE ~ we are going to draw.