Scherenschnitte

That's paper cutting to you. What a pleasant break from painting. I drew my first little silhouette people when I was about 17, I'd just bought one of those brush pens and was doodling about with it, and this little person appeared as if by magic. A few twiddles and there was another one. I had found my world. I drew several lines of them on horrid flourescent orange paper and they are somewhere in all my bumph but they must be hiding. When Andy and I were at college he made me this sketchbook -

and I filled it with little scenes of my people. I think in those days a lot of them were sheer wishful thinking to be in a tranquil world, just sitting, or sleeping - I still am fixed on beds.




The entire contents of this book can be found here. Back then I was more concerned with having a pretty sketchbook - now I just scribble on the nearest bit of paper and get the idea out asap. I didn't do anything with them apart from the occasional lino cut. There wasn't much of a commercial demand for that kind of thing - and there isn't now. But it's still my favourite way of depicting things; I find it much easier to think in such a graphic way. So here I am again, revisiting my old designs, and pinching my own ideas from 15 years ago. This was inspired from a field trip to Barcelona -

and here it is tweaked a little, as a papercut...mounted on a 5 inch card, and yes, the laundry line was a bit fiddly.

(for sale on Etsy)

It feels a bit odd to be going back an old style, but rather like a comfy pair of slippers you know are going to fit.

Rainy Sunday afternoon

excerpt from daily horoscope for Cancer Sunday May 13 2007

"This a good day to please yourself. The harsh realities of the everyday world do not appeal to you today, and you would enjoy escaping to a brighter and prettier world, which would do no harm."

Damn right! Who am I to argue with my daily horoscope? Although I'd already fulfilled it by the time I read it. Looking for some ancient artwork from my very dim past - frankly, it could be anywhere. In a book? (which doesn't narrow it down in our house). In a portfolio (no). In a box? Hmm. So many boxes...I searched. I didn't find it. But delving into twenty years worth of collected ephemera (such a nice word and more pleasant than 'junk') I found a few treasures I'd picked up for future inspiration. I have no truck with the exasperated 'you never use this, why don't you get rid of it?' Things always come in handy. Eventually. If only for looking at...



This next was a good find as I am thinking about trying my hand at designing and hand printing simple fabric, retro-style...I love 1950's patterns possibly more than any other.

I even found this, which a certain Border Tart may recognise as a relic from an early venture...(about seven years ago I'd say). And yes, it was delicious. I can still taste it now, all crumbly and lemony...although I think we agreed it was more tablet than fudge. Tablet being harder and more Scottish - fudge being softer and more Western. No nationality comparisons meant at all.

Now here is an old, rather crude venture into paper cutting - a leftover Christmas card from 2000 - that was the year I made everyone homemade sweets, and had more time on my hands. (Did I ever really have the leisure time to make various flavoured fondants and hand dip them in chocolate?)

And finally these little darlings, just snippets picked up from a dealer in Reading

All of which is a bit irrelevant to my original intention of finding the old artwork. I was going to write a post about how much I am enjoying papercutting, and finding my old sketchbook full of silhouette designs. How the first really 'me' art I did was when picked I up an ink brush when I was seventeen and...but that will have to wait until next time.

For everyone if the UK which has been mightily rained on...for all you Canadian, US, Australian and New Zealand mothers, celebrating Mother's Day or remembering lost ones...for anyone who feels the "need to escape to a brighter and prettier world" - I give you a very small snapshot of our woods, covered in a gauze of bluebells. Acres and acres of them.

'Bebop Boogie'

Even in this age of instant messaging it is still possible to lose contact with people - in my case through sheer laziness. So I was delighted when an old friend and fellow artist mailed me, enclosing a jpeg of his recent work. Reg is a fantastic paper cutter; the picture below is one of his. I find his work so joyous and exuberant it even brightens up this miserable grey day. (The forecasters were right...it is Raining. Heavily.)