Preparation for Progressions Exhibition Bonhoga, Shetland

I was lucky enough to win the prize for Best Print at the Shetland Open Exhibition at the Bonhoga last year. As a result, I now have the opportunity to participate in the Winner's Exhibition at the same venue in May 2011. Entitled Progressions, this exhibition will include work by John Carolan, Claire Laurenson, Jayne Kelly and Amy Irvine.

I am not going to post my work until after the opening, but I did think it would be a good idea to share some images of the work being done. Because I have been looking at geese, I thought this subject matter would fit in well with the Exhibition title. Anyway here are some pics of me making a mess!

Work in Progress

Ok, so 2 weeks ago, I was getting prepared to go down to the National Finals of the Art of Nurture Competition (Courtesy of Lloyds TSB) This was a great opportunity to follow a live brief and have a chance to showcase work. A very swish do at the V&A....didn't get any further but glad to get as far as I did.
Anyhoo...I am really into collagraphs just now and so I came up with an image of geese in flight and this is what I submitted. I am still fumbling my way through which materials are the most effective to use but I was really pleased with how this turned out considering it was experimental. 
I added more to the print for the actual entry but here is a view of the basic image.

Image used for Art of Nurture

My First post ever!

I have been meaning to do this for ages! A while ago, blogs were something I used to shy away from. Now that several months have passed since I started out as Natty Maid it seems like perfect sense to start my own, if anything so that I can look back and learn from what I have done.

The past few months have been a learning curve for me.
It is very daunting to set up your own business and even more so in the Creative Industries. Everyone has so much advice and it is easy to become overwhelmed with trying to find out where you fit in, in terms of media and style. And while all the hard work is going on behind the scenes trying to establish, experiment and develop ideas/designs - there is probably very little to be shown in terms of product in the early stages. Again, for a new artist this can be a very difficult time riddled with self doubt which is not helped by 'can't you get a "real" job?' comments. In 5 years from now, I do not know how successful I will be but one thing I do know, is that in the time from here until then I am going to have a blooming good shot at it. I aim to keep this blog going in order to document the highs and lows of someone who discovered the artworld later in life and who is going to make the most of lost time! 

Some of my wares