ART SEEKER STORIES

It’s the start of October already, we have finally moved on from the heatwave and the kids are back at school, college and Uni, I’m delighted that mine have both left school. No more phone calls and detentions, hurray!  One daughter on an apprenticeship and the other is at uni …. Phew.

I’d like to introduce you to the LOVE BUG, because, EVERYONE NEEDS SOME LOVE. She is looking mighty fine, ready to grace the walls of your home, in support of the Samaritans.

Today I feel like I’ve run out of ideas, I’m feeling the full on bombardment of ‘creative content’ overwhelm. Receiving it and also the pressure of making it. We are told, be authentic, be original and yet everywhere someone has done it all before.

The Summer solstice is an energetically charged day. It is thought to be an important time to set intentions, to practice self-care, to connect with yourself and the Universe through spiritual rituals, and to take advantage of the energies of illumination and clarity to invest in your healing and growth.

Hello and welcome to my newsletter, ‘The Art Date’ It’s taken me a good year and a half, a few good books, a course, and a few extra months for me to finally face my fear, of writing and sending a newsletter.

I’m on my way to visit The Other Art Fair at the Truman Brewery, but I can’t help but get side tracked off onto the side roads of Brick Lane as all this popping colour sucks me away.

Sometimes it is good to explore within a theme you wouldn't usually be working towards. Also it can be interesting to limit yourself with colour, focusing on difference with texture instead.

Keep Going by Austin Kleon: This little book is great, the perfect inspirational pick me up book, just to keep you focused and to keep you going. It has 10 ways to stay creative in good times and bad.

https://austinkleon.com

Ugh, when everything goes wrong, keep going! When it has got so bad there is only one way - it can only get better. Somehow there is always a turning point and it shows up from the deepest of despair and that's where you find the magic. Finding my way, not quite there yet.

And here we are, my first set of four happy mind maps complete!

They have taken me on a journey through joy, finding my way, back into painting. Sometimes it can be more about letting go. All in the present of not thinking, all in the moment of creating - just in making or doing.

Evaluating my creative journey. Do I try something different, take risks or not? I always say, if you have the idea, then yes, go for it. Push your boundaries, you just might find what you are looking for, or something great when you least expect it. I make a start which I like and as soon as I’m beginning to like it, I’ve keep going and….. Oh no, It’s turned into something awful.

I’m back on the ride, painting my heart out, taking risks, knowing it's ok to fail. Trial and error, finding my way with new possibilities. Stepping out of my comfort zone, just letting the process take me where I need to be.

I love graffiti and I’m not really sure what it is that pulls me in, be it the colour, the vastness and there size of it or simply the clean graphic and repeat in pattern. It’s not always that way, sometimes it’s layered and old, peeling away histories and stories of what was before.

How does colour make you feel and how do you use it.

~Do you find joy in various colour combinations that complimentary dance excitedly side by side, or do you prefer subtlety, soaking in soft tones feeling relaxed.

I am a massive colour lover!! But do I really get it?

Give yourself permission to explore, inquire and have fun. Most of all, let yourself play, to allow the process to show you the way, to find what you like, with so many new possibilities.

I love connecting the dots to circumstances or events that link so wonderfully together. Many could say it’s coincidence but I choose to see it as synchronicity, I like to see it as the universe paving the way, guiding me in the right direction. and I particularly love it when it is art related.

Hi, Emma Hill here, just a little intro to invite you on my artist journey.

In addition, here are 5 arty facts about myself:

1. I didn't get into art school………….

I’m delighted to have my artwork, ‘Set in Stone’ included in Gita Joshi’s The Curator Salon’s Autumn Exhibition, presenting the ever growing community of artists from around the world.

ArtCan artists were invited to respond to the theme ‘Set in Stone’:

To be set in stone relating to a plan or an idea. Depending on timing and perspective this can be restricted or motivating.

Nothing is yet…

Everything can change until it is…

I’m so excited to show you my new painterly legging designs in collaboration with Bombette UK.

BomBette Boutique is a small slow fashion label created by RCA graduate Gina McAdam in Surrey, UK, making original print wearable Art.

Autumn 1997, not quite the end of the 20th Century and 'Sensation' arrives at the Royal Academy, becoming the result of a cross-section of British art. This era of art is often thought of as, 'The Saatchi Decade,' courtesy of Charles Saatchi, the advertising mogul who is their greatest single patron and supporter.

Welcome to Art Seeker Stories, a podcast about art and creativity. Here in the Art Seeker Stories Blog, I share my visual story in pictures. This is my artist voyage of discovery, documenting memory, finding truth and expressing the hope of the journey.

While my work as cabin crew took me to many countries I began writing about different situations that I found myself in. I took hundreds of photographs that I thought that one day I might use within my own art. I continued by collecting images of other people's artwork that I found, that I came across along the way. I realised the searching became like an addiction, a need to feed visual stimulation which in turn triggers continuous inspiration which allows my own work to grow, forever changing and developing.

Wow, I'm feeling nostalgic! Reaching the end of a decade is a perfect time to reflect and think of new beginnings. Above are my last two paintings that mark the end of this decade with a slight shift in my painting. The first is called 'Evolve', Initially I saw this as a tree of life, there are so many complex different mark makings, textures and details that somehow work in harmony.

Thank you so much Liberty London , what an amazing morning at t he #libertyopencall fabric launch. It has been an incredible journey, since hash-tagging my painting late September to actually seeing the rolls of fabric for sale in Liberty today.

A fresh 3am rise and breakfast gin and tonic on the plane followed by a whirlwind trip to the Liberty printing mill in Olonia, just outside of Milan. It was an absolutely fascinating experience

What an amazing day! The four 4 of us Liberty Open Call winners were invited to the Liberty headquarters to meet and discuss the next stages in creating our designs into iconic Liberty fabrics.

It’s been an absolute whirlwind couple of weeks and today, a few days early, I got the best Christmas present I could ever wish for. I’ve had Flicker Productions film crew follow me back and forth for a BBC documentary. Filming me painting at home, with my art class at ARTHOUSE Unlimited and finally, at Liberty of London.

It’s been a full three years or so since I last painted. There’s been an empty void and I’m ready to feel complete. We’ve had a house project that seems to go on forever and I’m desperate - I just have that urge to go large on it to swipe across the wall to become engulfed by it all. The wall from the garage got knocked down, the plaster is bare as are the floorboards - no heating and I’ve borrowed a light. Stapling a sheet of canvas and I’m ready to go.