Big Yorkshire Skies First Finished Experiment (Possibly!)

Have been experimenting with the idea of developing work based on the 'Big Yorkshire Skies' images. It's difficult because there is absolutely NO structure to work with, no linear qualities, purely texture (and I really do feel at home with structure... this is a challenging me a bit... ok well maybe a bit more than a bit). The texture has been manipulated on both the top (glass) and base layer, the latter being salvaged fabric and paper, with the former being colour (possibly too strong in areas). There are areas that I love (the stripey bit and translucent grey areas), and parts that I find dreadful (the heavy blues). But I do think that I'm pleased with fact that there is a balance of both layers.

A detail of what I think is my favourite part: The top right hand corner, but it is very hard to show the 3D ness in a photograph effectively... Rahhhhhh photographing glass is soooo hard... it is making me feel very stressy...Shut up Kathryn

Some of the textures that have been layered and stitched underneath the glass....

(Holds head in hands and says 'grrrrrrrr')

Edale: How many shades of green? *Gasps

Have just returned from a stunning, stunning day hiking around Edale in the High Peak district. I took my dog, she was very needy and whined constantly because I (very meanly) would not let her greet and lick everybody we met on our way. So the soundtrack to accompany this image should be whimpering, and not the sound of... well nothing... except the wind. This was taken along the ridge (near Jacob's Ladder) and it was just utterly, breathtakingly beautiful. So, so cathartic. It kind of made the stress of the last few days vanish a little...  I never fail to be amazed at the sheer power a hill has for putting things back into perspective. We need hills... (what an odd phrase... think the fresh air has gone to my head a bit.. erm... stops self from coming out with more cliches... they are all there ready to pop out... shut up Kathryn...).  Anyway, after a bit of running around and declaring how glorious it was, I calmed down a little and tried to take it all in. The greens were awesome, shades upon shades upon shades. In fact, at times, it seemed everything was green. Lower down, in the valley the patterns of the fields created strata across the landscape. I so, so want to use these references in my work, but at the moment, it's all too intense. I can't do anything near justice to what I saw today, I need to live with it for a while, let my memory dull it down a little first... but right now I just need

to eat...

Finished Work (Leaf Cover). Or maybe not...

This work has been hurting my head so much. Even now I flinch a little when I see it. It just didn't quite turn out as I intended, but for some reason I ploughed ahead to completion. Again, it's glass layered over an inky sketch. There is not enough colour...There must be some reason why I didn't fling it spectacularly across the kitchen, some reason why it 'made it' through my unfathomable selection process which seems to be based on pure gut-instinct rather than anything concrete. It taunts me a little because I had been planning it for so long... the ideas started to develop as the new leaf cover started emerge in all it's lovely limey glory. It was these images along with recent lovely times in the woods that provided the imagery. I can still smell the fresh, damp woody smell, feel the slight chill. It truly is fragments of memories (oh yes! Ker -ching). But... it's not quite right... yet... this one might have just made it through by the skin of it's little glassy teeth (there's still time for it to take a flying hike), but there will be more, there needs to be more. I just need to get it right...

Finished work (Little Flags)

Finally finished 'Little Flags' the glass has been layered over an inky illustration... This is where it all started...

We are Sensory Beings (part 1)

Last week I had a little rant about the digital age, and in the post 'Mulling it Over' I asked the question 'are we losing our grip on actual materials?' With the context being the increasing use of graphics tablets and digital manipulation. Well my Dad came to the rescue (good old dad!) with the insightful comment:

 'As to the question will the digital manipulation replace the painting. Never, they will live side by side. Has IKEA replace bespoke furniture making. No, it has just made bespoke furniture making better. The electric guitar has not replaced the acoustic guitar.

We live in a tactile world, touch is one of our main survival senses. I like to feel how the paint reacts with different brush pressures. Paint has a feel all of its own. Digital is just another medium, a new fresh one but given time it will level out amongst all the other mediums. Egg tempera is still used, how old it that technology.'

Isn't it lovely that even as a proper grown-up in my thirties that dad can still put everything right for me? The bit about living in a tactile world and touch being one of our senses... it's so right. Well, anyway... the day after that I went on a school visit to Walsall Art Gallery (near Birmingham) and saw these awesome artworks by artist-in-residence  Barbara Walker  being made from charcoal and watery paint. They were so utterly perfect for the moment, for my mind-set. They were being created directly onto the wall which is a permanent action, but were transient because they were ultimately destined to be painted over again... Now I just want to paint... hmmmmmm

Secret Garden

I spent much of today in my god-mother's beautiful garden. I remember playing in it when I was young. Fragments of memories. It's the most awesome hide-and-seek garden. Full of hidden areas, different levels, little paths... I wanted to take pictures of the textures and details. I didn't have the right camera with me to the photograph the whole thing, but doubt very much that I could do it justice anyway. Anyway, these are the little bits that my eye constantly wanders to... the little textures that remind me of today and that will build up the ever-growing jigsaw of memories of happy times with her... xx

(Am really cross that my pictures won't align properly... grrrrr... when I try to move them they delete)

Mulling it over

 

 

Right. Ok . I admit it. Ever since deciding it was alright to make constant photographic visual references. I have become a complete Instagram addict. Sometimes I feel very, very bad about this and (metaphorically) beat myself about it. In my head it is cheating to snap a quick image and simply apply what I deem to be the most appropriate effect. The effects being usually nostalgic, vintage or cross-processed. In the past we had to toil to achieve these effects, in a darkroom. What massive fun that was, the experimentation, the smells of the chemicals, the burned image, the never quite knowing... Today it is easy... you snap the shutter then decide which type of memory you want to associate with image and apply it in one click. Am I pre-deciding how my memories will look by doing this? Am I somehow cheating myself and faking them? Something inside me thinks this is terrible.... but still I can't stop. Digital photography changes the very nature of how we use photography on a day-to-day social level, thousands of images are taken. The images are no longer precious, they become disposable, but in my case, are never actually disposed of, they clog up my various hardrives 'just in case'. I love the old romantisism of a photograph capturing a moment in time and then looking back at it over the years as a reminder, watching it slowly fade and discolour. Old photographs are special and can never be replaced, they fade in the same way as memories do, possibly even at the same rate (for a while anyway...). It is so different now, but how many digital photos do we actually properly treasure? Is it just a few? Or do we feel safer with lots and lots? A colleague pointed out to me today that just as much work goes into producing an 'effective' image, you still need the skill/vision of actually 'seeing' the image, composing it, but the often the larger amount of time/ experimentation now goes into post-production (the digially altering) whereas with film that 'playing' time went into the developing, and was more physical. Another question... are we losing our grasp on actual materials in this age? Educationally and creatively there is soooooo much value on the exploration of materials and processes (will a graphics tabs ever totally replace the act of getting filthy with paint, charcoal etc) I think there is a place for both in our delightfully creative world today.

 I was so insensed with these thoughts today (and by a very 'closed book' negative reaction that I recieved from someone I respected, on the matter) that I spoke with a photoshop expert with a degree in analogue photography who stated 'It's important to know how to manipulate light yourself' 'Digital photographic effects are all derived from analogue photography and unless you have that grounding, that initial understanding you will not be competative with your contemporaries'.

 I have an excellent DSLR which I use obsessively because I need to keep up with the sheer pace of life, aside from making visual references, I need to record images quickly and efficiently in my work. But I do often feel these images are somehow less meaningful than the ones I take with film (probably because there I so many of them and probably because for me, involvement with materials is such an important part of my life, my soul). In February I documented London Fashion Week using a variety of cameras including a Box Brownie, I'm still collating some of the outcomes, some I have already published, but it was a fantastic experience and the images I took on film felt so much more definate, permanent... but that still needs lots more mulling over and is probably partly down to me being a romantic, nostalgic old soul deep down...

Here are some examples of the detrius of homeless, indulgant images currently cluttering my desktop.... Visual noise!

But I must love them... Otherwise they would have been deleted definitely!