How an artist’s style evolves part 2
As promised in my last newsletter, I thought you may find it interesting to know how my artist’s style evolved over many years…
We are up to the 1990’s now and a chance trip to New Zealand and Australia became my new influences.
Wandering around the North Island, I became aware of Maori art and found the graphic elements and curves too irresistable!
I ended up staying there for 3 months, living with some wildly creative people, painting furniture, signs, selling pieces in their shops and soaking up the visual treats on offer.
Maori influenced artwork
Australia was less impressive as I found myself on the backpackers trail which was not my scene and only stayed a few weeks. Immersing yourself in society and allowing yourself enough time to really see everything is important.
By now I found myself living in Bath where I teamed up with an old friend to set up a painted furniture business called Wildwood.
Wildwood
Making kids furniture in Bath
My friend Russ made the furniture and I applied my style of the time to mirrors, shelves, small tables and bedheads. It was a hit with parents of kids and even though this was before internet marketing, we did ok, appearing in magazines.
But it was hard getting exposure and hauling items to craft fairs so we called it a day after 3 years and I felt myself being pulled along a path of paintings in their own right, as opposed to surface design and applying a style to an item.
As an artist, you are blessed with skills and can apply them to a wide range of surfaces and uses and generally they look pretty good. Sometimes though, this can be a curse as you are swamped with possibilities and deciding what to make/paint/decorate can be a tough one. I have always followed my intincts and freely wandered down many paths.
A painting around 1996
Deciding that I wanted to give paintings a go, I looked to favourite artists for inspiration-back to Klee, visits to Southern Africa and the general prevailing mood for rich colour and an upbeat look.
With curvey influences and a grid frameworek starting to evolve, these pieces were around 1998-2000
Fed up with Bath and it’s restraints on my creativity, I moved to Brighton.
I was really enjoying working colour and form into a grid format- why? who knows, it was just a path I wandered down.
I started taking part in the Brighton Open Houses each year which became my main source of income. There were lots of young couples buying their first home and wanting colourful, original art for their walls and things were good.
I went through a red and orange period. Nowadays, I really struggle with those colours! isn’t it funny how you can move away from a palette? look at Picasso, all artists get inspired by different things and go through phases.
I got picked up by a few galleries but then I got pregnant. yay! but I still committed to doing the Open Houses of May 2003.
I expected to pull this off, what with first babies arriving late, but oh no. She came early- right between the two weekends I was open to the public. Not wanting to let anyone down, opened my doors and tra laaah! I had a baby to show off.
Her bedroom was a gallery and it was a bit daft but that was how I rolled back then….
22 Belton Road, Brighton
