Art

Doodles

Posted on 18 October 2011 in Art, Creative life, Fun stuff

Oh I did some good doodles last week:…

Friday Art Class

Posted on 16 October 2011 in Art, Creative life

Easel

Posted on 14 October 2011 in Art

Ordinary life

Posted on 12 October 2011 in Art, Fun stuff

I thought I’d post up some old cartoons I did back in 2008. If you like this, you might like my zine made whilst walking the Coast to Coast!…

A message from Cy Twombly

Posted on 5 October 2011 in Art, Creative life

The other week I went with my friend Helen to see a Cy Twombly exhibition at Dulwich. I LOVE Cy Twombly. Saw the big exhibition at the Tate a few years ago and fell in love with his work…

Spiral Painting & Journaling

Posted on 1 October 2011 in Art

After the full-on practical activity of the craft fair last weekend, during the week I needed to do something a bit more arty and creative just to relax more than anything, so I got the easel out and did…

Another “Total Alignment” Painting

Posted on 31 August 2011 in Art

(Don’t know what Total Alignment / Fearless painting is? Go here!) I did another paaaaainting… I started off by prepping the paper with gesso just to give it a bit more tooth (the paper I’m using is a bit…

Another Fearless painting

Posted on 6 August 2011 in Art

I did another Fearless painting this week. (see previous blog post for details). Again, I enjoyed it. I followed the same process as for the first one. I won’t say much about the painting except that this week I…

Fearless painting!

Posted on 4 August 2011 in Art, Creative life

I’ve been meaning to try out the painting processes/techniques of Connie Hozvicka of Dirty Footprints Studio for ages after having signed up to the 21 Secrets art journaling course. She’s blown me away with her writing and teaching skills….

Catherine Redfern is on Holiday

Posted on 18 July 2011 in Art, Craft

Whilst I’m away, enjoy these scrumptious beauties from some inspirational artists on Flickr. 1. Layered Hand-made Journal Front Cover, 2. crown & stars linen art journal cover, 3. wishbricks, 4. Embroidered Owl 01, 5. Cherry Blossoms, 6. Summer of…

Paint over collage class on 21Secrets

Posted on 2 July 2011 in Art, Creative life

So I signed up for 21 Secrets and I’m so glad I did. There’s so much in there to try and get inspired by. So far I’ve been trying out Willowing’s paint over collage class (also now available to buy…

Drooling over book pages

Posted on 25 June 2011 in Art, Craft

1. Paper sampler grid, 2. Mini art Journal, 3. 6x wtj 1, 4. 6 x wtj 2, 5. Art Journals……, 6. Summer of Love - Art Journal Class Peek, 7. Art Journal #7, 8. New Art Journal…., 9. my…

Mosaic on a Monday

Posted on 13 June 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life, Fun stuff

1. in-progress art quilt (detail 1), 2. Index Card 01, 3. small portrait, 4. journal-page, 5. Paper is Lovely, 6. A Sister’s ‘HuG’, 7. For Cory, 8. Book spines, 9. The Board of stuff Created with fd’s Flickr Toys…

South West Jumble

Posted on 6 June 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life, Fun stuff

On Sunday we had a potter round South West Jumble, a craft event that I recently discovered just down the road from me! It’s held in the stunning Tooting Tram & Social pub which has a very eclectic design:…

Recent Flickr Favourites

Posted on 19 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

1. Broadcast, 2. mixed media teapot picture, 3. A Happy Redundancy, 4. Day 352 - Sketching with Printing, 5. sun touched tulip, 6. Postcard Study, 7. Untitled, 8. Downtown, 9. IMG_3862 Created with fd’s Flickr Toys…

Peanut

Posted on 18 May 2011 in Art, Fun stuff

Back from Doing What I Love!

Posted on 17 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

“How beautiful it is to fit art into your everyday life” - Flora Bowley Well I got back on Sunday from the Do What You Love art retreat, and wow, it really was fantastic. I have not had time to…

Retreating!

Posted on 9 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

Did you notice anything exciting when I posted this picture the other day? No. Not the untidiness of my bookshelf. Ignore that! Ignore it I say! Can’t spot it? How about now? I’m going on an arty/crafty retreat! My…

Cheer on a Monday

Posted on 9 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

As it’s Monday, let’s have some lovely images to cheer us all up, shall we? I love how these all work together somehow. 1. droplets, 2. Little Birds Brooch, 3. Coolifornia, 4. ledger journal, 5. PERSONAL USE ONLY - Vintage…

Let me introduce you to someone…

Posted on 7 May 2011 in Art, Fun stuff

Worried square is entirely fictitious and any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental….

Back from holiday!

Posted on 5 May 2011 in Art, Craft, Creative life

It’s been a bit quiet around here as I’ve been away walking on The Glyndwr’s Way; a 135 mile National Trail through mid-Wales, from Knighton to Welshpool. It was lovely… the weather was sunny almost every day, it didn’t…

Creativity on holiday

Posted on 20 April 2011 in Art, Creative life, Walking

Last year when we walked the Coast to Coast, I made a zine out of it! Part of the fun was drawing it as we went, each night we’d sit down and Andrew would write his journal and I…

Gesso

Posted on 18 April 2011 in Art

Remember that ginormous gesso I mentioned? I wasn’t joking….

Edinburgh trip as seen by cartoon shapes

Posted on 16 April 2011 in Art, Fun stuff

One year we went to Edinburgh to visit my brother and a couple of friends came too… You’ll notice that Lorna was not in the lounge car, that is because she sensibly went to sleep instead… The next morning… We…

Recently I am all about the cute stuff

Posted on 13 April 2011 in Art, Creative life

In my constant quest to try to figure out what makes me tick creatively, I made another breakthrough: Cute stuff! Also, stationery. Preferably combined (oooo). I went shopping the other day on a well worn route, including a couple…

Secret ingredient

Posted on 8 April 2011 in Art, Creative life

I’ve been pretty busy the last few days so not much time to blog or be creative. My parents were visiting last weekend; this is us walking towards the beautiful Seven Sisters cliffs: I suppose I’ve been dwelling on the…

Things that are making me smile today - Suzi Blu

Posted on 4 April 2011 in Art

Suzi Blu is a well known, successful mixed media artist. I’m sure if you’re reading this blog you’ve already aware of her. Anyhow, this old video of hers is really making me smile today. She is an inspirational teacher…

What is my style?

Posted on 1 April 2011 in Art, Craft

Something I’ve struggled with for ages is the question: what is my style? Does anyone else feel like this? I don’t even know what sort of art/craft I want to specialise in or even if I want to specialise at…

Recent Flickr favourites and inspiration

Posted on 30 March 2011 in Art, Craft

1. Misty Mawn journal page…self portrait, 2. art journal 2011, 3. It’s finished!, 4. I am enough, 5. Misty Mawn-class-collage, 6. windmill brooch - story fragments, 7. Bearbird, 8. Out of the Box, 9. sketchbook Amazing artists aren’t they?…

On big projects and long hard slogs

Posted on 28 March 2011 in Art, Craft

It’s weird. I seem to have a tendency to take on huge, complicated projects that take years to complete. Cases in point: 1) Co-writing my book about feminism (Reclaiming The F Word), which took several years (Me at the…

Lino Printing!

Posted on 19 February 2011 in Art, Craft

I saw this video by Pam Carriker about getting more mileage out of your art and was inspired to make a lino print stamp from a drawing I did in my art journal a while ago. Original drawing: I traced…

Suzanne Vega Inspired Art Journal Page

Posted on 12 February 2011 in Art

Suzanne Vega is one of my favourite artists and so I decided to take inspiration from her for an art journal page. The spine is bound to last a life Tough enough to take the pounding Pages made of days…

A Drifting Life

Posted on 9 January 2011 in Art

I recently finished reading A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which was bought for me as a Christmas present. It’s a huge memoir written by an influential figure in Japanese manga. This is an area I know next to nothing…

More Journals!

Posted on 2 January 2011 in Art, Craft

I made two more Remains of the Day style journals as presents this Christmas. Also, I just realised I haven’t posted up my friend Helen’s journal so I now have three to report on! Helen’s Journal Front Back Michelle’s Journal…

A Coast to Coast Journal

Posted on 28 December 2010 in Art, Folksy, Fun stuff, Walking

I’m so excited! I made my first ever proper zine! I’m a massive fan of zines (I mainly read feminist ones) and really love their DIY style and personality. I even had a zine stall at my book launch (kindly…

Jill Magid, ‘Authority to Remove’ at Tate Modern

Posted on 10 September 2009 in Art

Today I happened to be at Tate Modern of the first day of Jill Magid’s exhibition, Authority to Remove. This is a very minimalist, sparse exhibition with little actually on show, but it is totally fascinating. Magid was asked…

Mixed Media Calendar Project - March

Posted on 11 August 2009 in Art, Mixed media calendar

Right, one more to show today! Step 1 - Paint a scrap of fabric with blue paint. Stamp with text. Step 2 - Glue down page with old handwriting on it. Paint over with pink paint. Randomly print white paint…

Mixed Media Calendar Project - February

Posted on 11 August 2009 in Art, Mixed media calendar

Here we go with February’s page! Step 1 - Glue down pages, brush over with a light coating of gesso so writing shows through. Step 2 - Punch out small tags from paint colour sampler thing. Step 3 - Assemble…

Mixed Media Calendar Project - April

Posted on 11 August 2009 in Art, Mixed media calendar

I’m skipping a few months since I have to sort out the photos for the February and March pages, so let’s go straight to April! Step 1 - Glue down torn bits of paper. I had to stick on a…

Mixed Media Calendar Project - January

Posted on 7 August 2009 in Art, Mixed media calendar

Step 1 - Get watercolour sketchbook. Glue together two pages with gel medium. Step 2 - Glue on ripped pages from old book randomly. Step 3 - Paint over with gesso and let dry. Sandpaper a bit. Step 4 -…