Dreaming landscapes

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Judy

Clifton Suspension Bridge by Bill Ward Photography

Photographer Bill Ward has a talent for capturing images that have a natural painterly quality. Playing with exposure length, light and shade, as well as framing to enhance the abstract elements of an image, he takes commonplace scenes and makes them magical.

It helps, perhaps, that he has years of experience behind him. “I’ve been taking photos off and on since I was six,” he says. “I started off with an old Kodak Instamatic, which was – happily – pretty much idiot-proof, and I took photos of all sorts of things.”

At that time, his subjects included cars and dogs, “nothing particularly meaningful, but when I look back now at some of the photos (pretty much all of which I’ve kept), there are quite a few landscapes and seascapes in there, which is interesting. A bit blurry and wonky, but definitely there…”

Bill bought his first proper SLR film camera (a Praktica MTL 5B) before going travelling. “I took it round the world with me. It was a fully manual film camera, totally solid, and pretty much indestructible. A complete beast.”

He describes cameras as the perfect travelling companions. “I like how you’re never alone with a camera,” he says. “It always gives you a purpose, a reason to be anywhere. I used to sit in markets for days, soaking it all up, and just peoplewatch. I loved it.”

Rainbow Falls by Bill Ward Photography

Bill is perhaps best known for his acting work, which includes roles in Coronation Street (where he played builder Charlie Stubbs for 280 episodes and three and a half years), and Emmerdale, where he acted the role of farmer, James Barton. His camera, he says, offers a sense of stability between roles.

“About six years ago I had 3 months waiting on an acting job, to see whether a TV pilot we’d made was going to make it to series – it didn’t in the end, which was a shame,” he says. “I was wondering what I could do usefully with the time, so I set myself my first ever proper photography project, bought myself a Digital SLR off eBay, and set about trying to capture Winter, as seen from the beach.”

For three months, Bill devoted himself to trekking up and down the East Coast of England, “in the snow, the hail, the rain, you name it, with my camera. At the end of the three months I had a much better set of photographs, and I’d enjoyed myself far more, than I’d ever imagined I would.”

Bill’s next acting job following this happened to be at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, where he noticed photographic and art exhibitions staged in the theatre foyer. “I took a very deep breath, pitched the idea of an exhibition to them, was astonished when they accepted, and things have kind of gone on from there, really.”

Wave, Storm Katie by Bill Ward Photography

Prior to all of this, Bill spent a decade Bill working in advertising Industry, and I ask him how his time in that sector influences his photographic eye.

“Good question, and not one I’ve considered until now,” he comments. “At a purely practical level, I spent a couple of years as a Strategic Planner at Saatchi and Saatchi, and one of the accounts the agency had at the time was Pentax, so I was able to buy myself a very capable camera at a very decent price. I still use their cameras to this day. But from a creative point of view, one of the many unsung qualities of Advertising is the “singleminded-ness” of many of the best ideas. Much of the skill of advertising is working out what you’re trying to say, in as concise a way as possible – the endless pursuit of the true ‘essence’ of a thing, and then trying to say it as honestly and as freshly as you can. I’ve definitely taken a bit of that with me into photography.”

These days, he says, his acting roles and photography projects “tend to dovetail really well. Acting is defined by a number of extraordinarily busy periods, when you’re either filming a really busy storyline, or putting a play together in a few weeks, and you simply don’t have a minute to spare. It’s totally all consuming. There’s no time, and importantly no brain space either. But either side of those pretty intense periods, there can be a fair amount of slack.”

He explains: “I’ve just finished a three-year stint up in Leeds on Emmerdale, and one of the joys of that job was using the time I had when I wasn’t filming or learning lines to investigate the spectacular raw material that the Dales has to offer. It was a quite extraordinary time and I still feel very privileged to have had it.”

Photography offers a more psychological benefit too. “I do find that photography provides a real emotional release – a chance to spend time with Mother Nature, plug in, and let her do the rest.”

I love the dynamism of Bill’s work – his images are packed with energy.

“I suppose I’d describe my work as unashamedly emotional – I’m particularly interested not just in the places I go, but trying to capture how it felt to be there,” he says, attributing that urge to his travelling days. “From a photographic pov, I’m interested in specifically how it felt to spend this particular time, with this particular place.”

He adds: “I try very hard not to impose my will too much on what I see around me (although a bit of that is inevitable, and I suppose what differentiates you, in the end), rather I suppose I’m trying to see what the landscape has to offer on this particular day, see how it makes me feel, and try and take a photograph of that meeting point, if you see what I mean. With greater or lesser degrees of success, but that’s the aim, anyway… It does mean I tend to do a fair amount of experimenting on the edges of the photographic spectrum, eg with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM), Multiple Exposures etc. I’m just trying to find ways to capture as accurately as possible how it all felt.”

Holkham Beach by Bill Ward Photography

Landscapes and seascapes are his genre of choice for a number of reasons. “I love its purity, its ‘in the moment-ness’, and how you can be completely immersed in a place, or a time, and just give yourself over to it,” he says. “It’s a very good balance to the hurly burly of everyday life, and the perfect antidote to the day-job.”

An interest in history, as well as his love of travel, feed into this.

“I definitely tend to find I take the most rewarding photographs in places to which I have a strong emotional attachment – not always, but usually,” he says. “That can come from a number of different things: my own personal interests (history is a big one for me – I have a degree in it, and a nose for it, I enjoy sniffing it out), but also going back to places I used to go on holiday growing up, or places I’ve always wondered about but never had the chance to get to. I would definitely class myself as much a Travel Photographer as a Landscape Photographer for that reason. I enjoy the being in a place as much as the photographing of it.”

Bill relishes the “unpredictable nature” of living a life based on the creative industries. “That can be a double edged sword, because with unpredictability comes a colossal amount of insecurity, but the plus sides are overwhelming positive,” he says. “The one thing you tend to get a fair amount of is time, and then it’s just up to you as to what you choose to do with it.”

Bill currently has collections in galleries around the UK, including the Contemporary Six Gallery in Manchester, and the Mick Oxley Gallery in Craster, Northumberland, “so you could pop in to see them if you happen to be passing.” He’s also a regular contributor to the Pentax Facebook page as he is now an Ambassador for the brand.

Find more of Bill’s work at www.billwardphotography.co.uk.

Are you an artist or do you know an artist who would like to be showcased on SkyLightRain.com? Get in touch at judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’m also happy to receive reviews of books, exhibitions, theatre and film. To submit or suggest a review, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com.

Free up your creativity

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Judy

Paledrips by Sara Easby – www.sara-easby.com

I’m a great believer in the energy we can derive from creative mediums other than our own. My comfort zone is writing – spooling words together to create stories, narratives, or images in the mind. It fires me up and helps me make sense of the world.

Listening to music can influence this, while baking or any kind of physical activity, from running to dances, makes ideas pop in my mind like mustard seeds in a pan of hot oil. And art has been the starting point of many of my creative written works.

Over the past couple of years I’ve been moved to dabble in making my own art – splashing a bit of paint around or doodling scenes as they form in my head. I’ve begun attempting to draw the views in front of me, or focus on small still lives, in an attempt to get my body to wake up the muscle memory laid down when I drew and painted copiously as a teenager.

But it’s been so many years since I last took an art class. Or at least, it had been.

Last Tuesday I strolled over to the Grant Bradley Gallery in Bedminster to see Sara Easby‘s BRÆTT (MELT) exhibition, inspired by Iceland. The work was raw, elemental, and enthralling. I wanted to know how to capture emotions the page as she does.

Then I discovered that the very next morning she was due to teach an art class at the gallery. I sent her an email and she promised to squeeze me in.

What a wonderful experience. Two hours of freedom to ink, paint, glue, scrape and create.

It connected me to my emotions in a way that reached beyond words – such a liberating change! Creative writing cannot exist in a vacuum – we need to experience life and part of that is to experience art. As enjoyable and moving as it can be to view it, to make it is far more vigorously inspiring.

It doesn’t have to be visual art, of course. You could learn to play the drums, or take up ballet, join a stitch and bitch group or even enrol in a Spanish language class. All these things exercise parts of the creative mind that writing along cannot reach.

To get you started, Sara is co-hosting an Art and Writing Workshop on 10th December from 10am till 4pm with Nigel Gibbons. “This will be a chance to enjoy both creative forms, exploring these two ways of working, and allowing them to interact,” says Sara. “The aim will be to enjoy a space to be creative. No previous skills or experience necessary.”

There is a charge of £20, which includes some art materials. For more details, or to book a place, contact Sara on sara@sara-easby.com or Nigel on 077 40 200 991. The venue is Cotham Parish Church Hall, Cotham Road, Bristol, BS6 6DR.

Who knows what riches it will help you to unearth in your future literary works?

Anthropomorphic metaphors

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Judy

Mermaid by Simon Tozer

The first time I laid eyes on the screen prints of Simon Tozer, I couldn’t help but laugh aloud. There’s a quiet joy in his artwork that I find irresistible, as his characters appear to ramble through lives far more colourful than our own.

“I was encouraged to draw by my parents early on,” he remembers. “I think art became an important thing for me as a teenager. At the time I wanted to design album covers and the covers for science fiction novels. When I started an Arts Foundation course, I felt more comfortable with the confused artists rather than the technically skilled and apparently very organised graphic designers.”

Simon focused on painting while studying for a Bachelor of Arts. “After college l moved to Oxford and spent a very unhappy and lonely year working as a gardener and trying to be a painter,” he says.

He soon gave up and got “a normal job”, but the desire to make art remained within him and years later he signed up for evening classes at the Oxford Printmakers Co-operative. “Partly I liked it because of the friendly other printmakers, but I also realised that I liked drawing more than painting, and print is all about drawing,” he says. “Also, I liked the constraints of print. Painting always felt like an amorphous activity where you can keep changing what you are painting constantly, and there is never a clear point where the picture is finished.”

Love Calls by Simon Tozer

I love the way Simon’s prints resemble scenes in stories, or, stills in quirkily appealing animations. However, he says, his main inspirations are works of art.

“There is a quality of artlessness in some artists’ work which l find inspiring, and energy – energy seems very inspiring,” he comments. “Sometimes it’s subtle like Morandi’s paintings, and sometimes not like Lucien Freud’s. There is a contemporary artist and illustrator called Johnny Hannah who is very inspiring for this quality.”

Quotes can be inspiring as well. “On my studio wall l have a quote from Grayson Perry which goes something like ‘Ideas are like furry creatures, you’ve got to be nice to the first one that comes along, or the others may not come out of the undergrowth.’”

Simon mentions on his website that he tries “to illustrate human dreams, fears and frailties.” I ask him how his subjects, such as vehicles and bears, help him to achieves this.

“There is a lot of visual metaphor in my pictures, and also a lot of anthropomorphism, so animals and cars are usually really people in another guise,” he says, “For instance in the car pictures, each car is an emotion or an anxiety, and the idea is that they are all in one persons head, in an emotional demolition derby, bashing into each other and causing chaos.”

He adds: “With image of animals there is an extra element, which is that animals don’t speak, and usually pictures don’t speak either, but both have their ways of communicating.”

Perhaps that’s why many of his works seem to me to reveal a kind of wry, faintly melancholy humour, which is often most visible in the eyes of viewers drawn into the scene. For example, the small owl watching a sorrowful bear contemplate his furry face in Unwanted Hair, or the child staring, apparently aghast, from beneath his umbrella as a woman strides by in her cozzie, in Swimming Club.

Swimming Club by Simon Tozer

There’s something about Simon’s prints that opens up conversations – they make you want to smile and share your discovery with other people, not to mention discuss what the rest of the story might be. For Simon, however, the delight is far more visceral.

“I am grateful be able to have the creative freedom to explore my imagination,” he says, “and make something tangible from it, and to be able to work with my hands.”

You can see more of Simon’s work at simontozer.co.uk. His print Mermaid, which originally caught my attention, is on show as part of the 164th RWA Annual Open Exhibition, which is on until 27th November 2016.

Invent your own interior

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Judy

With things taking a turn for the worse recently, I’m increasing impelled to retreat into my own imagination and, frankly, pretend this isn’t happening. In my head I can surround myself with things I find beautiful and quietly edit out anything that scares me. I know it’s not real, but that doesn’t make it any less enticing.

Artist Nadia D Manning has come up with a rather more tangible solution. Okay, she can’t undo the judgements and votes of others, but she can make your surroundings far more appealing.

Working in collaboration with her aunt Svetlana Condé in Prague, as well as a creative array of artists and designers, Nadia’s aim is to dream up artwork that can brighten up every part of your life, home, and business, from gorgeous rugs and wallpapers to crockery and even clothing.

“At AzurArt Studio we would like to encourage every person to explore and discover their unique style of living, surrounded by art,” says Nadia. “Our spectrum of creative services is broad and our aim is to work with people to design the personalised living or work space which will best inspire their own creative potential.”

Quite simply, every part of your living and working environment can be ‘made to measure’ your individual style. What a great way to ensure a positive mindset and give your ideas the space to run free! This is interior design in the most extreme sense of the term.

Find out more here www.azurartstudio.com/projects

Natural wonders illustrated

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Judy

For illustrator Shelly Perkins, the natural world is full of small wonders. While otters or hares may take centre stage, every leaf, snail shell or length of seeding grass adds a swirl of beauty to her canvas, and reminds us of the wealth of life in every corner of woodland, field and river.

“My work is all influences by my love of the outdoors,” says Shelly, “I spend a lot of time in the countryside, out walking the dog, riding my horse and running. I see the British landscape in all shades of colour and seasons and I am constantly getting inspiration from it.”

Increasingly her work has been influenced by travels. “My husband and I are keen wildlife enthusiasts and love travelling abroad and seeing animals in their natural homes,” she says. “Our trips recently have included the Okavango Delta, Namib Desert and Yellowstone national park, all wonderful places for getting inspiration for wildlife pieces.”

In fact, Shelly’s enthusiasm for drawing animals hasn’t wavered since childhood.

“I have always loved to draw,” she says. “I spent hours drawing after school, on weekends and school holidays and nurtured the art of drawing from a young age. Those early years spent mastering getting a horse’s hocks right or the lie of hair on a cats face have been very important to my drawing style now. I always tell anyone who asks me for tips on becoming an artist that practise makes perfect!”

Mallard by Shelly Perkins

Shelly accepts commercial illustration jobs from magazines, as well as from organisations such as the national Trust, RSPB and WWF. “I am fortunate that I have now become known as a wildlife artist and as a result I get clients who commission the sort of work that I enjoy creating!” she says. “Commercial jobs are always challenging for different reasons – often deadlines are tight and clients may want a lot of input into what the illustration will include. Frequently I’m expected to represent a variety of species very accurately, which can be a challenge as I tend to create looser freer work when I’m creating work for my own portfolio.”

Otters by Shelly Perkins

Shelly begins a work of art by creating rough sketches “to get a feel for the composition that I want to achieve, I tend to sketch out my idea for the composition fairly small and may make several rough drawings of the same idea until I get a feeling for the movement I want to achieve through the piece.”

For the final drawing, Shelly works with HB pencils onto thick smooth paper, and warns: “Timid lines will be lost in the scanning process if they are too weak, but it’s important to have a balance in the depth of line to make it look flowing and varied, I try to use a rubber as little as possible and to keep the pencil really sharp at all times.”

She splits the artwork into three groups: “the main characters, the background landscape and the flowers, foliage and trees that are prominent in the piece. Each drawing is finished to a high standard line drawing with details like the way the fur lies, the bark on a tree and the veins on a leaf all being included.”

Colourwashes and textures give each illustration a lively, graceful finish, offering the sense of that magical moment when you glimpse a wild creature for a moment, before it disappears into the undergrowth.

“I love that each of my days as an artist are different,” Shelly says. “Sometimes I’m out and about visiting wildlife reserves or visiting galleries, sometimes I’m dealing with framers or suppliers or sometimes I’m just tucked away on my own creating my work. It’s a very diverse role and you have to be very proactive to keep lots of plates spinning!”

You can see Shelly’s artwork at galleries throughout the UK. Find details at www.shellyperkins.co.uk.

Never a still moment

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Judy

Dancer Flora 1 by Cody Choi

Capturing the essence of movement through the stillness of photography is no easy feat. Choreographer and teacher Cody Choi has a deep understanding of the way the human body’s capabilities, and has made it his goal to portray this dynamism through the split-second click of a camera’s shutter.

Step one of gaining this knowledge was becoming a dancer himself. After graduating in Modern Dance from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (where he twice received the Jackie Chan Scholarship), he received a full scholarship to join the Transitions Dance Company in London, and has since danced with Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, English National Opera, Royal National Theatre, and more, including being a feature dancer in the films 47 Ronin and Walking on Sunshine!

Yet, his early goals as a youngster were to be a pop star.

“I learnt my dance moves from music videos and I began to dream of becoming a dancer,” he admits. “I went to a full time performing arts school when I was 17.”

Cody began to experiment with dance photography when he was doing a three-year world tour with Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, “And loving every minute of it!”

He says: “There were many places I felt I would only get the chance to go to once, so I bought a Nikon D50 to capture different places and start to take dance photos of my colleagues. Years later I started doing exhibitions and art fairs.”

The 3rd Day 16 by Cody Choi

Cody’s aims are self-evident in the sizzling vitality of his work.

“I love energy, I love moving, I love jumping,” he says. “I always like to capture the highest point of a jump – the max point of any movement.”

Dancer Flora 13 by Cody Choi

At present, Cody manages to balance his time between dancing, choreography, teaching, modelling and dance photography, saying blithely that he devotes himself to: “Whatever comes. The things I love most about life are the freedom to seek inspiration and to grow.”

You can see more of Cody’s photography, and find out where he will be dancing next, at www.codysmovinggroup.com.

Gazing upon serenity

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Judy

Big Sky, Small Trees by Laura Boswell

Laura Boswell has a distinctly economical way of regarding a view. With a sharp eye for the most important and aesthetically pleasing or telling elements, she strips everything else away, until all that remains are a few colours, sweeping lines, and a sense of utter serenity.

For me there’s an impression of having struggled uphill or through a tangled forest, and then happened upon the most beautiful, breath-taking, equilibrium-restoring scene.

Persimmons And Rice by Laura Boswell

Laura studied printmaking at university, but then went into the photographic industry. “It was only in my forties with the loan of a printing press that I began work again as an artist, and I sort of fell into it as a career,” she says. “ My main drive was that my work should be good enough to sell to strangers, rather than amassing a drawer full of prints, so by that very ambition, rather than by planning, I became a fulltime artist.”

Likewise, Laura’s affinity for linocut and Japanese watercolour woodblock printing came about through practicality.

“I was the only student in my year to embrace printmaking and, from necessity, I found I could work on lino alone and still achieve good results,” she says. “Consequently it became the focus of my work. Japanese woodblock I admired, but knew nothing of the technique until I studied in Japan (again a chance comment from a friend led to that residency) where I found that Japanese woodblock’s subtle painterly quality was such a good counterpoint to linocut that the two techniques give me everything I need for a lifetime’s printmaking.”

Laura’s landscapes and shorelines have a wonderful lightness and elegance about them, which is due in part to her overarching aims for each piece.

“I think I try to give people space and room to escape through my work – a private escape for the viewer,” she says. “I also hope to catch something of the familiar for the viewer – the feel of a remembered walk or view. My main ambition is to allow my viewer a quiet moment of pleasure and peace.”

Mission accomplished most beautifully, in that case.

Barrow Beach After The Rainstorm by Laura Boswell

“I get a lot of ideas from craft-made items, such as textiles, jewellery, and ceramics,” Laura says. “Since my work is chiefly about shape and colour, inspiration can come from anywhere. I do love a good transport poster and spend a lot of time simply looking at historical prints and engravings. Of course, mainly I work with landscape so do a lot of staring and sketching outside.”

More recently, teaching has become “an essential part” of Laura’s artistic life. “It challenges me and keeps me on my toes,” she comments. “It allows me to put my thoughts and methods into words and it always encourages me to rush home and work. I also get a genuine thrill out of coaxing a good print from my students and that happy feeling has to be good for my own work.”

The best part of Laura’s life as an artist is simple. “The fierce delight of beginning a new project. I can’t think of anything else as purely pleasurable as working on a set of design drawings and then working towards a finished project, whether that’s a commission or a personal project or even my annual Christmas card!”

Discover more of Laura’s work, plus a list of the galleries that stock Laura’s work along with full details of shows and events at www.lauraboswell.co.uk.

Combing the world with Karen Stamper

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Judy

The art of Karen Stamper is the kind to stop you in your tracks, pause and lean in. Seen from a distance, it’s a beautiful mass of colours and suggestions, but a closer view offers up a wealth of textures and hints, thanks to Karen’s love of collecting found objects and putting them to excellent, satisfying use.

“My grandma was a traveller and a collector,” she explains. “I would spend many hours of my childhood looking through her tins of trinkets, postcards with exotic stamps, tapestries and dolls from foreign lands.” She adds with a grin: “I was always more fascinated by the foreign newspaper wrapping a doll than by the doll itself.”

Early forays into art were largely an avoidance exercise. “My Sunday night homework time would involve drawing and collaging, always to avoid the more tedious subjects,” she says. “It wasn’t long before my parents noticed this and encouraged me to keep a sketchbook, enter competitions and paint bright murals on walls around the garden.”

This encouragement fuelled Karen’s interest and gave her a strong foundation in creative explorations.

While on a collage travel scholarship in Paris, Karen first fully recognised the true potential of colours. “I discovered turquoise shutters, red chequered tablecloths and curling iron balconies: shapes and colours so frivolous to me growing up in the worn, tough, solid fishing town of Hull,” she says. “It was in Paris that I saw Matisse’s cut-outs for the first time; it wasn’t just the scale of his work but the colours, pin holes, crease lines and torn edges that fired my imagination. I continued to travel and work overseas for 10 years, always with a sketchbook.”

A childhood “growing up on the east coast of Yorkshire as a happy beachcomber,” seeded Karen with a deeply rooted love of shorelines. “I was, and still am, attracted to the faded painted wood, scraps of gaudy plastic, brightly coloured fishing floats and nets: all sun dried, sand blasted, salted and weathered,” she says. “My dad’s passion was sailing, and each Friday we would pack up and spend the weekend on the coast. I was free to wander, explore and collect only returning at mealtimes. This freedom set my path.”

Summer Mercy Island by Karen Stamper

It’s a path she remains true to today. “Old boats, harbours, the sun-salty smell of tarpaulin and diesel, and the sound of halyards tapping on a mast, are all comforting childhood memories. They have stayed with me and I still naturally gravitate towards the harbour in any coastal town.”

In over ten years of travelling and working overseas, Karen gradually developed a blend of collage, painting and sketching that is very much her own. Throughout her nomadic decade, she was “constantly sketching and collecting a rich resource of tickets, labels, packaging, stamps, paper bags and scraps of lettering – each one telling its own story – scraps of city life ready to become the first layers of a collage.”

Karen settled in New Zealand for a couple of years, where she worked as a freelance illustrator for magazines and book covers, including her hoard of collected treasures in her designs.

“Working in collage, combining the found papers with layers of brightly painted tissue to create a vibrant integrated surface, reflects my life and travels: a patchwork of places and people bonded together; some fading, some peeling, some permanent; all full of joyful colour and happy memories,” she says. “My aim has been to remind the viewer of warmer climates of intense colours, hazy zapping heat and sun scorched walls. More recently I have focused on the urban shoreline in the UK. I am drawn to the rusting, paint peeling structures which lend themselves well to cut and ripped paper.”

Far from being arbitrary, the materials that make their way into Karen’s work are carefully selected. “I usually start with found papers on the theme that I am working on,” she says . “For example, in a French scene there could be stamps, envelopes, letters, posters, shopping lists, house sale papers, teabag labels, napkins, matchboxes and chocolate bar wrappers, all in French, of course. Stranger materials have included a Spanish fan, dried hessian tea bags, and spaghetti.”

In building up the images, Karen starts with colours and shapes from her sketches and photographs. “I usually zoom in on scenes so the view is flattened and abstracted, and then add text in different fonts, sheet music, patterns and then layers of painted tissues and washes of acrylic paint,” she says.

At this point, memories or themes relating to a place start to emerge, “and so the compositions starts to evolve. I am happy with bold abstract areas next to real or recognisable imagery. Viewers need a little clue into the ‘scene’ but then I would like them to make their own story.”

To Karen, “life is a collection of experiences – I need to collect, layer and absorb the places I visit – the colours and the countries are embedded in my artwork and in me.”

Moored by Karen Stamper

Karen says that she feels most grounded when working in her studio in Cambridge, “totally focused, creating a piece of work that sings. The visual energy of composition, colour and surface of my work feed my soul. From beach comber to city comber – I’m always seeking, gathering, arranging, sorting, storing, enriching and sticking.”

You can see more of Karen’s work at Byard Art Gallery, Cambridge; The Darryl Nantais Gallery in Linton, Cambridgeshire; The John Russell Gallery in Ipswich and at The Cambridge Art Fair on 1st-2nd October, as well as on her gorgeous website, www.karenstampercollage.com.

Know an artist you’d like to see showcased on SkyLightRain.com? Give me a shout at judy(at)socketcreative.com.

Swirling seas and skies

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Judy

Reeds All About It by Rachel

Textile artist Rachel Wright recreates the world with a rich palette of threads, building up scenes that shine with beauty. She grew up surrounded by her father’s paintings, etchings and engravings, so felt that entering that world was a natural step, even if she did choose an entirely different medium as her paintbox.

“By the time I was in sixth form I was already looking for a university course in textile design,” she says.

Rachel was determined to bring her drawing skills together with her textile work, despite the fact that the college she attended really didn’t regard being able to draw an asset – “in fact, I’d go as far as to say they almost tried to beat it out of you!”

Happily, since leaving college, she’s had the chance to explore the possibilities offered by melding her talent for portraying the natural world with her fabric prowess. “They lend themselves to the fluid restless motion that I try to portray in my skies and seas.”

Any Port in a Storm by Rachel Wright

The vivid swirling shapes captured in her work conjure up a sense of energy and movement reminiscent of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. In Any Port in a Storm, above, there’s a palpable sense of peril and the drama of being at the mercy of a wild sea. To create a piece like this, Rachel selects the fabrics with care, and then machine sews them into the shapes that reflect the image in her mind.

Floating City Detail 02 by Rachel Wright

“My first love was hand stitching but it was taking me far too long to complete each piece and once out in the real world I needed to start earning some money from my work,” she says. “My grandma had bought me my first sewing machine – it’s 30 years old now and still the one I still use everyday!”

Selling her work offers an emotional benefit too. “It’s such an enormous pleasure to know that people are prepared to part with their hard earned cash, to own something that I have made,” she says. “I love walking into and exhibition and seeing those little red dots on my work. It’s the best feeling!”

Her earliest pieces were beautifully abstract embroidery works, which provided her with the training to create the vivid landscapes and seascapes she’s now known for.

“I learnt a lot about using colour and composition, all of which stood me in good stead for the landscape pieces – using using fabrics, with all their wonderful colours, textures and patterns as my palette and threads as my paintbrush, adding in the details.”

Starting a brand new picture is the hardest thing, she admits. “I call it ‘Blank canvas syndrome’. Sometimes even the housework can suddenly seem like an attractive proposition when I should be starting a new piece. I really don’t like the beginning but inevitably, once I dive in and get going it’s usually only a matter of an hour or so before I’m hooked again.”

Rachel likes to work from photographs taken on walks or family holidays. “When I start to plan a piece, I will often sketch directly onto the calico before starting to work in the fabrics, “ she says. “I always like to have an image or several images to work from. I may not translate them literally but I think it’s important to know how something actually looks before you can start to play around with it.”

She adds: “My kids often get asked to draw things at school but are not given any reference to look at. It makes me mad because my dad always taught me to spend twice as long looking at the thing I was trying to draw, as I did actually making marks on the paper. Seeing what is really there is at least half the battle. It’s in noticing the small things that something becomes lifelike and realistic.”

That said, she has a passion for letting her creativity have free reign at times too. “I certainly like to allow my imagination in on the act. This is probably most evident in my foaming, swirling seas or my dynamic, dramatic skies.”

Find more of Rachel’s embroidered artwork at www.rachelwright.com.

The fizz and sparkle of Alce Harfield’s art

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Judy

Colour Calypso by Alce Harfield

From her trademark busy blooms to vivid cityscapes to roiling seas and skies, Alce Harfield’s paintings fizz with energy, and offer a gloriously colour-saturated view of the world.

She says she had little choice about becoming an artist. “It was in my genes with my mum being Head of Art and my dad being a professional photographer!” she exclaims.

Peony Passions by Alce Harfield

Following guidance from her parents, Alce completed a degree in Commercial Interior Design at Leicester poly “in order to get a ‘proper ‘job.’” However, during her finals, Alce started painting professionally, and that changed everything.

“I realised that was what I’d always wanted to do, then after two years working as an Interior Designer in Bristol, I took the plunge following redundancy and opened my first shop.”

Two years after launching The Silly Fish Shop in Bristol. Alce opened a second shop in Bath and went from strength to strength “selling my paintings and three dimensional plaster wall hangings.”

It seems that even, or perhaps especially, on the greyest British days, we’re drawn to seek out colour and light, and Alce’s creations meet that need perfectly.

The vibrancy of Alce’s artwork comes naturally. “I’m a happy person, so colour was always going to be my thing,” she says. “It gives me massive pleasure to use colour so I thought my customers might feel the same way too!”

It’s clear that they do as a whole page of Alce’s website is dedicated to ‘satisfied customers’, proving that happiness can be contagious!

It’s also evident simply through gazing at Alce’s paintings that they’re immensely cheerful things to be around, with splashes of scarlet, green and blue offering plenty of levity.

“I keep a scrapbook of photos and cuttings, plus sketches of everything that inspires me, from a beautiful landscapes to a colour combination,” Alce says of her working methods. “That is my inspirational bible – crucial if I’m having a blank moment!”

Her early training, as well as the examples set by her parents, taught Alce the importance of a good work method too. “I’ve always been hard working,” she comments. “My dad was self employed all his life and I’ve learnt his values of hard work equalling success. Plus, who wouldn’t want to splash paint on a canvas all day? It’s the best job in the world!”

Alce’s verve for life is enviable, and shines through in each canvas she covers. How could you not want a piece of that in your home?

There’s plenty to enjoy about being an artist, she says. “I set my own rules (it helps that I’m a control freak and incredibly driven). I can take time off for my kids when I need to and I can also work late as my studio is in the garden. I’m in complete control of my life and if I fail it’s my fault, but if I succeed it’s also down to me! That’s very empowering.”

Last One to the Pub by Alce Harfield

Alce’s overflowing energy serves her in more practical ways too, as she travels the UK from Edinburgh to Windsor, and Manchester to Dartmouth, selling her work at art fairs and other shows, “including 25 years of trading at Glastonbury Festival!” She also has a stall at The Tobacco Factory market in Bristol during the winter months “when there aren’t so many shows.”

For further information and to see more of Alce’s paintings, visit www.alceharfield.com.

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