Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

What I would like more than anything else as a result of my PhD, is for research about autistic people to be directed by, include and be accessible to autistic people and so I have started to look for people that might be interested in contributing their creative stories. The first person I spoke to was Esther Whitney following the Play a Part : Beyond Stereotypes conference in September 2012. Esther is currently completely a Masters in Research  in Education exploring the lived experiences of autistic adolescent girls in mainstream education. As part of her plan for her thesis, she created the following art work to express her own lived experiences of being an undiagnosed autistic student in a mainstream school. Esther Whitney 2021 They say a picture says 1000 words. I often feel that art explains my experiences as a autistic person far better than words ever could and for me 'the artist' I find it a relief to be able to communicate on such a deeper level my experience than ...

I sometimes tell my little ones that there are children who have never been to the beach. They look at me as if I have lost my mind, in their world there is no reason why someone would not have been to the beach. It takes less than an hour to get the beach from our house and if we are going on the train, we usually go to Broadstairs in the summer. I imagine that this will be the first of many trips to the beach this summer holidays, especially seeing as we are going camping over looking the sea this weekend.  Broadstairs high street is still very much like a high street from my childhood and that is why I love it so. Greengrocers are my favourite; the colours, the shapes and the hand written signs are just so much more sincere than the supermarkets' over packaged produce. And then there's the baker's, with more handwritten signs on neon stars, paper doilies and cakes such as the almond deluxe (which is what Josie chose), the wool shop and so many ...

My children appear to be in disagreement over my continued sketching efforts. As I sat in our comfy new reclaimed leather arm chair sketching our most fabulous piece of seventies veneer furniture with tinted glass, gold detail and back lighting, Josie hopped on the arm and clearly told me that the Easter holidays are now over so why was I still sketching. However moments before Charlie had been trying to work out what I was drawing and suggesting several topics for what I might draw next. Josie is correct, I did say that I would simply try to draw one picture a day during the holidays but I am quite enjoying recording snippets of our lives, everyday items that surround our world, constant or fleeting, windows through time. Perhaps I should just see how it goes, no rules, no restrictions, just drawing.

First it was a return to ballet and now it's my fingers that are ink and paint stained. There are little pieces of artistic expression drying all over the place and my head is full to exploding with inspirational ideas. It feels like the start of a new era and as I am on a one month rest from the repetitive action of crochet and knitting, paints and brushes are taking over for a while. I can't believe I have repetitive strain injury and it really is painful so on the advice of the GP, I'm resting it in my usual 'replace one obsessional activity with another' and learning to create left handed. In the spirit of spring cleaning and the awakening of new season, I am shaking things up on the side line of my blog and bringing in a bit of new inspiration. Some people don't like change and have the approach of thinking if something isn't broken don't fix it. I like things to be different and quite enjoy moving stuff about, mixing things up and quite often mak...

I have been growing leeks for a while now and although I am far from being a professional, I feel I have finally mastered the whole seeds, leeks , seeds cycle. Just as with runner beans, I am now self sufficient with my leeks. I grow them, we harvest most of them and let some go to seed. The seed heads are some strickingky beautiful that I did pick some last year and kept them in an old enamel coffee pot looking truly spectacular before disguarding them on a spare patch of ground in December. I left a few seeds heads at the allotment and some went in a hanging basket. The tiny green shoots are loads of minuture leek plants. They look a little like grass but in a few weeks, I will be able to thin them and they grow into leeks which will last through the winter and go to seed next year ready to produce more leeks in 2014. These ones are a few weeks further on and in a hanging basket. I'm waiting for them to be the size of small paintbrushes before I plant them in rows at the all...

My latest pieces of work are based on dandelion clocks and their delicate fragility. How is it that such a delightfully light, umbrella shaped seed can produce a plant with such ludicrously ferocious tap roots that take over my vegetable plot, produce flowers and disperse their gentle seeds before I manage to get them under control? (That sentence was almost as long as my battle against them) Despite their aggressive nature, I am still fascinated by the grace of their seed heads. The magical appeal of a dandelion clock ready to be blown by a small child is something that I am fortunate enough to still see through the eyes of my own little ones. To make a wish and then watch each tiny seed with its own parachute of fluff drift away on a breeze, is a beautiful gift from nature. This is a photo collage I'm working on in preparation for some mixed media extravaganza.

Time has slipped by since my last blog post but that has been because I have been immersed in life. Going back to ballet at the beginning of 2012, has been the catalyst for relighting my passion for art and dance. I'm going to be in stage again in the dance school's show which is something I would have never dreamed of last year and I've been spending every spare moment, learning, exploring and making tiny bits and pieces of art. There seriously aren't enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do and I still have to go to work. There are so many things I want to discover and experiment with and I am making an art journal, something that I have wanted to do forever. I can't believe I got to spend everyday having to dance and do art all the time at University, those were the days. I was lucky enough to get the time and space gift for Valentines Day in the form of studio space and now I just want to spend all my spare moments in there. This is a card th...

The wonderful thing about being married and growing to love each other more as the years go by, is that every Valentine's Day is special and different from the last. I know that you can never really have too many diamonds but I do have a few and that is not really what love is about. I also have red wine and Black Magic chocolates but that still isn't what makes today perfect. My gift this year from my loving husband was time and space. He spent the whole day converting a space in our bedroom into an office so that the room downstairs can be devoted to a studio. Every night I read about a particular inspirational artist and fall asleep dreaming of the ideas that their words have sparked in my ever restless imagination. I recently read that an artist felt that they could never have enough space or time and that is so true. To have my own space to create and time to do so, is the greatest present I could ask for at such a time where art has taken over my focus. Even better that...

Not only have I finished my first piece of art for what seems like years but it's all photographed and listed in my Etsy shop. I'm of the opinion that now is the time to do all those things I've longed to do but have never got around to them. Nearly 20 years ago, I graduated from University and embarked on the rocky road of an artist and I really do not believe that I have put my heart and soul into it. Life has really got in the way of my artistic expression and career but that has of course added to my creativity. It seems quite fitting really that one of those precious distractions that have kept me from my paint brushes should be the subject of my first mixed media collage. My brushes have in fact suffered over the years of neglect, caked in dried poster paints, glue and glitter and at the hand of the girl in the red coat. The collage truly is a collection of so many things that I hold dear. Whilst I was expecting Josie, I walked in Broomfield Park, everyday which is...

 I am working on several pieces of art at once because mixed media collage is a process of building and layering texture which inevitably requires drying time. Sometimes, like this evening, the gel transfer tree I've added needs to set for at least 10 - 16 hours and it doesn't help that the weather has become extra chilly. Feed the Birds is the second of my mixed media collages since my inspirational Margate visit. Above are some of the ideas for the tree images I might use once the paint and gel elements are completely dry.  The bird silhouette will be the finishing touch, but I have already cut a Lino block in anticipation after collecting all these images earlier today. I am also quite tempted to crochet a delicate shell border for the bottom edge which will give something else to search for whilst the gel transfer dries.

Over the past few weeks, I have really been inspired to create some more artistic pieces. I still love crafting but am exploring how to develop what I've learnt over the last couple of years and combining it with the mixed media art I've loved forever.  There is no reason why delicate vintage lace can not be combined with tactile layers of oil paint and Hipstamatic photos. Text and writing has lifted my spirits when times have been tough and journalling as a documentation of life, has been something I've done since a child. Inspiration journals and artists sketchbooks fill me with excitement and so I aim to put one together to try and collect all my ideas, techniques and the inspirational artists. Today I have been blighted by some nasty bug that has confined me to my bed. I watched a beautiful film about the life of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo.

I remember asking a good friend for advice just a short while a go when every day was dark and filled with self doubt and oppression. She told me that she stripped everything away until she was left with the essence of her being and started again from there. Life is an endless battle of self discovery and balance. I don't ever really feel as if I've mastered any of it but I do believe that colour, texture and light continue to form the foundation of my soul. Just as Frank Sinatra's orange angora jumper stands out in my mind when thinking of the film Ocean's 11, the most emotionally satisfying expression of texture, colour and light has got to be mixed media collage. So I've got out the acrylics, oil paint, PVA, tissue paper, ink, lace and vintage musical score and have started to experiment.

Today I went on a traditional day out to the seaside. I packed my metaphorical vintage suitcase, boarded a train and headed for Margate. Although its glamorous glory days are long gone, Margate still has that magic and shoots of creativity and craftiness are beginning to push through the boarded up shops and derelict buildings. Dreamland still dominates the seafront but is now wrapped in scaffolding, ready for the dispute between the land owners and the council to be resolved and regeneration to start. As my dear friend and companion for the day pointed out when she dropped me back at the station,  the lights of the Dreamland sign are back on and that is surely a good indication of things to come. List of inspirational places in Margate Turner Contemporary Gallery pretty much everything the shop the pop up cafe Rodin's Kiss Turner and his crackled oil paint Hamish Fulton and especially the Margate 1234567 Walking Margate Old Town Frocks and Stock - how could I no...