Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Needs must!

    
Apologies for me being so slack with blog, I've been busy having a baby and moving house. It's been a bit mad and so my art (and blog!) have taken a bit of a back seat. It's only been 11 weeks since I had our little girl but it feels like years since I held a palette knife, got covered in paint or let myself fall deep into 'the zone'. The only zone I have been in lately is the parent & child parking zone. I am desperate to be creative again and put some stuff down on paper or canvas or anything I can lay my hands on! 

The problem is this: my studio lies packed up into around 17 boxes in the garage, waiting for me to find a place to rent or another house with more rooms and a moment without a screaming child or a wet dog to deal with.
The reality is that until we buy somewhere, I won't be unpacking my stuff, the house we are in currently just doesn't have space for me to have a studio. The paints are so messy, guaranteed it will get splattered around and any alone time I have away from the baby would be spent painting, not doing all the extra cleaning oil paints in a dining area would require. So, no. No oil painting for me for a while. Which made me sad, so I set out to do something about that.

I have discovered these 'oil sticks' which I hope will solve my temporary problem.
They are a lot less messy than oil paints as they are firmer, which also means they lend themselves to some different effects on the canvas, paper, board or whatever you are planting them on. This means I might be able to paint, sans mess, in my dining room, without the rest of my studio getting unpacked. It will hopefully introduce me to some new effects and techniques, which can only be good, right?  Because when a situation changes, you adapt. Why should art be any different? 

I fully intend to let you guys know how I get on on my new medium adventure. I forgot to gesso my paper today (no, actually I remembered but I had no time thanks to a certain golden retriever getting stuck in the river and a certain someone else getting rather clingy to mama) Watch this space.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Split Personality

So, I thought I'd just say how much I am enjoying the freedom and expression that some of my abstract work is bringing me. Its a different way of thinking and looking at art and in particular, a landscape. I still love to paint up a good old bit of landscape, one my mum can look at and go "Ooh! Thats a lovely painting of a mountain!" but sometimes as an artist you feel like there is a bit of an itch you need to scratch. An avenue, be it a technique, a style a process that you want to have a go at and try to get good  at. Picasso said' "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it". A very good point of view if you ask me. Many people shy away from something that is unfamiliar, takes them out of their comfort zone or 

Husband doesn't get it at all - He finds the concept of abstract art a strange one. He, like many people, appreciates a wide range of art styles and types but abstract is not one of them. He cannot understand how recently a very abstract piece of mine sold online. I have tried to explain the abstraction to him and that just because it doesn't look like a photograph, doesn't mean its not a good piece. Some of my abstract works take longer to produce and even require more paint and other mediums, than some of my more traditional works. The techniques I use in some of the abstract stuff requires long periods of waiting for paint to dry, scraping back layers, sanding back others, re-painting and re-glazing. 

There is always a starting point, an inspiration, that sparks the piece. It could be a colour, an emotion, a place, an object but its always there and the piece wouldn't exist without it. Sometimes when you're trying to represent something intangible or perhaps a combination of elements, feelings, smells, colours, it's difficult to paint a picture of it and the best way to do that is to abstract it out; represent various elements with different shapes, colours and ideas. 

I love being able to flit between the two and expressing different parts of who I am. Just because I like realism, doesn't mean I can't like abstract also. That's the great thing about Art, it allows a person freedom in the way they express themselves but sometimes people are quick to pigeonhole you - that you are 'this' type of artist or 'that' type of artist. Why should it be that way? Art by definition demands an open mind and an appreciation that whatever piece is in front of you is someone's work that they had a spark of inspiration to create, spent time on and are (most likely) proud of. 

Most of all, art should be about surrounding yourself with pretty things, you don't have to over analyse it, some people hang a painting because they like the colour and it matches the rest of their room, not because it tries to say anything about them. As an artist, the more people I can get to like my work - any of my work - the better! 

Thursday, May 2, 2013

A New Process

A while back, I talked about how the creative process can be a destructive one also - after all, thats how nature works, nothing lasts forever. Everything is eventually broken down and re-structured or re-made into something new. It might take millions of years, it might take minutes, but it happens every day, all around us. I started rubbing down canvases to try to re-cycle them and re-use them. This caused x2 problems:
1. Holes. If you rub a canvas with sandpaper for enough time, you will get holes in it. As the paint surface makes it uneven, holes appear randomly and without warning. You also have to be careful of the stretcher bars, they mark the canvas and where you rub and also can make it difficult to sand edges around the stretcher bars.  You can take the canvas off the stretcher bars however (apart from taking forever) it doesn't help that much and holes still appear around the edges where the stretcher bars were.
2. Dust. There is so much dust. Son of dust. You MUST wear a mask for this work, a decent one. Mask + eye glasses = FAIL. My glasses fell off consistently, into the dust. The dust then gets in your eyes, your hair, your clothes, your dog. 

I am not sure what the correct protective equipment for this work is but I am confident that it is completely out of proportion with the money saved from re-cycling a canvas. Therefore, sandpaper and canvas should only be brought together on the rare occasion that you want to actually use that look in one of your paintings. 

I must admit, I am a fan of this worn, aged look. we saw a lot of it while we were in India, in fact we stayed in an old palace and in our bedroom were beautiful old frescos, damaged by the years and the weather. When I started rubbing down my canvases, this is what I thought of, it reminded me of these scenes. How wonderful to try and cause this effect. I knew I wanted to give it a go.

With my India project, to start with, I approached it with my usual style. For some reason, with some of the pieces, it just wouldn't work. The painting looked flat and solid. I started experimenting with different styles and techniques on different paintings. It was amazing to 'have a go' at something new. If it didn't work, meh... what you learn during that experiment is useful information. Nothing is ever a 'wasted project' as you always get something out of it, even if it is something small. And what you might end up discovering, is worth the risk. 

One particular piece that kept bugging me was this water piece. We had gone for afternoon tea at this amazing house. It was for rent during the season (4 rooms and staff - I'd highly recommend it!) but we had gone there as we were staying at the sister hotel (the old palace with the frescos!) just for tea. It used to be the Maharaja's pleasure palace, built so he could hunt and enjoy the high life with his hareem. It sits in the fork of a lazy river, so lazy it looks almost stagnant, with long ropes of weed laying over the surface of it. It was sunset and the end of the monsoon season, so there was still a lot of humidity in the air and the heat, even at sunset, was pretty immense. It was very quiet, although locals were still going about their business, mainly shepherds, moving  their goats around and women washing clothes in the river. It was beautiful, so peaceful and serene, but wet and hot. 

This painting was not coming together, it just wasn't conveying how I felt looking over the rooftop of the old pleasure palace out to the riverbank. I kept leaving it and going back to it, hoping something would explode out of my palette knife and make it work all of a sudden. It wouldn't and I would leave it for another couple of weeks...months...
I felt like I was going over old ground again and again, just re-doing what I had already done. The colours were right, but at the same time, not right. I wasn't proud of what I had done at the end of each session and that always hurts. The paint layers were building up but nothing new was happening. I was getting frustrated as I knew the piece would work, I just didn't know how to execute it. Maybe thats the bonus of Art school, you learn things like that. Its less trial and error and more people to bounce ideas off. Me in a studio on my own, getting frustrated wasn't helping move the piece along. 

I was actually surfing online and came across this very talented artist Jessica Zoob (www.jessicazoob.com). Her paintings are like dreamscapes and I love how she uses glazes and colours. She says how she likes to scrape back and layer up the paint which got me thinking about my own work and my earlier experiments. I decided I would give it another go and see if I could turn this around in a new way, using techniques I hadn't used before and shrugging off my usual style, just let what happens, happen. 

I started by sanding off some of the layers of the paint that were already on the canvas (don't worry, I used all my protective equipment) which gave me that 'fresco' feel and evened up the paint layer a bit. It also took away some of the paint I had built up in frustration. After wiping a good deal of dust from the work, I decided on a palette and started to glaze. A glaze is where you mix a semi or transparent colour with an oil medium and paint it over another colour. It makes the paint runny and translucent. I decided to keep it 'loose' and allow the colours to run into each other. A complete departure from my structured work, with stiff, buttery oil paint.

As I went on, the paint found its way onto the canvas in its own way and I couldn't help but love the result. It started to feel right, to convey the damp heat just after sunset. I am not sure I have finished it just yet, I may sand back a layer once more and re-glaze for extra depth but I am already so so pleased with how it looks and feels. 

I have resolved to do more of this 'departure' work. Loosening up the paint and making the landscapes I paint much more abstract. I in fact, started on a snowy mountain version. This one is from scratch so it might have a different vibe to it than the India piece, and probably less structure, but I feel more relaxed about where it might go now and kind of excited to see where it takes me! 




Monday, April 22, 2013

ROUND UP!

A busy few weeks has seen me slacking with Blog, for that I apologise, I am trying to get as much work done before baby arrives. So I have been painting, printing and framing like a mad thing. A trip to Verbier to deliver some paintings, a trip to Abergavenny to get some prints made and a trip to Peterborough to get everything framed. I must say, it all looks lovely, I just need some sales now to help even out the finances! 

Craig at I-Pixel design did another fantastic job with the prints of 'On the way back down' - A Chamonix print (available for sale via my website www.stephanienoble.co.uk), although he did have rather a nightmare capturing it. When I collected it on Monday, I had not expected the painting to have destroyed his weekend entirely. 


The software would not stitch it together properly and Craig had spent most of Saturday and half of Sunday trying all sorts of techniques to try and get it to capture. His unblemished record of never letting a customer down in over 7 years was at stake and finally just as he reached the end of his tether, he managed to capture the painting. And I am so glad he did! On taking it to the framers (who also did a stellar job), I now have my very own Chamonix and Verbier prints hanging in my house! 






The crazy painting and framing of several new pieces took hold of my life for a good number of weeks, all in time to dash to Verbier and deliver them all to the Gallery. I am pleased to say that Nanuq gallery now has a wide range of original Stephanie Noble pieces, that should last well into the next season, unless there is a rush on S.Nobles. That would be nice. 

So now the gallery is stocked up! 




While I was there, I did a spot of hanging out with some awesome mates down in Chamonix. We had a spa day and everything. To top it off there was Champagne, an engagement celebration, a birthday celebration AND Wales won the Six nations in fantastic style. I also managed to grab a few lovely mountain shots which I hope to paint in the coming weeks, I have totally run out of canvas however and am hoping a sale comes in soon so I can reinvest and cram in a few more pictures before baby comes. 



While in Verbier, I did bring a painting back with me to enter it into a competition here, 'Lyskamm and the Twins' is a huge painting of a large glacier and three peaks in Zermatt. I am taking it down to London this saturday, along with 'On the way back down' for the selection process. I will let you know how I get on, watch this space! 



Despite this all keeping me very busy, I have also tried to shoehorn in some promotion, via social media sites. A little bit more labour intensive than I thought it would be and slightly too addictive. I find myself sneakily checking on my page to see how many new 'likes' and shares and 'people who have seen this post' notifications I have. But it is working and I hope to share my work with lots more new followers. Its hard to get your message out there without feeling like you are badgering people, which is something I am acutely aware of and try my best to avoid. A lot of marketing people will tell you you have to be pushy and persistent to get your message out there and stand out from the crowd. I am happy to agree with that, but find it a very unnatural position for me. 

To try and counter those feelings and give something back to the people who like and follow my work, I have launched a competition on facebook. In return for 'liking' my page and sharing the link, you get entered into a draw to win this mini painting of some Chamonix peaks. I dont think its a bad deal and I might do a few more of these competitions in the future as I have had a great response so far. If indeed, you are interested in this, please visit

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephanie-Noble/241337365924578?ref=hl 

'like' the page and share the link. I am going to announce the winner on Facebook and Twitter at 12pm GMT on Friday 26th April 2013. So get cracking and Good Luck! 

                                                   


Monday, March 4, 2013

I am a believer!

Being an artist you often want to be able to produce more than you physically can, not just inspirationally and practically, but for financial reasons. Original art gets expensive, especially when a customer buys through a gallery and thanks to the world's economy right now, us artists are finding it difficult to sell original pieces. The odd piece gets sold but, its not frequent enough to pay the bills - especially as most artists will want to invest in more canvas, more paint and framing for the next original work.Decent quality canvas and paint doesn't come cheap - especially when you paint impasto like me....so you see, it can get a little financially sticky here in an artists world.

Thats where print reproductions come in handy. It means we can reproduce our work for sale in a more affordable bracket whilst the customer is still able to enjoy the artist's work. Up until the late 1980's though, artist's work had to be scanned and inkjet printed. A lot of the time, detail would be lost and the colours could not be properly matched.

So then, it is with glee and joy the artist welcomes Giclée printing!! Giclée, from the french verb gicler, means to squirt, or spray, describes the printing action for this process. It is quite different to inkjet printing and is normally only used for fine art and very detailed printing. The Giclée printing machine can print such fine detail, it makes it ideal for artists wanting to reproduce their work. The printing machine however is only as good as the guy running it and obviously needs decent input to get decent output.

I am not going to pretend I know anything about the software available that makes this process so magical and awe inspiringly accurate but I can summarise the process to you, as I was recently introduced to it myself by a lovely guy called Craig at I-Pixel design. I headed over to Abergavenny (a bit of a haul but I tell you, so so worth it to get the quality of work these people produce!) with my work for 'capture'. I was under the impression that the painting was scanned by a very good scanner, however Craig corrected me and told me that each 'capture' is made up of several (often into the tens) of high resolution photographs, which are then 'jigsawed' together again by the fancy software. 

The rest is then down to Craig who then uses his skills to adjust the 'jigsaw' so it is accurate and match the colours to as close to the original as possible. I have to say, he did a fab job as I couldn't tell the difference. Once he thinks he has it down, a proof is printed and everyone makes sure they are happy - if not, more adjustments can be made before the final prints are run. 

The Giclée printer is a whizz, printing 4 prints for me in the time it takes to drink a lovely cup of tea. The bonus is, I can order more prints whenever I like, so I don't have to tie up money in 30 prints that just sit in my studio, cluttering up the place until they sell. Brilliant! 

Whilst this is not the first time I have ordered prints, this is the first time I have had the quality of workmanship I have been after. I am so proud of these prints, I am keeping one for myself this time! Its still not a cheap process, however it opens up art to more people which is always a good thing. It is as much as an investment for me in someone else's skill and talent as it is for my customers, so in Giclée printing, I AM A BELIEVER! 

Big thanks to Craig at i-pixel design - www.ipixel-design.co.uk


Thursday, January 3, 2013

OH NO! ROCOCO!

Most of us struggle a little, financially, over the festive period. We always end up spending more than we plan to and budgets go out of the window, along with excersise and healthy eating. Its a bit of a spiral, landing you in January with miserable wether and a massive credit card bill that will take the next 6 months to clear. By then, you are starting to brace for the next round of festivities. Ugh! Not to sound too Bah-humbug about it all but its an exhausting circle of spending and with it, we have all gotten far too lazy; dishing out mindless gifts bought in a rush to those we feel we ought to. It was actually getting me down and during a season where we are constantly reminded to feel joy and thanks, I was ready to fight back! 


This year I was going to make as many presents as I could, using the skills at my disposal. I would bake and paint (not in any collaborative smashed together sort of way..)! Delicious cookies for the rellies and for my two sisters, a couple of paintings tailored to their tastes. Mini Me Sister got a trio of portraits of her and her bloke, all dressed up and ready to go out on the town. It took a full day to do properly but was totally worth it. 

The Other One Sister got something slightly different and something I had never tried before, ROCOCO!  She had recently moved into a new place and didn't have anything for her bedroom. I knew immediately I would paint something for her and in the background I could hear my mum saying " blah blah black & white blah blah blah blah rococo design blah blah she's going to try anyway blah blah". DONE. I would get my rococo on!

The canvases I normally work on are fairly large so I am always drawn to those sizes and they don't intimidate me. I had planned on a one canvas piece however, in the store, there was a buy one get one free deal on. Fine, I thought unknowingly, I will do the image split over two giant canvases! Such. A. Fool. Having bought the canvases and some ultra fine black glitter for later in the process, I returned home and instructed husband to bring home a projector from work as I was going to have to project my image onto the canvases in order to get them correct. 

The first bad omen was that husband returned home to tell me all work projectors are mounted on the ceilings of the conference rooms, so no projector for me. I was however, welcome to come into work and use the conference room. So I did that. After sticking numerous bits of paper together in order to get the right size for my canvases, I started work. 60 minutes later and with a very sore arm and neck, I had finished stencilling. 

To my horror, it soon dawned on me (never having thought an entire process through from start to finish in my life) that I would need to now transfer this onto tracing paper in sections and then, re-trace it onto the canvases, being sure the pattern lined up. Needless to say, this was a very painful and long winded process which saw me questioning, not only my logic or the meaning of Christmas, but the meaning of life itself.
 
Once I had transferred the image lines to the canvas I could start the 'fun' part and begin to paint. There was something truly satisfying seeing an image just emerging from the canvas, even more so when its so structured and stark in black and white. I hunched myself over my tabletop easel for three days painting these two large (if ONLY I had thought it all through!) canvases. 


Finally finished and dry - I chose acrylic paint for this process - the edges were painted black and several sections were picked out for 'glittering'. This time I used glue and then dusted the glitter over it, but thanks to a joke the universe likes to play called static, I would be inclined to use a good glitter glue next time as getting rid of the excess glitter was almost impossible. Following a few posts on my facebook page - do feel free to 'like' the page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephanie-Noble/241337365924578) I had a superb response to this piece which was very encouraging and at the very least, if Other One Sister didn't like the pieces, I could definitely sell them to someone.


Other One Sister got her SNoble original all wrapped up on Christmas day and was very pleased with the result, although for a moment all the hard work was lost on her as she thought I had bought them. Pah! One swift look at the back and the SNoble stamp of excellence was apparent.  I think I will do some more Rococo, but not sure how yet as I need to invest in a projector. Not sure H&S in Husband's work would be too happy with my approach...