The letter 'A'

Rebecca Adams - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'Z'

Zac - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'N'

Paige Bascombe - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'Y'

Edie Tetzner - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'R'

Aimee - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'T'

Tyler Flood - Wey Velley School

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The letter 'W'

Joe - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'D'

Kenneth De Leon - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'O'

Artist Unknown - Wey Valley School

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The letter 'Q'

Matthew Wood - Wey Valley School

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New Postcard Mail Art Project

After the success of my first Mail Art project last year I have started another in collaboration with Wey Valley School in Weymouth. The projected initiated as part of Aim Higher's 'Meet the Creator' programme where a group of students, including myself, from Arts University College Bournemouth visited different schools around Dorset to promote the benefits of higher education. As part of the talk I gave I asked the students to design a postcard, onto which I would then add my own artwork/designs/collages and then post them through the mail so that the mail system added their own marks too them.

The theme is simply 'The Alphabet.' The postcards will then be bound into an artists' book.

The following posts will show a before and after of each postcard. When the book is completed I will then post photographs for you all to see. Thank you to all the students who have taken part. I apologise in advance if I get the spellings of your names incorrect. Some handwriting has been difficult to decipher.

The second series of postcards from Royal Manor Art College, Portland will follow in the next few weeks.

*Smiley Face Linocut* - I have taken a few prints...when it is dry I will scan it in and post the photo for you all to see!

Rosie Alsop - Lytchett Minster School

I was so excited to have received my first postcard back from the kids at Lytchett Minster School. Thank you Rosie for taking part. Please ask all your friends to complete their postcards as soon as possible and post them to me. I really love the musical theme of your design.

The Original:

The Front:

The Back:

FAO: Lytchett Minster School Students

Hi Guys,

I am still waiting for your postcards to arrive...I have yet to receive any *sad face*

I am really looking forward to receiving them so please please please do them and send them as soon as possible!

Let your creative juices flow!!

Love Steph

x x x

Even Picasso forgets to write in reverse on an etching plate

...even the masters forget

Todays Little Prints

This is what I have been up to today, these are little watercoloured monoprints. I am still looking at landscape but NEED to take a new direction on it. I don't know what it all means yet but this may be the start of new adventure.

All Saints *Sigh*

It's my birthday in a couple of weeks and every year I arrange for all our close friends to go for dinner and drinks out on the town. I always buy myself a new dress, and the joy of having a February birthday is that there are always sales still on, and because it is towards the end of the sale I get the really good bargains.

This year I ordered this All Saints dress. I am an All Saints addict and waiting for the delivery was like a child waiting for christmas. When it arrives it is a parcel of joy. The way it is it packaged is super special.

It arrived in a special All Saints Spitalfields box.

My dress was all wrapped up snug in beautiful All Saints tissue paper (a smaller box would have sufficed)

And the dress is so perfectly tailored to fit. A little black birthday dress indulgence.

I've discovered Angie Lewin

Speypath III

Linocut

Image size (mm):395w x 310h - Edition: 40

I was perusing the interweb this afternoon (instead of doing all the other things I was supposed to be doing) and I stumbled upon Angie Lewin's website. I think her woodcuts are beautifully stunning and I just wish wish wish I had the talent and know how to do this. I feel inspired to go and get my lino out and start carving away...(I do, however, have other things to do!...like go and cook dinner and hang up the washing.)

Dandelions 1

Wood Engraving & Linocut

Image size (mm): 75w x 55w - Edition: 32

Shepherd's Purse

Linocut

Image size (mm): 160w x 160w - Edition: 50

Clifftop IV

Wood engraving

Image size (mm): 100w x 125h - Edition: 40

Reclamation Inspiration

Today I went on an adventure with a friend of mine to this reclamation yard in Bere Regis. It isn't the most conventional day trip for a couple of friends on a drizzly Tuesday morning but it was something different and interesting to do. I have never been to a reclamation yard before and I was pleasantly surprised...There were so many interesting things to ponder over and there were so many things I would love for mine and Phil's home that we don't own yet. We were there for over two hours looking at all the bits and bobs, some big, some small. Everything in there had a past story and with a little love and attention it's life can be restored once again.

Chilly Chillies

Remember my post about my chillies? Well all has progressed and I have two dried chillies now for my store cupboard. I did have three but I used one in last night's pasta...they have a definite kick to them! *proud* I am amazed that they have grown as well as they have, considering I planted them in late August. Just goes to show that not all seeds need to be sown in the spring time. These are my winter chilly chillies! I am waiting for the next four to dry out now and then my little jar will be packed. I love this little jar. I found it when I was browsing the shops in Italy with my brother. I love any jar with a latch on it. My collection is growing (both chili and jar). I think they are brilliant.

A Photographic Documentary about Displacement and Presence

This experimental work is about my personal displacement within the environment in which I find myself. Having grown up in South Africa, Italy and various other parts of Europe, and now being in the United Kingdom, I have developed a skewed sense of belonging.

I have been studying the landscape at Hengistbury Head and my relationship to it. It is an area that, in some ways, is reminiscent of South Africa and where I spend a reasonable amount of time. It is a space of exposed natural beauty and it instills a sense of calm.

The following photographs are a documentary of my exploration.The sculpture featured in the photographs is key. It acts as a metaphor for what I am trying to achieve in both the materials from which it is constructed and it’s position within the landscape.

Firstly, the materials of the sculpture are important to the piece; a mixture of charred and drift wood that I found sporadically scattered on the beach at Hengistbury Head. These pieces of wood are not indigenous to the area; they have been left behind by people or have been washed up by the tide. Although these materials are not natural to the location, they still find themselves there, just as I find myself positioned within my environment.

This brings me to the second part, the position within the landscape. I wanted to represent my presence by placing the sculpture, a representation of me, within the landscape from which the materials were found, contrasting the unnatural form of the sculpture using natural materials from their now natural environment.

This work has by no means reached a conclusion. It has been completely exploratory and experimental. I have used sculpture and photography, mediums that I have never before explored, and although this has caused many frustrations; this work has pushed me out of my comfort zone, something that I wanted to do from the outset.

Moving forward I want to explore the aspects of shadow within the landscape. Whether I stay out of my comfort zone and continue with sculpture and photography or whether I move back into print I don't know yet. These images have given me a starting point for a lot more discovery within my practice and keeping an open mind will bring about some interesting results I'm sure.

Bournemouth Collaboration

Last night I took part in TheBigCollab. It was an evening showcasing 30 artists from Bournemouth, encouraging them to meet together and possibly collaborate in the future. Overall the evening was a great success, I wanted to say thank you to the organisers Nicky and Sophie. I look forward to their next event.