Job Application

Lorna as Designer

I graduated in 2000 with a 2.1 graphic design and illustration but for family reasons was unable to apply for a designer job. I am angst ridden on writing a cover letter for a job as a junior designer at the OUP in Oxford. So instead of writing I thought of the more unconvential idea of doing it as an illustration saying something about me. My cv tells them about my skill sets but I feel the cover letter is suppose to say why 'they' should employ you.

My reality is that I am a fat middle age women who needs a job and whose greatest talent is being able to think outside the box but suffers from lack of confidence.

So do you think sending in an illustration is a good idea.

End of the year

Another year has gone so time to show- case a few of the newer blogs that I have started reading. Painting is solitary work so I am lucky that I have close artist friends in Sue Cook and Graham Rice who live in the same village. They have both been represented by galleries in this last year. Congratulations to them!

So less parochially I read Hazel Dooney's blog 'Self Vs Self' who lives in Australia. She seems to have developed an international artistic career avoiding the traditional gallery system. Whilst her work is controversial her blog is a fascinating insight into an artist's life. Here you can see some of her experimental work which I like very much.

Speeding to the other side of the world to America and Jeffrey Hayes' blog of contemporary still life paintings. They have an acknowledged debt to the traditional Dutch masters such as seen at the Ashmolean Museum. I enjoy the way oil paint is used in a painterly manner producing a vision of sumptuous objects besides learning how to improve my technique.

So back to my own world for two photography blogs which showcase places I visit and love. The first is Gretel Parker's 'Cotswold Peeps' narrating her walks . The second which is 'OX 18' which is a archive of photos by DR who I guess is male and produces a body of work that finds beauty everywhere.

Best wishes for the new year to all!

RIP

My Mac has died. My hard drive has been recovered to an external hard drive.

Interuption

My Mac has decided to go bang and is at the local Mac shop. They have just confessed to me that they have had it for a week and not looked at it. Considering the price they will charge ... I am not a happy bunny.

I am using my daughter's PC and am surprised to see how washed out my images look on it's screen. I am not sure what to do about it as on my screen they are a rich and vibrant. Any suggestions? However there is more work to post and the beginnings of my Christmas card design when I have got my Mac home.

A decorative Lorna!

Pencil Self-portrait

Picked up the pencil and drew this in my drawing book this morning. I could relax and not hold my head in a pose drawing from a photograph. Everything was set where it was easy for me to see. Drawing other people is never this much problem!

Miss T has asked; "If you 'cheat' who will you be cheating?" The 'cheat' was not drawing from life as the original commission stipulated. Photography is an intervention between my direct response to my image/self. So now I must search harder to produce a picture with integrity. I am curious now at how far I can push this image and still have a likeness of your truly.

Sun, garden, blackberries & wibble.

We have had good weather. So I have been picking blackberries, doing light gardening and supervising my son doing the slave labour in the garden. (He has been getting blackberry crumble!)
The pain medication for my arthritis has been changed around causing me to be a little dozy and until I cut back the dose a little; a tendency to go wibble, wibble, wibble!

So no artwork.

A bad week

The Moan

There has been a lot of deaths in my life this week. A friend has been diagnosed with breast cancer. My arthritis is so bad again that walking to a friend's house almost proved impossible.

The Cheer

Went to the lovely wedding of a friend's daughter. I can at least ride my bike still if getting on and off is painful.

The Result

Little drawing and painting so will post next week.

Second version; altered in Photoshop

I have been doing these postcard size but need to work bigger now. I shall try a small oil sketch of this exploring mark making more.

My computer station is a mass of tangled wires and monster dust bunnies. This weekend I cleaned it up. Resulting in me spending half an hour this morning working out which connection was loose before the scanner would work. Last year the clean up resulted in the mother board going.

Teacups and geese

I am hot. My house is hot and by noon my brain have melted. So no real painting yet.

Oxford Lunch

Right day and right place for lunch with my friend in Oxford. Drew the above picture of the Clarendon Building while waiting for her. We lunched at The King's Arms and then a visit to the Ashmolean with a lot of talking.

Bust

It is hot! I went to Oxford to meet up with a girl friend I did my degree with and have lunch. While there discovered that I was due to meet tomorrow. The trouble with the bohemian life style is that I am a little vague as to where I am in the month.

A post removed!

I have removed my previous post linking to Art News Blog. When looking at the search terms which had lead to increased hits to my blog found that people where actively looking for inappropriate images using the key words from the title.

Evil comes in many forms and I think I may have paved the road to Hell with my good intentions.

Nudity Censorship

Asda refused to print baby's naked bum on birthday cake.

David Hockney on Moral censorship

David Hockney condemns in a letter to the 'Guardian' the "perverse remedy" of persecuting artists for drawings of children.

Moral censorship problem with 'Dryad'

I have always been surprised by the concern expressed about my nude paintings as I regard them as non sexy or salacious. So in painting 'Dryad' with a view to trying for the 2009 RA Summer Exhibition my only concern was carrying it modestly covered on public transport as 'the nude' has an established place in art.

However ... I have always known that indecent photos of children were against the law. Nan Goldin's innocent photos of her children were removed from exhibition last year because they were considered pornographic. It has now been proposed that drawings and computer-generated images of child sex abuse would be made illegal. I can not see the RA being controversial so with reluctance I am going to cover M in my painting. My apologies to SueC and M as we are all innocent of any indecency.

Picture envy

I have picture envy otherwise 'Rock and Roll Morris' has gone up in flames.

Starving artist

No go on another job interview.

Ego bruised - again!

Sheep have been rejected ... sigh!

Blogs

I confess to being an 'Art/Studio Blog Addict'.

I have little direct contact with other artists. You can see in the side bar of this blog links to my other blogs, links to local artists and friends and a couple of links to other artist's blogs whose work I admire and enjoy reading on a regular basis. However, I have a huge bookmarked list of other art blogs I follow for a variety of reasons. Some of them have indirectly contributed to my artistic development over the last year. So my top five influential blogs are:

Tracy Helgeson for her use of colour in her landscapes.
Tina Mammoser whose work has opened my eyes to the clarity that can be achieved in abstraction.
Kirsty Hall who writes about process in her own work.
Katherine Tyrrel for her many articles on the art world and the resources she provides.
Drawn which is a collaborative blog for people who like to draw and provides a kaleidescope of all kinds of art.

Christmas gifts

I am now painting Christmas gifts for friends and family so will not be blogging pictures for the next few weeks. They'll have to wait until Christmas day to see what they will get!

Judging from the number of Google hits I am getting for 'painting Christmas cards' this is the time of year everyone is getting creative. I am very impressed by the number of Americans who make their gifts. My children, who are now adults, plead to be allow to buy something for me instead of my usual request for them to make me a self portrait. My ex mother-in-law got full brownie points for her knitted mittens etc.