Inspirational Art from the Heart

Riots, Mayhem and Disappointment in our Lawless Society

2011-08-12T04:13:00.000-07:00

I just wonder after seeing on the news and hearing about the youths in our country running around just causing havoc and ruining ordinary people's lives for the hell of greed and pleasure.
Our policians say punishment in the courts and the law of the land will prevail...oh yes, I know what that means. A caution and a 'Don't do it again' reprimand. Where has the discipline disappeared to? There is no respect for law and order anymore, all actions of innocent people defending their property and lives are challenged as the law comes down strongly on those innocent folks but is dealt very lightly and carefully on the offenders.
My comment on all of this is send the youths to some boot camp to teach discipline and respect, even consider a call-up into the armed forces. If its action they want, send them to troubled areas to taste what living on the edge of real dangerous situations are like. Even consider sending them to places where help is needed for the starving. Perhaps then they will appreciate what a soft life they have in this country.

Harlow Carr at Last

2011-06-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, the one whole month exhibition has arrived and even though I am amongst other artists, I still feel apprehensive at exhibiting, particularly if my work does not sell.
I am new at this game and feel nervous when I see other established artists who I have admired for years at these shows, knowing that I am now level footing with them and I feel like I have to prove something, perhaps to myself more than anyone else.
Its the time where we say "put your money where your mouth is" to ourselves and hope that someone will admire your work so much that they will put their money into their pockets.
Recently I have established some paintings that I feel are my own. I know that may sound strange, but I have always struggled to find the artist within and have tried so many different ways of putting paint to paper and different medias to supports, but finding it difficult to gel with any of it.
At one time there were so many different styles it looked like a desperate attempt at a stab at all types and styles and I suppose that was the way I was working.
However, my work is gradually showing the world who I am and what I truly enjoy doing.
Thats working with watercolour, pure and simple and using colour at its most vivid possible if I can.
So I suppose its now when I introduce my new family on paper.
Meet Eliza, at the top then Marvin and finally Charlie, all three have a little story to tell. http://www.artist-sandieturner.com/

The very Sad Mouse

2011-06-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

This little chap wants a hug he is still very hungry and they have just shut the door to the cheese cupboard. Whats worse, the cats just come in and now he thinks, I must get back home as soon as I can, but he is very worried as the cat is on the prowl, just outside his front door...ummm he thinks...best wait awhile. However panic sets in, and he is now getting upset.

WORKSHOP WOW !! and Ewes United

2011-06-07T01:51:00.000-07:00

Once again Jean Haines did not fail to inspire me. She is so enthusiastic and yet laid back when it comes to demonstrating her methods of producing wonderful free colourful art pieces. I returned home totally zapped and ready to throw my paint around. The above image 'Ewes United', in watercolour. Here we have a bunch of girls hoping for another visit from their heart throb Ramessess III

Mr McDougall whose in lurve with a Poodle

2011-05-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

Do you know I just love this chap, he appeared during a very desperate attempt to get some art stuff produced. He is so jolly with a positive disposition in the hope that the Poodle he keeps an eye on in the park might one day notice him..

Don't let the Gremlins take your eye off the ball.

2011-05-22T03:36:00.000-07:00

Heck... it is a long time since I last did my art blog and a lot has happened, well it seems like the gremlins have tried to take my eye off the ball with my art, and have succeeded over the last few months. However, I am back on course with a new personal website that shows the very best of my artwork, and these will be on show at the RHS Harlow Carr exhibition in Harrogate for a month. I have just had some 500 greeting cards printed up and now have to organise them in cello bags for the sale of!! Umm all this organising when the country seems to be hitting an all time low with the recession blues.

My take on this is to stay positive, if your currency is dwindling away, keep resourceful and think of other ways to inspire you, particularly with your art. In otherwords try to keep ahead of the gloom and doom and keep busy with your positive thoughts.

Knee Worries!!

2011-01-13T04:50:00.000-08:00

What does a girl do, when she loves her skiing but the old knees are giving her some gip! I have been exercising sensibily for months now to strengthen all supporting muscles that connect to the knees and yet only 2.5 weeks to go and the right knee is catching me out each time I bend it....ouch.
I massage it, and give it tender loving care, I protect it with support bandages, but still the bloody thing says, "no way"
So any good suggestions out there would be very much appreciated.
HELP :-(

Exciting Times

2011-01-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

Where do I start, firstly my first Exhibition at this fabulous venue near Wetherby, West Yorkshire will be next week. The private preview is on the Friday and its open to the public on Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23rd of January.
There was a massive article on the venue in the local newspaper with a full spread and photos of myself and the other artists who are sharing this exhibition.....ohhhh fame at last!!
My work has changed dramatically since attending Jean Haines watercolour courses and I am delighted with my new stuff thats being produced.
However, you have to keep your finger on the pulse, once you think you have cracked it, another obstacle sets up and you end up doubting yourself again and that bad old ego kicks in.

Anyway anyone wishing to view my latest work can go to http://www.wired4design.co.uk/ also to view the venue for the exhibition you need to go to http://www.priory-arts.com/

Olympia One Minute, Bed the Next

2010-10-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

One minute working my socks off at London Olympia, then the minute I start packing up the stand, a pesky bug hits the physical and I am down with this fowl bug that seems to be sweeping everywhere. I end up in bed for the next week trying to recover. Then I end up with the immune system going into melt down and I have, what can only be described as the Bubonic Plague look......not very fashionable at the best of times....However, struggling to keep my composure I am now upright and have avoided the suppine position for a couple of days now, but still unable to speak without a growl.

Some exciting things happening with my art, instead of messing and playing around and making a mess, I have decided to concentrate on my style with colour and looseness and I have gone back to using watercolour. A couple of months ago I managed to get on a course with Jean Haines, whose work I just admire and wish to aspire to. This was the second year I had been on her course, and I didn't quite get it the first year, but it suddenly clicked this time and I was away with my paints and colours. I am so excited about putting my paint brush filled with colour onto a new surface now and really look forward to pushing my barriers even more without holding back the doubts...Jean says enjoy the colour merging, and I do now, instead of worrying about it not working out the way it should, I just let it run and merge...great fun.

I have been offered some exhibition space in January 2011 so I am going to really start building up my style of watercolours ready for the launch. This could be it.........I have hestitantly hung back and just shown pieces of my work at the odd local exhibition, but never felt it was really me and I was just imitating styles and methods, like we all do when we first start, but this has been going on for years with me, knowing that I had the skills but not the inspiration for being totally unique and daring. Jean has shown me a way to express myself with colour and thats a result for me.

Looking forward to this weekend in Leyburn doing loads of walks and taking photos.....also stopping for nosh. A friend of mine is taking the book 'Walks and Tearooms' it sounds too good to be true!

Back with the Living in Colour

2010-09-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

Hey I am back, and inspired by colour and water on paper.....sounds mad but I have just returned from the most fab art course and I cannot wait to get and play with the art brush and paper and just let the colour and water do its own thing. It seems a long time since I last did a blog, but I seemed to put my art on hold until I found some excitement with doing art, and instead of placing myself under pressure and saying, "this afternoon I am going to produce a picture of a horse" etc and then producing absolutely nothing that registered a horse but just a tight picture of something I did not enjoy doing........soooooo I am back in full colour and going for gold, or pink or blue........ummm.
Well if Jean Haines reads this, I think she will understand where I am coming from......I attended her 2 day course last year in Hampshire and quite frankly I just did not get it....in terms of playing and relaxing, but decided not to give up and try and see if I had moved on with my art over the last year and see if I could just doodle with my paint brush and colour.......WoW it worked - I am inspired in Living Colour. I have chosen the above image, as today, its this colour combination I am playing around with. Not too seriously but just watching the paper and colour move around.
If you are interested in the freedom of art just look at Jean Haines work on her site.

Technicalities and The Big Cheese!

2010-04-17T03:13:00.000-07:00

Where do I start, bought a new PC system with a terabyte of hard drive with 8mb working ram....sounds great! Reason for purchasing new system was I was hounded by the words on the screen "low on memory please turn off some of your windows" Thats OK if you have loads open but just using Outlook, I found this a bit of a joke.
This last two weeks have been quite traumatic with the change over to Windows 7 which is great, from XP but the biggest blow to the bank balance was to discover that Photoshop CS4 was an illegal copy which I had purchased, via a very reliable source and had been using this on two PC's in the office successfully for over a year. Then to find out that CS5 has just been released and I have to pay full price yet again from Adobe for the use of!!Arghhhh.
Needless to say, I am still waiting for the arrival of the CS4 so I can continue with my printing of art work.
Oh yes, nearly forgot, I was shocked to find just working in Dreamweaver that my new PC shouts and says I am low on memory!!
Maybe its not the PC that's low on memory - its psychic and senses I am loosing my marbles!!

THE GOOSE IS GETTING FAT

2010-04-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, the chocolate has got to me again, ah well it was nice while it lasted, and it didn't last long. However, the egg hunt was amusing and the painted eggs from the children were delightful it was difficult to judge which eggs were the best.

Over Easter I decided to try and do some work sourcing some material for my next masterpiece. Ummmm I love colour and texture but I don't like doing landscapes. So thats where the inspiration has stopped for the moment....I just love doing unusual abstracty things like experiments that have gone wrong and I ohhhh and arrrrh over them because I enjoyed watching them evolve in front of me, but the only things that seem to really sell are my statement pieces like a wolf's face or an elephants ear...strange that....Anyway onwards and upwards and I shall now go back to burning some wax onto some tissue to see what the tissue does...I know, it has nothing to do with painting a pretty picture, but thats where the thrill is, just watching something develop into something that doesn't mean anything.

Easter is Looming and its Eggs and Inches

2010-04-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

What can I say, I have been asked to judge the 'paint an egg' competition this Easter Sunday on our small private estate. I can only hope that it is not going to rain, as the eggs are not going to be undercover but on our little patch of trees and grassland in the centre of our estate. The children are going to be racing around afterwards looking for hidden chocolate eggs, so my guess is, the children will not be listening intently to my very carefully chosen words as I am trying to study the artistic developments on each carefully presented egg, they are going to be rushing straight off to gorge down as many eggs as possible.

Easter always brings on calories for me...I just adore chocolate, but so does my waist and the chocolate holds no grudge as far as piling on the extra inches.

Reckon I will just eat what is given to me and then frantically join the kids and run around demented to burn off the calories.
Sorted!! My life is now in order up to the day after Easter Sunday

Not sure what!

2010-03-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

Still confused.....my template on the Blog has changed from dark to spots and back to dark again and my updated blog doesn't want to be published....ummm maybe some dark force is preventing me voicing my blog confusion.

I feel its going to be one of those weeks....the diary looks clear but the brain is a bit of a muddle. Maybe it was the smell of the spray paint yesterday in the studio that has muddled the grey matter.

Hey ho!....lets try again

Reconciliation!!! Argh!!!!!

2010-03-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Every year I seem to waver on the edge of patience and madness when it comes to reconciliation. This is my annual year end and to do an end of year bank reconciliation is an absolute nightmare. Maybe its because, this year, my bank has decided to withdraw its services of giving a monthly statement and now only gives them quarterly. Not only that its not even from the start of the month to the end...It's from the middle of one month to the middle of the 3 monthly quarterly month.....why oh why do they do this.

I spent all last week trying to check all entries, going out and coming in...but somewhere along the line either my Sage accounting software has lost the plot or I have.

This made me start to think about a reconciliation of one's life in general. If we tried to balance ourselves on a regular basis, with regards our energy outgoings and incomings, it might make us appreciate ourselves a little more, and allow us to be more selective about how we organise ourselves.

We rush around trying to cope with all life's little crisis's, but sometimes never getting anywhere, like treading on water. Ask yourself, how often have you constantly rushed around treading on water and end up in the same spot each time, or disappearing up some orifice wondering where the hell to go next.

The word 'Delegate' comes to mind....The Accountant can have my computerised accounts, thats one thing out of my way.

The next important thing to sort out is ME. I am not talking about sorting out the ironing or doing the beds etc, I am thinking about how I want the real me to be in this life. All the rushing around we do, we end up forgetting who we truly are.

So that's me sorted then.......errr....well not quite!