Mar/Apr 2024

 I don't have much to show for March and April, although I've been very busy with various projects including tidying my room/artroom, as well as the painting commission and another illustration for Reflections of the Heart 2 (RotH2). I've also been trying to get my vegetable garden growing again for this year.

I managed to get most of the base colour done on the commissioned painting, just leaving the base colour for the animals still to do before getting on with more of the details e.g. grass, roof, stonework/wall, foliage, etc.

Galashiels Studio Club has now finished until later in the year, with the last couple of meetings having been on topics such as "appraisal of members' work" and the "AGM". I decided to take my 'Collection' along to the appraisal and whilst the feedback was useful in some respects, I felt disheartened at the way it was delivered; to the point where I could only see the parts that were criticised instead of the full pictures that I had been so proud of beforehand. 

The Studio Club's Annual Exhibition is to be held at Old Gala House between the 22 June - 13 July (closed on Sundays) and I hope/plan to submit several pieces and "browser items" e.g. notecards, RotH Books, etc. and, of course, the other Studio Club members will be submitting their work too.

The Little Art Hub in Channel Street, Galashiels, has also been open for some different creative exhibitions and other opportunities e.g. workshops for a range of age groups. One of these opportunities was a "Flippin' Artists" exhibition with various sketchbooks, artbooks etc. which I took part in too, with a few of my college sketchbooks. There is also an exhibition starting (I think) on the 6th May which I am considering taking part in too - if I can decide what to display. (Update: Missed the deadline so couldn't take part in that particular exhibit but hopefully there will be another opportunity in the future.)

(Note: Unfortunately, I don't seem to have photos of the Sketchbook exhibition)

In April, my mum and I went to re-visit Torwoodlee Tower (a ruin that I have painted before) as there has been forestry work done around the Tower and I have been wanting to go and get some updated photos for a new painting, trying to capture the intimidating nature of the building. The removal of the trees also revealed some arches/alcoves in the stonework below the Tower (visible from the road) that I wanted to explore - if anyone knows what they are/could have been, please leave a comment below.

Coming Soon: In May (and June), there will be lots of gardening jobs for me to do along with more creative pursuits including, but not limited to, more of the commissioned painting(s); RotH2 illustrations; attempting to restore my pride in my 'Collection' paintings (whether through adding some more details or just trying to forget the critical comments, I haven't decided yet); and a bit of a garden/creative cross-over as I would like to design and build a shelving unit for my Cloche(polytunnel) that will allow me to tidy the items I'm currently storing a little hap-hazard-ly in there. I will also need to prepare for the Studio Club Exhibition... 

Jan/Feb 2024

 Well, I have FINALLY finished the Braemar painting for my 'collection'! I am really proud of this one and I love the slightly magical atmosphere created with details that feel like a fairy path is going through the trees on the left and the "wishing-well" vibes from the tower on the right. 

"A Fairytale in Braemar"
Clunie Water, Braemar
50cm x 60cm

I also finished the 3-panel illustrations for the RotH2 poem "Bryn Bellan", and the illustrations for the next poem "The Soldier in the Garden", which is about the Easter-story and the Garden of Gethsemane. I found it a very thought provoking perspective on the story. I have 3 out of the remaining 6 poems left to illustrate and then section covers and title pages that need borders - it's getting so close to being finished!

Over the past few weeks, I've taken the first of the commissioned paintings from the "sketched/drawn" phase to the "starting to add colour" phase, which is going well so far. I've done the sky and I've started adding in the trees - which is time-consuming but I know, once finished, the overall effect will be worth it. 

I've also been going to the Galashiels Studio Club's weekly meetings which have been very interesting and informative - with talks on various topics including different painting techniques and mount-cutting. I'm looking forward to the next meeting which will be talking more about the upcoming exhibition and possible artworks involved.

Creative Projects of 2023... and beyond?

Haha, okay... I'm gonna level with you - uhh... Actually, first of all, I think I should talk about some 'in-the-scheme-of-things, minor' issues that I'm sure everyone living with (or at least close to) family, will be able to relate to...

I, personally, struggle with mental health and the lower motivation-levels that often accompany those struggles; so when I actually have the motivation, physical & mental energy, and time to do a task or project, I can usually get quite far through said task and therefore reduce the ever-growing number of things on my "To-Do" list... However, and here is the hopefully-relatable part, most of those times when I am in a somewhat-productive state of mind, other people - namely family members - reveal tasks that require my immediate attention so that they can get on with their day(s); leaving them with completed tasks and me with little to no productive energy remaining for my tasks. Anyone relating yet? Also I'm an introvert who requires time alone to recharge, even if family-members are the only people around me, and call me unsociable for trying to take an evening for myself to recharge.

So, I guess now might be a good time to reveal that I have ALMOST finished the "Braemar" painting that, in January 2023, I had hoped I would finish by the end of February. Needless to say the 3 other paintings I had hoped to complete for my "collection" haven't even been started yet. 

Braemar Painting, in progress
Title TBD

I do, however, have the reference images for the 2 commissioned paintings and the canvases have been agreed on, so I can start those when I'm ready - it's a step in the right direction, I suppose. Update: I have the drawing part of the first painting done and approved, so next is the colour stage/phase - getting there!

I have also done the illustrations for another poem and the cover, for the second book of poetry - only 8 more poems to illustrate (or 7 1/3, as I have drawn 2/3 panels for one of the other poems - little victories, right?) Update: I have drawn and coloured all 3 panels, so they just need possible details then fine-lined, before scanning in to the computer to overlay the text and send off for approval. So far, I've been referring to the book as "Reflections of the Heart 2" (RotH2) but we'll have to wait and see if that title sticks.

Illustration for
"Walking the Labyrinth"

 

RotH2 Cover Illustration

This past year (2023), I was also commissioned to make several items of jewellery - which was nice for me, to be able to create something like that for a change - as well as a few jewellery repairs, where a necklace needed re-threaded, for example.

A few projects that I did manage to do, for myself, include a fold-away table (made using two thin-ish pallet frames, some spare wood planks, and old fire-guard grills) for my bottle-lined polytunnel - side note: I'm really into upcycling!; and some shell decorations for my summer version of an "Easter-tree". 

I've also been enjoying baking a variety of bread-type items such as cinnamon rolls, hot-crossed- & not-crossed- buns, and various breads and rolls. I also discovered a recipe for "Condensed-milk Snowball cookies" which I tweaked a little and, honestly, they are happiness in biscuit form - sweet, moist, fluffy... haha my mouth is watering just trying to describe them and I'll need to make them or I won't be able to think of anything else until I do - but basically super delicious and super easy to make! 

Another project I was involved with again this year was the "Caddonfoot Parish Church & Community Calendar", which had me compiling, selecting, editing (a little) and inserting photographs, pre-printing; and then physically checking, sorting, counting and packaging the printed Calendars, ready for distribution - which I also helped with. An overall exhausting process but it does mean that around 900 households see some of my photographs, every year. However, 2023 may have been the last year we produce a Calendar on such a large scale, as Caddonfoot Parish Church may be closing in 2024.

I'm sure previous readers will be aware that I also do illustrations for both the Church/Parish Christmas card and the 'cover' of our annual family-newsletter, which are each challenging and fun in their own ways. I was also commissioned to create a "festive turtle" postcard and a winter version of one of the commissioned paintings for a Christmas greetings card.

2023 was the 4th year that I've been creating Bullet Journal spreads for myself, which was a great creative outlet and started as a great way to keep myself organised, but with more and more creative (and non-creative) projects needing my attention, I only managed to get a few ready to use on time and have decided to take a break from journaling to try to get other projects off my to-do lists. Here are some of my favourite spreads from 2023:

This coming year (2024), I will be working on the 2 commissioned paintings, more RotH2 illustrations, as well as hopefully finishing the Braemar painting for my collection and, who knows, maybe I'll even finally get a website set up! I would also love to update this blog more regularly - I might start with monthly updates and see how long I manage to stick to that. 

I had a "paper-making" session with my mum and sisters as part of my birthday celebrations this year (mid-January) and it was fun to share the experience with them.

I also joined the Galashiels Studio Club at the beginning of January and attend their weekly meetings on Thursdays from 19:15 (19:30 start) to around 21:00, which so far have been very interesting and enjoyable to be part of. I think it's great being able to hear from local artists about their styles and processes. I would highly recommend any locals (within travelling distance of Galashiels) come along.

If you have any questions or comments about my 2023/24 projects, please leave a comment below and I will do my best to respond asap...

Whistle-Stop List of Projects 2020-2022 incl.

 Wow! What a crazy few years it's been! I've been wanting to do a catch-up post for the "Top 24" projects I did in 2020, since December 2020... Better late than never?

So, I finally managed to make time to write the post and now have 3 years-worth of projects, resulting in a much-reduced list; temporarily at least. I also decided to list "titles", maybe with some short descriptions instead of a mini how-to for each project. However, if anyone is interested, I may do some more in-depth posts in the future. Now, without further ado...

2020 Projects:

Self-Portrait - I think this is the one exception to my previous comment about short descriptions as I have already written and posted about this project, so if you want to know more about my first "real" (as in "I'm actually happy with it") self-portrait then please check out the link below:

https://catherinebirdart.blogspot.com/2020/01/150th-post-self-analysis.html

Easter Wreath - Made using cardboard, gummed paper tape, polystyrene eggs, marbling ink, artificial craft flowers, and ribbon.

Poppy spoon & stones - I decided to paint these so that we had some suitable Remembrance 'decorations'. The stones/rocks were from a local burn. The spoon became available for creative use after one of the "NHS: Clap for our Heroes" Thursday evenings when, while it was being used to make noise with a pan/pot, the spoon broke into two pieces. Since it was unusable for culinary purposes, I was allowed to re-assemble and then paint it - another win for upcycling!

Brooklyn Art Library: The Sketchbook Project - I was sent this project as a gift and I really valued the experience. It took me a while to figure out which theme I wanted to use, which ideas I wanted to focus on, etc. but I ended up expanding on the ideas I looked at for my Final Major Project (FMP) in College - Environmental Identity - how places you go/spend time/create memories at, can affect the person you are/become. I focused on the 'stories' a place can hold, whether personal to me or centuries old. I was really proud of this project when I completed it and if you are interested in seeing it in more detail, it has been digitized and can be viewed at:

Once Upon A Time - The Sketchbook Project

Harvest Wreath - Made using the same technique for the 'base' as the Easter Wreath but after the gummed paper dried, I "dry-brushed" some white paint over the whole thing to give that sort of of weathered/distressed look, then wrapped hessian 'ribbon' around it as well as making the bow. Then I decorated the wreath with Teasel, Honesty, Beechnuts and leaves, acorns, and artificial craft berries.

Jewellery Design Challenges - (left to right) Challenge 1: A 2D sketch of a ring; Challenge 2: A ring design using the first emotion we felt (please leave a comment if you'd like to guess the emotion!); Challenge 4: create a colour rendering of a cabochon ring... (Challenge 3 was creating an "Inspo Board" for things that inspire us - I'm STILL working on mine...)

Challenge 7: Create your own metal...

 

Cookie Doodle Advent Calendar (colouring page) - This was a really fun one for me as I just doodled a whole load of "cookie" shapes with a few sprinkles etc in between them. (Expanding on one of my December BUJO spreads for 2020 - I could do a 'Gallery' sort of post for each of my bullet journals so far; if anyone is interested, please leave a comment.)

Pyrography Decorations - For our family Christmas tree in 2020 we had a forest/woodland sort of theme, so I made some ornaments using wood-slices and my pyrography tool with some wildlife illustrations of mine as the designs.

 

 

Jewellery repair - Every now and then, I'm asked by some locals (usually members of the craft group or church) to repair or re-string some of their jewellery. This necklace was one such item which had needed re-strung.

2021 Projects:

Bleached Pinecone Place-card Holders - These pinecones were baked, bleached and baked again before being glue-gunned to pieces of craft corks (which were then painted to cover the set glue). The place-cards then balance on some of the 'prongs' of each pinecone.

Pyrography - These were craft wood slices/discs which I decorated and then made into keyrings and pendants as gifts.

 

Watercolour art for (Creative) Bullet Journal - Starting to get the hang of using watercolours with results I am happy with. I'm particularly pleased with the techniques/effects I achieved with the landscape painting and the "hatching turtles" painting/illustration.

Highland Cow Diptych Painting (Commission) - This is definitely the largest work I have done so far, which was itself a challenge and a great experience. The sheer size of the canvases enabled me to show details that otherwise would have been too small for me to include - for example, the tiny farm-vehicle tracks on the far side of the river (near the middle left of the right-hand canvas). I may do a follow-up post which shows some of these details up close - please leave a comment if you'd be interested.

                                  "A View From Thornylee: Morag's Meadow" (-Family Friends")                                            Each canvas 32"x40" (81.3cm x 101.6cm)

Art2Life Creative Breadcrumbs Challenge - This was another really great experience which allows you to kind of focus yourself and your work by asking questions, the answers to which really help give yourself (creative) direction - something I'm sure we all need every now and then. If anyone is interested in knowing more about A2L CBC and some of the questions they ask, then please leave a comment below and I will try to do a more focused post.

Day 2: Choice

Day 1: Experimentation

Doorstep Arrangements - Every year I try to do seasonal arrangements in the milk churn we have for our front doorstep. I usually try to match the theme of the Christmas arrangement  for our doorstep to that of our Christmas tree or just use wintery/frosty decorations such as these white/silver/frosted pinecones, berries, fruit, etc. that come in some supermarket flower bouquets...

Small-Bottle Advent Calendar (Commission) - A really good friend of mine commissioned me to make this bottle advent calendar for her mum, using a large (slightly old-fashioned style) house as the overall design. This advent calendar has 26 doors - one for each day up to and including the 25th, plus a bonus door (where the two large stars are painted) for when family/friends/seasonal preparations get too much (haha). There are 12 standard "doors" on each half (front/back) of the house as well as a large "door" where the double/main doors are painted in the design. It was fun coming up with the design for each window/door as they almost all have slightly different scenes within them e.g. someone hanging stockings, or  pets looking out the window, etc. Perhaps I should mention that I had only just assembled the basic structure before Storm Arwen hit and we had no power for almost 4 days - I ended up painting most of it by firelight or with a headtorch on because the paint took longer to dry without central heating and the daylight hours were pretty short anyway. Definitely a memorable experience! Still, I am very happy with how it turned out; and so grateful for the opportunity and experience!

Christmas card designs - Church and Home - This time the wintery view of Caddonfoot Church is from the back of the church... and, for our family Christmas card design, Winnie the Pooh & Friends are enjoying a hot drink while Tigger brings the cookie basket...

Jewellery - Necklace repair & new matching earrings - This necklace was another one that I was asked to change the type of fastening for, which required me to re-string it, resulting in six beads left over which I turned into a new pair of earrings to (sort of) match the necklace.

       

2022 Projects:

Library Watercolour - I decided to use slightly reddish-browns to create a sepia-style image, which I then used for my reading tracker in my bullet journal.

Berwick/Cocklawburn Beach: Limekilns Painting - I wanted to start building a "collection" of paintings that I hope to be able to exhibit and sell, sometime soon. This view is the first in this "collection". It's at/near a beach that my family and I like to visit, called Cocklawburn Beach, which is near Berwick-Upon-Tweed. I have been gradually working on the techniques I use for the more detailed effects, such as grass, rocks and brickwork. I'm pleased with the light and depth that I managed to achieve in this painting, and I am looking forward to working on the next one.

"Limekilns, Cocklawburn Beach"
50cm x 60cm

Linn of Dee Painting - This is the second painting for my "collection" and is a view from another family trip, this one was up at the Linn of Dee (relatively near Braemar) where my younger sister had previously done part of her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award - Qualifying Expedition.

These paintings, so far, seem to involve a fair amount of procrastination, where I think 'this just isn't working - how am I going to make it work? I can't do this - why did I even choose to do art?!'... And then a month or so later, I go back to it to have another go and when I get past the part I was struggling with, I think 'it's working! I figured it out! I can do this! This feeling is why I chose to do art!!' ... Any fellow artists reading this, I'm sure will have experienced a similar inner monologue at some point or (maybe several) others. 

The part of this painting I struggled with was getting the river (and level-ish rocks in the foreground) to look like they are simultaneously standing out and shrinking back - I guess that's perspective, which is always quite tricky to get just right. I also struggled to make the cascading water look soft/smooth and frothy (rather than a fairly solid white mass) but it actually became one of my favourite parts of this painting. I'm not gonna lie - I totally did a little "Happy Dance" when I got the water looking how I wanted!

"Linn of Dee, October"
40cm x 50cm

Platinum Jubilee Cross-stitch - This was a group project which was designed and stitched by members of Caddon Crafters (which meets on the 1st + 3rd Mondays each month at 13:00 in the Clovenfords Hotel, if any of you are locals).

Platinum Jubilee Village Fair  -  I had a stall at the Clovenfords Village Fair, this year held on June 4th 2022 (first Fair since COVID) and since it was in celebration of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I decided to do some 'festive' items such as these upcycled cork 'soldiers' and these pyrographed Crown keyrings.

 

Luing Sunset Painting - Another place with more family connections, this little painting was a present for a family member.

Explorers Against Extinction: Sketch for Survival - I came across this competition, which raises money towards helping endangered species and habitats, and decided to enter both categories. Below are my entries for the "Wildlife" and the "Wild Spaces" categories - I used drawing ink for the image of the Malay Tapir; and Inktense pencils for the Coral Reef. My coral reef painting made it to stage 2 of the judging and ended up in the "Highly Commended" section for runners up...

If you are interested in this charity or would like to learn more about the competition, please follow the links below...

2022 Competition Results: Explorers Against Extinction Sketch For Survival 2022 Results

Explorers Against Extinction website: Explorers Against Extinction Homepage

Doorstep Arrangements -  This year's Autumnal arrangement consisted of Teasel and Honesty, along with some dried Eucalyptus, painted Oak leaves and feathery grasses which were left behind after a wedding at Caddonfoot Church last year. I also used some corn husks and pinecones to make "sweetcorn" for the collection of items around the base of the churn.

Our Christmas tree theme this year was "Food & Drink", which involved lots of candy cane, gingerbread and Christmas pudding decorations for the tree (with a few cinnamon sticks and citrus slices thrown in for good measure), and I used all the apples, pears and berries we have, (I even used some "wheat" type stuff we had) for the Christmassy doorstep arrangement, which I think turned out really well.

Autumn

Christmas - Evening

Christmas - Daylight

Harvest Wreath - This was the same 'base' as last year's but since the Beech leaves died-off, I replaced them with (dried) wild grasses which I think gave it a much more delicate appearance.

Christmas card designs - Church and Home - Another year, another wintery painting of Caddonfoot Church... and, of course, Winnie the Pooh & Friends partaking in festive activities - this year: delivering gifts.

I'm also working on the third painting for my "collection", which is a view in Braemar (below is the reference photo I'm using) - I hope to have it finished before the end of February but we shall see how distracted I get/how much I procrastinate...

In 2023, I plan to complete at least another three paintings for my "collection" and I hope to complete a couple of commissioned paintings too, though I haven't got enough information or any reference photos to even start either of the commissions yet - it's on my (ever-growing) "To Do" list!

If any of you have any suggestions for potential paintings or other projects; questions about any of the projects I've mentioned, or requests for more detailed posts, then please leave a comment below...