Just after seven

The mild winter has brought blossom to the trees in central London.  Snowdrops are appearing in the garden, a reminder that we will have the joy this year of discovering exactly what our garden contains.  Ironically we are having a cold snap just as the days are starting to lengthen noticeably - and yesterday morning the birdsong at dawn moved me to write a poem for the first time in ages:

© Teresa Newham 2012

Today a thrush was singing to the dawn
just after seven.  A clear and frosty morning
as though an unseen Hand had spread a sparkling veil across the land.
I wondered: did he sing for joy
or simply to keep warm?
or was he singing to the trees -
calling the sap to rise, the Spring to struggle from its knees?
Today a thrush was singing to the dawn
just after seven.  A clear and frosty morning.
A glimpse of Heaven.

New Year, new studio

school tables provide a working surface
© Teresa Newham 2012

Finally, my studio in the new house (not so new now, of course!) is pretty much up and running.  Like everything in life, it's a work in progress, but the basics are there.  I ordered two school tables back in the Autumn and waited patiently for the call to say when they would be delivered.  As things turned out, we came home from work one evening to find them neatly stacked on the porch across our front door.  Ah well . . . at least I didn't have to take time off work to wait in for them!!

artworks on the walls!
© Teresa Newham 2012

You can just see the linocut I'm currently doing at the bottom left of the photo above.  It's the third one of the set of four I've been working on since last summer.  Which, coincidentally, is the last time I picked up a paintbrush . . . roll on Spring and the lighter days!   There are two doors (to the kitchen and the garden) and three windows/window openings to the studio, so ironically not a lot of wall space.  But there's room to hang a few artworks and there is scope for more.

dining room and kitchen beyond
© Teresa Newham 2012

It's a pleasant space to work in, with a stone floor, so any spillages won't matter.  I first discovered the joy of a spill-proof floor when I attended short courses at Central St Martins - particularly when applying very wet watercolour washes that you want to run into one another.  And being next to the kitchen is handy not just for keeping water jars replenished when painting, but also for clearing up after printmaking . . . 

jolly storage
© Teresa Newham 2012

The room also has some useful built-in cupboards painted primrose yellow (see above) with room for books and paints on top (and our toolbox).  I haven't been able to resist 'borrowing' some items from elsewhere in the house either:  the wicker drawers were originally for the bathroom, and the hamper now houses my greetings cards instead of some old documents.

I feel so grateful to have access to a space like this, and I'm keen to put it to good use.  Must get down to some art-making!!

gifts and gorillapods

Christmas stuff
© Teresa Newham 2011

Christmas, so long anticipated, is over;  and we've been using this period between Christmas and New Year to rest a bit and recharge our batteries.  Thanks to my family's enthusiastic use of my Amazon Wishlist, I've a ton of books to read:  the first one I opened was the amazing Linda McCartney - a Life in Photographs.  It's easy to forget that Linda Eastman was a respected photographer before she married Paul McCartney.  The first part of the book contains many fascinating images of famous rock stars of the '60s and '70s;  the second part is mainly the McCartney children and their father.  But they are no mere snapshots - Linda McCartney had an eye, and it shows.

gorillapod noir
© Teresa Newham 2011

The second photography-related gift I received was my crazy and clever Gorillapod.   Every budding photographer should have one!  I'm still to explore the full potential of this little bendy wonder but I'm in love with it already.  You can use it as an ordinary tripod, or to balance your camera on an uneven surface, or hang it off anything it will attach itself to, in order to get that elusive shot.   Or just put it somewhere you can't get to yourself, as in the photo below:

pots and brushes
© Teresa Newham 2011

I've also been given Photoshop Elements, and a dummies' guide to it:  so that sorts out my photography project for 2012 (and possibly beyond, depending how complicated it is to get to grips with).  And various art-related books: watercolour, printmaking, collage.  The possibilities are endless.

Finally, I'd like to wish readers of this blog a blessed and inspired 2012.  Happy New Year!

a Christmas message



Holy Family

limited edition linocut

© Teresa Newham 2011

Christmas is nearly upon us.  It's a time of preparation  -  of presents, food and decorations, certainly, but for Christians it's also the season of Advent - a time of preparation for our minds and hearts.  We are called upon to be ready: not simply to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but ready for him to be born again within us.  That can be quite a challenge at this time of year!  And in that spirit, let me wish everyone who reads this blog - whatever your beliefs - blessings and peace this Christmas.

Seasons of Mist . . .

© Teresa Newham 2011

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
      Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run . . .

                                                              -  John Keats

We've had a mild autumn;  scarlet geraniums are still blooming merrily in my porch at the end of November, and even the fading leaves have lingered longer than they might have.  If it wasn't for the evenings drawing in at tea-time you wouldn't know that December will soon be upon us.  I love the rhythm of the seasons, so the recent misty mornings, with just a touch of winter chill, have been a delight to me, as well as a sign that autumn is slowly giving way to winter.

This month's Photos on the Run celebrates this change: dramatic shots of bare branches outlined against the sky, berries in the garden, the trees of Harpenden Common shrouded in mist.  This time of year, with its shortening days, has a sense of anticipation and mystery.  Christmas is coming . . .

keeping it local

visitors enjoying the exhibition on Saturday afternoon
© Teresa Newham 2011

If it's November it must be time for the Harpenden Arts Club Annual Open Exhibition; and, sure enough, I recently found myself sorting out d-rings, labels and bubble wrap for the four entries I'd rashly listed on the application form.  I went for framed exhibits this year:  View from my Back Bedroom Window (which following our house move is now the view from somebody else's), Cardinal's Wharf, Poppy Fields and - to vary things a bit - a framed reduction linocut Venetian Masks.

View from (somebody else's) Back Bedroom Window on display at the exhibition
© Teresa Newham 2011

As usual I'd put myself down for a couple of hours stewarding - I don't get along to the club meetings so stewarding is a good way to meet other members and, of course, the general public.  I was delighted to find myself sitting alongside the talented watercolourist Jan Makower, who's work I really admire.  We had an interesting chat about selling art during the recession, and I asked her about the various classes she runs. 

Cardinal's Wharf on display
© Teresa Newham 2011

And I have to say, recession or not, the public are still buying art if it's at the right price.  A number of HAC members obviously have their own following, as they'd sold several pieces each (local scenes are very popular); and our stewarding session saw one eager buyer purchase two ceramics - it was great to see some ceramics on show alongside the paintings and there was a good variety of media on the walls, too.

unframed exhibiits in browsers, plus ceramics (Poppy Fields hanging in the background)
© Teresa Newham 2011

We were kept busy sorting out voting slips - the HAC encourage visitors to vote for their favourite three exhibits, and there were so many completed slips that the jar assigned to hold them was completely jammed, and I found myself putting them in batches held in place with elastic bands (I hope they make it into the count LOL).  The HAC allow stewards to sell their own cards during their stint, and a lady who popped in just as we were closing bought some of mine.  That was a bonus!

Venetian Masks was there, too!
© Teresa Newham 2011

early one morning

flowers and plants
© Teresa Newham 2011

Recently I had to take my car to be serviced in St Albans.  Rather than spend several hours in the 'hospitality suite' of the garage (two sofas and a vending machine) I hopped on a bus and found myself in the town centre at around 9am.  I love markets first thing in the morning before they get too crowded;  it was a lovely day, perfect for browsing and nosing about.  All the vendors take a great deal of care in the way they display their goods, and it wasn't long before I had my mobile phone out, snapping away as discreetly as I could!  which is why the theme for October's Photos on the Run is St Albans market.  Enjoy!

Work in progress I

living water
© Teresa Newham 2011

During Open Studios I started a series of linocuts based on some insights which were given to me through reading Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists.  This is well worth a look if you take a spiritual approach to your art, be it through a religious framework or not.  Having become a Catholic earlier this year I'd been wondering how to reflect this in my art (without necessarily taking religion as my theme all the time).  I found what JP2 had to say extremely inspiring, and one phrase stuck in my mind:

Who does not recall the symbols which marked the first appearance of an art both pictorial and plastic? The fish, the loaves, the shepherd: in evoking the mystery, they became almost imperceptibly the first traces of a new art.

So, the fish, the loaves, the shepherd:  and what about some of the other signs of Christ?  living water, the vine?  these symbols crop up time and time again in the Gospels.  How to depict them? how even to start?  well:  I drew my four designs (I need four for a particular layout, more of which another time) while commuting on the train.  They would be simple, strong black and white linocuts - nothing fancy!

loaves & fish I & II
© Teresa Newham 2011

I did struggle with the loaves & fish a bit, drawing them several times and dithering about whether the bread should be leavened or not (it is); the first version is shown on the left above. I found the scales too distracting so this weekend I cut them out and did the print again  (but as I won't know for sure what works with the other images until I see all four together, I'm keeping the lot for now LOL).  It was the first time I'd produced anything in my makeshift studio at the new house, and very satisfying it was too.  Even the studio itself is a work in progress!  at the moment it looks like this:

studio, October 2011
© Teresa Newham 2011

 It will be interesting to see how these linocuts evolve - and how the studio itself evolves, come to that.  But I've also had some inspiration for a linocut Christmas card, which will keep me busy for a few weeks!

Poppy Fields

Half way through July we visited the Rhythms of the World festival in Hitchin. On the way we passed the most wonderful field of poppies near Pirton, bright red against the ripening wheatfields. The following week we went that way again, and this time I had my camera ready - but - no poppies! they'd finished flowering, but the impression they made on me was so strong that I quickly snapped a few shots of the wheatfields for reference, and also some poppies on Harpenden Common which I could use as a guide. Time was short (we were about to move house) so I laid down some loose washes and left the painting alone to see what would happen.

initial washes and source material
© Teresa Newham 2011

It looked quite effective, so I pulled out some clouds with kitchen roll, painted up some grasses using the four colours I'd used for the washes (cerulean blue, ultramarine, cadmium red and raw sienna), and scattered a lot of water around the centre of the painting, dropping in some cad red as I did so.

overpainted, but not finished
© Teresa Newham 2011

Next, I touched in some shadows and the centres of the flowers with ultramarine; and when all that had dried off I spattered cad red, cerulean and ultramarine across the raw sienna wheatfield.  The finished result is hanging in my Open Studios exhibition right now.  Oh, and the theme for September's Photos on the Run is reflections in windows.  Hope you enjoy them!

Poppy Fields
© Teresa Newham 2011

Up and Running

my corner of the exhibition at Artscape: two of Helen's canvases in the foreground
and  Sue's watercolours to the right of my photos
© Teresa Newham 2011

Yes, it's time for Open Studios again! I spent last Saturday afternoon attempting to hang my bit of the Artscape exhibition with a streaming cold. It went up fairly easily thanks to my other half - and due to the fact that I bagged a bit of wall which already had most of the hooks I needed in place.  My co-exhibitors also managed their hanging with the minimum of fuss:  Sue Wookey's mystical watercolours, Hillary Taylor's mixed media and photography and Helen Griffin's striking figurative canvases were on the wall before you could shake a stick.  We even had time to put up a display of greetings cards and brochures!

early arrivals for the Open Evening enjoy a snack
in front of Helen Griffin's amazing canvases
© Teresa Newham 2011

By Friday we were still trying to work out how many people were coming to that night's Open Evening.  Quite a few, as it turned out, but there was still enough room to breathe, move around, have a drink and a nibble and admire the art.  The Deputy Town Mayor came along and mingled with various local artists, dignitaries, our friends and family members.  It wasn't long before I was putting a red dot on one of my Acer Leaf prints for a buyer, cards were selling like hot cakes, and money changed hands for a couple of items from my browser too.

Some of Hillary's photos and cards
© Teresa Newham 2011

By the end of the evening we had all made sales and/or discussed possible commissions; which is pretty good going in the current climate!  Needless to say I got some lovely comments about the painting I liked the least and none at all about my favourite, which just shows I have no idea what people really like LOL.  The Venice photos got a lot of good feedback and I was glad I'd got some Venice cards on sale.

Station Road display: Cardinal's Wharf centre left and
one of my sunflower photos far right
© Teresa Newham 2011

Yesterday we had our first Open Studio afternoon - it was great just to have an excuse to sit and do some art.  I got down to some linocutting (hurrah!), Sue worked on one of the series of small watercolour animal paintings she's currently doing, and Hillary did some seriously detailed drawing.  As usual the visitors came in fits and starts, but we were just happy to have made it through to the bit we enjoy the most - doing the art and talking to people about it.

my Swan painting as part of the Harpenden OS display
at Wesley's Cafe in the High Street
© Teresa Newham 2011

The Harpenden artists taking part in Open Studios this year also have work on show in Allders Opticians, Station Road, to promote the event - and at Wesley's Café at the Methodist Church in the High Street.  So if you're in the area, please take a look!

A huge thank you to Gurmeet, David, Chris and all the team at Artscape for their support in this venture!