Work in Progress

Skeleton leaves, gessoed and painted.

I came away from my last West Dean course with an absolute mountain of work in progress.  We were given so many new techniques to try that there just wasn't time to explore each one as much as any of us would have liked.  No matter, I've spent the weeks since happily playing with gesso, mod roc and spray plaster.
We stuck snippets of deconstructed fabrics on to board and gessoed over the top, we applied gesso directly on to the board and made marks in it, or embedded things in it, then we sprinkled stuff on the wet surface or let it dry and painted it with acrylics.

Partly sprinkled with sand and ash.

Our tutor had a great way of applying the paint in several washes with lots of sandpapering back after each one.  She also had some interesting warming up exercises, where we would be given an object and asked to sketch its essence. Weird, but fun!
I made a series of samples using crumpled up scrim, hessian with lots of threads pulled out and various plant parts.  Some are still waiting to be painted
Naturally, I soon wanted to get away from the flat surface of the board so I made a start on a vessel, using mod roc.

  I'm going to add some extra, scrunched up, bits to give it more texture and I've left some gaps in the plaster so that I can stitch into it after I take the balloon out.  It'll look good when its finished.  I just need to find a very sturdy needle.

In other news my first assignment for my present OU module was submitted yesterday and my story book went off to the printers today.  The publishers have produced files for Kindles too!

Floral Friday

My garden goes through phases of colour, at the moment it's mostly the blues and purples of irises and alliums, with spashes of pink from persicaria and dianthus.  Waiting in the wings are the deep, moody reds of rhododendrons, paeonys and poppies.

In other news, I have submitted two pieces for publication in Ink Pantry Publishing's second anthology of work by Open University Creative Writing students.  It will be several weeks before I know if either of them have been accepted!

I'm Published Again!

Those kind folks at Ink Pantry Publishing have chosen more of my writing to be featured on their web-site this week. 
Three small pieces taken fom work I did for my OU courses, A215 and A174.  They fit together quite well as they have a through-line, or common theme.
In this case a beach.   I grew up near a beach and always enjoyed it best on wild and windy days.
Take a quick look if you have a minute or two to spare.
If you missed my first story, published on their site last month, you'll find it here. 

200 Years

You've endured my OU versifying, so today some prose.  A short piece I wrote for a tutorial last year.  It seems appropriate on the day when Pride and Prejudice reaches its two hundredth anniversary.
We were asked to write a character sketch based purely on physical movements and sensory description, mine recalls a time, like Austin's, when young ladies had hours to occupy.

~~~

 Her fingers brushed the beautiful fabrics.  Flimsy, gauzy fabrics that gave subtly changing colours when laid one upon another.  Emily’s fingertips gloried in the feel of such finery.  She knelt, heart pounding, at the table on which the chiffons and silks lay, regretting, as she did so, the rough texture of her own linen skirts.  The faintly perfumed aroma, unique to fabrics of this quality, filled her senses. 

Startled by a sound outside the room, she jumped to her feet, smoothing her starched apron and feeling her cheeks burn hotly red. She shouldn’t be in this room.  This was the room where the young ladies of the house spent their free time, fashioning such tiny fripperies as were necessary in their world.

She had no free time, her world didn’t allow it.