Category Archives: Creative journeys

Grant award Arts Council England

I am delighted to announce that I have been awarded a Developing your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England.

My project ‘Investigating new ways of creating with natural and recycled materials in a historical environment’ will enable me to take time out from my normal work to focus on experimenting and challenging myself as an artist.

I am grateful to Arts Council England for supporting me to do this. I also wish to say thank you to ‘a space’ arts @aspacearts, Southampton City Council @SotonCC and Tudor House and Garden @tudorhouseandgarden for providing support and encouragement to follow my dreams.

 

Phil Gibby, Area Director, Arts Council England, South West, said:

“We’re delighted to support Jacqueline Rolls through our Developing Your Creative Practice funding programme, thanks to National Lottery players.

This investment will give Jacqueline time to focus on her creative development as a willow sculpture artist, to experiment, and to take creative risks.

At the Arts Council we believe that creativity fulfils us as individuals and helps us to better understand the world, which is why we’re so pleased to back Jaqueline in developing her creative potential.”

 

Link

As with all creations it can sometimes be difficult to complete a artwork especially when challenging yourself this happens to us all, for me creating my urban paint and pen creations  can be the most difficult of challenges. It is often easy to start but harder to finish and is very much the case when I am pushing myself in a new direction as in the case of using a new colour scheme. Back in December 2014 I started a new colour-full work, my stumbling block came when I was half way through the piece, so I put it away, sometimes its about a emotional space  as much as a physical one and this is reflected in my art work. I am sure that this must say something about my psyche as I have now completed Fred and am now happily creating in colour again.

 

 

New art work December 14

Hi I just wanted to share my latest art work that I am in the the middle of . combining different styles and challenging myself to work with colors that I don’t normally work with it is has been a good experience allowing the work to take it its own identity as it emerges in its own time. I always find that it is good to take time out and to challenge myself in different ways.
new

Freeing up your creativity- abstract freestyle experimentation 1.

For this approach I have found that it is better to work on several pieces  at a time with the theory that at least one will work out and that you can always creative new work from the ones that you are not so pleased with when you finish.

I decided to try out a similar method of working,  using a different pallet of colors for each piece and keeping a very loose theme in mind .

I decided to  use acrylic paints I  was prepared to use up quite a lot of paint  You could equally use this method with a much cheaper paint on board,or use colored sand and chalks and take a photograph, it really doesn’t matter

I also wanted to get away from being finicky and so chose to large brushes,and spoons, droppers and scrapers and a flat service – on this occasion I used the kitchen tops surface as it was near to running water  but a covered floor would do just as well.

Creative blocks and thoughts on overcoming them

Being creative by nature I have always been involved in lots of creative projects, so when the old creative block kicks it is often easy to put of dealing with this by immersing yourself in other creative activities instead.

Now I am not saying that this is always a bad thing that is of course unless you need to earn  a living totally from your art work, however one of the hardest things is to to get going again. So with that in mind I have decided to share some of the things that I have been doing to help me to get going again in the hope that it might help others who are facing the same problem .

Future posts Creating textural based art work

Abstract freestyle experimentation

For other blog entries linked to keeping diaries etc view

Freeing up your creativity diary s and on line courses

Freeing up your Creativity experimenting with abstract freestyle

Kickstarting the creative flow, taking part in Janis 3 week online course

Now Ive completed the 3 weeks  I thought that I would share how it went.

As the exercise for me was linked to freeing up the imagination and challenging  myself I decided to go with the flow.

Over the 3 weeks the tasks focused on doodling every day . Freeing up and recognizing the  things the get in the way and learning to overcome them. Challenging yourself and putting yourself into different situations by going of on a physical journey, in a way that you wouldn’t normally do and keeping a journal.

Over the first week I decided to carry a small drawing pad with me to doodle on where ever I was.This was great fun but I must say hard to keep up the impetus.

In week 2 we were set the task to go out on a physical journey . again an interesting one to take us out of our comfort zone . I rarely sketch outside , also I decided to use a pen and so having to commit to using very light lines and darker ones to reinforce.

In week 3 we were asked to keep a journal and this is where I had problems,  I am involved in so many creative practices that I found it difficult to find a way to record what I was doing. The thing to consider is whether or not to set up to different journals or try to manage with a folder with inserts or a mixture of both,  I am not sure which one i will go for .. Ive decided to sign up for Janis follow on course which is  a 30 day journaling exercise maybe by the end of it Ill have decided which I prefer.