... and you will paint for a Year and a Day

Aqua After Hours, 2013, watercolour.

For more than a year I've been working on a design which is going to be applied in specialist vinyl to the night shutters of a hairdressing salon, Aqua, in South London. Parise, the owner, asked me to create a trompe l'oeil painting which showed the interior of the salon, accurate in perspective to the viewer on the street, but in an imaginary magical midnight scene where everyone is getting ready for a fairy tale masked ball. Together we spent a lot of time finding pictures of hairstyles, clothing and references, and I spent even longer trying to get a drawing we were both happy with before I started the painting. She has recently refurbished the salon with very beautiful lighting, and a fabulous London brick wall, and she wanted to keep enough of the real interior to catch the eye of passers by, but make them double take at all the crazy goings on.

I've had to live with the painting around my studio this year, turning it to the wall for short periods to forget what I've already done and then sneaking up on it with a fresh eye to check it's not full of awful mistakes! I've been checking the colours and tones, making sure the light sources are all fairly believable, and generally procrastinating about finishing it. I've become a fan of listening to audio books while I paint, and have caught up with quite a pile of reading. Parise has been brilliant to work with, and has a particularly keen eye. Those little things I knew were wrong but hoped I might get away with were gently noticed and pointed out! All to the good though, and now it's finally finished.

We are in the process of organising the transfer of the design to the shutters, and will be able to post a new photo of the finished shutters before too long.

Eddystone Press - Taliesin

Taliesin, paperback 28pp, Eddystone Press 2013.

 

There seems to be a tradition in small press publishing to call your press after the name of the road in which you live, or a tree which grows in your garden. I live in a road that is named after a famous lighthouse situated off Plymouth in the English channel. I’ve always liked lighthouses and it was part of the reason I liked the house. It seemed a good idea, when trying to think of a name to publish small books under, to use Eddystone Press.

Taliesin was created as a one-off artist's book when I was at Camberwell College of Art many years ago. It was small, fragile, illegible and unique! Not the sort of thing you'd image would reproduce well but, at the time, colour xerox machines had just become widely available. I was able to raise the money to have the whole book copied flat onto A3 sheets. I spent several long nights cutting and assembling the pages together and I silkscreened a copyright page in gold ink on blue paper tissue to insert at the back. I made 100 copies, and even had an ISBN assigned to it. I sold them all within a few weeks. I have one sitting on my shelf now, and it still looks good after all this time, although the blue tissue endpapers have faded a little. Colour Xerox was a much more lightfast process than modern inkjet printing.

Taliesin was a 6th century Welsh bard. He was said to have lived in the court of King Arthur, and the legend of his magical birth was written down in the 16th century by Elis Gruffydd, after many generations of oral storytelling. This text came from a lovely vinyl LP called Mother that I listened to often, by Gilli Smyth, a performance poet and a founder and singer with the band Gong. I played it over and over, writing the story down a line at a time. I sent her a copy of the limited edition and received a very nice letter in return all the way from Australia. As a result of this contact I ended up becoming friends with Rob, who ran their merchandising and publicity in the UK. In 1989 I helped run their merchandise stall at Glastonbury Festival, which was a lot of fun! I even got a mention on a later LP sleeve.

I had been working in a very abstract way until I made this book, making collages of randomly found objects. I was a fan of Joseph Cornell, and made many little assemblages in cigar boxes. Although I could draw well in a photorealistic way, I didn't like the way I drew at all. It was figurative and literal, and I had no idea how to take the leap to make it look interesting and characterful. These drawings are my first attempts to introduce abstract shapes into the images alongside human figures. The faces are heavily influenced by a beautiful Picasso drawing I saw in a museum in Paris. I was so taken with it that I drew it on the spot, and made my own versions of it over and over. It has the high brow, straight, thin nose and small mouth of some Renaissance sculptures, but knowing now how influenced Picasso was by African and Neolithic art I can see that it appealed to me on many levels, and held references to much older conventions of human representation.

To make it into a modern paperback that fits the format of the available options for self-publishing I've placed all the double page spreads on the right hand side, and transcribed the text (which was hand written) on the left. It's typeset in P22 Koch Nueland, a digital font created from the work of the German typographic artist Rudolf Koch whose Book of Signs was also a source of inspiration.

 

Taliesin, artist's book, 1990.

I've always really loved this little book. It has such a spirit of the time I made it, and it was the first time I'd paginated a text, and worked through all the problems of matching illustrations to the storytelling, and keeping the pace alive. These are still problems I deal with in every story I illustrate, but it was here that I first attempted it. For Eddystone Press it's a good place to start: at the beginning of my adventure with books.

If you like, you can order a copy here for £6.99

Print Swap

Scary Stories, Linoprint, h21cm x w29.7cm, 2013

Today I finished the linoprint I started at Holland House on the SCWBI retreat. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, after two attempts at the yellow plate! On the first attempt I made the mistake of thinking that the yellow was the lightest colour, not realising that, of course, the yellow is actually darker in tone than the white paper. It was all wrong, so I had to redo it. The second time around I left the white paper to do the brightest part of the image, fitting the yellow in as a glow between the brightest parts and the darkest shadows. Now it's finished I think I might buy some more of the water based printing inks and do some more. If you like it you can buy one in my ETSY shop.

I am very fortunate as I was able to swap a print with Gerry Turley, who was at the retreat, for one of his fantastic screenprints of a curled up fox. We now have our own little curled up 'fox' (Franki the Shetland Sheepdog) so the print means a great deal to me. You can see more of Gerry's work HERE.

 Spot the difference!

Picture Book retreat at Holland House

Last weekend I was very lucky to be away on the SCBWI Picture Book Writer's and Illustrator's retreat at Holland House, Cropthorne, nr Evensham. I drove Elsie the Morris Minor van 110 miles there and we had a lovely journey, once we got out of London! I did get lost at the other end, but that was my own fault for relying on technology instead of a good old-fashioned Map book. I also forgot to turn off the heater, which involves turning a small brass tap on the cylinder head, so it was rather like driving a wood-burner, but that's all part of the fun of the Morris.

Helen Stephens and Gerry Turley were speaking about their work, and we all really enjoyed reading our favourite books, and talking about the industry with editors from Hodder and Egmont.

It was great to actually spend some time thinking about all my random ideas, and deciding which ones might be suitable for the current market, and which ones are too away with the fairies! I spent an hour or so before I left adding post-it notes in all my sketchbooks so I could find the scattered remnants of rough drawings and texts for my ideas. On Saturday afternoon I managed to pull together one set of strands from these scattered fragments into a working storyboard for a picture book. It still needs a bit more work but I hope I will soon have it ready to send out on the hunt for a publisher.

View into the Rose Garden 

 I met lots of new people, and it was very good to be reminded that although we all spend our working time alone, with only the biscuit tin, fridge, radio and optional dog for company, there are lots of us out there all working away and trying to solve similar problems in our own individual ways. Getting together once in a while is very good for the soul.

 

Informal portfolio review on Sunday evening

 Helen's books and Gerry's prints for sale

Gerry ran a lino cut workshop on Saturday and Sunday and after a bit of dithering I remembered an image I'd had in the back of my head for months, of a daddy penguin making hand-shadows for his children at bedtime. It suited black and white well, so I decided to have a go at that. I'm rather pleased with how it came out, but I need to cut another block to add some yellow for the lamp light. When it's finished I'll print a small edition and put them in the shop for sale.

 When Bedtime Goes Wrong, Lino cut, 2013

Princess Dolly in paperback-gift-box excitement!

My children's book Princess Dolly & the Secret Locket has been published in paperback form as part of a small compendium of books by Little Tiger Press. The other books in the set are Fairy Friends, The Princess' Secret Letters, Rosie's Special Surprise and At the End of the Rainbow. This is all very exciting! You can order a copy here...

My Pretty Bag of Books, published Little Tiger Press

Whippet Toy Dog

 

I've been making a new dog pattern this month. I've wanted to make a whippet for a while but have been held back while looking for the right kind of fur. They are so sleek and smooth that even the shorter pile mohair is too tufty for them. I found this white velboa which has a woven backing and it's perfect. It takes colour well from fabric pens too so it's very suitable for the hand-drawn markings. The spots on the body are set-in by hand and cut from the 3mm mohair, shown here on the fawn dog in progress at the back. He has no nose at the moment (cue well known dog joke). The eye patches and ears are coloured with fabric pens. I'm quite pleased with how the ears came out. They need to be folded back against the head in a sleek streamlined way.

Whippet toy dogs, (fawn shown in progress).

I've had to change a few components too since making the earlier dogs. The quality of the plastic toy joints has gone downhill dramatically. I have heard that the tsunami in Japan destroyed the businesses which produced them and whole factories and production lines just disappeared. The joints I managed to source did not have washers, and had to be cleaned up and trimmed by hand with a craft knife as they were poorly cast. I've decided to swap to using the old fashioned cotter pin joints from now on. These are good as they are readily available in a wide range of sizes. I've had a similar problem with the black plastic eyes, so have changed those for the black glass eyes with metal loops on the back. These are better for creating expressions as you can recess the eyes by pulling the threads and securing them at the back of the head.
 

Whippet parts in progress showing set-in body patches.

Finished patch with brindle markings.

It's quite time-consuming sewing the smaller pieces in by hand, but impossible to do such fiddly things on a machine. I use my old Bernina record machine which is fantastic and it copes with most intricate work, but some pieces just have to be eased in stitch by stitch.

The collar is made of a dark red wool felt, with an old silver buckle which has been lurking in my button tin for years. I've embroidered gold thread around the edges by hand. I might add some more decoration before it's finished.

I'm planning on making the fawn dog brindled when I can pluck up the courage to set about him with the fabric pens. He also needs a nose and a decorative collar. These two have different tail positions. The white dog's tail is tucked between his legs while the brindle's is lifted a little. Whippets generally tuck their tails in, but I think the pattern looks better if it's held out a bit.

Update: I finished the fawn brindled dog. I gave him a silver and green collar with mother of pearl button.

Blythe Hill Festival - this weekend

Hi, well we've spent a year with no electricity (!) which has been frustrating and fun in equal measure. Son has learned not to take it for granted, which is a good lesson in life. I keep stepping over imaginary extension leads and looking like I've lost my mind. But things are now fully repaired and working... sewing machines, computers woo hoo! If you need an electrician I can wholeheartedly recommend Tim Guthrie in Brockley.

So, I am taking my stall to Blythe Hill Festival this weekend Sat 7th July 11-4pm. Do come along, it's a lovely festival on a very high hill in South London with incredible views. Now we have the 'overground' tube line there's no excuse. And there will be donkeys.

The Little Toy Dogs are going along nicely and can be found at www.littletoydog.co.uk
I've just added some felt bowls and as soon as this weekend is over I'll make some coats and beds. I've been making them to order and never getting any spare for the shop so I've had to do two things: just say that I'm making them to order in the shop, and put the price up!

Three of us had a really successful Artists' Open House in May at my friend Kath's house on Lowther Hill. She is a jeweller, and her folksy shop is HERE...  Sarah McEvoy makes cards, prints, bags and more and you can find her at Under The Eaves.

Hope to see you at the weekend, and back on the blog shortly. We've got tickets to Tindersticks on 15th July at Somerset House so hopefully some Drawing in the Dark to come soon as well.

Toy Dachshund

Toy Dachshund, a photo by Alice Wood on Flickr.

I've managed to make up the Dachshund pattern. I elongated the body, shortened and widened the legs and made the ears a different shape. This one is black with brown details, but I'm going to make one up in plain brown too. I just need to order some nice fur. I'm a bit low on all materials actually and the fur is rather expensive. Materials cost per dog is high and the making time is fairly lengthy because it's quite involved with a fair bit of hand sewing. I think I will go for Spaniels next, and find some nice fur for Retrievers and Labradors.

and Treasure in the Post!

I was sitting here procrastinating when I heard the letter box go. Hooray, another distraction! Hoping for something better than bills or a pizza leaflet I skipped downstairs. And hit the jackpot. A book has been delivered, and better still, I am in it! It is the very lovely, touching and beautiful creation of Ruth Phillips, titled Cherries From Chauvet's Orchard. It is memoir that tells the story of the birth of Postcard from Provence, Ruth and her husband Julian's life in France, the life of his paintings after they leave the studio and their journey towards making a family.

Back in February 2005 Julian began a project to paint one small postcard-sized picture each day, and to post it onto a blog. The paintings were all for sale. It was such an extraordinarily patient, dogged, committed and serious thing to do. I had known Ruth for some years and wished them both well in their new life and home. I watched the paintings accumulate, they were very good. They cost $100 US dollars. They were tantalisingly affordable to someone like me and I so wanted to support them in what they were doing. I agonised over the first twenty or so paintings. I loved the colour in one, or the subject of another, the green cooking apple and the jar of purple plums or the red pomegranate? I bought Apple and Green Bowl.

As the months went on I found excuses to buy one more, and then another, and one 'for my husband' and 'one for my son'. You can see where this is going. By January 2007 I had bought four paintings. I spent such happy times looking at the new paintings as they appeared, and creating a fantasy shopping list in my mind of all the ones I was planning to buy when I had a little money spare again.


Then disaster struck. The New York Times ran a piece on Julian and literally overnight he sold every postcard on the blog. He sold other paintings too on his main website. I don't really mean it was a disaster of course, it was the best possible thing that could have happened, but my little secret treasures were suddenly in the world's eye.

After that article each painting sold instantly, often many times over, as soon as it was posted online. Fastest finger was the way to go. I tried for a few but wasn't quick or lucky enough. At last Julian decided to sell the paintings by auction. A very sensible and fair way to do things. He would receive a better price for his work and, the holy grail of artists, perhaps make a living from them.

As a last treat I bid on the first one to go to auction, and won it. Apple half on a gold rimmed saucer. It cost more than twice the price of the others, but I suspected it might be my last chance to buy.

I keep the paintings in my studio, unframed. I like their edges, the tactile quality of the little boards. I pick them up to look at, and move them around. They are like little characters with stories. They have a fixed date in time, and record the light and atmosphere observed on that day. They are lovely.

When Ruth began her book she wrote to everyone who had bought paintings and asked them to tell her how they fitted into our lives. I wrote back and sent her a photo of my studio where they are propped on bookshelves. So now I am in the book. This is magical, and I love the way these paintings create narratives, and histories. They draw people in with a sense of belonging, and they reassure me that choosing a creative life, with all its attendant difficulties, can be totally worth it and ultimately rewarding.

A New Woofer

I've finished a new dog. He's a sort of tufty black critter with a white bib. I think he's probably of mixed heritage! Have been trying out new ear positions. It's amazing how they all come out different from exactly the same pieces of pattern. It all depends on the way the mohair falls, or sticks up! Dachshund pattern is finished with one black and brown dog cut out and ready to sew. I hope to have one ready very soon.

Little Toy Dog Company

I've been making some little toy dogs recently, and have set up a new shop at Folksy for them. I'm starting out with the Jack Russell terrier, a Cheeky Brown Terrier, a Dalmation and a Black Collie dog with a white bib. The pattern is my own design and I'm thinking I might make an alteration so I can make sausage dogs too!


They are all fully poseable with articulating joints on all legs. The fabrics are various kinds of mohair which is often used to make posh teddy bears. Their little collars are removable too. I think I might make some little dog beds and dog coats...

Kate Stables Union Chapel 2011

This afternoon we went to the Union Chapel in Islington where my friend Kate Stables was playing with her band This Is The Kit. I love her music and she has a lovely voice. She is very talented. You can listen to her on their myspace page. Daylight Music happens every Saturday 12-2pm at the Union Chapel and it's free. You can take children as well, which is perfect! We saw three bands play today. I did a few drawings but nothing too hot. Wish I could have drawn the rest of the band but I was too slow!

Kate Stables, drawing without looking (at the paper). 2011

Drummer, The 99 Call, Union Chapel 2011.

A short story

A short story
Originally uploaded by Alice Wood

Found this in my sketchbook. I'd forgotten about it. Hopefully I'll find something else really useful in a bit, like a complete 32 page picture book all ready to go...

A Friend in Need pt4

A Friend in Need pt4
Originally uploaded by Alice Wood

Parts 1 and 2 of this story were published in Horse + Pony magazine before it ended publication with the August issue. Sue has kindly allowed me to post the rest of the story along with the final two illustrations...

Part Four

Jess got up slowly. She was drenched, her pony had disappeared into the storm and she couldn’t see Mrs Feather anywhere. She began to walk, hoping that Otter would have stopped to graze, but as she went on and on, there was no sign of him. The rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun, but even though Jess could now see where she was going, she still couldn’t see anybody else around. They had all disappeared and she had no idea where she was.

Gemma was feeling quite pleased with herself, because she had managed to stay on her pony during the storm. The new boots had helped, so did the sticky seat jodhpurs she’d recently bought. When the rain had hit them, Pip had turned so suddenly that without all these extra aids, and a good firm grip on the neckstrap, she would have been off, and there was no-one to help her get back on. She was not, however, looking forward to going back and facing her parents and Mrs Feather. She knew she would get the most awful telling-off and no doubt a punishment of some kind. It would probably be no riding, although she hoped that wouldn’t last for long, especially as the doctor had said how much good it was doing her. She had just turned towards home, when her racing thoughts were interrupted by a brown pony cantering towards her.
“Otter!” she cried, recognising the pony whose stable was next to Pip’s. Pip recognised him too and neighed a welcome. Otter was relieved to find a friend and as he nuzzled Pip, Gemma was able to reach his reins and catch him. “Did Jess ride you?” Gemma wondered. “Where is she now then?” She decided to follow Otter’s backtrail in the hope of meeting up with Jess. “I hope she hasn’t hurt herself coming off,” Gemma said out loud. “I shall never forgive myself if she has…”

Jess was never more relieved than when she caught sight of the two ponies heading her way, Gemma beaming with delight at finding her friend unhurt. They decided it would be better to go straight back to the stables than to search the moor for Mrs Feather. She could have been anywhere, both of them were wet through and the ponies had had enough.

As they rode back, Gemma & Jess talked. Jess understood that Gemma had gone on the spur of the moment, and didn’t feel upset.
“Just think of what you could do,” she said to Gemma. “Look at Lee Pearson –he’s won about ten gold medals at the Paralympic dressage.”
“When I get older I might be able to have an assistance dog too, then I could really be independent,” said Gemma, dreaming of a bright future.
Gemma grew quieter as they neared the stables; she was right to be apprehensive. Her parents were furious with her for disappearing like that and there was a huge row as they told her exactly what they thought of her. Mrs Feather was tight lipped, she had been through a lot that afternoon, and felt absolutely worn out.

Jess left them to it, and went to rub down the ponies and give them some hay, then she made everyone a cup of tea, hoping that by now the atmosphere had calmed down a bit. Gemma’s mum was just winding down, but at the sight of Jess’ bedraggled hair, she started off again.
“And look at poor Jess!” she shouted. “Bad enough that you worried us sick, but Jess had to go out in that awful storm to rescue you.” Jess couldn’t help herself, she started to laugh. “I don’t see what’s so funny…” Gemma’s mum began to say, but then Gemma caught the giggles too and they were both off.
“I’m sorry, Mrs Morgan,” Jess said, when she could speak again, “but you know, you have got it the wrong way round. It was Gemma who rescued me!”
“So you see, Mum, I can do things on my own,” said Gemma. “only, it would be more fun if Jess could come with me next time.”
“Huh!” snorted Mrs Feather, sounding just like one of her horses. “Jess will have to have some lunge lessons first. Coming off like that when your pony shied – you need to work on improving your seat!”
Jess and Gemma smiled. Riding lessons, a good friend to ride with, and big dreams for the future – they both felt that they had everything they wanted.

Pegdolls

I've been busy making lots of pegdolls for the school Christmas Fair. Then it snowed, the school closed, and the fair has been postponed until next week. Hmm... maybe there's time to make something else as well. Or perhaps I'd better finish the last Horse + Pony that's sitting half finished on my desk under a pile of other things.

Christmas Cards

I have donated an image to be used as a charity Christmas card by the charity Rett UK. You can find out more about the charity and their work, and order the cards (£4.50 for a pack of 10) at www.rettuk.org.

The illustration was the original cover art for my book One Magical Christmas, but it was substituted at the last minute for something more commercial! I'm very glad it's having a chance to be used for something worthwhile as I really like it.

Books, books and Apps.

I've been designing two new books for Tom Phillips which are soon to be published by the Bodleian Library. The Bodleian has recently acquired the archive of all Tom's correspondence and his vast photographic postcard collection. They are planning to publish a series of small volumes from the collection, each one containing over 200 images in a particular theme or subject. The first two will be Readers with a foreword by David Lodge, and Women & Hats with a foreword by Philip Treacy. These were really good fun to do, and the photographs are fascinating. Also a little bit easier to work on than African Goldweights in which all the weights were reproduced at actual size. All had to be measured and the image sizes set to be completely accurate. This made the layout a nightmare! I'm now starting work on Bicycles and Weddings which will be out next year.


The covers are all coloured in 'period' liveries like old cars of the 30's and 40's. I have a lovely new set of pantone CMYK samples which I pore over endlessly. I once borrowed a set of old BMC paint sample chips when we were restoring the van, and tried to chose the paint colour from it. I had a terrible time deciding as they were all so lovely. It even had the lilac paint used on the Minor Millions in it. In the end we went for Pale Primrose. Not a Morris colour, but one used on early MG Midgets. It matched a set of 40's teacups I'd found in a charity shop. Cars nowadays are so dreadfully boring.

We've also been developing an iPad App with Jonathan Hills and John Bowring based on Tom's treated Victorian novel A Humument. This is a very exciting thing. The last published edition of A Humument was in 2004. Tom has since made 39 brand new pages and we've used all the tiff files from the 2004 Thames & Hudson edition, many scanned then for the first time since they were created. It should be in the App store in a few weeks and an iPhone version will follow. It's a lovely, fun thing, and seeing the pages in the iPad screen in full luminous colour is a real joy.

New Website

I've been seriously fretting about my website for months. It's a very old-fashioned set-up and a total nightmare to edit. To my great delight I've found a website hosting company called Other People's Pixels who run a content managed hosting service for artists. Their templates are totally brilliant, easy to edit, and just what I'd been dreaming of! Cool. Check it out at www.alicewood.co.uk