Altered photographs

I have been playing around with one of my tree photographs, using various filters and digital manipulations.

I like the way it changes my own relationship to the original image, allowing me to see it in a new way and to see more possibilities in further work on the picture. I also like the fact that the image can become more painterly, showing me new ways that I could work with paint to depict the tree.

The original photograph was taken while I was on retreat at The Seekers Trust in Addington Kent.
An Oak tree that was often used by the jackdaws and crows to perch on.


The sort of  negative photographic effect of the darker tree image appealed to me, as well as the paler version with the white tree trunk. The original photograph is in the centre of the post.

Work on the Mr Lion Project

I have been working on some pieces for the Mr Lion project that we have been exploring in Blank Canvas at the Turner Contemporary Gallery. Link to Blank Canvas facebook page here.

Artist Lucy Steggals suggested the project following her own exploration of other figures from a series of old cards she found. Lucy's website here.

It has been an interesting few months, also working with other artists, playing around with ideas about Mr Lion's character, where he might live, what possessions he might have and what he looks like amongst other things.

We all have different ideas about Mr Lion and will be showing some of these in an exhibition, details to follow.

I have an artists book made from Japanese paper, collage and print, using the letters of the name Mr Lion and have a sketch book where I have been keeping ideas.

Winter landscape sketches

I have started to do some quick sketches this year, with pen and ink and water soluble pencil crayons. I'll add watercolours and other mixed media too as I continue to make a sketch a day.                          

The main theme for these works will be trees either from life, photos or from my imagination, so I can explore a range of ideas, but in a fairly spontaneous way.

I'm posting some of these pictures from my tablet, so I'm not sure how the format is going to look like. But it makes posting a bit easier for thse pieces.