This Week I...

...put up my exhibition at the Radlett Centre with my Dad's help.

The exhibition features over 20 of my paintings and it's really great to see them all hung together.

It's up for almost a month which should be plenty of time for lots of people to have a look, and maybe even make a purchase.

Also this week I finished a few extra things for my stall at the Letchworth Arts Centre's Christmas Craft Fair.

What do we think of the elf on the stocking? I like the pom-pom on his hat.

Thanks for the photo Lizzi!

On Thursday my friends and I had our 7th Annual Bring and Share Christmas Dinner.

This year we had additions like asparagus and a cheese board. We're getting fancy!

I'll share my contributions to the dinner next week.

How was your week?

What Christmassy things have you been up to?

Magnify Exhibition

I currently have some of my work on display at the Letchworth Arts Centre.

They had a gap in their calender for April and offered me the space.

I'm showing six of my miniature models.

I've put them on plinths and arranged them so they can be walked around as much as possible.

It's like a creepy model village!

I had thought about putting them on the shelf but I like them on plinths better.

It also means a lot less drilling into the wall.

I was given the cafe gallery which has some nice wall space, but they only work for 2D art.

So instead of displaying some of the my paintings which would have been unrelated to my miniatures I invited my friend Natalie to exhibit with me.

Natalie is my friend from uni, we shared a studio space, and I thought her miniature portraits would work well with my miniature models.

We even made it into the paper.

Open Exhibition

I mentioned on Sunday that I'd been helping to put up the open exhibition at the arts centre, but I didn't tell you that I have two pieces in it.

I put in my recent self portrait with the pink jacket.

I had a bit of an issue over how to hang it. I didn't want to get it framed because for one that's expensive as the board didn't fit a standard frame from a shop, but also I think the messy, unframed look suits the urban feel of the painting.

The woman in the framing shop suggested I use some sticky patches that are usually used for hanging decorative plates. The patches have a metal ring on the them and I was able to attach hanging wire to the rings of two patches. It worked a treat!

Everyone at the arts centre has been saying, 'Lisa, there's a painting that looks like you.'

To which I reply, 'It is me! I did it!'

I also put 'McCreerys' in the exhibition, a piece I made at university.

It was highly commended for the prize they were giving out!

To make the piece exhibition worthy I attached an MDF base and back to strengthen and straighten it out.

I think I might go through all my old pieces and do that same as it makes them look much better.

Can't Quote The Book

Here's the final piece from my exhibition which was a collaborative piece between Natalie and I.

I made this chair over Christmas which was a definite challenge but I'm really please with how it turned out.

(Apologies for the less than perfect photos. I still haven't decided on a new camera to buy. Any suggestions?)

There's an open book on the arm of the chair and a pair of glasses on the floor; what's going on??

The glasses were made from twisted jewellery wire and dried PVA glue for the lenses.

I also made a rotary phone which I like almost as much as the chair. You can't see it but I made a tiny plug for it to go in the wall. 

This was one of the miniature portraits Natalie painted for the piece.

The girl's got skills.

Too Small - Private View

Last Thursday we had the private view for our exhibition.

Who likes my new red jeans?

I call them my J-Nett pants.

No private view is complete without a lovely spread and since our exhibition featured miniature art we themed our nibbles accordingly.

We had mini party rings, mini oreos, cocktail sausages, mini chocolate fingers, mini sausage rolls, mini cheddars, mini donuts and baby bells.

And the drinks were served in plastic shot glasses!

People also had a good look at the work, but really, it was all about the food.

Too Small

Here are some photos from my joint exhibition 'Two Small' which is up this week.

It's in the same space as my Tiny Little Dark Things exhibition last year.

The exhibition also features work by my friend Natalie.

She paints miniature portraits and in addition to presenting them in traditional frames she also painted tiny faces on a stone and a shell that she collected on a recent trip to New Zealand.

I decided to give my pieces titles as I think it adds something extra to them.

And because I can and nobody can stop me, all of my titles are from country songs.

(Which did prompt my tutor to ask me if I also do line dancing. No. No I don't)

Who wants to see if they know which 5 songs the titles came from?

Some are easy and use the song title and others just use a lyric or part of a lyric.

Give it your best shot.

It Won't Be Like This For Long

I Don't Know Why You Gotta Be So Angry All The Time

Can't Quote The Book

A Little Too Used To Being Alone

If I Die Young

I'll show you closer looks at the new pieces soon as I get my new camera today! Yay!

Scenes from the studio

My friend Natalie and I are currently working hard preparing for a little joint exhibition at uni next week.

So my studio table looks a lot like this.

(Note the packet of mini party rings - yum!)

And this.

There I am!

And that carpet I was so excited about is now filthy and could do with a good hoovering.

Natalie is currently producing portrait miniatures which is why our artwork will work well together in an exhibition.

The exhibition is called Too Small (or Two Small depending on which poster you're looking at) and will run 16th-20th January (on the paint landing of St.Georges for any NUCA people).

My work on display...

...or is it?

My fellow student Holly (previously mentioned here) currently has an exhibition on at uni entitled Yours?

She invited me to a group crit for it and I didn't really know why until I saw this.

She has taken work by a group of students and outlined where it would go in the space with orange tape.

Then she has given the work a new context and interpretation in the description. And in my case she even gave it a new title.

She did this all in secret and we didn't know about it until the exhibition went up. But none of the artists featured minded, as the only thing she has taken that really belongs to us is our name, and maybe the idea of a piece of art.

I was happy for my work to be included - well, the idea of my work - as it gave it a new way to be read and interpreted, which was very different to my original intention.

The exhibition brings up the question of authorship. My piece has my name on it, which makes it mine, but Holly physically put it there, making it hers.

And this is what art school is all about.

Boom.

Beyond the Confines

Some of my work is currently being exhibited in a little group show in Norwich Arts Centre with five of my fellow students.

It's called Beyond the Confines and you can read a bit more about it here.

I'm exhibiting my tree...

...and my tornado.

My work has been put quite high up because it's in the art centre's cafe/bar which also gets used as a performance space so they didn't want my work getting damaged.

But I guess it's interesting for my work to be seen from a different angle.

The exhibition is up for two weeks so if you're in the area, check it out!

Paintings on display

I currently have some of my paintings on display at Franklins Art Gallery in Haynes.

They only charge 1p per square inch of painting which makes it really affordable for a student like me.

The work is for sale and there's an auction next month.

You can see the paintings a bit better here, here, here, and here.

The gallery is in a barn and they've attached hessian across the beams to hang the work from.

These people seem to like my work.

(These people are my sister and my Mum, heehee)

Now lets hope they sell!