I love beetles, bugs, and other insects, most creepy crawlies. In another life maybe I would’ve been an entomologist, specialising in photographing them all really close up. Bugs and beetles are especially wonderful, they have so many beautiful colours, often glistening like precious metals and gems. I’ve wanted to incorporate insects more into my drawings of plants, but first I need to know I can draw them! Here is a quick study of some beetles using my favourite Molotow acrylic paint markers.
Clockwork from top left: spoecilcoris druraei (jewel bug, which isn’t a beetle but a true bug), volinus sticticus (dung beetle), eupholdus bennetti (jewel weevil), and a buprestidae (jewel beetle, of which there over 15, 000 species known – so far! I couldn’t find the exact name for this one though)
A Yorkshire Landscape using a different style, as a diversion from the patterns I have been using in previous drawings, as can be seen in this gallery. I need more practice drawing with black fine liners. Back to the sketchbook!
How to begin a new post when I have been absent from this website for so long!
Well, I have started by updating how it looks, removing pages and posts, some of which are over 10 years old, and starting afresh – I’ve left a few memories there, so we can look back on my time when I was a creative workshop facilitator, and could walk, oh the bittersweet memories.
My creative practice stalled after the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020, hence the silence from this blog for so long. Sadly the transverse myelitis I live with also took a hit, and my condition has worsened, I no longer facilitate family workshops because of this. I do however still volunteer with Pyramid and have since become a trustee of the charity. It’s not all bad news.
Since Summer 2021 I no longer have a ‘housemate’, and decided to use the extra space to primarily help with my mental health – lots of plants have come to live with me. Setting up my spare room as an art studio has been a dream. I have a gallery of nature inspired illustrative prints, purchased from talented artists across the UK, all adorning the walls around the room, shelves full of art supplies, surfaces to work on, and it is a space that I absolutely love being in. It took a few months to prepare, cleaning and decorating, then with the help of friends to manoeuvre the big stuff, and finally my (probably autistic) obsession with organising everything, I have created storage that is easily accessed and visually stimulating. I like to sit at my desk, usually with my dog, Mickey, on my lap, and listen to podcasts, drawing, printing, editing – I still photograph now and then, and I can then disappear into my happy place. With the world currently falling apart around us, it’s definitely a distraction that is needed!
I’ve been sharing all the illustrations I have been creating in this space over on Instagram, but will now share here too. Who knows, maybe I can open up shop and sell a print or two (that’s a way off though, fatigue only lets me do the ‘boring stuff’ in a very limited capacity).
Dandelion seeds floating through the air like summery snowflakes. Children shouting with excitement as they run, jump, explore, and investigate the outdoors. Muddying knees as they fall, but get up and squeal with delight. Zooming past on scooters and bikes. Playing with bubbles, that glisten as they sun sneaks a peek through the clouds.
Butterflies, and bees, and dragonflies, flit about the flowers down by the river, too fast to snap a photo, as they fly away to the next floral spot.
Birds sing from the tops of trees, and if you stop and listen you may spot a blue tit, or a chaffinch before it disappears into the dense leaves. Squirrels clamber up trees, out of reach of dogs as they chase after their tails. Crows command with call and they assemble on the wall of the ruins. A train passes, on its way to the city, another out towards towns and through countryside, that familiar whirring as they speed past.
Conversations are murmurs, fading as footsteps take them away. Parents walk their babies in prams, wheels turning over the path. Traffic in the distance merges with the rush of water that crashes over the weir, as the river courses through. A plane loudly rumbles overhead bringing tired people back home.
I can sit here and listen, and the world becomes an abstract of sounds, stop and close your eyes, and hear a symphony as nature and humanity become one orchestral movement.
This prose was written as I sat on a bench in Kirkstall Abbey park and took in the world around me, as I listened with my eyes closed, felt the air as it touched me, enjoying this moment being calm and still. The snippets of film were shot on my iPhone as I walked with my dog,
The Tetley currently have two incredibly poignant exhibitions, from Rasheed Araeen and Kannan Arunasalam. Araeen’s ‘For Oluwale‘ presents work marking the 50th anniversary of David Oluwale’s death. Oluwale, a British-Nigerian drowned in the River Aire after being systematically harassed by the police. Arunasalam’s ‘The Tent‘ presents films reflecting on identity and the meaning of loss against the lasting impact of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 1983 – 2009.
Responding to these works in an appropriate way to engage families with young children was going to be difficult. I decided to focus on the theme of identity and what home and specifically Leeds, means to the participant.
With Leeds posters, we took images of Leeds, and thought about the area in which we lived, what we enjoyed about our home, its relationship to Leeds as a whole. When you are young and around the age of 7, the concept of Leeds is limited to home in the suburbs – the city is a place you visit rather than being intrinsic to your identity. The children told me about the places they lived, from Alwoodley and Bardsey in the north, and Farsley and Kirkstall in the west, over to Oulton in the east. Travel featured a lot, along with fun days out, and school. Walking in the wonderful green spaces that Leeds offers us across the metropolitan area, with the major parks of Roundhay, Golden Acre, Temple Newsam and Middleton Woods, was a must. Oh and of course drawing and doodling is always lots of fun.
A little over six months, I have been taking photos of this view across the River Aire, from the grounds of Kirkstall Abbey. I will continue right into summer this year, and look forward to see the whole year pass me by. The everyday, collecting as I walk my with my dog, here I sit and catch my breath, take in the world, and recuperate.
At this half way point, I am sharing a short video that showcases the changing seasons, as well as the amazing skies that reflect back at us.
My practice is that of a walking artist. I document repetitions in my journeys. Past projects have looked at flowers in and around the Medicinal Gardens at Abbey House Museum; collected images of lost, discarded, and mown up tennis balls; and I am currently looking at paths from a disabled persons, my, point of view.
