I've been extremely busy over these past few months, so much so that I've completely forgotten my blog...again! To give a bit of a rundown of what has happened for me over the past few months. Over the course of January and February, I began working on a couple of commissions for recurring customers which is always nice. It’s nice to see people value and love the work you do, it’s the greatest reward. I had so much fun, and learnt so much from drawing and painting these! I have now become much more open to working in new styles, and subject matter recently. Once I had finished these commissions, I knew that I needed to do something almost daily, just to fill the creative void.
I decided that I'd start working on small experiments, within the photography field, more specifically that of cyanotype. I bought a few sheets of 20x20cm watercolour paper, and found some cyanotype chemicals online and started experimenting straight away. These experiments have been so invaluable to my progression as an artist, I've found myself adopting new styles, and becoming far more confident in my own work, especially my painting and tonal work. I finally feel like I'm finding my own style and unique way of working. At the start of the series, I forced myself to experiment with a new textures.
I found myself attracted to the outdoors again, having daily walks helped inspire and push my work forward, I gathered images from these walks and sketched in my sketchbook along the way. Collecting as many reference photos of animals and landscapes that I liked also. And then I began working again. Luckily for myself, that exploration was for the best. As I now had a newer, fresher way of creating, building up tones and textures through layering photographic materials over each other. I continued working in this style throughout the recent months. . These pieces were incredibly popular amongst viewers during art open events and exhibitions I featured in and I found great popularity and received positive feedback which was a huge treat to me. These pieces are still available on my store to purchase, if anyone is interested in a little cyanotype treat.
Having nailed the cyanotype process and gathered my own imagery, it was time to start a new series of works. It was around this time I found myself reflecting on previous works, mainly that created during my university years. I found old journals and sketchbooks which re sparked my interest in illustration. I had the desire to explore illustration further and try something new. This year was beginning to be a huge experimental year for me, artistically I was really beginning to find my passions and what medias I enjoyed to work in, what was a success and what didn’t work as well for me. I racked my brain a bit. I didn't particularly want to do an entirely different style of work, but I wanted to create these pieces in a different medium. Possibly cyanotype and illustration combined? Cyanotype and printmaking? The list was endless. I settled upon a combination of all three. By the end of the series, I think I'd created about 4 or 5 new favourite prints, and managed to push on my artistic style so much! One of the main things that this series made me realise, was how much I wanted to invest in a larger working space and explore the processes further rather than using my desk at home.
Slowly but surely, I am working through a new series. I've settled on a title “The Bird of a Feather Collection”
At current I have completed three out of the four prints, and I'm about 80% through the final piece. This series explores the beauty of nature and the wildlife found within it, using a range of found materials and foraged shrubbery scavenged whilst adventuring in nature. I have used cyanotype and printmaking processes to showcase the natural beauty of different species of bird- each print being unique like the birds themselves. By capturing the soft textures within the feathers and the rippled atmosphere within the watered background that surrounds them, the Birds of a Feather Collection focuses on simple aspects of nature that are often overlooked within today’s contemporary culture. Two of the collection are currently on exbibit in the Qube Oswestry Arts open 2022. Which I'm extremely proud and honoured to be a part of. (I’ll post a blog update about that in due course.)
The collection can also be viewed at https://www.birds-of-a-feather-c.adamtheartist1.com/set/c90fdc8d-3e19-49e5-8077-b6504691a0d0
But that concludes my little update! I'm sorry about the confused writing. It's often hard to explain things cohesively when writing from memory alone. I will be posting a piece about my new collection of prints and all the things I'm getting up to, over the coming days, so keep your eyes peeled!
Thanks for the continued support - Adam