Previous Newsletters

Newsletter - October 2010

Welcome to the October 2010 edition of the Newsletter.

Getting the Newsletters started again has proved trickier than expected, what with summer holidays, some family hiccups, illnesses and moving into a new studio (more below). At least the wait for this one was only 5 months rather than 10. However, the intention is there to get these newsletters back to a monthly occurence. Thank you for your patience.

So, coming up in this newsletter:

Blog
New Studio
Revisting old work
Video of "...one I made earlier"
High Resolution Image for you to Download

Blog

As ideas began to flow for my new project, "Acceptable Flesh", I thought a blog could be a useful tool. I can use it like an online journal - a place to scribble ideas, inspirations and insights as they occur to me, in the form of single lines, interesting images or even small essays.

As well as needing less planning and preparation, the blog has the added advantage of allowing people to comment and feed back to me almost instantly.

However, don't worry - I don't see the blog as replacing the Newsletter, but as complimentary.

It is still early days, and posts will become more frequent once I settle in with it. But do take the time to take a look, perhaps leave a comment and bookmark for future developments:

http://maggieayres.blogspot.com

Alternatively, click on the "blog" link on the menu bar above.

New Studio

While it has been wonderful to have a room set aside in our house for me to use as a studio these past few years, it has not always been the ideal working environment. Quite simply, the domestic world is too close, too intrusive, and not particularly respectful of the artist's space.

However, when WASPS (Workshop and Artists' Studio Provision Scotland) converted 2 adjoining buildings into 15 studios and workshops of various sizes, in the nearby town of Kirkcudbright, I thought this could be exactly what I needed.

I was successful in my application and managed to secure the one room I really wanted - it has 2 large georgian windows and is south facing. The light is just wonderful. If you would like to see a couple of photos of the space, then visit my blog post, "A studio of my own".

Bits and pieces are still being moved in, but already I have begun working there, and feel both a contentment and an excitement each time I step into my new studio.

Revisiting

It's been a long time. And yes indeed much too long for my "regular" monthly newsletter to you.

Because it's been a big gap again, it's led me to reflect on how often creative work doesn't always seem to flow so sweetly. We start a project only to abandon it feeling that it just isn't going the way we envisaged at the beginning.

And yet it is the keeping on going, in spite of the difficult bits, that allows creativity to flourish.

Rather than feeling that we've failed yet again to capture the unique something that we could picture so clearly in our heads, we might instead choose to focus on the ability to experiment and change. No effort will be wasted.

Return to abandoned work and try viewing and reviving it with a fresh eye! New work may develop out of the old.

Revisit once tried techniques and materials. Who knows where they will lead as time has passed?

If you keep sketchbooks, take time to trawl through them. Re-experience the moment when you had that noteworthy idea. Remind yourself of old inspirations. Something fresh may appear from this reconnection.

I think it's important to maintain some kind of continuity even if it feels haphazard and interrupted.

Creativity comes out of experimentation. "Mistakes" will happen. But this is all part of the development process. There are infinite ways of "getting it right".

With the notion of revisiting past work in mind, I thought it might be interesting to look again at some of my earlier pieces in the video this month.

Video of ...One I Made Earlier

Download a free high-resolution image for your own wall or computer desktop

This image is a detail of the artwork "Fracture".

Right-click on the image and select Save Target As. You can then save the image on your computer and print it off on photographic or watercolour paper at up to A4 size without losing any quality, or use it as a desktop background for your computer.

Be advised that the image is approximately 2MB big, so might take a little while to download

If you run into any difficulties then please let me know.

Questions and Comments:

I would very much like to hear from you. Please email me with any questions about my artwork, or with ideas of things you'd like to see and read in future editions of this newsletter.

And finally, if you know of anyone who you think might be interested in receiving this newsletter, please point them to http://www.maggieayres.co.uk/newsletter.htm to sign up.

Wishing you all the best until next time,

Maggie

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