A textured banner

This is a banner by Linda Albrecht which was featured on the Maya Road Design Team blog recently. I love all the little details on this. You can see it in more detail here.

Light of the World

On Sunday a lady in our church leaned forward and tapped me on the shoulder. She handed me a little booklet with this picture on the front and said she felt like she was meant to give it to me. She told me her mother had a picture of it, so she always thinks of mothers with this image and saw me with my three children running around and thought I would like it. I do like it and I found it so inspiring reading about it in the booklet. This lady didn't know about my exploration of church art and so I thanked her and later explained how inspiring it had been for me.

This picture is called "Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt and was painted in 1853-1854, who was part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. It's a really famous image and yet I haven't encountered it before. It continues to inspire so many people with all it hidden messages which were so popular with the Pre-Raphaelites. There is a great explanation of it here.

One of the reasons I found this so inspiring is the perspective of time, that an artist created something which is continuing to inspire over 150 years later and is being shared online too all over the world, which Holman Hunt could never have dreamed of.

Sheona Beaumont

I've recently got back in touch with my friend Sheona Beaumont. We went to a church youth group together when we were teenagers. Her artwork is completely amazing. She works with photography and digitally alters images to make astounding pieces.

Sheona has a degree in Fine Art and a Masters in Visual Culture and is currently completing her PhD - Wow! Sheona's work humbles and challenges me.

Her banners below from her Hope Soars exhibition are so beautiful. Check out more of her work in her gallery.

Sheona has two exhibitions coming up. She has a charity exhibtion at Paintworks in Bristol on the 14th-18th February 2012. Hope//Poverty is an exhibtion to raise money for Mercy In Action who work with street children in the Philippines. It will include work from her Hope series.

Sheona also has new pieces to exhibit in May 2012 as part of the Bristol Festival of Photography .

The Art of Wild Abandonment

I am slowly emerging from the hectic Christmas holidays and planning for the year ahead. The house has been tidied (almost) and the calendar is filling up with holiday plans and work commitments.

I haven't taken part in an online workshop for a while and the new year has brought some exciting opportunities with some great teachers. The first class I've signed up for starts on March 12th and it's called "The Art of Wild Abandonment". It's a class run by Christy Tomlinson and Junelle Jacobsen. It's a three week course, but it will be open for a year, so it will give me plenty of time to really get into the teaching material.

Junelle's fabulous work is shown in the top picture and below. Her blog is fabulous and her expression of her faith is so inspiring.

Here are a couple of canvases by Christy. I've been following Christy's blog for a while and enjoyed a few of her classes. I love her methods behind her artwork and the art journalling course I took with her has changed how I approach my own work in a major way. She chats about her faith so easily alongside her craft chats.

I am really looking forward to March now, but in the meantime I will have time to catch up with the last canvas class I signed up for with Christy, called "She Art". I have plans for a series of canvases based on Psalm 139. So hopefully, more on that later!

Christmas cards

The blog has been a bit quiet lately as I have been frantically making things, firstly for my fundraising effort at church (with crochet flowers and embroidered bags) and then as I had a table at a local craft fair. I've been sewing so much that I have just finished my second 1000m reel of cotton in about a month.

I made a selection of cards for the craft fair, with the idea that I could use the ones that didn't sell as my own Christmas cards to send out this year. I'm pleased to say that the fair went really well and I did have a to make a few more cards, as I did sell some.

Here are some of my cards...

This has a watercolour background with a star stitched on, with a stamp of the kings.

The background on this card was made with paint over a gesso background (for texture) with book text clouds.

This is one of my favourite Christmas stamps, which I added some sequins to for a little added sparkle.

Art Saves

Time has passed so quickly lately and I've had lots of ideas which haven't made it on here yet. I'm hoping to catch up a little when everything slows down a bit in a couple of weeks. At the moment we are in a whirl of Christmas parties, plays and preparations.

I have managed to squeeze in some reading time recently and I really enjoyed this book "Art Saves". It has lots of different contributors including Jenny Doh, Melody Ross, Suzi Blu, Rebecca Sower, Kelly Rae Roberts and many more. It's a fabulous book combining great projects with thoughtful words. I've already sent my copy onto a friend but I'm thinking maybe I should buy another one as I can think of so many people who would enjoy it.

I'm continuing my journey finding out who I am in relation to my artwork and I'm beginning to love the title "Maker" rather than "Artist" or "Crafter".

A banner group visit

This week has marked a step forward in my journey towards making church art. I submitted a proposal to start a new banner group at our Ecumenical Church Council and it was given the go-ahead. So it's all official now.

I spent Tuesday afternoon with the talented ladies at the banner group at our sister church in the town. I found it quite overwhelming to look through their catalogue of banners which have been produced over the last twenty years. Each banner had a story behind it and there was such thought and consideration put into each one. The ladies of the group were lovely and very generous with their valuable advice about things they have learnt over the years.

They started the group with a Bible reading and a prayer time as well as their Banner group prayer. It was great to start with that focus on why we were there.

Things I learnt from them about producing banners were...

• Artwork has to be clear and bold to be seen across such a large space.
• White backgrounds and cream backgrounds on white or cream walls don't work.
• Graduated colours can be achieved layering coloured net.
• Using italic text can be tricky , as each letter has to have the right angle.
• Black outlines can add definition if the background and image are similar in tone.

This is their banner group prayer...

"Oh Lord, who has created all,

each leaf and blossom great and small,

look down and bless our work today,

guide our eyes and hands we pray,

that we within you church may make,

a worthy offering for your sake."