A word from Alice - studio stories from Alice Draws the Line
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2023 in review
A year in review. I have made this list of 23 things about 2023 that I can think of, in any old non-chronological order! Some really frivolous things and others more significant to the development of my art practice. It has been fun to do and useful at the start of 2024 to consciously think about what I want to put into this year. -
In the early days - dear diary
In the early days of Alice Draws the Line, I would get up, sit at my little desk in the sitting room with a big mug of tea (earl grey usually) and write a blog post. First thing, still in my pyjamas. It started the day off well, made me feel intentional about developing my little business. A positive boost before I did anything else.
I can’t work out if it is just something I did occasionally or very regularly, or quite how often. What I do remember is that I liked doing it.
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Hands at work
Prompt: Hands at work I thought I might show you the behind the scenes prep from the other day for my #moderncalligraphy workshop at the studio. Yo... -
Best decision
Prompt: Best decision This first picture is of one of my sketchbooks that I kept at university - nothing to do with my degree as I studied Early Ch... -
Three things...
Prompt: Three things I chose this photograph which was my ‘inspiration station’ when Andrea came to do a photoshoot at the studio back in 2020. Thr... -
Planning
Prompt: Planning Although it's a sketchbook on my lap here, it's interchangeable with my notebook and diary. Between the three is how I plan.Often ... -
March Meet the Maker 2022 - Me and My Work
March Meet the Maker is a great challenge set up by Joanne Hawker. It is a month of Instagram prompts to help makers share about themselves and the... -
Brush Lettering for the Oriel Davies Gallery preparation work
Yesterday I delivered eight poems to the Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown, that I had written out in Brush Lettering.
I thought it might be of interest to talk through my process from the start to this point of this project as there has been so much that I have learnt.
Kate Morgan-Clare at the gallery approached me to ask if this was a project that I would be interested in before Christmas. They wanted eight poems written out to honour and elevate them as a celebration of their creation. The poems had been written by participants that took part in creative writing workshops with Emma Beynon - a writer and creative facilitator and Oriel Davies. The workshops explored a sense of place and that is what the exhibition of these poems is called. It will be running from the 5th to the 26th February 2022.
In early January I visited Kate at the gallery to discuss the project fully and to look at the space.
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It started with a New Year's Resolution...
'It started with a New Year's resolution...'
Someone asked me how Alice Draws the Line began recently and this was my response. And it's true, in 2008 I made a New Year's resolution to do a drawing a day in a sketchbook. I missed a few days but I did it, a directly observed sketch for the year.
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Woodland walks
When I'm out, I have squirrel-like eyes that constantly search for treasures. Natural treasures - wind-blown or knocked down and ready to be collected. I try not to pick anything unless there really is a plentiful supply - the grasses I studies last summer for example - there were so many of each sort that I was happy to take one of each back to the studio to draw. Usually though it's fallen treasure - which somehow makes it more exciting. These were some wind-blown bits of larch I found a couple of weeks back - a perfect little posy in my eyes! They came back with me and I drew them that afternoon. -
March Meet the Maker - part 4
I've been really enjoying working through these prompts - it's a nice exercise to encourage reflection and time to ponder what each one means to me.
So this week I'm covering the following prompts -
- Silver Linings
- Hands on
- Job/s
- Wrapped and packaged
- Starting point
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March Meet the Maker - part 3
- From the archives
Just recently I've had a lovely time looking back through old sketchbooks. Here are some pages from the sketchbook I used during my Art Foundation year (2001-2002). Line drawings and black ink were a favourite back then too, but at the time I was doing more mixed media illustration and was working towards a large textile piece with all the lines drawn with a sewing machine (freehand embroidery).
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