Category: Experiments

Artquest 30/30 Day 26 ‘Share your hack for being an artist’

The hints get more and more obscure but I think I can see where they are going. After much discussion with Mr Google (we are becoming quite good friends), I came to the conclusion it was about sharing any tips you have, what keeps you going, what is the secret of success. I’m not sure I’m the one to share any tips, especially about success, after all I signed up for this challenge as a result of being ‘stuck’. If I did have one tip though it would be take inspiration form wherever you can get it. There are many artists whose work I admire but they don’t necessarily inspire me to go out and make the sort of work they make; wildlife photographers for example. Our local camera club has a number of members who make absolutely beautiful wildlife photographs but I have no desire to follow suit. And whilst most of my photography is landscape based, I don’t want to get up before dawn to go and make the same photographs that many landscape photographers make. I want to do something different.

A few years ago we were on holiday in Avignon and I spotted that the local art gallery had the work of some famous painters so off I went to take a look. I have never been so disappointed. It was small, darkly lit and the artwork really did nothing for me. Chatting to the receptionist at the hotel, she suggested I also visit the ‘Collection Lambert’ which is the museum of modern art. I went along without expecting too much as modern art ‘wasn’t really my thing’, but what a revelation! Yes, there were some exhibits that could have been made by a 5 year old and lots consisting or just words that I couldn’t really get my head round but this is where I was introduced to Land artists Richard Long and Hamish Fulton, French artist Claire Tabouret’s The Lookouts and Detanico and Lain’s Ulysses, which blew me away. The exhibitions were very varied in terms of style and content and so refreshing, I have never since said that modern art isn’t my thing and whenever in Edinburgh, head for Mod 1 and Mod2 in preference to the National Gallery. I’m not suggesting that we should all go out and study modern art, just that we keep an open mind and be prepared to immerse ourselves in something different as invariably something will rub off and fire up the imagination.

This work is a composite of work inspired by some of the artists who inspire me. They mostly work in ICM, multiple exposures, alternative processes such as cyanotypes and Photoshop techniques such as stretching pixels.

Artquest 30/30 Day 25 ‘Use someone’s 30/30 post for inspiration’

I do try to scan through some of the other 30/30 posts every day. Some inspire me, others look as though a child has made then in about 5 minutes but I guess that is the nature of art and the guidance does say you can spend 5 minutes of 5 hours! One person whose work does intrigue me is a contemporary artist called Robert A Ireland. Much of his work is quite abstract and mainly, mixed media on wood but what caught my eye over the course of several days was a series of grids of cloud formations. I haven’t researched the thinking behind this work, that is something for when this project is over but I am now following him on the Artquest network.

It is my intention to make a book of my 30 pieces of work but that isn’t something I can do in a day. Robert’s grids on the other hand is doable so here is my 30/30 work to date, presented is a grid, to be continued.

Artquest 30/30 Days 20 and 21

The hint for Day 20 was ‘Hate it’ and I didn’t have to think about this one. I absolutely loath the dreary wet days we seem to have had for weeks and yet again is was lashing down outside. I had recently learnt how to make abstract images using multiple exposures and custom white balance settings in camera and today, I would try this from the dry warmth of out conservatory. It took several attempts, but this image has raindrops on the window, rain falling in the pond and the barometer, which shows ‘change’, hopefully for the better.

Another odd hint for Day 21, ‘Make art from your last rejection’. I haven’t really had many rejections as I haven’t really submitted work for anything much. However, members of the RPS Landscape Group were recently invited to submit up to 2 images for the Landscape Exhibition 2025. We were advised that only 1 from each member would be considered and one of mine has been included, and so for day 21, I have gone for what is technically my rejection from this submission. I have reworked the image so that I can honestly say I have made some new work. Another infrared image which has turned out quite different from when I originally processed it.

Artquest 30/30 Days 18 and 19

I have a few days to catch up on so will do a few in the same post rather than separately as I don’t have great deal so say about some of them.

Day 18 was a case in point. The hint was ‘Make it green‘. My interpretation of green was environmentely friendly,but I got stuck with that so reverted to some work in progress, which was partly green and that I needed to get finished. A Mariner’s Compass that I had started at a workshop using a technique called Foundation Paper Piecing. I had done a little bit in the past but our tutor introduced a different way of working which I found quite tricky but having got the hang of it, actually quite like it.

I needed to get the piece done before Friday when we had out next meeting so this was an ideal opportunity to work on that. I had already done 2 of the 4 blocks so another one achieved my challenge and only one left to do to complete the work.

Day 19 hint was ‘Make your work commercial’, which I chose to ignore because my artwork is my leisure time and if I think of it in commercial terms it becomes too stressful. Instead, I went back to some infrared images I had taken a few weeks ago but not got round to processing and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the result. I had always been told that in order to take decent infrared images, you needed sunshine. Not so. A few months ago I listened to a talk by a photographer who does quite a lot of infrared photography and he said, you can take infrared in any conditions, you just get different results.

Clearly this image needs to be processed but you can already see some definition in the sky so I thought it had some potential. You never know what you will get with infrared though so the end result was a pleasant surprise. A number of people have thought it was a frosty morning but no, just another grey day.

Artspace 30/30 Day 16 Rewild your work

How to address this hint other than deposit some of my old cyanotypes into the compost bin, though that is not a bad idea as they are made from natural materials. Instead I spent the morning in the Forest of Dean with a couple of camera club friends and @thewackyphotographer, who was showing us how to achieve some very abstract images using multiple exposures and custom white balance settings in our cameras. I realised that the area we were in is currently being returned to its natural state with trees having been felled and replanted and ponds and streams being introduced to encourage wildlife. This photo maybe isn’t as wacky as it might be and the colours certainly don’t look natural, but I think it fills the brief.

This technique is all done in camera other that a few tweaks with contrast post processing. It consists of 3 photographs, each taken with a custom white balance set to the extreme of a different colour. Lots of practice still needed, but I had an enjoyable morning.

Artquest 30/30 Day 14 ‘Domesticise your work’.

Another obscure hint, does it mean make something you can use for domestic purposes or the focus of your work should be something domestic? I have gone for the latter, the ironing.

I mentioned in an earlier post about an upcoming workshop on multiple exposure. Well on Thursday we had a short Zoom session with the tutor prior to the workshop, to make sure we could get out cameras set up in advance. This includes exploring multiple exposure settings but also creating different custom white balance settings. The idea being that we will learn to create weird and wonderful abstract images. Having really no idea what I was doing, but excited by the prospect, I decided to have a go with the ironing pile.

Maybe I should just wait and learn to do it properly 🤣🤣. Day 14 done though, I am now half way through.

Artquest 30/30 Day 13 ‘Make work in the in-between times’

This is nothing new for me as I always have several things on the go at the sometime. I currently have a 52 week sewing challenge which I plan to post about. I have also started a 6 week Photoshop Zoom session on Friday evenings and I have a ‘multiple exposure’ workshop coming up this weekend. And that is besides, the usual home duties and school governor role. So, this was literally 10 minutes snatched whilst making the dinner. This hint also fitted nicely with yesterday’s about changing your practice so I have combined the two.

It is a while since I played around with alcohol inks and a hairdryer and like some of the other alternative processes I have tried, the results are very hit and miss, at least they are for me. My new hairdryer is obviously quite a lot stronger than the one I used previously as I didn’t feel I had much control but it was something completely different and ws literally done in the ‘in-between times’.

Like a lot of these processes, and I guess that may be the point of this challenge, it has made me think about getting the inks out again and sitting down and having another go.

Artquest 30/30 Day 11 – ‘Make your last ever work’

Playing catch up again. I start off with great intentions but time seems to slip away. I’m still in the challenge and have been posting to Instagram daily as soon as I have uploaded my image. Maybe that is when I should add my post here but I always have more to say here and so it goes on.

I am finding these hints more challenging as time goes on. How do you interpret ‘last ever work’. If I took that literally I wouldn’t make any more work at all and I don’t think that is the intention. One person appeared just to scrawl ‘last ever work’ on a board and I don’t think that’s the intention either. I chose a slightly more challenging route which was to decide that this would be my last ever attempt to get some cyanotype test strips right for the work I had planned for the next day and I would go with whatever the outcome was.

Initially I had been using a ‘Bockingford 90lb’ paper. It is quite lightweight and warped when sensitised. Also, it didn’t seem as absorbent as some of the other papers I have used. I’m not sure what I bought it for, maybe book making but it doesn’t really work for cyanotype so, back to one of my favourites, Fabriano 50% cotton that I got from the sale shelf in Jacksons Art. Whilst I’ve made plenty of cyanotype prints, very few have been made using digital negatives and this is a whole new ball game as I’m finding out. I hadn’t really appreciates why you were advised to use a fairly low contrast photo until I found all of the highlights blown whilst the dark areas were over exposed. A custom curve for cyanotype in Photoshop is also advised and luckily there is one in Christina Z Anderson’s book on the subject, albeit for an Epson printer but a good starting point nonetheless. So this is where I am so far. Three more test strips, all sensitised with the same solution at the same time.

The first test was exposed at 5, 6 and 7 minutes. However, the church building is built from lighter stone than the school, so I did the same again with a larger section of the negative.

This suggested 5 minutes so the final test was done at 4, 5 and 6 minutes

I know this was supposed to be a challenge but I wasn’t prepared for it to drive me bonkers! 

Artquest 30/30 Day 10 ‘Artwork for a Bird’

Another hint I thought I would struggle with until I started routing though a pile of old prints and came across 2 prints of clematis seedheads I had made for a talk on differential focusing a couple of years ago. Seedheads, what better for birds at this time of year, but what to do with them. I have quite enjoyed weaving photographs and cyanotypes and thought this might work here. The two photographs had originally been taken at the same time with the camera on a tripod and only the focusing being changes which meant they were exactly the same size. I do find getting each of the strips aligned quite difficult, even though I had numbered them as I sliced the prints up. And, as I look closely towards the bottom of the bottom flower, there does seem to be something amiss, but hay, its all part of the learning process.

A bit of catching up to do.

I have kept up with my art projects over the last week, now 10 days in for the Artquest 30/30 challenge and 5 weeks in for Bobbin Along. Artquest 30/30 first.

Each day. Artquest give a hint which can be used as inspiration or ignored and to be honest, I don’t always find the hints work that well for photography, at least not what I want to do. However, whether it is maybe my brain is becoming attuned or just more open minded, for the last couple of days. I have found something I thought worked.

For day 7 of the 30/30 challenge, the hint was a day in your life. for this I chose a photo I took a couple of years ago in Wester Ross, the one I had used for cyanotype test strips a couple of days previously. I wasn’t terribly happy with the resulting cyanotypes. Two were over exposed and the other ok ish. I bleached the over overexposed images and toned 1 of them, then wove them together with the original photograph and entitles the resulting image ‘4 Seasons in a Day’ which you frequently get in Wester Ross.

I’m not sure that weaving the cyanotypes with the original image was entirely successful and can only think this is at least in part due to shrinkage when cyanotypes are continually washed.

Day 8 hint was easier and again I delved into my archive of photographs. The hint was ‘Triangle, cross, circle, square’ and for this I chose a photo that I had taken a few years ago for a camera club competition.

I cut the photo into a square with the circular missor in the centre, then cut from corner to corner making 4 triangles and places some dark card underneath to make a cross. I wish they were all that simple!