OMG OMG OMG – I’ve just had an email from the Royal Academy telling me that my photo has been accepted to the Summer Exhibition. 16,500 entries, 4000 short listed (which I was one) and 1000 selected for the Exhibition. I am invited down to London on the 2nd June to the Varnishing Day’s Reception for champagne and nibbles – I am overwhelmed and over the moon Wooo Hooo !!!!!!!!
Over the last few moths I have been putting together a series of images which I have called “THE STRANGE NEW WORLD”. I’m aiming to produce a coffee table book containing lots of the pictures I have created….. fingers crossed. This newly created weird and wonderful world has everything from an ocean containing mysterious creatures to strange flying machines in the sky…….. and everything in between. There are also a few weird and wonderful people living in this new world.
I will be uploading some of these images over time, but to start with here is a flavour of what you can expect……. hope you like what you see? x
I’ve decided to have a little give away to anyone who likes textures and tags :
So here are the FREEBIES for you to have a look at – see below
Ideal for photographic backgrounds and your arts and crafts projects
Go to my website butterflysmind and click the tab PRINT SALES AND TEXTURES and then click on the drop down entitled TEXTURES – you will find the FREEBIES there
Here is another straight shot from my studio sessions.I really enjoyed working in the studio and had the opportunity to work with many models.
I had my favourites and Natasha was one of them.I had a rail full of costumes and the models who came to the studio really enjoyed trying lots of them on. I realised early on that costumes were going play a huge part in the images I wanted to produce. However, in this case Natasha only wore flowers in her hair LOL
For whatever reason I seemed to have been extremely prolific in 2018 and churned out loads of stuff. I was bursting with ideas and I am sure that there will be a number of images from 2018 coming up for viewing over the next few days.
I made the headdress and also created the background and I have to say it’s one of my favourites.
All of my photographic equipment is stored away and I have said goodbye to my home studio and thrown away (or given away) almost all of my prints. I really don’t know whether I will ever continue on my photographic journey, hence the crossroads reference. Two years ago I ceased entering competitions (for a few reasons) and now don’t really miss it at all. To be perfectly honest I never really got use to the “uglier” side of the competitive world however that was compensated by meeting some lovely people who have become close friends.
I have spent the last day or two looking back through the portraits I created in my studio and it was lovely seeing them again. I hope you don’t mind me sharing some with you – I have nothing better to do at the moment…… sorry.
Photography, especially studio portraits brought me (and the people who visited my studio) a lot of pleasure and I am wondering whether seeing these portraits again will ignate the spark again?
For the past year or so I have found other ways of being creative and as with my photographic work I am more than happy to share what I have learned.
So will looking back at what I have produced in my studio over the last 10+ years make me want to get out my Nikon and backdrops and start clicking away again…….. I honestly don’t know.
So folks, here is the first image that caught my eye – It’s a straight portrait from 2017 (all the previous years are on external hard drives stored away) – I will apologise to you all now for the number of images waiting in the wings for you to look at…….. sorry LOL
I haven’t picked up my camera since February and to be honest I haven’t missed it.
Instead I have picked up my paint brushes and have started on a personal journey taking me into the world of abstract art. Sitting and painting has really helped me this year with the loss of my beloved Mum (it doesn’t get any easier), my lovely Mother In Law and my cat of 16 years.
Loosing myself in my paintings has brought me much pleasure at this time and it has given me a greater understanding about abstract art. The colours, the energy and the freedom of applying the paint to paper makes me want to get up in the morning with something to look forward to.
I feel that there is something very powerful and special as art being a therapy and I can honestly say personally, that it has helped me enormously.
My Mum would have been proud
Here is one of my efforts (inspired by one of my early creative photographic images) not totally abstract … more semi abstract