This September I was thrilled to have been selected to be Cambridge Artworks artist in residence for 3 weeks! I was super excited about this opportunity and thought you’d like to see what it involved. It’s called The Caravanserai Summer Residency and is situated in a bright blue caravan that has been transformed into a bespoke studio space. They call it their ‘Cabinet of curiosities’. My winning proposal was to make a series of artworks called ‘Joy in a box’ inspired by the idea of fun family caravan trips, of deckchairs and funfairs. I planned to use the time to explore pattern, printmaking & collage towards developing a new body of work.

Week one and two I spent time learning Gelli plate printing - using leaves, kitchen utensils, stamps, stencils, lino cuts, corrugated card, bubble wrap, cotton reels and Lego on a variety of papers.

Week three I moved on to learning screen printing.

I’ve had a lot of fun but I’ve just got started, and can’t wait to see where this leads. Watch this space!

I had the treat of returning to David’s Tent this summer, after a couple of years break. So good to see so many lovely friends and to get to paint live with a whole army of artists in the big top. After a summer of no studio time, I made the most of this creative space and made a start on 7 pieces which I rotated and layered through this long weekend. The perfect place to use my fantastic artristical easel.

Here’s a little video tour of the art space and my art area at David’s Tent this year. I really enjoyed the chance to create alongside others and in such an amazing atmosphere! Being on the end of the row by the door means good light, getting rained on, needing lots of layers in the evening, the smell of the toilet chemicals, a great space to dance (which I did at least as much as painting!!) and lots of interested onlookers - thankfully I’m used to painting in front of people! It was also a real treat to have my daughter sitting and drawing with me some of the time this year.

Well my Open Studio event has come and gone, but before I move on to other things, I thought it might be helpful to write a bit of a summary. For myself, but also for you guys - for those of you who blinked and missed it, or those of you thinking of doing it yourself one day.

I did my first Open Studio in 2017 (you can read about it here if you like: https://kategreenart.com/blog/my-1st-cambridge-open-studio-part-one-preparation). This was my 6th one in total (not counting the ones I do at Christmas), I organised an altered version during Covid days which we called Open Windows, and displayed our art on windows for passers by, and I took a break last year as I was in the final throws of preparing for my Masters Degree final show.
The pandemic has spurred us all on to being more online savvy these days and so recently I have tried as much as possible to share my exhibition through social media and on my website - I have a larger audience for my art online than I do locally, and am keen for all my friends further afield to be able to engage as well.
The way that I do this is:
I create a Open Studios Event HUB on my website for people to easily find information
I discount my art for sale on my website as well as locally
I do a video tour each day of my exhibition weekends, sharing all the details and talking through my art and show.
I share all this on social media
Here is a link to this years Hub for you to take a look: https://kategreenart.com/open-studios-page.html and below are the video tours.

I don’t know how my event compared with others, and it’s also hard to compare with other years as the event can be affected by all sorts of things like weather, clashes with sports events, the pandemic, cost of living crisis, one year the road was cordoned off by the police due to some incident the same weekend, I know that at least one artist friend of mine had limited visitors due to road works right outside their house this year.
But on the whole I feel it was a successful thing to do. I had over 100 visitors over the 2 weekends and many of those were people I’d not met before. There were lots of conversations with other artists interested in my workshops and mentoring, others wanting to ask about my Masters Degree, and other people wanting to ask about the meaning, method or inspiration of my artwork.
I displayed art in the downstairs of my home - the living room, hallway and kitchen. I had chalks for interactive art in the garden. And this year I used my garden studio to share my art installation - this was fun for me to create and visitors seemed to really enjoy it too.
Every year I put a lot of effort into displaying the work and making the space welcoming (and sharing it online) but I have also learnt over the years to simplify and stress less. I clear less of the clutter of ‘family life’ away than I used to, instead of taking months or even weeks to prepare, I make a plan a month beforehand and then I do all the work in the last week running up to opening. I also managed this year for the first time to include my daughter and dog in the mix, which was really nice and meant it impacted family life less. Another trick I’ve learnt is to have a little relaxing creative project on the go during the exhibition - this can provide a topic for conversation, helps quiet moments feel like I’m not waisting time and means people feel free to browse without feeling watched.
Anyway here are some pictures of how things looked this year.

Sales vary, numbers of visitors vary but my favourite thing about welcoming people into my home and sharing my art is that it genuinely seems to inspire people towards their own creativity, and I get to hear from people what they think and feel about the art that I make.
So I’ll end with some of the comments that were left in my visitors book.

I’ve been busy recently enjoying an online painting course called CVP (Creative Visionary Programme) - a 12 week painting bootcamp with Nicholas Wilton of Art2Life.

After 3 years of my MA focussed on sculpture and art installation, my plan for 2023 was to dig deeper and further develop my 2D work (before connecting that back to my 3D as I move forward). The MA was never expected to be somewhere that taught painting theory or practice and I’d heard of many friends doing this course previously and getting a lot out of it.

We started with inspiration/art/desire boards - it doesn’t matter how often I do this sort of thing, it always gives me more clarity and clearer focus! Asking questions such as: “What type of art would you make if no one was looking and money was no object?” “Imagine 10 years from now you have a solo show in New York where you’ve really pushed your boundaries and taken risks - what would that work look like?” Etc etc. Here are some sections of the boards I created.

We then covered topics such as play, colour, value, composition, texture and layers, and I loved every minute of it! There was a lot of teaching, with some exercises each week to help us try ideas out, as well as some super helpful coaching videos on how to engage with and push through all the different stages of making a painting. The biggest message was to paint with confidence knowing that you can always fix any mistakes, and we were shown innumerable ways of how to do this. Here are some examples of the exercises.

I feel I’ve barely started putting into practice what I’ve learnt but that’s just a matter of me showing up regularly in my studio and putting the hours in!
Over the last 12 weeks I’ve been teasing followers on social media with sideways and zoomed in peeps of the work I’ve been exploring, as I wanted to allow myself the privacy to try new things hidden away from view. Now the course has finished it’s time to share a few pieces with you, as I’d love to know what you think. It’s early days but I’m investigating a funfairs/ deckchairs /cat in the hat / 60s mashup and I’m having fun! The first fruits of a summer vibing with these ideas.

I’m not only pleased to tell you that the ‘Awe & Wonder’ exhibition went well - BUT my art installation WON the PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD! How cool is that?!!
With around 120 artists taking part and 3,400 people visiting the show at Oxo Gallery, London, apparently there was over 2,000 votes made by the public over all, and my interactive art work ‘Emerge’ won the prize!
Thank you to everyone who visited, and enjoyed my art, it means the world to me that so many people loved it, as it was a real labour of love to create - as you know!

Here are a few pictures of my art installation called EMERGE.

It was such a privilege to be selected to take part in this show, especially once I’d seen the other artwork and what talent was on display! It was also a great opportunity to connect with a number of fabulous artists and be inspired by such a wide variety of materials and mediums used. Here are some of my favourite pieces.

And finally here is a link to a video of us installing the work over 2 days and the finished result.

I’m thrilled that EMERGE (my MA final show art installation) has been selected for Chaiya Art Awards 2023 exhibition ‘Awe and Wonder’ at Oxo Tower Wharf Gallery London, 7-16 April 2023.
Thankfully I started making plans for this before my place had been confirmed, so had been able to go into my storage and do an inventory of the various elements that make up my installation - BEFORE I broke my wrist.

So I have working for a while on adjusting and improving parts to make sure I can show it at it’s very best in this prestigious venue. I’ve been in dialogue with the incredibly helpful curator of the show about my allocated space as there is a lot to think about when showing such a large scale piece of art in a new setting. I’m excited that I have been given a whole room to myself and this week I did a site visit with my fabulous installer technician friend Paul, to make measurements and make sure I prepare well. Here is a sneak peep of the place I will be exhibiting in.

And here are some photos of the preparations underway - from sewing covers for gigantic fluffy beachballs, to creating a 3D mockup of the room, measuring lengths of rope and reshaping elements damaged in storage.

Here is a link to the website with more details about the show. I will of course share the official promotional material once I have it: https://chaiyaartawards.co.uk/

After an 8 week break due to a broken wrist, Christmas, the flu and the yearly launch of my coaching programme …I finally got back in the studio and got paint under my fingernails again! Starting where I left off before Christmas I warmed back up by returning to my concertina sketchbook and what I’ve been learning with the fabulous Karen Stamper.

You would not believe the fight I had to face against self doubt, my confidence was rock bottom - not unusual after a break from art making. Far from being relaxing, therapeutic and restorative, this was painful! Is it ok to admit that?!! I know that this is the experience of most artists after time away from the studio, in fact I asked my artist friends what they do to overcome such situations and I thought you might like to read their words of wisdom:

• I put paint on something without expectations of a finish and just push thru with baby steps
  
• I keep working in my sketchbook until I feel the mojo come back.
• I try to focus on experimenting and playing with materials. Try something new.
• I push through the uncomfortable feelings and frustrations and allow myself to make work that I’m not happy with, allowing myself to make ‘bad’ art leads to better art.
  
• I usually find sketching, mixing different colours and just clearing the studio can be enough to make a few steps in the right direction.
• Just starting again is the toughest part. Collage is a quick way to get things going - sometimes cutting up old work or magazines, glueing down shapes and colours. The element of not caring or dissatisfaction can in fact be helpful, use its destructive potential to lead to new avenues and direction. That and just showing up in the studio again and again to get those squeaky wheels turning.

This is a great example of why it is so so important to have people around you who do what you do and walk through the same challenges you face. Artists need other artists!

Since October I've been taking a bit of a break, following the completion of my MA degree. However, after a good rest, I felt it was important not to leave it too long before getting back into my studio and getting paint under my fingernails again! To make this super easy I signed up for Karen Stamper’s concertina sketchbook online workshop called ‘Free up your sketchbook’, something I've been wanting to do for ages. And I thought you'd like to see what fun I've been having. Click HERE to find out more about the course.

This was a great opportunity for me to pull out all the art materials I've gathered over the years, some of which I've never actually used before. Karen got us to work in a concertina sketchbook which I've never tried. I loved creating a flow from page to page as it took the pressure of any individual part of it and helped me just to play and experiment. We began with mark making with ink and whatever else we could find.

Next we added collage - pictures and lettering from magazines, pieces of collected paper and some exercises that showed us ways of making our own collage paper involving tissue and sandpaper. I fell in love with the immediacy and patterned precision that collaging provides.

Beyond this there were a range of helpful exercises and opportunities for experimentation, from fingerpainting, to reworking one of my paintings and back full circle to monochrome juicy marks.

Here's a little video of the completed first side of my sketchbook from the course.

I would highly recommend this course (see link at the top), it was just what I needed at the time and has provided some interesting ideas that I look forward to developing and pursuing in the New Year within my own practice.

As you probably know, I completed my Master Degree in Fine Art four weeks ago, and I thought it was about time I checked in with you about what I’ve been up to since.

As soon as my final write up was handed in I headed for the seaside! August and the summer kind of came and went this year without my noticing, and my family had to holiday without me. I stayed in a gorgeous Airbnb in Southwold, a stones through from the sandy beach, the ice cream parlour and the chippy. I booked a massage and manicure, I slept, I lazed about in my PJs watching films, I enjoyed a well earned rest.

I worked harder and pushed beyond anything I’ve ever done before to complete my MA and now I’ve stopped I’m realising how much it’s taken out of me! To be honest it’s felt almost like recovering from a trauma. Once I’d finally managed to achieve the task of creating everything to go in my installation, the final week of installing turned out to be more challenging than ideal for reasons I won’t go into, and then once the exhibition was up and running, when I felt I had nothing left to give, I had to create 12 elements for the digital hand in (including a 100+ research logbook). All this was happening on top of preparing one daughter for secondary school, one starting uni up north and one leaving home.

One of the main things I’ve been doing to rest and refresh is take my dog on lots of lovely long walks, and one day I came across this field. Empty, laid bare, churned up, exposed - it was exactly how I felt! Reflecting on this I realised of course that this bare earth time is just part of the farming process, its doing what it’s meant to and waiting for what’s next. I saw the same field just one week later and it had turned green! 3 inch shoots had pushed their way through in just 7 days reminding me that we may feel empty but we’re not, we’re just waiting for the right time - this was a big encouragement to see.

Well I’ve decided to take a break from pushing forward until Christmas. I deserve a proper change of pace and to enjoy some time off.

• I’m sorting out our house and family stuff a bit, which I’ve neglected for quite a while. We’re adjusting to being a family of 3 rather than 5 (and counting the days till Christmas when they all come home again).
  
• I’ve been making good on my promises of rewards for those who generously gave towards my crowdfunding campaign for the MA show - designing T-shirts, bags, printing copies of sketchbooks etc etc.
• I’ve signed up for Karen Stamper’s ‘Free Up your Sketchbook’ online course, which I’m very excited about - I wanted something very different to the type of art I’ve been creating recently, and someone to provide a bit of guidance and structure. To play and have fun without having to write essays about the critical theory of it!!
• I have a few other ideas up my sleeve that I may or may not follow through on as well, but this is a time for flexibility and grace, so we’ll just have to see!

Anyway, I’ll sign off for now by celebrating with you that I was thrilled to find out this week I’ve been awarded a ‘Distinction’ for my final project and for my MA as a whole! HUGE thanks for all your amazing support on this journey… (which is just getting started!!)

Last week my MA show came down and Friday I handed in my final write up - it’s done! So it’s time to share it all with you!
I have way more to share than anyone could cope with, so I’ll give you links and let you choose! Some of you would love to watch a video or 2, some of you would love to see behind the scenes and browse my research sketchbook/logbook, others a flip through my portfolio, I know some of you mad folk would love to pour over my essay and bibliography! Im not sure anyone wants to see my risk assessment or month by month diary but even that is available to peruse if you so wish! That’s the thing with handing everything in digitally - it’s super easy to share it all with my lovely friends, however far away you are!
Click on each image below and it will take you to what you want to see.

Links to all the other bits - proposals, risk assessment, diary, professional practice file etc - CLICK HERE

This has been a labour of love and a dream come true. Every inch of this rather large installation has a story to tell from its 1000 hours of creation. Whether it be of sewing into the early hours of the night, of polystyrene foam dust all over my garden, of the 7 stitches in my arm, the missed family summer holiday or of the generous expertise shared in each media, or the paint party of 11 year olds to whitewash the papermache. A multitude of new techniques and materials discovered. A passion for sculpture and installation environments ignited.

I am more than ready for a holiday but already missing making art!

The support you guys have given me through all this has genuinely helped keep me strong, kept me smiling and kept me going. THANK YOU!