About the Artist

This is a quick blog about me, my life and how I got into art. It is quite narcissistic and has lots of photos - you have been warned :)



First of all my name is Sophie, I live in essex with my parents, siblings, boyfriend, 2 dogs, 4 cats, maxi cob, corn snake, crocodile Skink and Leopard Gecko.


Me aged 9



I have been drawing and painting for most of my life, being dyslexic meant that colours and shapes have always made more sense than letters and words.


A shetland, drawn by me aged 7


I managed to pass my GCSEs with better grades than expected and finished 6th form a few years after that. I had never considered going to university but suddenly I was presented with the opportunity to do so.



I experimented in my foundation year with colour, sculpture and paint, having stuck to skin tones and graphite due to shyness during school.



After my foundation year, I got into the university I wanted.

In the first week we were asked to do an art exercise - pull an item out of your bag a create a project based on that item. I pulled out a small perfume. I made a project on the impact of smell on memory and nostalgia. I picked a huge metre canvas and started my first oil painting.









I drew and (partially) painted my first animal in 9 years and loved it.

It was another year before I gained the confidence to draw a horse again. I was a weird kid in school - being horse obsessed and having a learning difficulty that meant I was mildly bullied for a year or two. It was enough to knock my confidence, making me stop my constant equine doodles at the age of 11.



My whole year held an art exhibition just before our graduation. Before the exhibition had even opened to the public all my paintings had sold, it was at that moment that I realised more people than just myself and my family (who might be slightly biased...) like my work.

I graduated in July 2013 with a 2:1 and the rejuvenated love of animals, colours and paint.




I am now making the first few cautious steps towards making a career out of making art.

Degree Show and Beyond...

The unthinkable has happened, I have (nearly) completed my third and final year at university.

We had a wonderful degree show, with a full and lively private view and a really fun show at The Old Truman Brewery.

It has been a fabulous experience and I feel able to make the first steps into adult life.

Overview of my entire piece titled My Death Bed.



It may not seem the cheeriest of titles but it is about the importance of childhood memories during a person last moments of life.

It was brilliant fun and has got me itching to do another show.

Golden Horse Painting

I have completed a painting of a Arabic horse in Yellow Ochre so that it looks golden.

It has given my an idea to perhaps use gold leaf when painting horses with bridles, so details like bits and buckles show up.

Ill test it out in the near future.



I painted this for my first exhibition with my university, so it's pretty exciting.

Sewn Secrets

I've been working on some textile pieces. Im using the shapes of a few embroydery rings to give nice even shapes and sizes. I want them to appear quite traditional in this way - to look like the colour has faded from the thread. The fabric is quite a pink toned cream and the string is white so they are more different than the pictures show.

I'm using frames at the moment so they dont appear too scruffy but I might try putting poles in the top and bottom and hanging them like you would with a quilt.

As the title suggests they contain secrets with the letters sewn horizontally, vertically then upside down so they are completely unreadable. I'm thinking of picking a few of the words from the secrets as titles, so the one above would be called "The Only Thing" Which seems quite cryptic but I know exactly what the secret is about.

The thread is mortician sutre thread which I've been experimenting with staining with natural dyes like blackberries. And the canvas is from the protective bags woven coffins are stored in. It's quite nice fabric, very soft and it degrades as you sew it as it rips quite easily - which I like.

See more examples of my work on my facebook or my flickr account

Online galleries?

At university on Tuesday we had a really interesting talk by the fabulously named founder of Visual Art Trader Chris Grant Peterkin (I'll pop the link at the bottom of this post for those interested).

He was talking about how everything is moving into more internet friendly ways - including the gallery and the buying/selling of artwork. He gave examples of these exchanges and interactions between real-life galleries/art fairs and online ones. As well as proof that people view art online before buying it or going to see it in its gallery setting because their busy lifestyles stop them going to physically visit galleries and browsing for art.

Basically it really inspired me to take better photographs of my artwork to let people - myself included - avoid the intimidating and sometimes plain complicated world of galleries for a while longer.

Not forever.

Just until I know for certain that someone other than myself likes my work.

So I'm going to sign up for it - it's only £24 a year for a student account or £48 for a standard one. They also don't take commission which is obviously really good.

The site offers a kind of categorisation of art style there are only four of them - abstract, representational, semi-abstract and semi-representational. This is good for the practical reason that general, casual art buyers generally want something for their home/office and they want it to be something they like - be it a big and bright horse painting (see links to my website if interested) or a big smudge of paint that matches their curtains but also starts to look like a landscape if looked at for long enough.

Taste sure isn't simple - but knowing that galleries are scary to buy from compared to Internet shopping sure is.

Anyway waffle over - Internet shopping is the future, so I'm going to brush up on photography skills and show off a little.

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Visual Art Trader Website

Medusa

As promised, I uploaded my Medusa piece onto youtube.



Enjoy and let me know what you think.

See more examples of my work on my facebook or my flickr account

Fine art project - third year

I have started my third year and final year of my degree. I started about a month ago. It's quite exciting. Esspecially since I am loving my project.

I have decided to look at Morbid Curiosity - about people's fear and fascination with death and all that goes with it.

So far I have looked closely at the surgical tools of the trade - forceps of different kinds, mortition needles and cotton thread used for procedures.

I have used the forceps in sculptures made of royal icing - reflecting a long tradition of feasting that carries along all cultures.

I have dyed the thread with a variety of natural and native plant dyes. Being affiliated with green cemeteries. Making this a tradition for myself. I have then used the thread to make textile portraits.

I have looked at waste products of the trade - using the canvas bags woven willow coffins come packed in, as a material to use. I have also got some pacemakers and some mud from graves to work with.

I have looked frankly at gravestones and how they are deconstructed selves. We get simplified and perfected after our deaths. I wrote a long list of words I strongly associate with myself. But I was unsure how to use them.

I started making patterns for writing or sewing the words until they are unrecognisable and blend into a mess. I then started thinking about secrets, how they define me more. I want to layer the words of my secrets - the ones I would tell no-one. So far I am liking how it looks.

I'll pop a few photos up when I have them. And I am going to make a short video of a slideshow of my medusa piece.

See examples of my work on my facebook or my flickr account

First Post on my new Blog

I thought I'd start a blog to keep my work up to date with the modern world. I have started experimenting with colour, producing very colourful, yet single toned equine portraits. Pictures of which I shall post once I have completed a couple more.

I also started thinking up what my third year university Fine Art project could be. My last one was about Narrative, focusing on the simple way storys get more and more complex, again I'll post pictures at a later date. I want to research Frankenstein and Im thinking of perhaps using it as inspiration to knit either different peoples facial features together or to combine human and animal features.

So hopefully this will develop through this blog, using it as an online sketch book.

I also have a facebook page and my flickr account