Trip to Lisbon

During May we went for a short break to Lisbon in Portugal. I’d been there once before for work and had really wanted to go back to explore it further. We stayed in a lovely boutique hotel with views from our balcony overlooking the river.

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And as the hotel was high up, the views extended over the surrounding rooftops.

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Walking around the streets I was amazed by the beauty of the many tiled buildings and the variety of patterns…

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Even the streets were paved in pattern…

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Built on seven hills the streets of Lisbon can be extremely steep. Trams are a great way to get around the city (if you can manage to squeeze in!)

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And a visit to Lisbon is not complete (in my opinion) without a visit to Pasteis de Belem for their amazing custard tarts. The custard recipe is a well-kept secret and even the pastry makers don’t know it!

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Enjoy!

 

Trawler Paper launch

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I’ve been attending a local meetup group, Made in Leigh, which was set up to give local, freelance creative types the chance to meet like-minded people in the area. In addition to the fortnightly meetings, the group has also organised a series of talks and now produce #TrawlerPaper.

Trawler, is a publication that contains stories, photo essays and interviews written by people about their passions, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. The first edition of Trawler Paper was launched in July 2015, which sourced Crowdfunding to cover the printing costs (everyone kindly contributes their time for free). This proved to be so successful that it also part-funded this second edition.

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A visual conversation with yourself

In this edition I have written an article entitled: ‘A visual conversation with yourself’. The article tells the story of my experience during the creative journal workshops I’ve been attending at Metal (I’m now attending my 5th series of workshops!)

You can read about other journal work I’ve created below:

Creative Journal Course, Creative Journal Course – autumn and about the Creative Journal Exhibition we held at Village Green last year.

A second life-drawing session

  • Mar 26, 2016
  • /
  • Art

I took part in my second life-drawing session at Metal on 13 March (you can read about my first session here). Having attended a full day on my first session, I thought I would try a half-day this time. I certainly found it less exhausting than a full day, as drawing from observation can be very tiring, and I felt I got much more out of this session.

In the morning we had a female model and again used a combination of props, costumes and lighting to add drama and intrigue to the poses.

To warm up we began with five, three minute poses, using charcoal.

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Followed by two, five minute poses.

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The following two poses were 30 minutes each and combined props, strong lighting and fabrics. I chose to use collage and mixed media to help capture the dramatic lighting effects and the different texture of the materials.

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