Thirty Days hath September - Day Eighteen - Alternative Surfaces

Apologies for the late post today, I've only just returned from my project, a demonstration for the lovely Ringwood Art Society. My challenge today was set by the committee who challenged me to demonstrate on 'alternative' surfaces so you know me, I'm always happy to accept an artistic gauntlet.

I thought long and hard about what I was going to share with the group and experimented with several things before settling on my plan for the evening. I only ever have a very loose overview for talks and demonstrations simply because at some point, someone will ask an interesting question and we need to go off at a tangent to answer it.

I wanted to point out the importance of understanding materials, if you're going to start to be terribly experimental. I suppose because I have come from a background of art materials retail, I find the manufacture and make up of art products fascinating and therefore am always on the lookout for what makes a product work in the way it does. I introduced the group to what I use (yes, my car was groaning under the weight of everything I packed) and showed various ways of preparing some more unusual applications such as plastic, fabric, vinyl and slate.

The society were so friendly and welcoming, it is always such a pleasure to be given the opportunity to talk about what I do so thanks to all that came and here is the piece that I demonstrated live for them.

It's a bit twee and it's not going to light any artistic fires, but hopefully someone was watching tonight that hasn't been brave enough to have a go and thought to themselves 'actually I can do that'. That is, after all, why I do what I do.

Tomorrow may be a short blog, Beez (hubby) and I are off to London for the day for a very exciting trip...more to follow.