Diversify, remap and notice

Three related aspects of my day that link back to my art.

Being a weekend day there is no Marchmeetthemaker prompt so I used the prompt ‘diversify’ as I have gradually started to put my art into different items like the clothing for myself, the custom hats, the wooden boxes. Before Christmas I started to look at another idea with another local small business. He made some small trays / wooden framed wood surfaces and the plan is to see how they might sell. I have hand drawn two so far and the picture below show one of them. I shall have this in the shop to gain feedback from visitors and see whether it is something to continue with or to refine slightly.

As in 2020 I am sure to try a range of new ideas and see how they sell and what feedback I give. I have gained confidence the last few years to try new ideas out.

Remap is my task for tomorrow’s meeting with my fellow co-tenant in the shop. I measured the shop wall spaces with Anne, my wife on Saturday morning and the floor area taken up by the other artist’s displays. I had not decided on a layout for my own units at that time.

On Saturday afternoon I took myself down to move furniture around and try out some ideas. I came to a layout that suits what I want to do and will use the coloured walls behind my displays well to reinforce my brand. This meant today that I needed to redraw yesterday’s map with the new layout, recheck all the measurements so that we both arrive tomorrow with our set of measurements so we ensure the shop space is shared equally between us. Many changes have happened in the shop since we last had a set of measurements in February 2020. The biggest change for me being the dismantling of my ‘Art for fun’ table made unviable because of social distancing needs. The other artist has also changed much of their display furniture for new units.

My hope is that it will be a relatively simple matching of measurements by each of us and that we do not need to do any or very little remeasurements and can agree a new plan for 2021. Also we need a plan to replace our heavy scaffolding board sign that I made and they sign wrote as the wooden board it was attached to has rotten and will not support such a weight, we are in discussions with the landlord about repairs to the board. I also never want to be in the situation of catching a falling sign or worse it hitting someone else. The old sign can be modified and be used in the shop, but that would need to be a joint decision. I will blog about the meeting outcomes possibly tomorrow.

Notice is my way of being in my local environment built or natural and seeing examples that might be good to draw and often taking photographs to help plan ideas.

I am always noticing things when I am out and about, some of it could be described as noticing or observation or just being plain nosey – a key attribute for being a good geographer in my previous career. I am going to share some photos from today’s two walks that saw me cover 12 km in the end today.

Our home and that of several friends and acquaintances are in this picture. I haven’t drawn as much of Swanage’s built environment yet but it is a subject I have enjoyed previously.

I have started experimenting with my phone and camera in taking different angles of pictures that might provide some possible scenes. For Purbeck Art Weeks 2019 I drew an imaginary flight with an artist and a paraglider pilot over Corfe Castle.

This is a set of local steps to the beach at Sheps Hollow at then end of the managed beach. The stairs and path have been falling away, are patched and then damaged again. This gentleman I watched this afternoon climbed around barriers further up the path but was unable to descend the steps and turned and went back. We also have some beach huts damaged by landslides. I have been taking photos of these several times a week for 7 months now and will be doing some art that catalogues the natural changes on our stretch of coastline.

I love the northern end of the bay and it is an area I have drawn very little but have also been monitoring. Both this and the last aspect link back to my work teaching geography and geology previously.

This is the most rock that I have seen of the edges in the northern section of the bay. I have previously seen a boat perched on one, caught out on a very low tide. As this is unusual to see it would make a good focus.

I used the sports setting to take a continuous set of images of a wave coming in. Drawing waves is an ongoing development in my work. I am pleased with how my work has developed already but waves can vary so much I will keep working on my record of them in drawings.

So a good day for me, what about you?

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