"KEEPING ARTISTS-BLOCK AT BAY"

Beryl Here !!!

I hate throwing anything away so I usually have a box of left overs from earlier work. I like to use them up by piecing them together like a jig-saw to create one large piece - hence the photo.

I place layer upon layer of papers, paints, fabrics, anything that might have landed in the box.

I produce these experimental pieces in between times when I am not working to deadlines or producing commissions. This practice dates back to the days when I was at college doing my City and Guilds course. My tutor would always drive the message home not to have long spells without doing any work - it's so hard to get back into creative mode after a spell out. I also found this to be true having experienced it first hand when, during the course, after working under a lot of pressure for a prolonged spell, I decided that when the summer vacation arrived I was going to have eight weeks of chilling and relaxing and no way was I going to touch a paint brush or needle and thread again and wow did I suffer when I got back to college. It took weeks to get the creative juices flowing again and it threw me behind so much that I then had to work twice as hard to catch up  -  LESSON LEARNED !!