Day 320: Burning up the sun...

Today has been one of those beautiful days where the sun's been shining all day long. So the best thing to do on a bank holiday is to get out in the sunshine.


We are about to head down to the beach and have a BBQ. Now as I'm writing a creative blog, I'm going to pose this question, is making a fire on the beach classed as creative? I mean, all we're going to do is destroy it, so can it be called creative?

Well, either way, when the weather's like this if you can claim anything outside is creative, then do it. The sun might go in tomorrow, so best make the most of it, eh?

Enjoy the sunshine!

Day 242: Barbara Hepworth

In the year 1965, Barbara Hepworth, the artist who made all these amazing sculptures, died in a fire at her studios in St Ives, Cornwall. Since then, her studio has been restored and opened up to the public.

In January, 2010 I had the pleasure of visiting this studio. It was a cold, blustery day, so my boyfriend and I had the place to ourselves. The garden is filled with her sculptures which we spent ages looking at, sharing our opinions.

Perhaps the strangest thing is her workshop, which stands still in history, unchanged from the day she left it. The calender reads May '65. The tools lay on the bench next to the unfinished sculpture, waiting to be picked up again.

Hepworth was 72 when she died and had a lot of help making her sculptors by that time. But her memory is held in that place, held in her sculptors, both complete and incomplete.

If you get a chance, take a trip down there. St Ives is a beautiful place with art, the sea and a cream tea waiting for you!

If St Ives isn't your thing, try the new Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire. It opens in May 2011 and will be home to rarely seen works by Hepworth as well as pieces by Turner and Henry Moore. If it's British art you're after, look no further.

Day 86: Where is right for our creativity?

Wood has long been a material people have used to be creative. Nowadays, you see sculptures in public spaces like parks and forests. You know, the kind of places where you would naturally find wood anyway, even if the sculptor wasn't there.

But the other day, I found myself surprised to see a wooden sculpted plaque by the sea. It was overlooking the sea, next to a road. Carved on it was fish and other creatures of the sea. When I looked at it I thought how beautiful it was and you know why? It wasn't because it was more beautiful than any other carving I'd seen, but simply because there was no other wood around. It wasn't where you would naturally find wood.

All of this got me thinking about creativity and where we expect to see it. Sometimes, I go to an art gallery and think, well, there's nothing here to shout about. Is that because I'm in a gallery? Do I expect to much? I wander if I had stumbled upon one of those painting in a office waiting room, would my reaction be different?

One of the first times I went to Bath I saw a poem which had been carved into the pavement on the high street. It was beautiful and brilliantly creative. Who would have thought the paving slab outside 'Gap' would be the perfect place for poetry!

I encourage you to think about your art, music, dance, animation...where would you, could you, shouldn't you, put it? Is that where it would be the most beautiful, where it would appear the most creative? How could YOU get it out there, get it noticed?

Something to think about...

Day 83: Calling all makers...

If you are into creating out of ceramics, textiles, wood, synthetics, metal or even recycled materials then I have found the exhibition for you.


Salisbury Arts Centre is calling all artists/makers over the age of 16 to submit their creations by Friday 1st October. Then ALL entries will be exhibited together in November and December. You are even in with a chance of winning £200!


So, what do you make? Don't think it's not good enough. Do you think Michelangelo thought he was good enough to paint the Sistine Chapel? You have to be in it to win it. Leona Lewis would not be doing what she loves if she hadn't started somewhere. Maybe this is your somewhere! Who knows where it will lead...? (Check out Day 69 to see how it worked for me.)

To find out more about it, check out the website and download the submission form.

Start small...think big!