All change.

 Once again, it’s been a long time since I posted, I guess that’s what student life does to a person. You get so wrapped up researching, creating, writing essays and everything else that goes along with studying. I be had a whale of a time though. It’s been one of the best experiences of my life. It all started in September 2017. I did a Batchelor of Arts and graduated in 2020 (virtually thanks to Covid) with a first class honours degree and then, despite saying I would never do it, I did a part-time Masters degree for the last 2 years and I graduate with a merit on Friday 18/11/2022. That’s it, Student finance ends at 60 years old so I’m out of time, although I doubt I would have gone on any further anyway. I’m satisfied now I proved I’m not the dumb schoolgirl my teachers thought I was back in the 1970’s. Now, I’m the most highly educated person in my family too. 

Soooo, what next? 

I’ll shortly be registering for self-assessment (UK) and beginning a new career as a self-employed Professional Portrait Artist. I’ve been creating some pieces in and amongst my studies. Some personal portraits along with some generic portraits, the latter of which will be turned into Fine Art prints. I hope to have a website done before Christmas where some of my portraits can be bought direct.

I still do crafting when the mood takes me, though nowhere near as often as I’d like. There just aren’t enough hours in the day for me. I can’t believe under the old rules, I would be retiring next year, but here I am starting a new business. Once upon a time 60 and being a pensioner seemed like OLD, but I don’t feel old and knackered and ready to rest my weary bones. I feel no different that I did at 50, 40, 30 or even 20. Yeah, my body is creaking a bit (OK, a lot) but I’m still raring to go. I feel I still have loads to give this world, instead of giving up. 

If there’s anyone still following me, thank you, if you’re new to me and a crafter, page back for crafting inspiration, hints and tips. There’s still a lot of relevant content and you never know, I might update again before I pop my clogs. LOL. 

Here’s a few pieces of recent art.

Fine Art Giclee Prints available

I now have a small number of high quality Fine Art Giclee prints available for purchase in respect of the pictures below.
If you are interested in owning a print or maybe even the original please contact me at : yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.co.uk

In the shade And Meandering along

Another two in my series of pictures down Shelf Woods, close to my home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK. Again acrylic on canvas board.
Prints of these will be available shortly and prints of the previous three will be available even sooner, as they are currently at the printers for digital scanning.
If you are interested in owning either a print or the original you can reach me through Facebook or send me an e-mail at : yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.co.uk

Waterfall

Encouraged by positive comments on Facebook about the way I’ve painted water, and my recent addiction to painting in acrylics, I felt inspired to ‘go for it’ and paint this waterfall which is at the bottom part of Shelf woods bordering with Coley woods (Halifax, West Yorkshire, UK). It is a photo I took some years ago now and I used to walk here a lot with my Whippet Meg. It is a special place too, because I believe it to be the site my Grandma used to call ‘the burn down’ where some of my ancestors lived. I was also told recently that it could have been the site of the Shelf flour mill which had a waterwheel, but at this time I haven’t been able to verify that. I certainly can’t think of another waterfall big enough in Shelf woods to support a waterwheel. Interesting though.

Shelf Woods 2

So, this is the second acrylic painting at the same location as previously, just closer to the fallen tree and a slightly different angle. Considering that my preference has been portraiture, I’m really enjoying the freedom that landscapes have. After all, no-one really notices a mistake with landscapes, but make a mistake on a portrait and everyone notices. For now.. let’s see how far this goes.

First unsupervised woodland painting

Following on from the weekends workshop I have now finished this piece. It is taken from a photo (my own) in the woods near where I live and is done in acrylic. I think I might be starting to like scenic paintings.

Trees and Woodland workshop

Last weekend I attended a workshop in the Lake District. I’ve struggled with acrylics due to how quickly they dry and I like to spend time blending. I also love trees and woodland so I thought it would be a challenge. I had an amazing time, despite some reservations I had on the days before. Anyway, the first day we did some 5 x 7” studies and on the second day we went larger. I didn’t get to finish this at time but I did finish it at home. It’s been done from a reference picture supplied by the tutor so cannot say where it was taken.

Memory Book 6

OK..... so I know Memory book 5 is missing but that’s because it is in use as my art journal for college. It’s not my finest piece of work as it was created in a rush, so I don’t (at this stage) intend to publish it.

Anyway here is number 6. I’ve included a list of items used as I know some of you like details of specific items, so,

I hope I’ve included everything.

Tonic 2117e Memory book die set
Tonic 172e Believe/Love frames
Tonic 2526e Memorable moments keepsake insert die set
Creative expressions dragonfly die
Creative Expressions lace border die
Tattered Lace bluebell die
Angela Poole Magic Windows slide and reveal die set
Honey Doo carnation stamp and die set
Rare Earth inspirations stamp sets
Sheena Douglas bluebell stamp
Woodward tag punch
Crafters Companion butterfly stamp
Kanban Floral card
Kanban pale blue polka dot card
Generic navy blue card.

Sorry, I’ve had to include it as a link as the file was over the max allowed. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHSUCGD-Kv/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=qd3khb1tmn7q

Memory book 4

This is the first memory book with a hard cover and a clasp on the front. It is made with Kanban cardstock and flower stamps from Heartfelt Creations. This memory book is available please contact me at yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.co.uk if you are interested in purchasing it.

Memory book 2

This is my second memory book and was made with an old card kit that had been pushed to the back of a drawer ever since I got it. Since I’d gone off the idea of making cards with it, I decided to use it as a memory book. In actual fact I got two books out of it, this one and one a little smaller. 

These two are available to purchase, please contact me at yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.co.uk for more info.

Memory book 1

I have not completely forsaken crafting, but, instead of card making I now make Memory books. This is the first I made and it is a combination of photos of my Grandma and all the yummy baking recipes she shared with me.
If you would like to commission a book please drop me a line at yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.com

Digital Art

I have also been trying my hand digital Art on an iPad. Here are some of my efforts. If anyone is interested in purchasing a print please contact me at yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.com for information. I do not have a stock of prints at this time but if there is a demand I can have some made.

Dog portraits

After seeing some work on Facebook by an artist using Pitt pastels, I wanted to try this medium, but, the downside was cost. They are quite expensive. By chance though, I was told by a friend, of a woman who was returning to live in Australia after many years here. To save on shipping costs she was selling much of her artist materials, so I contacted her and went over to see what she had. I managed to get hold of a substantial amount of supplies, including more oil paints, acrylics and a huge collection of Pitt pastels. What a stroke of luck! I didn’t waste long having a go and here are two A4 portraits of my dog, a Parson Russell, and a Springer Spaniel which belongs to a young lady on my course.

I have A4 giclee art prints of these if anyone is interested in purchasing one, £25 each. Please contact me at yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.com for more information.

The Gray Lady

Following on from 21st Birthday I began work on ‘The Gray Lady’. This work is taken from a photo of my daughter by one of her fellow students at De Montfort University, Leicester, Hari Chandana Mabbu who graciously gave me permission to use. Again, I found oil easy to work with. I like the slow drying time because it can be manipulated until you get it right. If you get the colour onto the canvas and it’s slightly out you can blend into it until you get it to where it needs to be. So.... here it is.
I have A3 giclee prints available if anyone is interested in purchasing one. They are £60 each.  Please contact me at yvonnejenningsart@yahoo.com for payment details.

21st Birthday

I’ve always been relatively decent at drawing, but that is all I’ve done, but for Christmas 2017 I asked for a set of oil colours. As soon as I got them, I set off. I knew what I wanted to paint, a portrait of my daughter on her 21st birthday. I drew a grid on the canvas a copied a line drawing across and then set to work. It just seemed to flow so easily and was a pleasure to work with. I was soooooo happy with the result it now sits in pride of place above my fireplace. Here is a picture but I’m afraid it’s not a particularly good quality photo so I do apologise. I really must take a better one.

WOW! Time flies.

Looking back I didn’t realise it has been over 3 years since the last post on here, and yet, so much has changed in that time.
In July 2017, I took the decision to leave the school where I was working. I didn’t really want to because when things were going good, I loved the job, but, they were making it very difficult for me to do it, with a disability. I won’t bore you with the specifics, however, I think I could have made a good case for constructive dismissal.
The year before I had been going to Universities with my daughter, attending interviews and open days. Looking round all the art facilities made me want to do this for myself. When I was 16 I had been working part-time at Tesco’s whilst I did my ‘O’ levels at college and when college finished they offered me a full-time position. My dad said I should take it, even though I wanted to go on to an Art foundation. In the late 1970’s I wouldn’t have dared to stand up to my dad so I found myself at Tesco’s and from there, I went from job to job, only ever happy when there was a challenge, then I would move onto the next job. The school was my longest ever employment and I was there for 11 years.
Leaving the school was a huge relief, not just in respect of the disability but also because of the behaviour of the students and that they wanted to make teaching assistants accountable for grades as well as the teachers. Considering that in the academic year of 2015/16 I had over 60 SEN children on my timetable split over 25 hour long lessons per week, how was that ever to be achieved? Most of the kids I saw was just for one hour every week. It’s just not possible to make a difference to a child’s education when you only see them for one hour a week. Behaviour was horrendous! Disrupted classes, departments manned by supply who couldn’t control/motivate. Kids came to school with the sole intention of disrupting classes because they didn’t want to do the work. So, they’d misbehave and get sent to the behaviour suite where, they got what they wanted. Seriously....... they should bring in the American model. If a student doesn’t reach an acceptable standard in that year, then they are held back and must repeat the year. One of the saddest thing I saw was a young lad who was so addicted to Xbox gaming, he didn’t go to sleep till 3/4am in the morning and then would have to be up for school by around 7am. He drank energy drinks to stay awake, but would be bouncing off the walls being disruptive for most of the day, then he’d go home and repeat the cycle. This was a lad who could have succeeded in class if not for this.
Anyway... back to the story. In 2016/17 I had a lovely little class of at max 15 students, all SEN but not a bad group on the whole. It was a nice way to end my employment there.
My daughter had been at Uni for a year by then and my two boys lived with their father, so it seemed like a good time to look into returning to higher education. I made the application at the beginning of the summer holidays. I had an interview two weeks later and was given an unconditional offer and the rest of the time was just waiting for student finance to go through.
So.... I have been at Bradford College of Art for a year and a half now and I’m absolutely loving every minute. I’m getting good grades (2.1) so I’m mega chuffed with myself. We have a group of 5 of us , which is really good.  We have learnt so much. It’s fantastic. I just wish I could have done it when education was free.
I did stop doing my card making classes because I wanted to concentrate totally on my art without distractions, and that is why I haven’t posted for so long. I also started up a new blog on WIx, but, I’m not sure whether it’s live, as I can’t find it through an internet search, so I’m going to update this one instead.

Where did this year go?

Well I have no idea where this year has gone! I've just posted the last card I did in class and I know there is the one from September still to do. Upcoming tomorrow I am doing this festive little number using Tonic dies.

But back to the subject of time.

March - this was when I had radio frequency done on my lower back. It was supposed to make the pain better but instead it has magnified it threefold. It's the same old story 'if I'd known then what I know now'...I'd never have had it done. I used to bad days with a few good days. Now there's only worse days with bad days and the worse thing is pain cannot be seen so to a casual observer you may be having a good day when in fact all you want to do is curl up and sleep because you are so exhausted from the pain. People ask if you are O.K in greeting but they really don't want to hear again how bad a day you're having so you just reply 'yeah, I'm fine'. And I sometimes just want to beat up the people who call you 'speedo' when you're hobbling along or 'Ooo, I know how you feel, I've got backache today' Really! wipee wow! You have no idea!!
Anyway rant over.

May -June Meetings at work about how things are going to be reorganised. How if we don't do an NVQ3 qualification our jobs may be in jeopardy. So a girl has to do, what a girl has to do! get on with it. So I'm unofficially a student again. Studying, writing essays, answering question, and not one sentence answers.

July - August. Summer holidays! yeahhh. Chillaxing, studying, preparing my next 3 card classes and sleeping. Plenty sleeping.

September. Back to School. I must admit the changes are working out better although some things aren't changing fast enough. but on the whole I don't wake up dreading going to work. I just don't like getting up in the cold and the dark now that it's approaching winter. Dragging my never ending butt (now that exercise is not an option) out of a lovely, cosy warm bed.

November - nearly payday and I have no idea where the last 3 weeks have gone never mind the time since March. I did take Sami to look around De Montfort University in Leicester last weekend. 109 miles one way. I came off some of my painkillers because I was so scared I might fall asleep at the wheel but I paid for it walking round and up to this past Thursday (5 days). But another side is I now want to go to University and study Photography. We went to the Photography section and listened to the seminar then had a tour. I didn't see what was so special about some of the work being exhibited and thought "I can do as good as this". We went into a studio with cameras on display, backdrops, lighting tables and motion picture equipment and all I wanted to do was get my hands on it all. Sami meanwhile never broke a smile. SERIOUSLY? not even when she saw the editing room where there were banks and banks of apple Macs.
Well....... maybe one day. I'll win the lottery or some unknown relative will leave me a load of dosh! LOL

And now Christmas is almost upon us and I have no enthusiasm what-so-ever. I just want to hibernate and wake up in the Spring.

2100hrs. Time to go. I still have jobs to do before I turn in for the night.

Toodles.

Yve

Snowflake shaker card

Snow flake shaker card                                                                            

 

What you need

Creative Expressions Snowflakes Die CED3020

Creative Expressions Let it snow die CED3004
1 x A4 White card folded OR an A5 white card blank
2 x A4 White card
1 x A4 Pale blue card
1 x A5 sheet acetate
Tim Holtz Distress stickles Clear Rock candy
Embellishment Attic Snow Ice
Sparkly glitter White or Silver
Shaker adhesive tape (3D foam tape)
White cotton thread                                       
Glue gun

 Distress Inks used                             

Stormy Sky
Salty Ocean
Tumbled Glass
Shaded Lilac
Chipped Sapphire

 How to

1. Cut an aperture in your base card and cut a larger mat in white to accommodate the width of the shaker adhesive tape.
2. Take the waste piece of the aperture and randomly emboss using the snowflakes dies. You are not cutting so remember to use a tan mat and the embossing plates recommended with your chosen machine. When finished run through again but without the dies.
3. Randomly distress with your distress inks. (debossed side for shaker card and embossed for complementary card)
4. Cut 4 sets of snowflakes (2 x White card 2 x pale blue card) and one blue and one white “let it snow” sentiment.
5. Glue a piece of acetate to the inside of the aperture on the main card.
6. Place the embossed and distressed piece of card and glue it centrally on the mat. Edge with the 3D foam tape ensuring there are no gaps.
7. Hang the smaller snowflakes from the shaker tape with white cotton thread and tip a small amount of glitter, rock candy and snow ice.
8. Remove the protective covering from the shaker tape position the main card aperture over the mat and press down to seal.
9. Decorate the outside of the card.

 

White on black portrait of Daniel Gillies

I don't know any woman who doesn't like a bit of eye candy and in addition to Johnny Depp and Ian Somerhalder I also lurve to swoon over Daniel Gillies (shame he's married - lucky lady).

Anyway............... I just happen to work with an amazing artist (part-time professional) who does white on black portraits/studies. So inspired have I that I've attempted one myself. With the return of 'The Originals' my first portrait is of Daniel Gillies.

My next one of Ian Somerhalder is now underway but don't hold your breath for an early viewing. It took me a few weeks (on and off) to finish this one.

Yve

Box Card class preview.

Coming up in tomorrow's class we have this very colourful box card. Unfortunately this class is now fully booked, however, Jo our very lovely manager believes there may be enough interest to run the class again in the summer. SO...... if you are interested let Jo know and I will gladly oblige.
Just remember though.........make sure you don't have anything to dash off for, as my classes generally run over because we are having too much fun!

 

Happy crafting everyone.

 

Yve