sense of place

Art on Paper- What’s not to love?

Ar on paper-what's not to love?
| Liz Ackerley Art

I enjoy working in a variety of media and surfaces, including sketchbooks. I often combine drawing and painting (you can read one of my studio chats about this here).  In many respects, drawing is my first love!  So it is probably no surprise that I love to create art on paper!  However, over the last year or so, I have mainly created finished works on wood: cradle panel or ply.   To an extent, I had moved away from work on paper.  But in the spirit of what I call –‘All that you can’t leave behind’ I have recently returned to it.  Whilst I enjoy layering materials onto boards and the evolutionary nature of it. I also love the fresh, spontaneous works on paper. 

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Find Your Voice 2019: A review

CottonMill series Find your Voice 2019
| Liz Ackerley Art

Over the past 6 weeks I have taken part in a second on-line course called Find Your Voice (FYV) with Louise Fletcher. This is a follow on to the Find Your Joy (FYJ) course. You can read my review, including my results, from FYJ here. The purpose of this second course was to continue to focus on developing our own personal voices. But with an intention in mind and looking at 4 key painting principles: tone; composition; colour and mark making.

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My commissioned illustration projects for 2019: a review

Illustration project review 2019
| Liz Ackerley Art

I’ve delivered a wide variety of exciting commissioned illustration projects throughout 2019. These include: a number of building-related commercial pieces. A wedding in Cheshire. Several key reportage (visual journalism) illustration projects and a book cover! Although I have shared some of these projects in dedicated blogs, this blog is an overview of some of these illustration projects.

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My 2019 Studio workshops

| Liz Ackerley Art

This last week I took part in the oneweek100people challenge, promoted through the Urban sketchers social media sites. The idea is that you post your people sketches on line each day and try to hit 100 in the week. This is the first year I actually completed the task and it got me thinking about the importance of continued practice, continually learning and honing skills. This is important both to improve my own art but also to be a good teacher. In two weeks time I will be starting my own series of sketchbook sketching day workshops in my studio.

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Collage creation 2: Materials and Media

Collage framing
| Liz Ackerley Art

In this second of 3 blogs reviewing my collage progress in 2018, I am going to discuss collage materials and media.   The first blog sharing my works from this year is here.  I am not claiming to have developed these techniques off the top of my head. Those interested in collage materials will no doubt of tried and used many of the elements I will discuss. However, all of the work I am presenting on my blogs is my own and the final results represent my own way of seeing and creating.  It’s important, once you have an understanding of techniques and your own areas of interest, to follow your own path.  There is plenty of opportunity for that with collage!

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Collage Creation 1: In the beginning…

COLLAGE LIZ ACKERLEY ART
| Liz Ackerley Art

Over the last 12 months I have started my journey into collage creation.   It has not been without its ups and downs.    I am used to drawing from life, using pens, ink and watercolour.  However,  I also crave texture in my visual work.  The materiality of things, their physical form and the feel of their surfaces  fascinates me. I am interested in how that materiality is connected with creating a sense of place.   In addition, composition and colour are important aspects of my visual studies.  Mixed media and collage in particular, are therefore obvious media for my exploration.   Moreover, they enable individuality and an opportunity for endless experimentation!  

 In this series of 3 blogs, I’m going to share some of the inspirations and approaches I’ve taken so far.  I will also discuss some of the techniques and media that I’ve started to explore more recently.  The aim is that these additional approaches will help support a particular uniqueness and ‘own voice’ to my work. 

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Urban Collaging in Porto (Prit, Poscas and pencils are perfect for Porto)…

bridgecollage_lizAckerley
| Liz Ackerley Art

Those of you that follow me on my blog and on my social media platforms will realise that I have been developing my collage work for a while, alongside my sketching work (see previous Urban Sketching in Porto blog).  However, my trip to Porto is the first time that I have developed my urban collaging pieces out on location.  Collage for me is a natural mixed media technique.  With a background in landscape design and an interest in the materiality of things, it gives me the opportunity to explore both texture and composition and to present them in a finished piece of art.    This blog shares the approach I have taken to develop the sketchbook pieces and explains their possible future development. Continue reading →

Create Longridge: My day of extreme sport!

LizsScribbles_CreateLongridge5
| Liz Ackerley Art

This weekend (July 15th 2017) I attended my first ever proloco event in Longridge Lancashire. The Create Longridge event was launched in September 2016 and challenges artists to create a brand new, original piece of art, from scratch, in one day. And what a day it was! I decided to attend after seeing the event on social media. I was interested in learning more about these types of events and as I sketch on location and enjoy the process of capturing places (and people) from life it seemed like a good idea! Continue reading →

Sketching Kendal

LizsScribbles_Kendal1 Travel
| Liz Ackerley Art

Its always great to sketch in a new place, especially one with history and character, so when one of the Manchester Urban Sketching Group organized a trip to her home town-Kendal in Cumbria yesterday, I was keen to make the trip. It’s always great to see what you can capture of the place and to see a place with your own eyes after seeing it through other local sketchers eyes.Like a true urban sketcher, I love to travel and visit other places to draw so we set off early to get there in good time for our meet up at the Brewery Arts Centre. Continue reading →