Creative Lives - Unearthing Creativity

Photo credit: Cerys Webber.
In the studio with Pixel, my studio buddy (who always wants to sit on whatever I’m doing),
looking through the many sketchbooks I’ve kept since I was 15!

Last winter, I was invited to be part of a steering group to make an application to the Arts Council Wales Connect and Flourish fund and in spring 2021, discovered that we were successful!
I’m now part of the Creative team alongside (Gareth Coles, Director/Creative Lives; Naz Syed and Kelly Barr (Age Cymru) working to deliver a project we’ve called ‘Unearthing Creativity’. As it says on the tin, it sets out to engage people who are currently creatively inactive, to surface and celebrate the diverse but under-recognised creative activities that take place in communities across Wales.

Just before Christmas, Kelly Donaldson at Creative Lives asked me to write a blog post about my sketchbook habit - the aim being to inspire people to get creative and start a sketchbook practice in 2022. Scribbling in a sketchbook is the foundation of all new creative ideas and practices!

The blog post goes live in January on the ‘Stories of Creativity’ page, Creative Lives.

A pile of 22 sketchbooks (there are many more!)

I’m obsessed with all things Moroccan! The inspiration for this piece below came from looking in the kitchen cupboard when I was staying in Essaouria. The different ingredients were fascinating - their French names sources of wonder. I also bought earth pigments from the local market - names like ‘ Pourpre fumelle’ is weirdly a dark green/purple and ‘Bleu d’Essaouria’ looks brown but is the most amazing shade of Ultramarine. ‘Coquelicot Sauvage’ has to be my favourite. It’s a wonderful dark red.