A Love Heart each day.......



I love Hearts and I often use them in my designs. I thought it would be fun this week to post a heart piece a day up until Valentines day next Sunday. This is the first, its a collage I did for my etsy shop a while ago. I love its clean colours and its simple design. I also liked the idea of lovehearts growing like flowers.
www.etsy.com/shop/sarahjarrett

Red, White & Black New Illustrations.......


Since Christmas I've been working on new illustrations for my agent ( Pure Design ) to take to New York for meetings with clients this week. I do like working under pressure as it forces you to think quickly and I've enjoyed producing a lot of new pieces. I particularly like the red, white and black illustrations of which I've posted a sample selection. Most of them are Christmas images. See what you think....
Its back to collage now, I'm just starting a job making a series of food collages commissioned by a client. I really like switching between different media as I approach them all quite differently. I've been drawing out designs and colouring and layering them in Photoshop on all the recent work I've done, now I'll be papercutting and pasting. My collages take a long time to build up - selecting and rejecting colours and surfaces and hours of snipping away with tiny embroidery scissors - its very rewarding though.
My studio feels cold today, even with the woodburner going and snow flurries keep blowing past the window. My brother is up at the North Norfolk coast collecting driftwood for his sculptures, thinking of that makes me glad to be working inside.....

Showcasing.....


I'm always keen as a visual artist to find different opportunities to showcase my work and I've found some interesting links recently.
'BUILT' is a collection of web designs, web apps, illustrations, logos, photographs, and creative individuals all sharing their work and their stories. Its new and has only recently got going. If you are a creative, its interesting to take part in and post. Have a look:


Another interesting site is 'Shownd' which offers free online showcasing space to creatives. If you have a photostream on Flickr you can upload direct from your sets. I've just started mine but see what you think:


My last find is another great blogging site with some really great layouts and creative potential is - 'Tumblr'




Out walking with my camera....



I've been out walking a lot during the Christmas break inspired by the frost and snow coating the landscape. This image was taken on Boxing Day at Wheatfen in Surlingham. Its such a beautiful peaceful place, I can walk to it over the fields from the end of our garden and although I've been there countless times, the seasons change it so much there's always something new to see and I never tire of it. I love to go there with my camera. I was really pleased to get this image. The reflections of the trees in the pool and the light was just right. I went back again yesterday in the snow to take more of the same spot but it was completely iced up, so I took lots of images in the woods instead where everything was powder coated with snow and looked incredible....




The Art Club Winter Exhibition.....


Its such a busy time of year and this coming weekend the three Art Clubs I run for children just outside Norwich in Norfolk come together to showcase this term's work in a Winter Exhibition. The theme is 'colour' and there are some fantastic and inspiring pieces of work on show in fabric collage, paper mache, painting and printing. There will be more examples in my Art Club blog- see
and on the Art Club and Mix Up Website- see-
If you want to come and see the show its at
St Mary's Church, Surlingham on
Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 December
from 9.30 - 3.30 daily
( note Sunday service at 11am)

New Online Portfolio....


I've redesigned my online portfolio and I'm really pleased with how it looks. View it and tell me what you think...
www.wix.com/sarahjarrett/sarah
I've been really busy lately doing a lot of workshops in schools all over Norfolk for the Science, Art and Writing Trust. Its been a fantastic experience, I've been involved in it for several years now and I feel like I learn a great deal every time.
http://www.sawtrust.org/

New printed circle paintings.....












I've been working on a whole series of abstract pieces lately for an interior design company mainly using digital media- long hours on photoshop and it reignited my inbuilt passion for shape and pattern so I've been doing some immediate hands on printed paintings for my Etsy shop and to escape the virtual world!
'Aqua Circles' and 'Crimson and tangerine circles' shown here are the two I've just listed. See
I love working in this way and playing about with the endless combinations and arrangements of simple shapes and patterns.
I wanted them to look very bold and primative with strong colours and to echo Indian or African textiles.




New illustration work.....


Its the end of the Summer Holidays which always feels a significant point in the year. Both my children are now at Secondary school this term so it was an early start getting them out to catch the school bus today. It also meant a much earlier beginning to my working day which was great.
This is one of the new illustration pieces I've finished recently. I have so many new ideas for things I want to do, I feel like my mind is literally buzzing! I love gardening paraphenalia- all the tools, pots, plants, seed packets and the different jobs involved at different times of year. I want to do a whole series of pictures documenting these themes. I'd also like to do the same with cooking and baking.

Butterflies





I've been working on the theme of Butterflies for a while recently and have all three of these images for sale in my Etsy shop. I think they are such an ideal decorative icon, I never get tired if trying to interpret them in different ways.
My favourite is the large collage butterfly to the left. I particularly like the colours and I used a lot of sweet foils in the collage which gives it a really shiny surface.

Food, glorious food......



One of the main themes in my work is food. I have always loved to cook and eat good food and I think this has naturally become an interest in my artwork.
I am particularly attracted to the arrangement of things - bowls, cups, teapots, cooking implements- still life really, and I like to play about with this idea in my collage illustrations.
I also love the decorative potential in food - colours and patterns etc and I make most use of this in some of my paper mache pieces. My paper mache cake boxes play this idea to the full. I have both of these for sale in my etsy shop.
At the moment I'm working on some images of 'cup cakes' using collaged fabrics. Again very decorative and patterned. I hope to post them soon.







Flowers - Painted Photographic Prints











I began my freelance career making large photographic colour prints of flowers and painting on to them with oils, sometimes I stitched onto the surface with a sewing machine. I hadn't seen any other photographic work that had stitched surfaces and I thought it was an interesting idea. It added another dynamic and gave the pieces a different quality. I gained a lot of early success with card and poster publishers with these images and I think it was because the idea was unusual and original.
I still make photographic pieces and continue to add other elements using collage and painting to experiment and explore. I am always drawn to flowers and still life objects. I like very simple arrangements. My main focus is always the differing qualities of natural light and of colour.
In my Etsy shop I sell prints and posters but I also have some original pieces for sale. This is the only venue for buying my originals as I rarely sell them on.
One day I would like to do a book of my flower images integrated with some of my landscapes of Norfolk. I am always recording . I have a plan chest crammed with prints and experiments that I would like to do something with............