sketchbook project – Mixy's Art Blog

17% Quirkfulness

I spent most of a day putting together the little concertina sketchbook that I’m using for the 100 Day Project this year AS WELL AS the Sketchbook Project.

Most every time I’ve taken on these projects, I’ve overclocked myself.

Given that I’ve already missed the deadline for the SBP by 6 months I thought to mash up these two projects.

Let’s see what becomes of it.

Some thoughts on Quirkfulness.

As I cut and glued and trimmed and finagled together the concertina pages, I watched the ebb and flow of acceptance that the stuff I make will inevitably have a wonkiness to it.

Yes, I measured and cut with a ruler. Also Yes, the pages came out a bit skew-whiff.

Yes, I cleaned my brush before I primed the paper, and also Yes, there was still a bit of dark blue paint on it that’s got them a bit streaky already.

Theme established:

It’s all part of the Quirkfulness.

Now, every day as I film and photograph steps in the progress, I remind myself:

Through the ugly stages, the layers i know will get covered up, the point is to carry on.

Quirkfulness is my style, it’s a feature not a bug.

It’s a sketchbook, not rocket surgery.

It’s okay to be okay with this.

Today we reached day 17 and I’m fully in my stride with daily progress, an idea of what the finished piece will look like, and all manner of chaos on and around my desk!

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Hi – I’m Mixy!

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Insta @mixygregory
MadebyMixy.com

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2021 sketchbook project

I filled the pages of this little book with 100 tiny paintings…

As I write, this little book is somewhere between here and Brooklyn awaiting scanning, processing and being homed on the library shelves.

Meanwhile, you can visit my tiny gallery, page by page from the comfort of your screen, right here 🙂

If you’d like to read more about how this came about, I wrote more about it here.

See videos like these before anyone else by joining up for almost regular monthly updates by email.

Hi – I’m Mixy!

I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.

I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.

You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too

Insta @mixygregory
MadebyMixy.com

Join Me!

Get monthly-ish Studio Musings Newsletter.

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Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

100 tiny paintings

If you follow my Instagrammings, you’ll have seen some cryptic posts about my *secret project*. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag…

This year’s entry to the Brooklyn Art Library’s sketchbook project is a little different.

During the COVID lockdowns one thing I’ve really missed is visiting art exhibitions and galleries, soaking up the inspiration, being surrounded by likeminded people.

So to mark this very strange part of history I’ve used painted papers and screen prints from my studio to create a tiny gallery of tiny paintings in the pages of this book.

I began by cutting small pieces from the papers I chose and developing the shapes and colours I had as a starting point to make each individual tiny painting.

They range in size between less than an inch to maybe 3 inches at the largest.

Naturally, the journey from start to finish took a few diversions on the way.

I considered stitching them into patchworked pages.

I like the effect of doing this, but went back to the ‘gallery’ idea. I’ll circle around to this idea another time.

Then my thoughts wandered to mandalas.

Could I make 100 tiny mandalas? …yes I could, but the deadline was looming so this is another idea on hold for another time. Meanwhile the ones I made are finding a home in my sketchbook for now.

Eventually I settled back on the original idea, and I just got it all done in time to mail it off to Brooklyn.

It will be part of the permanent collection after it’s arrived and been scanned, so you’ll be able to view it in real life or in their digitized library soon.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to watch a flip through with close ups of these weeny little pictures, be sure to catch my newsletter later this week.