The Mysterious Influences of Our Past

First 'finished' version of © Cherry Jeffs 2014 50 x 40 cm Mixed media on canvas

On Collage...

What with designing the free year planner for creatives and a new category icon for my newsletter archive and writing posts about alternative approaches to money and apps for artists, you might be forgiven for thinking I had abandoned making art altogether. 

I'm happy to say this is not the case and my regular studio practice is firmly in place despite the struggle I always have with low energy in February. 

​I recently finished* the first collage-painting in my 'Grow Wings and Fly' series but the wet weather prevented me taking a decent photo of it until today.

*UPDATE: I went back and worked more into this piece. Here's the final result. ​
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...And art college

I experimented with several new techniques in this piece including making collage papers, stitching onto the canvas and making the little ladder out of wooden barbecue skewers and string.

​Making this ladder transported me back in time to making scale models of stage sets for my theatre design degree course at Wimbledon School of Art, and I found myself pondering on the influence it had on my art today.

I am now on the way with the second piece in the series and I have already expanded my range of media even further by including a strip of fabric amongst the elements made from previously prepared collage sheets. Who knows what else might find its way in there!

Work in progress: 2nd piece in the 'Grow Wings and Fly' series © Cherry Jeffs 2014

What past influences affect your work today?

How could you exaggerate or emphasise these to strengthen your creative voice?

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