From Dining on Plastic to Seasonal Plastic

In December I put all the plastic bags I collected from charity shops, museums, supermarkets and the cheese shop inside one of the bags  and stashed it under my work table with the idea that I am going to do a snapshot of the months in plastic over the year. Not exactly dining on plastic, more seasonal plastic.  I wonder whether the attitude about plastic will change it, whether marketing, colour, size will change as the year wears on?

I love that the Waitrose bag had a winter theme and I chose to put some complete writing on this piece in case I decide to use it for something I am submitting to. It says holiday, winter, joyful abundance to me.

I worked in a furious sort of way following ideas one after the other for a day and half.  These are not in order of making. 

Having just spent a long time working mostly in an observational way, I enjoyed playing with all the same elements but in an inutitve and differently restricted way.  Most of these are first drafts.  I may free float them, put them on a surface and use paint to make them relate to their edge differently.  

front

back

 I wondered about mounting this one directly under glass so you could see both sides.  Which is 
'good plastic'?

And is there a male or female aesthetic in collage, in plastic? 

Color possesses me

The title for this piece comes from a Paul Klee quote, ' Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter." 

I began with the latest pieces of plastic I had acquired: a Marks and Spencer's bag, a Jacobs cream crackers packet, a bag of mixed nuts, salad bags, and a Doriano biscuit wrapper.  I added a bit of that kelly green from an old RA mailing (not members this year) because I needed that. I had been thinking about Klee, Mali Morris - she's coming to talk in Colchester on Friday, Howard Hodgkin and Rothko.  In my mind these people gravitate towards bold shapes and colours. The Marks and Spencer's bag and my recent foray into grids for Nichola Orlick's exhibit in Kyoto was still in the back of my mind. I had finished putting a portfolio together for something coming up, so felt light, happy.  It was happy hour.

With my stitching I like to accentuate colour relationships, to move them back, bring them forward and the colours in the frame seemed to make the most of the inner life of the happy hour. It was hard to keep it simple but I resisted the temptation to complicate things.

High Stile was where we stayed in the Lakes.  Happy Hour in HIgh Style says Jazz to me.

The above is copied from my post in Dining on Plastic: http://diningonplastic.blogspot.co.uk
(sometimes I like to highlight the overlap between my experiments in plastic and all the other experiments I make in other media … apologies if you see it in two places.  

This bouquet was sent to me for Mother's Day by our adorable children from a florist in Kersey, a village nearby. I was still quite sick on Mother's Day and rushing to prepare for our trip to the Lakes, but I managed to record something about it in my new altered sketchbook:

The flowers travelled in the Defender up to the Lakes, back down and were beautiful until Saturday morning when I went out and picked a bouquet with my niece, Gracie. You might recognise some of the objects, reconfigured.  I glued some paper onto the vase. 

Spring Green and Book, pastel on paper,  A4