Aberdour Festival Workshop

Thank you to everyone who participated in the artist book workshop last Sunday 22nd July.  The theme was the village of Aberdour itself, and we were using monoprint, collage and stick and ink to create the content within a concertina book structure.  There was a great deal of hard work and focus, indicated by many spells of quiet in the room....the big book that was created as a collaborative piece will hopefully be on display somewhere in Aberdour, venue to be confirmed...in the meantime here are some snaps of work in progress.

collage and monoprint in concertina book structure

letter stamps in red look great with the monoprint and collage

aberdour pier (below) and a busy road with people driving their caravans and motorhomes to the campsite above

gorgeous stick and ink drawing over monoprint

lovely monoprint textures 

some dinosaurs in the sea, look out for them the next time you're down at the beach...

Aberdour Festival Workshop

I'm running an artist book workshop this Sunday with Susie Wilson, as part of the Aberdour festival.  Check out the programme, there's loads of great stuff going on, and if you fancy making an artist book based on Aberdour pop along to the Church Hall on the Main Street.  The workshop runs from 10-5pm but we're happy for people to come and go if they want to see other things.  This link takes you to the programme:   http://www.aberdourfestival.org.uk

Susie and I will also have work on display in the exhibition space.

Aberdour beach

Coffee cake

I'm very proud of my cake creation, low gi sponge made with agave nectar, so no sugar at all, made up for by tons of sugar in the icing! (I'm sure that could be done with agave too, but I didn't have enough.)  Can't wait to eat it now...

paper page process exhibition

I was involved in an exhibition at the beginning of the year,  paper  page  process,  as part of the Artist Book Group at Patriothall Gallery at Wasps in Stockbridge.  We ran book making workshops, poetry readings and had a great sound installation as well as plenty of artist books and wall work.  The theme was the relationship between our artist books and our wall work which included drawing, painting, concrete poetry and photography.  The Sax Coburg Trio played at our opening, an AMAZING way to start the exhibition.  We got a good 4 star write up in the Scotsman, and my most recent book The Only Way Out is Through was described as an 'intricately cut and folded paper sculpture'.  

my space, plenty of mandalas!

The Only Way Out is Through

this is more of a box containing metal 'pages', is it a book?

the gallery space is fantastic and our work hung really well together

the sun shining through the window created gorgeous illuminated books

random beautiful things

There's a painting in here.

Wow!  This is really worth having a peek at, BEAUTIFUL! http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

I'm going to add some photos from Paint.Print.Page soon, the exhibition was a huge success, with lots of sales and Edinburgh College of Art buying several books from each artist for their collection.  One being my Two Weeks of Mandalas, my most recent book.

Paint.Print.Page: An Artist Book Group Exhibition

As part of the Artist Book Group I am showing handmade books and drawings at our exhibition at McNaughtan's Bookshop (Haddington Place, top of Leith Walk by Gayfield Square), starting on Tues 22nd November till Saturday 3rd December.  There will be a range of different book structures, from concertinas to round books to magic money books...also painting, prints and photography.  There are eight of us in the group, all from a range of disciplines, and we all make artist books alongside other work.

I'm also running a workshop on Sat 3rd December from 1130-1230pm at the bookshop, so you can learn how to make a japanese binding and a round flower book structure.  Only £5 including all materials, book via email:  jennifer.rose.bruce@gmail.com.

The recent work I've been doing follows on from my ideas about energy, spirituality and relationships.  In one book I drew a mandala every day representing my thoughts and feelings, in layers and I experimented with making those things that are pretty much invisible into marks on the page.  Whether or not they mean the same thing to me as they do to another doesn't necessarily matter.  What do you think?  And despite the difficult nature of some of the emotions I think the mandalas are quite beautiful.


I'm also making a drawing for Concert For Trees, at the Usher Hall on 26th November.  This is to tie in with the UN Year of Forests 2011, celebrating all that forests mean to us, and looking at sustainability, forest management and conservation.  There will be music, dance and poetry alongside a little art - my drawing along with prints by another artist will be on display as you go in.  The Conan Doyle Quartet, made from a sycamore tree in Arthur Conan Doyle's childhood garden, will be premiering.

My drawing will be on BFK Rives paper, which is gorgeous and made from 100% cotton rag in France, so no trees were sacrificed.  I'm considering the relationship between us and trees, our interdependence (they give out oxygen for us to breathe, and we give out carbon dioxide for them to breathe) and our emotional and spiritual connection.  I'm considering tree and human mandalas interlaced.