Karen Akers Art

ARTS AND CRAFTS COURSE

Beginners Textile Skills Contemporary Embroidery Inspired by Landscape

Monday 8 January 2024 - 5 weeks - 16:30 - 18:30

On this course you will develop your embroidery skills, by learning a range of hand embroidery stitches to create unique pieces of art.

For more information or to enrol on this course, click on the link: https://adultlearningcumbria.org/?title=KEN23C050

Bag made nearly entirely from recycled jeans. (Lining was bought as I didn’t have enough of anything I thought went well enough)
Started as a landscape embroidery and grew from there.
Handles are a couple of waistbands and the main body is made from the legs.
Given as a gift so couldn’t share until after Christmas.

New pens and paints for Christmas!
Having loads of fun doodling with no real purpose but I am teaching a mixed media class in January so we’ll call it research 😉

It’s done! What a job to find small red baubles! You’d think it was Christmas or something.
I’m pleased with this but you should see the wreaths my students made - all totally amazing!
If anyone would fancy me repeating a rag rug wreath course at Kendal Library next year let me know.

Monoprint and collage on canvas.
Really pleased with this.
All a bit of an experiment that turned out better than I expected.

I’ve pulled some bits of work together to put on a table at tomorrow’s Christmas Fair at Vicarage Park School. I’ll also have some greetings cards and some other bits and pieces not pictured.
If you’re in Kendal pop along - you can also ask me about Family Learning classes - there’s a Christmas themed one coming up 🎅🏼😊

Bye-bye Autumn and your damp orange strewn footpaths. 🍂 🍁

This is how I draw now! Pen in one hand dog on other!

I have a sketch book of things that make me go “Ooo!” - A visual diary of my year.
Last Wednesday was the day I see the sun in my rear view mirror, as I’m driving home from work, starting to set directly behind the Sir John Barrow Monument in Ulverston. I won’t see it peek out from behind the hill again until late January.

This was fun.
Playing around with painting and drawing exercises for classes.

The Tree
A decorative doodle.
Inspiration is fairly obvious

Fresh from the printers!!!!

Our beautiful charity Christmas cards have landed, and this year feature two of our ex residents, Belle and Mistletoe.

Huge thank you to Karen Akers for the artwork and the University of Cumbria Print Unit for the printing.

Available in store at just £4.50 for a pack of 10.
🎄🐈🎄🐕🎄🐕🎄🐈🎄

Animal Rescue Cumbria

Sea and Sand
Collage of gel printed paper. - Paint/pen/whatever works, will be added next.
Photo 1 - where I am now.
Photos 2-7 How I got there.
It’s small, only about 6x6, I don’t usually do fiddly but I’m really enjoying the process and it’s got the “vibe” I’m after.

We were gel plate printing today in class.

This is the bag of acrylics and various bits and bobs needed to gel print that I carefully sorted and packed ahead of time so that I wouldn’t be faffing at the last minute.
This is the bag of acrylics and various bits and bobs needed to gel print that I managed to walk past on my way out to work and leave behind!

Luckily I had the plates in a different bag and it’s only a quick mad dash from work to The Works and Poundland!

I’m better off when I faff!!!

My Art and Mixed Media students were bouncing ideas for alternatives to a printing press on Tuesday.
One of the ideas was to use a pasta machine;
And….. It works a treat for small plates! 😃
I’ve now used it far more as a printing press than I ever did as a pasta maker.

This was fun! Salad spinner art. Messing with ideas for creating decorative papers.

I'm running this at Kendal Library every Tuesday morning for the next few weeks. If any parents, carers or grandparents are interested get in touch - details on the poster.
(Guess the books based on the photos..)

Damson season 😊
Sketch book study - watercolour and pen.

Having a play with some very basic Lidl watercolours, and my 30 year old Cotman set, a mix of cheap felt tips and some fine liner pen ahead of a couple of watercolour and mixed media classes starting next week.
A bit more cutsie than I generally paint but really enjoying it and I rather like the finished abstract floral effect.

Sketchbook study inspired by the blue super moon. Collage/mixed media - But I put the wrong date.. oops 🙊

This is worth a watch - Art Transforms

Our Lives - Series 7: 1. Art Behind Bars A former offender returns to the prison where he learnt to paint to teach art.

Flower pounding - capturing the garden flowers on the last day of meteorological summer.
The begonias were a bit squashy but I quite like the splash effect. 🌸 🌺 🍃

The P6 pupils from West Kilbride Primary School worked alongside our freelance Arts Education Officer, Karen Teal and retired Arts Therapist, Fiona Macintosh exploring the theme ‘meaningful but indescribable objects’.

This part of the exhibition is titled ‘Clay and Cloth’.
The children have created vessels made from clay, adding an object that they value most from their ‘space’ inside a cloth pouch.

Places, Spaces, Traces Exhibition in collaboration with Cas Holmes Artist at The Barony Centre 31 August - 7 October.

Please like and share.

Water soluble oil pastels! I had no idea that such a thing existed!! Good old TK Maxx

Discovering how well tissue paper prints on a gel plate has been a bit of a revelation collage wise!
Bit pleased with this small piece. I’ve started adding other media, like oil pastel and pencil but will stop now and stare at it for a bit while I decide what it needs.

Assorted papers, printed and ready to collage.
Given that my prepped backgrounds are only 5”x5” and 7”x5” I may have over printed a teeny bit!

These coils worked, although in close up I’ve realised I’ve been a bit slapdash with the glue 🙊
Nice way to use up old comics.

This is driving me bonkers! I’m trying to make fabric coils for an idea I have for one of my classes.
I’ve got in a tangle, stabbed myself, unraveled constantly, knotted up and repeatedly found myself going backwards!
It’s supposed to be easy to do - 🤨

I finally grew an edible fig!!! To celebrate I had a go at immortalising it in scraps and stitch.
The fig tasted good - just like a fig in fact!