Tue, 28/05/2024 - 12:48
New Affiliate Member – Florence Mulvey
Meet new Affiliate Member Florence Mulvey, a visual artist adventuring in abstract and landscape painting. Florence has studied at the Birmingham institute of Art and Design where she gained a BA Hons in Fine Art as well as a PGCE in Art & Design from Goldsmiths University.
In pursuit of happiness I dug out my box of oil paints 3 years ago and have become totally hooked on art making ever since. I’m lucky enough to have spent many years teaching inspirational young people how to be confident in their creativity and how to paint. And after much time spent drawing and painting at home, I would now like to get that artwork off the kitchen table and out into the world. Spurred on by a local gallery showing my work, lovely comments on instagram, and a supportive interview with the team at Banks Mill, I'm investigating if and how my arts practice can generate an income. I've been working in the arts for over 20 years, however I am just at the beginning of this journey. The big question right now is, can I make money from my artwork?
Having just joined Banks Mill I've taken part in an Instagram webinar which has been brilliant. I hope to put the skills to good use, to generate sales from Instagram. I'm pretty much signing up to most of the business and art business training I can find. This is a period of research for me. Banks Mill has already put me in touch with some really good opportunities. I look forward to meeting people and taking part in the opportunities posted in the Weekly Bulletin and taking part in more webinars, making connections and learning practical skills on how to get selling my artwork. Iam also looking forward to taking part in the opportunities Banks Mill has to offer.
I have just finished taking part in an online webinar on how to generate an income from instagram. At the beginning of my career, before I started teaching, I worked as an artist assistant to YBA artists, it was a lot of fun and an insight into working for a successful contemporary art business.
A well as this, I’ve worked at reception of the galleries of famous art dealers which provided a window into the world of commercial art. I've been lucky to exhibit in a couple of exhibitions in London and one here in Derbyshire.
I've taught art for many years and through that process of creative collaboration with young people, developed my own practice. I've honed my teaching practice around facilitating confidence and individual creativity. you can never guess what people are going to make!
I am currently working on creating artwork for an artist market stall. For me just now, it's all about how to photograph my artwork and making prints, and building up a stock of things I've already made. The next step is to apply for one of the market stall opportunities I've seen posted , and then get selling. I have canvas’ waiting for more garden and landscape inspired abstract paintings, and I have a sketchbook full of weird drawings of fungus and water soaked woods.
I absolutely love the almost instant abstract paintings that fill my instagram feed, however, I always spend quite a large amount of time on my painting. After initially trying to tune into my instincts for colour, and effectively just blobbing bits of colour all over the canvas, haphazardly to represent light. I then layer the canvas with a white outline drawing of weeds and flowers from my garden. Painting thickly with the pallet knife or with thinned out paint and brushes, I then fill in or leave out shapes of flowers and leaves. It's the bit that takes time and I get lost in painting the tangle of plants, balancing the colours and the marks on the canvas. In other pieces, I have used chalk pastel to explore more minimal ways of representing the woods and the light through trees at different times of the year. When I am feeling like being neat and precise, I create detailed circular drawings of nature and the countryside, teamed up with a poetic line I've made up, or a song lyric that's rattling around my head.
I am at the beginning of my commercial journey . This year is all about exploring ways in which to sell my work and how to make that happen. For me just now, it's all about how to photograph my artwork and make prints, and building up stock of things I've already made. The next step is to apply for one of the market stall opportunities I've seen posted , and then get selling. (fingers crossed.) I have canvases waiting for more garden and landscape inspired abstract paintings, and I have a sketchbook full of weird drawings of fungus and water soaked woods.
I am really excited to be here! Ive been signed up for a couple of weeks and already I have seen plenty of opportunities I want to take part in. I look forward to sharing with you the things I have achieved in my arts practice over the coming year