If you are reading this blog post round about the time that I have published it, I will be on holiday in Croatia. I thought it would be appropriate to write about how the natural sights we have seen and the items we have collected on our holidays have introduced different ideas and pieces of art into my creative life.
Beauty in the items collected
First of all, some of the natural objects that we have come across on our holidays are beautiful enough to be works of art in themselves. This cone for example, came from the cork forests in Spain, near Girona. The chunky structure of this cone is very appealing and tactile. We have it displayed in our stairwell. These round balls of seagrass - tightly rolled balls of plant matter - are apparently called Neptune Balls (!). There were hundreds of them on the beach near Sperlonga in Italy. I took different sizes of them home with me, strung them together on fishing line, and they are now a permanent fixture in our bathroom. These beautiful items serve to remind us of happy times together.
Holiday Art Projects
Most of the time, I take a specific art project with me on holiday to do. When we went to Turkey for example, I took a linocutting project with me. I cut out three different bat linocuts which were destined to be incorporated into a bat fabric design for Estelle’s Halloween costume, which I planned to sew on our return. Here you can see Estelle and I proudly holding our own art projects we were working on while on holiday - and the finished Halloween costume.
Inspiration on Holiday
I have often been inspired by what I see on holiday. Here, you can see the carp collographs I produced after passing a pond of carp everyday while on holiday in Portugal - this ended up as a fabric design too. My flamingo fabric was inspired by a flock we saw canoeing in Mexico.
Bringing the holiday home
Finally, some of what I've collected on holiday comes back with me and is incorporated into a print! Here you can see some leaves I collected in Turkey and printed up on a perspex plate - you can read about the full process here. Every time I look at the hummingbird fabric which uses this leaf print in the background, I think of our holiday in Turkey.
What about you? What inspires you on holiday