Leaves Mural

Posted on 25th October 2014 by kathrynhockey

I recently finished painting one of my plane tree patterns on a wall plastered with mud in my friends’ straw bale house.

Simple lines in white emulsion paint are very effective on the beautifully coloured and textured mud, which still has straw poking through it in some places

This is the digital version of the design, you can see its evolution here in one of my previous posts

About seven years ago I painted the mural below in the same house, also on a wall plastered with mud, it was then visible in the main living space.

They’ve since built the new internal mud plastered wall to create another room for their expanded family so the first mural is hidden inside the new bedroom.

I enjoyed the whole experience of painting in white on mud so much (and I’m also a bit vain and missed seeing my art work from the living room) so it was lucky that my friends happily agreed to my proposal to paint a mural on the new wall and we settled on a theme of leaves.

This is the bare mud wall

I made this plan for the mural in Photoshop, using the cut out, inverted line work of my original pattern

I then ‘Photoshopped’ it to the photograph of the bare wall to check on the layout before transferring the design to the wall

I started by projecting the image onto the wall and drawing the outline in white pencil but ran into technical difficulties with the electrical equipment. I had to resort to plan B which meant tracing the pattern using chalk on the reverse surface of a printed template and then penciling over the chalk lines, which was far more messy and time consuming but ultimately effective.

This is a detail of the pencil drawing

Here is the partially completed mural

and a head on view of the completed mural without the added domestic decoration

This was a really enjoyable project, completed in many short sessions over a period of several months, combined with delicious lunch visits to my lovely friends.

It also fulfilled my ambition to complete a painted version of one of my digitally designed patterns on a real life wall.

Baby Cockerel Cushion

Posted on 22nd October 2014 by kathrynhockey

This little cockerel cushion is the latest addition to my ‘textile range‘, made from a fabric sample printed with one of my cockerel designs.

I made the baby cushion as a gift for the recent arrival who lives in the house where I sketched the original cockerel, which turned into a stencil

which has since adorned many walls….

and even a few items of clothing……

I was a bit sad to find out recently that despite his regal appearance the cockerel I drew was firing blanks and was put up for adoption, but he died of shock just before his new owner turned up to claim him….just shows, a cocky exterior hides a multitude of insecurities….

Light Hearted

Posted on 7th October 2014 by kathrynhockey

About a week after my Dad had a mild heart attack in the spring of 2014 he had an angiogram to find out which of his coronary arteries might need stents to open them up and improve the blood flow to his heart muscle. He asked the cardiologist if the stents would stop his supraventricular tachycardia – also known as SVT, a sudden acceleration of the heart rate which usually resolves without treatment and causes no harm.

The cardiologist replied “No, this is plumbing and that’s wiring”.

When my Dad told me the story this picture sprang to my mind, almost fully formed.

I started by researching related images and sticking them in my sketchbook and then set about making some sketches.

Heart-moodboard-2-kathryn-hockey-artist-illustrator-web

The power switch and plug represent the sinoatrial node, or pacemaker, which is the area of heart tissue that generates the electrical impulses which cause the heart to beat. My Mum has had a pacemaker fitted so this part also refers to her.

The fairy lights are a celebratory representation of the electrical impulses which drive the heart, they are also inspired by the ring of flowers or thorns which typically adorn a sacred heart and by the nostlgia for the childhood Christmas times when my Dad would take the lights down from the loft, untangle them and replace the dud bulbs ready for my Mum and me to decorate the tree.

Once I was happy with the basic layout I enlarged the rough drawing,

traced it onto my working surface and began to collage.

I used sheet music for the lungs/wings because music, lungs and wings all need air to work properly.

The map which forms the background for the heart and blood vessels is of the Brecon Beacons, my Dad used to lead trekking holidays there for apprentices of the engineering company where he worked as a training instructor. He told me that he’d had a clear out of his old maps and I said “I’ll have them!” but he’d already taken them to the charity shop so I went straight there and bought them back.

Once the lungs/wings were collaged I added charcoal outlines and stuck on the map pieces.