A Starting Point: artist sketchbook; black and white photography; art quilts

January has seen me go back to the beginning as I move forward into the new year, ideas and plans for a new body of hand stitched art quilts fizzing and sparking in my mind.

But where does one start?

For me, I started with a yearning to get outside, to the water meadows in the next valley - a wild place full of sedges, brambles and wide, open, water-logged fields with the sinuous river binding the elements together.

So, the other afternoon, armed with my camera, I went out to capture what I saw. I worked in black and white, 'in camera', which allowed me to focus on capturing the light and the different shapes and lines, things I know I can translate into my hand stitched work and quilts. The light was beautiful - heavy cloud, giving way to late-afternoon, winter sun: silhouettes, graphic shapes and high contrast.

Next, I pushed myself to play with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and slow shutter speed - classic photography techniques for producing other-worldly effects. At this point, I'm using my camera as a mark making tool, allowing the forms and the light to create some magic. This way of working, allows me to visualise how these high contrast areas, marks and shadows could look as sketches or on cloth, a way to capture a feeling rather than an exact replica image of what I am experiencing.

Then, back to the studio to play. I've enjoyed this part, picking up charcoal and graphite, conte pencils and InkTense blocks, Oak Gall Ink and classic Quink. Mark making in an informal fashion, allowing the materials to lead, noticing traces and lines. It's been refreshing - a limited, monochrome colour palette (a hark back to the Desire Lines series I created in 2024), and understanding my materials and how they interact.

My next step will be to move out of my sketchbook, to transfer some of what I have discovered and learnt about the materials, on to cloth, capturing the feeling, the essence of the water meadows. Words will come too - the poetry of place an important part of my practice, another layer of mark and meaning.

I am excited to see where this starting point takes me.