Maija Liepins Project Blogs and Articles on Artistic Process

30/8/2021 0 Comments

Test Valley Artwork 3/6 The Deadman's Plack

Title: ‘Vanity’
Artist: Maija Liepins

This artwork for The Deadman's Plack of Harewood Forest in Test Valley Tales, depicts a monument you can still visit today.

Storyteller Amanda Kane Smith, possibly with some encouragement from my fellow artist collaborator Susan Merrick, has retold the very famous story of Elfrida and The King from the point of view of Elfrida herself.

Similarly, I didn’t want to draw a classic battle scene and instead opted to describe the story that lingers in the air, a tale of blood spilled, of a fight, of a woman in the middle of it all.

I found some photos of the type of clothes they would have worn and noticed the distinctive bands around the women's heads. When we visited the location of the story I was able to get photos to inform my drawing.

Work in progress for Deadmans Plack, a Test Valley Tale location visit

Work in progress for The Deadmans Plack Andover Test Valley Tale 2021

further info.
Project Website: www.merry-go-roundstorytelling.co.uk/testvalleytales - go here for book and podcast
Instagram: @testvalleytales @maijaliepins
My Test Valley Tales Artwork: thedreamforest.maija.co.uk/testvalleytales

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25/8/2021 0 Comments

Making a Feather Cloak : a Test Valley Tales activity

The story of the feather cloak begins with a visit to a wintery wood near Amport with Susan Merrick and I, her camera and her dog. We found the most marvellous mossy tree that was the perfect backdrop for a photoshoot and we fell about the woods pretending to fly with invisible wings and playing out the characters of bakers daughter and old woman.

Digital Artwork by Susan Merrick 2021, an illustration for The Bakers Daughter of Amport Woods by Amanda Kane Smith

We decided Susan Merrick would illustrate the story of The Bakers Daughter but it really captured my imagination too.

So when I was brainstorming ideas for a creative activity that would be eye catching and also simple the idea of the feather cloak was born.

As you may have guessed there is a significant bird or two in this particular Test Valley Tale by Amanda Kane Smith.

Why A Feather Cloak?

1. Because, it's much easier to imagine you have wings if you also have feathers!

We did ok in the woods flapping our arms for the camera and tripping over the undergrowth. But by making something, we are making visible what is imagined and inviting young and old to come and play.

2. Because I was asked to create a workshop activity that anyone could join in with. And I thought it would make a bigger visual impact if everyone came together to make one thing through small any-one-can-do it actions.

3. Because I wanted to demonstrate the fun you can have with the stories. Props, objects, locations, and drawings can act as real fuel for the imagination and through those things you can bring the story off the page, out of memory, and into your immediate experience.

As kids this is what we do all the time - play!

As adults we can find that playfulness again through creativity.

You can come add to the spectacle of the feather cloak by decorating a feather on Andover High Street with me this Friday 27th August '21

We started building the cloak in Romsey, now it is Andover's turn!

Don't miss the amazing Oral Story Telling at Four Fun Fridays 2021

If you haven't heard Amanda tell her stories in person you are missing a real treat. I encourage you to come along and experience it yourself on the last Friday in August. We'll be on Andover High Street from 11am

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25/8/2021 0 Comments

Test Valley Tales image 2/6 'Missing You'

Title: 'Missing You'
Artist: Maija Liepins
Test Valley Tale: The White Trout of Stockbridge by Amanda Kane Smith

Before: Work In Progress for Illustrating The White Trout of Stockbridge

After: Artwork for Test Valley Tales titled 'Missing You'

Imagining the story in the landscape at Stockbridge Common, photograph by artist Susan Merrick

Earlier this year I began working on a commission to create artwork for Amanda Kane Smith's Test Valley Tales project. She was writing the stories, and I was creating the artwork alongside another artist Susan Merrick.

We got to read the drafts of the stories and trekked off to the Test Valley locations on research trips to gather photographs and impressions. We knew that the main character in the story The White Trout of Stockbridge was a young albino woman so I wore black with the idea in mind to reverse the imagine and turn everything white. I think the creation of these images which I manipulated in photoshop set the groundwork for my drawing and led to me choosing black paper.

It is actually quite difficult to find a good white ink pen. Luckily I had done some research for an earlier set of drawings but even then I still found it useful to use mixed media for this one as white gel ink pens do not like lines overlapping, it kind of ruins the original lines.

I hope you liked seeing these photoshopped images. Photoshop has become a bit of a dirty word of late referring to fakery of 'too perfect' skin and manipulation to 'fix' bad photographs. But it is also powerfully creative offering all sorts of fun tools that can be used to create deliberately unreal arty effects.

P.S. isn't that just a wonderful grass tuft? In the photographs? When I am exploring in nature I love noticing details like that to form the basis of my creative impulses and playful responses.

further info.

Test Valley Tales Artwork: thedreamforest.maija.co.uk/testvalleytales
Project Website: www.merry-go-roundstorytelling.co.uk/testvalleytales - go here for book and podcast
Instagram: @testvalleytales @maijaliepins
Shop for prints: https://ko-fi.com/thedreamforest/shop

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24/8/2021 0 Comments

Test Valley Tales image 1/6 :: The Bog Fairy

Title: Bog Fairy in a Carrot Seed Skirt
Artist: Maija Liepins

This artwork was commissioned by Amanda Kane Smith for Test Valley Tales project. In the summer of 2020 I had discovered what Wild Carrot seed heads look like. A photo of one taken in the meadow at Harmony Woods became fairy attire, and then made its way into the telling of the story itself. This demonstrates how collaborative the making of Test Valley Tales has been.

I liked the idea of a fairy who can be found in the bog. Fairies are hard to spot, and what if their wings were hard to see too? The artwork depicts my idea of the bog fairy who appears in the short story The Feuding Farmers of Harmony Woods published in Amanda Kane Smith's book of Test Valley Tales.

I didn't plan for her wings to appear only in her reflection, but as soon as I had drawn her floaty hair it made sense for the bog fairy to have a kind of magic that you can't see unless you look from a particular perspective.

I also wanted to create a fairy that looked like she belonged in nature and what goes hand in hand with a muddy puddle? Muddy boots!

You might argue that muddy feet would not be a fairy's concern but imagining myself as the characters and imagining young readers imagining themselves as the characters played an important part of my process. So the fairy is wearing my 8yr old welly boots which I would have called gumboots because I lived in Australia when I was eight.

Also in the picture you can see some of the other flowers that you can find at Harmony Woods in the summer. Here are some photographs of flowers at Harmony woods which you can spot in the drawing.

Test Valley Tales Artwork: thedreamforest.maija.co.uk/testvalleytales
Project Website: www.merry-go-roundstorytelling.co.uk/testvalleytales
Instagram: @testvalleytales @maijaliepins

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Author

Maija Liepins is an artist who has been writing stream-of-consciousness poetry since she was fifteen. She practices what Jung calls 'active imagination' which is similar, but with dreams instead of words. Improvisation has led her to add sound and embodied movement to the mix.

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Test Valley Artwork 3/6 The Deadman's Plack

Making a Feather Cloak : a Test Valley Tales activity

Why A Feather Cloak?

Don't miss the amazing Oral Story Telling at Four Fun Fridays 2021

Test Valley Tales image 2/6 'Missing You'

further info.

Test Valley Tales image 1/6 :: The Bog Fairy

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