Research and inspiration: St ives local stories..

Some of the stories told by Capt Tomas Bassett Paynter whose nickname was "man friday" and who often slept for warmth at the gas works and also lived in the tenement in Digey Square known as "The Digey hotel".
These stories were told with straight face and were often accepted...

Here are some of them....

"I once sailed with a cargo of little green men"

"we were rounding Cape Horn in a fog, the cap'n sent me up the mast to see where we were to.when i came down the ship had gone"

" I once sailed on a ship that was on the same tack for so long that it wore the ships side through"

"We were up in the Baltic on a long tack; the cap'n put us over the side and we scraped the barnacles off the bottom. Then he put us on the other tack, and we did the same to the other one."

"I once sailed with a cargo of umbrella seed"

"Down the Antarctic we sailed on the same wave for seven years"

"We were in Bassetts Bay one time, in a fog so thick we were all leaning on it. suddenly the fog cleared away and we all fell overboard."

"On being asked if he had ever been ship wrecked. He said "many's the time" "we were coming home once from Trevail with a cargo of blackberries, and we were wrecked on a place called the island"

"I landed a cargo of grass in Clodgy Cove for Vivians cows but they would only eat grass from Clodgy, so i had to take um bak again"


Local stories are a big part of what keeps a place's history alive, I want to use local St Ives stories within my design process. Hidden stories within the designs, tiny sections that when you look closer you can see the history and get a feeling of the place...

I write poems and I have done since I was 9 years old, alongside my sketches I want to use poems that I wrote about the places I have been to and use them in my work. I want to combine sketches, photos and poems to piece together the places in my life.







Man friday stories from local fisherman
Harding Laity

Research and inspiration: Lisa Connolly, Illustrator & textile artist

I found this blog by an illustrator/textile artist called Lisa Connolly, I love the way she sketches with stitches onto fabric...

Research: place and people sketches

I have been sketching nearly everyday for the past two weeks wherever i go, uni, home,work. I only spend about two mins max on each sketch. I have been using biro and/or pencil. here are some of my sketches so far...

Research: Photos

These are some of the photographic compositions from my sketchbook, I took the photos as i went from place to place...

Research and inspiration: Posy Simmonds

I have briefly looked at the work by illustrator Posy Simmonds I like the quirkyness of her drawings and the naivety of the sketches...

Research and Inspiration: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

I love the work of Tolouse la trek, His painting have always fascinated me since I first saw the famous poster for the Moulin Rouge. I love the way he captures the atmosphere of a room and the character of a person. There is so much detail in his work, especially in his sketches. I want to capture this sense of atmosphere within my drawings either for the use of colour or by the background I choose to include. I havent started to use colour in my sketches yet but I am thinking of playing with the idea of colour in the place I have drawn, I want to either convey my loud, bright and colourful style as the inspiration for the colour or take specific colours from some of the photos I have taken. This is an idea I want to play with.......

Research: Sketches and Jean Basquiat

Since I visited the Dexter Dalwood exhibittion at the Tate St Ives which inspired me..I have started drawing and sketching everywhere I go..I have carried a sketchbook around with me for the past two weeeks and have been using my sketchbook as a way of "recording" place.

Everywhere I go I draw the people and the surroundings, I have always been a fan of people watching and for once I thought I would start sketching the people that I am watching, from doing this I have found a quirky style of drawing that I never knew I had and I love it. I am using my sketches to show my journey form place to place....

Alongside My sketches I have also been taking alot of photos where ever I go and then taking sections of the photos and arranging them in my sketchbook. This is a way of recording the colours of the places I have been to. I am very interseted in developing the photographic side of my project and I am very pleased with the abstract compositions I have already done.

I want to investigate further the use of colour, compostion and image in my project. Some of the photographic compositions I have put together in my sketchbook will be tested as digital prints which i can then develop further using print techniques on top in the print workshops.

Following a tutorial I had yesterday with reference to my sketches I was told that my work has a Jean Basquiat edge to it and I have been looking at his work. It is very inspiring and has a graffiti quality to it, I have been lookig at his paintings and the way he uses colour and text...