03

march diary / barcelona / daily-ish art practice / work news / bookmarks

I’ve not much to report this time around, a few of my projects are all now coming to a head – suddenly, it feels like – and I find myself busy AF. I took a few days and headed to Barcelona for a quick trip to visit family and enjoyed the beautifully warm weather before coming back to winter and the hustle here in south London.

See you again next time,

A x

Visual journal

Click to see each full image

Daily-ish art practice

Here’s the last piece I did a couple of weeks ago, still having fun playing around with oil pastels but I might look into studying some techniques next.

Work work

Writing

1. I’ve written newsletters for Where the Leaves Fall on noticing the world around us and designer Rohit Nandha’s awesome poster recipes.

But this ability to see, to cultivate the patience to truly look, is becoming more and more important as the seasons and our environments evolve – both in our individual understanding of the climate emergency, and the simple premise of loving the place we call home. As Diyora concludes in her essay, “I breathe it all in, but I don’t know how long it will last”.

2. I’ve been writing, researching, and preparing exercises to explore the ways photographs and writing go together for the short module I’m leading as an associate lecturer at Cambridge School of Art. This has been super valuable for me since I’m also working on a couple of commissions that involve writing and photography. I’ve got so much useful content made for this module, I’m wondering now if it might be useful to share it online in some way

   

3. I can’t reveal anything yet, but I was recently commissioned to write some words for a fellow photographer’s book! It’ll come out later this year, and I can’t wait to share it with you when it does.

Photography

1. I’m still on a high from finally announcing that my photobook ‘Crocus Valley’ is being published by RRB Photobooks, launching this summer as part of Croydon’s turn as the London Borough of Culture.
   It’s an exciting time, but now it’s time to actually organise everything we have planned! I’m spending the next few weeks working with collaborators, trying to secure a launch venue, bits and bobs for an outdoor exhibition, as well as the final bits for the actual printing of the book

   

Bookmarks

1. Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day has me impatient to leave the cold weather behind:

   I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

   I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

   into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

   how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

   which is what I have been doing all day.

   Tell me, what else should I have done?

2. I love Writing Twitter. Here’s a brilliant thread about “words that *sound* a lot more exciting than their meaning… words like Ombudsman and Bonjela…”. And here’s a follow-up with some really fun-sounding word-based exercises

   Caroline Bird @CarolineBirdUK

   So, as promised, here’s two exercises: 1.Pick ONE dramatic-sounding word with an undramatic meaning and it give it the Chinchilla treatment (see attached poem,) divorcing it from its meaning, revelling in the music, using it as adjective, noun, incantation… everything (1/4)

   

3. The beautiful linocut ‘Aerial Manoeuvres’ by British wildlife artist Robert Gillmor, who I just discovered is the artist behind the RSPB logo.

4. This interesting and relatable thread about being an artist on Twitter

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A bit about me

Hey! I’m Ameena – a writer and photographer based in London. I love to tell stories about adventure, the outdoors, and our relationship with the natural world.