Miriam Stayte
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Miriam Stayte is a British artist based in Sheffield UK

OPEN STUDIOS MAY 2018

I'll be opening my studio to visitors over five days in May as part of Open Up Sheffield.

Get involved by adding your mark to my studio wall - a large scale evolving installation which I'm documenting on Instagram. It even has its own hashtag!

"Everything you can imagine is real"

New work

'Like a riot in the heart' is part of my series 'Breezes from a whole other world'. Limited edition prints of this series will be available from May 2018.

A detail from the current iteration of my studio wall (and a reminder that the hashtag for this is now #unpreciouswall). . . We're having a mini heatwave here and I've taken a few days off to do some much needed gardening and get some sun on my face. Back to the studio tomorrow! Happy Friday folks 😊🌿🌞 . . . #trafalgarstudiossheffield #thecreatorclass #artofvisuals #creativelifehappylife #artistsharing #artistlife #artiststudio #studiowall
You'll be able to see the sets and props that I use to make these scale models in my studio during Open Up. The event runs over two weekends in May - the 5th, 6th, 7th and then the 12th & 13th - and I'll be open from 12.00 to 16.00 each day. Have a look at @openupsheffield and @trafalgarstudios for more info. . . #trafalgarstudiossheffield #openupsheffield #scalemodel #onetwelfthscale #miniatureworlds #roombox #diorama #creativelifehappylife #artistlife #artistsharing
New hashtag alert! Some of you know that I've been using #mymagicalstudiowall to document my studio wall installation as it evolves - a big thank you to everyone who has been following it. Well I've decided to change it, and here's why. . Most artists are familiar with the fear of the blank canvas - or blank sheet of paper, or whatever your medium is. There's none of that going on here, because it's just a knackered old wall, and that's incredibly freeing. When I moved in I deliberately left it as it was, unpainted and with its cracks, uneven surface, patches of filler and tears. It's impossible to be precious about it and that's what makes it work. So I'm switching the hashtag to #unpreciouswall. The magic will still be there, I promise. But the new hashtag sums up *why* the whole thing works, and that enables the magic to happen. ⭐⭐⭐ . . 📷@hannah_draws91
Lets talk about Neanderthals! We all know they were knuckle-dragging thugs, right? Well, apparently not. There's some new research which suggests that they were actually highly intelligent and very cultured. They made jewellery and tools, used medicinal plants, and buried their dead with care. And, *they made art*. 65,000 years ago, long before the arrival of Homo sapiens, they were mixing pigments and painting on the walls of their caves. . So when I had my genes analysed and discovered that I have an unusually high proportion of Neanderthal genes, I was intrigued and excited. A direct link all the way back to my great great grandparents many thousands of times over - it blows my mind. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but it's good enough for me. And here I am, painting on my studio wall. . I would love to know, have any of you taken this test, and got similar results? If you did, well, we're related! . Apologies for the ridiculously long caption, I just needed to nerd out for a minute. And this is the short version 😆 . . . #neanderthals #cavepainting #genetictesting #23andme #caveart
RIP Gillian Ayres, 1930 - 2018 . Her work made a massive impact on me when I discovered it: huge, exuberant paintings that speak to the joyful physicality and emotional complexity of life. Her story makes interesting reading too. She 'smoked 60 cigarettes a day, worked through the night if she felt like it, neglected the washing up and collected broken pieces of china.' Let's hear it for 'eccentrics', following their own compass and ignoring convention. . . I've been a bit quiet round here lately, dealing with a load of offline stuff. Life eh? I'm supposed to be promoting our Open Studios, only three weeks to go. Ooops 😐 . . #gillianayres #ripgillianayres #englisheccentrics
Well, it's five weeks until our open studios, and I'm *totally* unprepared! I'm thinking it's time for a bit of a change with this wall, so I might paint over some of it and then invite visitors to make their mark on it in some way. Anybody up for it?! . Anyway, Happy Easter folks, have a lovely weekend 💖💛💖 . . . #trafalgarstudiossheffield #openupsheffield #openup2018 #ostara #mymagicalstudiowall #creativelifehappylife #creativeeveryday #creativelifestudio
Andreas Gursky at London's Hayward Gallery. I never really thought much of Gursky's work and only went to see this exhibition because I felt I 'ought' to. Boy was I wrong! You can't really get this work unless you see it in the flesh, and I was completely bowled over by the monumental scale (this is a small one), the concepts, the aesthetics, and the technical skill. I also saw a great humour in them that I wasn't expecting - did anyone else chuckle at the F1 piece, or the four German chancellors contemplating the American painting? . There is so much I could say about these but I'll keep it short with a quote from Ralph Rugoff, the gallery Director: "When we were installing the show I kept using the word painting by accident, because these works have such a sophisticated, formal complexity to them, that they seem to exist somewhere between photography and painting." . The show runs until April 22, so you still have time to go 😎 . . . #andreasgursky #haywardgallery #gursky

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