Second Impressions

The exhibition at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester opened last weekend.



Second Impressions - New Brewery Arts - beautiful airy gallery space,
with my 'Winter Westonbirt' drawing on the right

Here are a few highlights:

Katie Wallis's unique lampshades and cushions

Coo Gellar's orange peel lasercuts

 

Gemma Wright's animation

 

Jane Sasanow's windmills

 

John Lynch's reduction lino cuts 

 

Sue Brown's 'Swarm' casting wonderful shadows

These are just a few of my photos that came out OK, they're such a talented bunch.

 

More photos are on Sue Brown's fascinating blog: suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.co.uk

 

Exhibition continues until 8th March.







Ambition

I started this year with a large ambitious drawing project, destined for the group exhibition at New Brewery Arts

The progress went OK,

Once I started on the foreground I felt more comfortable with the image,

Getting this shadow in brings the image into focus,

Building the remaining shadows,

Then it was all about the details, the smaller branches, the softness in the shadows, the detail on the ground and the variety of marks which would give perspective.
At this stage it became almost impossible to photograph adequately in my small studio space.

But this weekend our exhibition opened and I was able to get a good photo. Now we can see scale and impact,

and an ambition realised - showing a large piece in a commercial gallery context.

Waiting for the light

Please allow me to introduce you to a new print which I have made for the New Brewery Arts exhibition opening on Saturday. I wonder if you can guess what its called?

I felt like it was a long wait for this one to come along. In making it I had to wait for the opportunity to trim the copper so that it would fit in the ferric tank, and then I had to wait while I recovered from a viral thing which sapped all my energy. I needed the energy as the plate is 70cm long by 35 cm wide. I'd waited most of the year to make this first large plate at the Gloucestershire Print Co-op.

Why did I wait so long, I wanted a drawing to work with that had dramatic lighting and unusual compositional elements, and this was the drawing I eventually chose:

It always intrigues me how a drawing transforms itself through translation into another medium, both have their own qualities, what one medium lacks, another gains.

I hope you all feel it was worth the wait for a new etching...
and did you get there? this print is called "Wait". My original inspiration was the number of times I asked my husband to 'wait' while I made sketches and took photos at Westonbirt Arboretum, and this scene with its path blocking shadow seemed to epitomise the concept to 'wait'.

An ambitious beginning

A New Year, new ideas, and a new exhibition opening soon, at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester.
The gallery I am showing in, with a group of friends who are really fantastic artists, has large wall spaces. Its allowed us all to think a little differently.

I was asked to do a large drawing. How large could I go?

After moving furniture out of my study and rearranging what was left I had this space (seen through the doorway), which allowed for a piece of Fabriano unrolled to a length of 175cm, height 150 cm.
Its big enough...! Its also very exciting, I love a new piece of paper.

A page of planning helped me work out proportions and gave me a better idea of where to start.
Here goes...

Establishing the horizon line and distant tones gives me a good feel for the work ahead.

It's hard to photograph in my small space, but hopefully you get the idea. Some of the perspective is starting to work.

This gives a much clearer idea of what's happening.
Still a way to go. I've used a whole series of photos as reference and some sketches in the same area. For getting the detail at this time of year photos are the only way.

More progress and another print for the exhibition coming along soon.

Images for 2014

Happy New Year!

Now is the time for new ideas and new work.
There is some major stuff underway (finishing work for an exhibition) which has started to lay down markers for this year. I'll post it very soon.

For now here's what I'm thinking about and looking at  the moment, some photos of the results of the recent bad weather on our village lanes...

The flooding has been so sad for many people, but the water and sun combined can also provide some dramatic and fascinating scenes in areas where the human effect is minimal.

The clear reflections, broken by mud grass and footstep textures are visually appealing.