The home run

This was how the big print looked when I thought it was finished...

... then I put it up in the studio, and I looked again and realised it wasn't really what I wanted.

I wanted the wall, centre left, to blend better into the background and the background to be darker, so back in the etching tank it went.

This looked better when the image is viewed as a whole. The focus is re-directed better onto the path.
Then I needed to sort the gap in the textures in centre of the lane and the post which wasn't quite there.

After a final judicious use of aquatint the lane textures are linked together and the eye is drawn along the lane more effectively.

And now I think its finished... maybe...

'Turning for home' etching 66 x 44 cm

I do wonder if I might still give this plate the chop - my favourite areas are the main lane leading backwards; in these areas everything has worked as I wanted. A Photoshop crop gives the general idea...

Sometimes less is more?

20:20 Box of delights 2015

Its a wonderful thing to receive a box of prints from fellow printmakers across the country. This year's 20:20 print exchange event hosted by Hot Bed Press in Manchester has brought me a lovely selection of techniques and approaches.

My box of delightful prints fell into 2 main categories...

Pattern -

and Landscape -

Am I allowed favourites? Here they are ... 

I love the etching 'Estuary' by Lynne Thirkell and Kate Thornton's circular screenprint. 

Thank you also to June McHenry for the terracotta seaside, Alison Craig for the jade 'Dyfi Pools and Jade Emma Ellis for 'Population 139,403' the potopolymer intaglio.

Thank you to Hot Bed Press for hosting, Looking forward to next year.
Follow this link https://www.flickr.com/photos/hot_bed_press to see 20:20 prints from all over the UK

Sketching weather

Are we seeing the first signs of good sketching weather, comfortable walking and not always wearing gloves? Lets hope so, its been a soggy winter.

sketchbook

I found this quote from Tim Ingold which sums up nicely an artist’s desire to both work in, and seek inspiration from, the landscape:

“Practitioners, I contend, are wanderers, wayfarers whose skill lies in their ability to find the grain of the world’s becoming and to follow its course while binding it to their evolving purpose”

Lets get out there!

Stepping out

The mini print show is ticking along nicely, the team at the Co-operative have notched up 10 sales on the first weekend, not bad given the current retail climate. I invigilated for a few hours last weekend and it was great to hear how interested people were in technique as well as subject matter.

Overwhelmingly the visitors were drawn to the most colourful prints that the Printmaking Co-operative were showing, or those featuring animals and insects.

So flying in the face of any thought of popular preferences I have gone on to complete my set of black and white, landscape mini prints!  - the thing is we can only enjoy making what we ourselves love, and be glad we are all different.

Two more views along Steps Lane...

'Step up'



'Step out'

Kefalonia sketchbook

I have just returned from a much needed break in the sun - and there are few better places to rest and recuperate than Kefalonia.

Of course my sketchbook went with me and after a few days I got itchy sketching fingers.

These sketches were done from a boat looking towards the coastline. The boat trips chug up the stretch of sea between Kefalonia and its sister island of Ithaca. It was a good challenge to draw while the landscape was moving along in front of me - a good way of sorting out which marks are important.

Cloud bruised hills

green napped and threadbare

pine plush hills

The landscape rises up out of the sea, as mountain peaks would. It really makes you think about what lies below the water.

This double page was done looking out from a cafe in the village of Katelios. The landscape layers and folds itself down towards the water.

I have a project in mind for some of these sketches and photos, something large scale and layered.

This is a close up of some of the marks from the first sketch. I'm intrigued by the nature of these marks and how they will work when enlarged, and combined in layers. Sketching fingers itching again...