Exhibition update - the Westonbirt print

The first week of the exhibition has gone reasonably well. The weather gods have been against us (and most of the rest of the country) and there are a couple of roads in the area which are shut. Both things have undoubtedly had an impact. Nailsworth has been quieter than normal, but people have commented about how much easier it is to park than normal, good news for any of you intending to visit. The visitor’s book is filling up nicely and there have been a couple of sales, can’t wish for than that.

This smaller print has gained a lot of interest.

'Westonbirt morning'

It shows a clearing in a local visitor attraction, Westonbirt Arboretum. I did the sketch on a lovely sunny Sunday morning; we had taken a flask of coffe with us and sat on our favourite bench. The shadows were very strong across the shorter grass and the sketch has cried out to become an etching.

Many people in the area have annual membership to this beautiful place full of champion trees and national collections and use it as a place to walk and meet friends. We are members ourselves and our dog loves chasing the scents of squirrels through the trees.

The etching is made from a zinc plate etched with copper sulphate crystals. The trees were drawn in with sugar lift and then I left the plate to open bite, stopped out the trees and shadows to some extent and did a second open bite. My original wax ground was applied over slightly sticky sugar lift which provided an unsecure ground and lots of lovely foul bite – a perfect woodland floor. The background detail was created with a soft ground and textures, - several stopping out stages created a back drop which was not too uniform.

Westonbirt is a magical place, and I can see it featuring in future work.

Exhibition - doors open!

Having seen the weather forecast for our opening on Sunday we delivered all the work to the gallery on Saturday. Thank goodness we did!
Our opening day became one of the worst days imaginable for June, gusting winds and driving rain all morning made us doubt our sanity, but we went for it all the same.

After an intensive morning the gallery looked like a welcoming space and at 3pm we 'opened'. A quarter of an hour later we had our first visitor and then a steady flow of friends and colleagues, until 6pm when we gratefully closed and headed off for a quick half across the road. I was very pleased to see a couple of my ex-A level students - how lovely to have the tables turned and for them to be able to comment on 'Misses' work!
I would like to say a very big thank you to my intrepid friends who ventured out on such a truly horrible day, your company and support was very much appreciated.
The day did not look quite so bad from inside the gallery, and Mum's cups of tea kept everyone's spirits up. Thank you Mum.

Here are some pictures to whet your appetite, hope to see some of you over the next fortnight.

The exhibition continues until 25th June at Cotswold Craftsmen Gallery, Market Street, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire GL6 0BX, 10am -5pm (closed Sundays and Mondays)

Exhibition opens on Sunday!

After some hectic weeks of preparation artwork is now framed and ready to go. Labels will be written, and scones sliced for our 'cream tea private view' starting at 3pm on Sunday June 12th.

The poster above has all the information.

What a busy and nerve racking time it is preparing for a solo show... but exciting too.

Hope to see some of you over the next two weeks.

Laser wood engraving experiment

For the lats few weeks I’ve been taking slices of wood, sourced from Westonbirt Arboretum, into the lasercutting department at UWE where we’ve been trying to get a drawing engraved. There have been a couple of technical issues but we have now succeeded in creating a wood engraving.

 

the sycamore slice before engraving



First I created a drawing, below, then I scanned it and stitched it together on Photoshop using photomerge. The important thing here for me is the ability to turn a drawing into a multiple. There is no point for me in engraving an etching image because it already exists as a multiple, but the ability to reproduce drawings in a new medium is exciting.

I took this file to some very knowledgeable tutors who were able to set the lasercutter. It was important to experiment with both the speed and the power of the laser – too slow and too powerful and it will burn very darkly, too slow and less power may burn just as darkly depending on the wood as the laser is focused on one small part of the wood for too long.



cropped detail showing wood grain within image



These details show how the grain of the wood can be enhanced with areas of the image and how even subtle shapes like splashes of watercolour can be engraved to create interesting effects.



'Looking back', on sycamore



The final engraving has a reasonably good range of tones and makes an unusual art object, but there is room for a good deal of improvement. I like the effect of the natural shape of the wood as a support for the drawing. Having seen what is now possible I’ll make a new drawing which will use the marks and tones the laser engraving seem to like. I also have a nicer shaped piece of wood, Ash this time, a paler coloured wood which will give a different effect, could be interesting...

Westend Willow

I have been very enthusiastic about a new image over the last couple of weeks. Its been a bit frustrating as I wasn’t able to get a piece of copper big enough for a week or so, but now I’m underway and I can share the story so far.

It started with another drawing session in my village, in Westend. It was a lovely spring day and the light was bright, the sketch had some energy to it which suggested the potential.

Photograph taken in May, when the sketchbook work was done



Photograph taken in March



Photographs taken of the same tree a little earlier in the year, before the grasses were too long, showed good light and structure.

The photographs when edited held even more promise. The black and white contrast was very interesting; I could see that I could play with a wide variety of experimental etching marks that I had been exploring over the last few months, and that I could retain some compositional ‘free air’ in the image. I am often frustrated at how I fill my compositions, why can’t I leave well alone?

Drawing done in reverse to aid the drawing out on the etching plate

The drawing allowed me to get to know the image better, especially the movement within the tree and this time it was natural to achieve the composition I was after.

Etching from sugar lift, first stage 50x30cm

This is the first stage of the resulting etching, or should it be a final stage? I will take a few prints as it is, but I would still like the image to have more of an untidy new twig growth to it. I would also like to resolve the base of the tree, and enhance some darkness in the weight at the top of the tree. So one more stage at least...





Colour or monochrome?

Well this may be a bit of surprise for those of you who know my work well. I often say that I don’t know what to do with colour, and I may be about to prove that point!

I have a few small plates which I’ve worked on in a more instinctive and experimental way, and they look good without colour, but I felt that they would cope with an extra element. I’ve mulled over creating collagraph plates to print a base colour or another etched plate, but time is against me for these techniques. I decided instead to explore monoprint which I could work with in an intuitive way while I was printing the copper plate.

'...the far end'

The choice of colour came from a base colour that was in the landscape at the time that I originally made the image. This first image is of a part of the landscape which is muddy and soggy, hence the umber, mud coloured tones.

'worn out day'

The second image is of a stretch of brook lined with tall, dead grasses which had faded to a pale ochre colour.

As you can see my use of colour is still somewhat restrained, in fact it could be still referred to as monochrome, but I think stronger colours would have distracted from the original etching.

Looking through to Constantine Bay

I have worked up a large drawing from my sketchbook drawings and from a series of photographs I took on the day.



'Looking through to Constantine Bay' Graphite 50x70cm


There a number of things I was aiming to achieve with this drawing

• A sense of drama in the image.
• A freshness, looseness in the drawing, so that the marks stayed interesting.
• Strong tonal contrast emphasised by broader areas of dark tones.

Crop section to show loose drawing marks

Crop section to show dramatic shapes against the sky

This drawing was relatively quick to do, given its size. I have increased  my confidence in working from my sketchbook. While I was sketching I was more thoughtful about what I wanted to record so that I would be able to do a further drawing in the studio. I paid particular attention to the shapes of the rock against the sky, and to the overall structure of the rocks. Having sat in front of this subject matter for a good long while I can now picture the scene more readily. Being able to work with the original sketches makes working on site much more exciting and rewarding. As the weather improves I am aiming to work on a much larger scale on site, leaving less to do in the studio.