Cornish sketching

Easter holidays always gives me some good sketching time on the coast

It looks like beautiful weather

the cold winds didn't bother the dog

and with hats, gloves and windproof jackets

quite a bit of drawing got done. Happy days.

Good Friday sketching

Good Friday was, as it turned out, extremely good this year. The sun and welcoming calmness of a still day made it feel like spring 'proper'.

Good to get out drawing again...

New views...

and promising landscapes, a bit of blue sky makes all the difference.

Drawn to print

Over the last month or so I have had the enormous pleasure of curating 'Drawn to print' at the Printmakers Gallery, Griffin Mill, Stroud. This light and airy gallery is a small but lovely space housed on the premises of Gloucestershire Printmaking Co-operative

While we were hanging we were sustained by coffee and cake. Many thanks to Lucy Guenot for all her hard work and brilliant support.

We had beautiful, excellent quality work to hang; the printmaking community are a very generous group of lovely people.

Large scale etchings from Ros Ford RWA and Ian Chamberlain ARE

Etching and sketchbook by Jason Hicklin RE

Dramatic print by Emma Stibbon RA

Andy Lovell's gorgeous sketchbook

Smaller works by Jane Walker, Meg Buick ARE, Catherine Greenwood and Terence Millington

...and my contribution

The exhibition aims to show how drawing supports printmaking. Its been fascinating to see  such diverse approaches to drawing - glimpses inside the artists thinking.

'Drawn to print' is open until 30th March, open Mon, Tues and Thurs mornings and all day Saturday.

Printmaking Today

This is something new that has shown me just what you can do when you put your mind to it... I'm delighted to have an article published in the printmakers magazine 'Printmaking Today'

The article links into my research work and is all about Jason Hicklin; a fabulous landscape artist whose passion is for etching.

Jason Hicklin's etching studio

 I was able to visit Jason at his studio; it was a privilege to be able to discuss his working methods with him and to gain something of an insight into his practice.

Jason Hicklin - Castle Skerry from Burwick

Jason works entirely from sketches made on his walking trips to remote corners and outposts of the British Isles. These drawings ensure that his etchings have an immediacy which captures the atmosphere of each place he visits.

Jason Hicklin - Old Man of Hoy

I am very grateful to both Jason Hicklin and to Printmaking Today for this fascinating and rewarding opportunity.

IMPRESSIVE INSIGHT

Insight Printmakers at the cosy and welcoming Wotton Gallery this wekend until 22nd March.

We're having a launch event on Saturday 1 - 4pm, you'll be very welcome!

The gallery has been hung very beautifully by gallery staff  Belinda and Cate, a huge thank you to them for their talented support.

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?

A big print getting nearing to completion

Following the progress of this print which took a long time to get anywhere near resolved...

A lot of stopping out allows details to be created with an open bite, gradually less and less metal is left uncovered. This part of the process takes a long time; the stopping out takes its own time and then theres the waiting for the varnish to dry. A full day's work, hopefully rewarded when the plate comes out of the ferric.

The bite at this stage was quite light (not quite so rewarding! but that's printmaking...) and revealed that some of the underlying textures were too strong. A bit of strong scraping/burnishing helped to put the balance right.

The proof from the next stage shows how the structure has overlaid the organic sugar lift marks, hopefully bringing the focus onto the shape of the lane.

Another layer of open bite textures provides better contrast of light and dark, distance and focal points. But is it there yet?

Time to stand back and think.