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.

 

GPC Affordable Art Fair

Gloucestershire Print Co-operative has its very own Affordable Art Fair in full swing in our dedicated gallery space at Griffin Mill, Stroud.

There is a lovely variety of work available all under £100, much of it well under!

If you are coming along to look, please note that it is only officially open on Saturdays.
See you soon!

RWA 161st Open Exhibition

Yesterday I was thrilled to be able to go down to the RWA to see one of my prints, 'Weather beaten track' included in this year's annual open exhibition.

Its fascinating to see which images are selected for shows like this. For some people this was the less obvious choice of the images I submitted, but it is the one that is looser in the drawing and handling of resists - therefore more adventurous for an etching? Perhaps this is what the selectors saw in it.

The print/drawing room had a lot of good quality work by some of my favourites of this show, including Fiona Robinson, Ros Ford and Laurie Steen and I felt honoured to be hanging right next to David Carpanini's atmospheric etchings inspired by Welsh villages.

Etchings by David Carpanini - beautiful sooty blacks

It was also good to see lots of representatives of UWE's MA Print course, and of the Gloucestershire Printmaking Co-op.

Its a good show, worth a visit if you're in the Bristol area.

Charcoal drawing - May Path

I've been making a few large scale sketches to work out images that have possibilities for etching.

This is the most recent image to be transferred into etching, drawn from sketchbook studies and photos taken back in May when the new growth was starting to fill out and when the sun was quite high.

By late summer it became almost impossible to make out the floor of this path, so I had to revert to photos to finish the drawing.


adaptions to the foreground and shadows 

There's a lot of new work underway at the moment for the exhibition at New Brewery Arts in January, but not a lot finished... back to the drawing board for me then.

Charcoal drawing - viewpoint

I wondered if a different viewpoint would produce an interesting piece.

 



I noticed this minor path made by animals when I was doing a photographic recce at the end of the summer. The scale of the leaves and the dark leading to the light intrigued me.
The drawing challenged me, and there was more interpretation on the drawing board than I expected.

This earlier stage shows how the tonal balance and shaping changed as the drawing progressed. The process of bringing a drawing from the paper continues to be both challenging and endlessly fascinating.