Printmaking

This Autumn I've started a printmaking class, just a basic one, but it's good to have the presses and company of other creative souls. This week I am pleased with one of my lino prints, one of trees,


I haven't done much lino or printmaking before, so it's good to explore these mediums a bit more. I am hoping to bring my ideas for artists books together with this printmaking work.

The Candid Gallery near the Angel had a recent series of art fairs and there were some photographers and printmakers that I liked very much. Kate Leney showed some lovely woodblocks and one of my favourite subjects trees. Her large scale work was brilliant and if I had the money I would buy one. They can be seen at www.kateleney.webeden.co.uk

Anthony Bliss was also showing a series of photgraphs entitled Londonhaunts, which were very atmospheric and appealed to me very much. His work can be seen at www.anthonybliss.com.
It always impresses me that there are so many artists out in the world producing great work. How can we fill peoples homes and workplaces with lots of art?

digital working

Down with some virus this week or so, I have made the most of not being able to get out as much as I'd like by experimenting with some digital processes on some of my photographs and paintings.

This has been very exciting for me as I'm not that good generally on the computer. So I now have dozens and dozens of saved images awaiting printing and some I've sent off for. There are some I particularly like which I'll turn into cards, images here.



Others are rather wierd, but I like them.
I can see this will be a whole new adventure for me!

I am also getting my other cards together to try to sell some more, I am looking for a venue, but haven't had much luck yet. Still waiting to get the web page sorted with some of them for sale.

I will start the cold calling on card shops soon. It's getting the proffessional image sorted, and the practical as well.

Hayward show and new work

On a very wet day last week I met up with a friend to see the Hayward exhibition on British art.
I think it was about showing the range of styles/movements that British artists have been involved with.
It was a mixed bag of work, painting, sculpture, video etc. Interesting now trying to remember what stood out for me there, maybe the Barbara Hepworth sculptures,

The internal concrete walls and stairwell in the Hayward, with their impressed woodgrain patterns from the shuttering used in the construction used to seem innovative years ago. Maybe it was years ago. Now I look at the Hayward and think that it hasn't aged well, despite the refit. I'm not sure what was done, apart from seeing that the cafe is now near the entrance.

I've been working on some new snowflake pictures, just small ones with acylic and pencil crayon. In the spirit of celebration, I might experiment with glitter! some pics here


The acylics that I painted before have been difficult to scan in. Apparantly they stop the scanner working, so I need to take some photos of them first I'll put them up later.

Out of the Box

I have been very busy over the last few weeks since the E17 Art Trail. My friend Clare, who has been recently ordained, and is now Amitajyoti, and I have just lead another Urban Art Retreat at Bethnal Green.
It went very well, some pics here, and I will be putting more photos and the talks we gave etc on the main site under events soon.



I didn't have too much time to do much art work myself over the weekend, but the box I painted gave me an idea for a nother way of working. It had a dark blue background and white drawing on top.
We were looking at the "box" as a metaphor for a limiting way of thinking, for the language we might use and for the ideas we might have about the world and ourselves.
It was great providing people with large cardboard boxes filled with wierd and wonderful things for them to use as a resource over the weekend. As usual some lovely work was produced. In fact the work would have looked good as an installation piece on the nature of perception.

I have another series of evening events comming up, these will be using meditation and positive change methods. They start on 5th Oct.

Ruth has also been working on a page on the main site with Art cards of some of my photographs. We will have Pay Pal facilities on there, so people will be able to buy online.
This should all be finnished in a couple of days, I'm looking forward to seeing if I can sell more easily online then.

I've also started a print making couse and am enjoying experimenting at the moment, I'm hoping to find a way of combining the printmaking with producing some artists books. More details later.