On the Coble Landing-Filey

SH 218 on the Coble Landing-Filey
Reduction Linocut (10 colours). 181mm x 270mm.
Edition of 6.

Finally finished the Coble linocut. I'd printed colours 6 and 7 before I realised that I'd forgotten to photograph the stages. So I pressed on and printed the final colours. Like Hornsea, Filey doesn't have a harbour. So the boats are dragged up the beach by tractor and parked on the landing, well above the high tide line. The boats have a rugged simplicity of design, reputedly derived from the Viking longships. Originally they were fitted with a mast and sail, now however, most are powered by engines.

Leeds City Art Gallery Artists Open Show

More good news this week with notification that my linocut Sunlight and Shadows-Malham Cove, has been selected for this years Artists Open Show at Leeds City Art Gallery. The exhibition opens on 8th August and runs until 19th September. Further information can be found at www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery

The next two colours on the new linocut have now been printed bringing the new print nearer to conclusion. After printing the fifth colour, the image is begining to resolve itself as the shape of the coble emerges from the background colours.

Filey Coble Linocut

After the comings and goings of last week, collecting and delivering art work to and from various exhibitions. I've managed to begin work on printing the Filey Coble print.

The first colour above, a pale grey, followed by a pale blue below.



.....and then a light sand colour, which on reflection I should probably have printed before the blue.

This hopefully will not matter too much as very little of this sand colour will show in the final print.

Some Recent Sketches

Juvenile Dipper on the beck at Baliff Bridge, watching a Grey Wagtail fly overhead. And below, a Ringlet Butterfly in the garden. Another new butterfly record for the garden this week.

Not sure where these new butterflies are coming from. The house next door has been empty for the last six months and the lawn has turned into an overgrown field full of ragwort and willow herb. So may be this is encouraging a few new species to visit.

Yesterday was the last day of Holmfirth Artweek so in the evening we had to go and collect any unsold work. It has been quite a successful event for me this year. Four of my pieces sold which was a welcome surprise. I have mixed feelings about sales at large group events like this, whilst a sale is always welcome and gratefully received it can seem quite impersonal. There is no dialogue or feedback between artist and buyer. Do other artists/craftspeople regard this the same way?

New Garden Record

Had a new species in the garden today; a Meadow Brown Butterfly. A bit of a surprise to see any sort of Butterfly today, let alone a new species, as its been overcast and dull with a very strong wind. It settled very briefly, hence the very sloppy sketch and then disappeared over the fence never to be seen again.

More Boats

Its been a bit of an odd sort of week. After last weeks rush to get everything mounted and off to Holmfirth. I started this week at a bit of a loss and lacking inspiration-and motivation. Then I got around to thinking about the next round of exhibition submissions and came up with this. A Yorkshire Coble on the Coble Landing at Filey. Suitable for submission to the Ferens Open in Hull. Its only midsummer and I'm already thinking about an exhibition next February- talk about wishing your life away!

Anyway, from the sketch I worked up a cartoon on tracing paper....

and reversed the image onto a linoblock. And thats as far as I've got. As for the number of colours-difficult to say at this stage, it might be a lot!