Loch of the Lowes - Selkirkshire

Loch of the Lowes - Selkirkshire
11 colour reduction linocut. 180mm x 270mm. Edition of 5 prints.

Finally finished the print, which looks like being the last one of the year. I have one I'm just drawing onto a lino block, but I'll not get that one finished before the year end.

This shows Loch of the Lowes in Selkirkshire. The viewpoint is near its out-flow into St Marys Loch, looking back up the lake towards the Dumfriess and Galloway hills.

With thanks to Sherrie York and Keith Tilley, both of whom suggested the subject would make a good print when I posted the original field drawing over a year ago.

Nearly there now

With two more colours printed I'm a lot less despondent about this print now. The first of the two, above, a dark blue green to create some shadows on the left hand hill. The next, below, a darker green for the foreground. One final dark should see the print finished. Tune in next week.

Birds in Huddersfield

Out now .....  well actually been out for quite a bit! I've been a bit remiss about posting this as I have had a copy for over a month now. Cover illustration by yours truly and black and white illustrations by Russ Boland, Mike Pinder and myself. It also contains colour photographs by David Tattersley and David Pennington. Copies available from the Huddersfield Birdwatchers Club by following the link on the right.

What with one thing and another and various interuptions to the flow of work, this print seems to be going nowhere fast and has been progressing, if you can call it that. In a series of fits and starts. I don't like working on a print in this manner and to be honest, finishing it is starting to feel like a bit of a chore. However, we'll keep at it. Three more colours down :

 A dark blue to create some shadows on the far hills.

A green for the foreground.

And a dark orange for the bracken on the right hand hillside.

This looks like its going to be the final print of the year. I have an idea in my head for a dales landscape print but nothing down on paper yet. Unless I can get away with being really anti social during Christmas week, I don't think I'll manage to get that one as well as this completed for the year end.

Beware the Art Scam !!!!

I have had some recent e-mail correspondence which I have transcribed in full below. I have not altered anything, the poor english, grammar and punctuation are all as in the original e-mails only the italics are mine. Having done some research on the matter this apparently is one of the signs to look out for.

On 22 Nov I received this e-mail via my Folksy Shop site ;

Hello,
i want to make immediate purchase of your item,
what is the present condition?


do you accept PayPal as mode of payment?


what is the final asking price?


kindly get back to me with your reply to my private email:


hope to read from you soon.

The e-mail address given was a yahoo.com address. Use of free e-mail accounts (hotmail, g-mail etc) is another sign to look out for.

I thought this was a bit odd as the sender had clearly been on the Folksy site, even referencing the particular piece they were interested in. So they would clearly have seen the asking price and that Paypal was the method of payment. However, giving them the benefit of the doubt I replied with the price and packaging costs and pointed out how to make a purchase through Folksy.

I didn't hear anything else until yesterday morning at 0626am, when the following e-mail arrived, again through the Folksy messaging service;

Hello seller
Are you ready for immediate sales of your item?
do you accept PayPal as mode of payment?
kindly get back to me on (again giving the same yahoo address)
with your reply and the final asking price.


hope to read from you soon


Best Regard

This was getting a bit familiar.
Again I replied with details of the price and how to pay. I got the following reply at 1755pm;

Thanks for the respond. i am an oceanographer and am currently on the sea at the moment, i am buying the item as a gift for my mum,i want to make it a surprise gift for her,she won't know anything about the gift until they get delivered to her.So i want you to reassure me that the item is in good condition as you have described. I can only pay through PayPal. So please kindly get back to me immediately so i can proceed with the payment and after the payment has been done,i have a pick up agent that will come around to pick the Item up immediately after payments.

 

Regard

I replied stating that I would only despatch the item by first class post after receiving payment of cleared funds in full. At 2051pm I got this reply;

Thanks for the reply,as i have told you i have agent that will come over for the pick up so you don't have to bother your self about shipment,all i will need from you now is your phone number and the address where pick up is going to take place so i can book shipping with my agent,also i will need your PayPal ID so i can make the payment for you when am done with my agent,hope to read from you soon.

Regards.

Note the request for my PayPal ID. I haven't replied to this e-mail and won't be.
The sender signed themselves Tracy Michael. A name I subsequently found on a list of known internet art scammers. So if you get anything similar in your inboxes just delete it.

Next Colours

Managed to get two more colours printed this week. 

Colour 4, the first green.

And Colour 5, a blue green for the distant hill.

Colours 2 and 3 on the new linocut

I forgot to scan the print after the second colour, (light blue) was printed. Followed this with the third colour, a tawny ochre colour for the hillside on the right hand side. Now to spend some time thinking and staring as I'm not quite sure which colour to go with next, either a second blue or the first green. 

Back with some work to do

After three weeks when I have barely had a pencil in my hand, much less produced any work with it. It felt good to have some work on the go and to be back at the printing bench.

Although so far there isn't much to show for it...

Just the first colour printed so far. A light cream.

Fieldfares Linocut

Fieldfares.
8 colour Reduction Linocut. 190mm x 170mm.
The result of work made over the last week or so. I took a lot of time trying to work out the composition and came up with a number of different solutions playing around with the groupings and the sizes of the birds. So I may yet have another go at this print.

and the winner is....

Had a very nice surprise today at the preview of the Doncaster Open when my print 'Evening on the Skirfare' took first prize. This is me with the Mayor of Doncaster.

Great Northern Diver

Adult Great Northern Diver, Ringstone Edge Reservoir. Pen and Ink.

This bird turned up on a local reservoir almost a week ago. After a failed trip out on Monday to try and see it I finally caught up with it this morning. The views were a bit distant as the bird kept to the far edge of the reservoir. It also spent a lot of the time fishing and didn't remain on the surface much which hampered the amount of drawing I was able to do. Unusually for the time of year, it was still in full summer plumage.

Welsh Landscapes

Its been a busy couple of weeks printing. I needed a couple of prints for submission to the Royal Cambrian Academy in November so I've been looking through some old sketchbooks for possible ideas. I came up with two prints and while they are both ok prints, neither has that 'extra something' that I was looking for.

First is a print based on a watercolour colour sketch made on holiday a couple of years ago.

Dryslwyn Castle. 13 colour Reduction Linocut. Edition of 3.

I started out with 5 prints but lost 2 due to sloppy registration on the last colour. I'm reasonably pleased with the top half of the print especially the treatment of the hill with the castle and the background hillside but there is far more green in the print than I had originally intended.

Next is a print based on a sketch drawn just after I had left college.

Low Tide- Laugharne. 10 colour Reduction Linocut. Edition of 5.

This is better but the boats pulled up onto the mud don't really stand out much. I should have used them to introduce an accent of brighter colour.

I'm not sure at this stage if I will submit either of the prints, there is still time yet to try another subject.

Exhibiting

I have had two linocut prints accepted for the Doncaster Open Art exhibition. This exhibition runs from 22nd October until 3rd December at;

Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery
Chequer Road
Doncaster
South Yorkshire.

Telephone the gallery on 01302 734 293 for further information.

The prints accepted are Kilnsey Crag and Evening on the Skirfare.

Brown Trout Print Finished

Evening on the Skirfare. Littondale.
9 Colour Reduction Linocut. 270mm x 180mm.
Edition of 7 prints.

A quiet evening beside the River Skirfare in Littondale with 3 Brown Trout lazily rising to take the first flies hatching.
A larger and more complicated version of the Brown Trout print made earlier this year and based on the same set of sketches.

Open Up North

Today was the preview of the Open Up North exhibition at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as I had to drop some work off at Doncaster Art Gallery, in the opposite direction to Kendal from here. However, the Brewery Arts Centre has published a full catalogue for the exhibition which is available on line at http://tinyurl.com/newOUNCatalogue

Colour 8 and almost finished.

One more colour should give us a little bit more definition and then thats it.

Colour 7

Another darker tone and gradually the fish become a little clearer, I hope! Another two colours should see it finished. I've enjoyed playing around with the patterns but I don't want to make it too confusing.

New Galleries

I delivered a number of prints today to a new (to me) gallery, the Craft Centre and Design Gallery in the City Art Gallery building on the Headrow in Leeds. This is a prestigious venue in a superb location so hopefully should be good for sales. http://www.craftcentreleeds.co.uk/

I also found out in this mornings post that one of my prints has been accepted for the Open Up North exhibition organised by the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, on the southern fringe of the Lake District. The exhibition runs from 1st October until 10th November. http://www.openupnorth.org/

Next weekend its off to Doncaster Art Gallery with 3 prints to submit to the Open Exhibition there.

Colour No 6

Colour 6 printed and we are starting to get a feeling of recession towards the top of the print and the deeper water. The main colour of the fish is now established and the next few colours will see them emerge more clearly.

More work on the fish

Colour 3 on this print, the base colour for the fish, is a monoprint blend of 3 tones dabbed on to the plate with a brush and then printed. Its a bit haphazard and as with any monoprint each one has come out slightly different.

Colour 4 begins to establish the shapes of the fish and adds the lightest tones to the river bed.

Colour 5 and we are adding more colour to the river bed. With the first attempt at this sort of subject matter, I printed the stream bed quite uniformly. With this one I want to give more of an impression of the water deepening towards the top of the print. So I am trying to keep the foreground quite light in tone.

On Line Sales

My prints are now available to purchase on line at Folksy.com. Visit www.folksy.com/shops/StuartBrocklehurstPrintmaker or follow the link in the sidebar on the right.

A bit more work

Added the second colour onto the print. Not much of this will show in the final work, just a few small patches. Its main function being to 'knock back' the blue, providing a neutral tone onto which the remaining colours can be laid. Regular readers may guess where we are going with this print (if it works!). As it is a more complicated version of an earlier print.

Running Around

Its been a week of running around. Last Sunday we had a drive up the valley to Hebden Bridge to collect the unsold works from the Summer Print Exhibition. It was a very pleasant surprise to find that of the eight prints submitted, four had sold. In a group exhibition, where my work has to compete with that from a lot of other printmakers I would have been happy to have sold one. On wednesday it was over to the Ryburn Gallery in Sowerby Bridge with a copy of the Brown Trout print to replace one that had sold there. This has been a very popular print, there are only two copies remaining, one framed and one unframed both now at the Ryburn Gallery. Yesterday we had a trip to Kendal, to deliver two prints that have been shortlisted for the final selection process for a new exhibition organised by the Brewery Arts Centre.

So not much time for work, just this large rectangle in a nice shade of pale blue. A new print intended for a new (for me) gallery, I will shortly have my work available in the Leeds Craft Centre and Design Gallery but more of that later.

Painting

Loch of the Lowes, Scottish Borders. Acrylic on canvas. 400mm x 500mm.

Haven't finished a painting in ages, so this is a bit of a rarity. You can see how much painting I've done recently by how clean the easel is! I had intended this to be a print (it might still be one yet),

Finished the Hosho test

Dusk.
2 Colour Reduction Linocut. 180mm x 110mm.

Finished this simple two colour print and I'm really pleased with the Hosho paper. Now to try something a little more demanding.

Changing Paper

Up to now all my linocuts have been printed onto smooth Winsor and Newton Cartridge Paper. The paper is quite heavy and it takes quite a lot of effort to handprint onto it and get good colour saturation. So I finally decided to jump in and ordered a batch of Hosho paper. I didn't want to do anything too complicated as a trial so I drew out a simple two colour design.

The first colour printed; a simple dark to light and back to dark blend. I hadn't realised what a difference changing paper would make. I applied far too much pressure with the baren at first and nearly went through the back of the paper. But I'm really pleased with the way the colour laid.

Recent Sketchbook work

A selection of sketchbook work done over the past week or so.

11/08/2011. 2015pm. Pencil and watercolour. 3 Roe Deer in a cornfield beside the A1 north of Doncaster. Raining and almost dark.
These were seen fleetingly out of the corner of my eye as I was driving. With no chance to stop I drew the sketch from memory and imagination as soon as I got home. Will it have any value or use as a study for a finished piece, probably not but it serves as a record of the scene.

16/08/2011. 0830am. Pen and ink. Looking west across the Annan valley, Moffat. The far hills hidden in the low cloud.
A short break in Dumfries and Galloway, this sketch was made looking out of the window of our room whilst waiting to go for breakfast.

16/08/2011. Rockcliffe on the Solway Coast. 1700pm. Pen and ink.
Looking south west across the bay with the tide ebbing.

16/08/2011. Southerness Lighthouse with the Lake District fells behind. 1855pm. Pen and ink.

Southerness Lighthouse with the Lake District fells behind. Pencil.
Drawn from a slightly closer viewpoint than the previous study.

17/08/2011. Nuthatch. Moffat. 1300pm. Pen and ink.

17/08/2011. Loch of the Lowes. Scottish Borders.Pen and Ink. 1445pm. Overcast sky.
One of my favorite spots, I painted this loch from a slightly different viewpoint in August last year. On 1st January this year I drew this view from almost the same spot with the lake covered in a thick layer of ice.

17/08/2011. Grey Mares Tail Waterfall. Watercolour.
I climbed up to the bottom of the waterfall and started to draw.Then it started to rain, at first a light drizzle which soon got heavier. This started life as a pencil drawing but the paper got too wet and the drawing smudged beyond recognition. To try and salvage something from it I added the watercolour later after I'd dried out the book.

Art in the Pen

Just got back from Art in the Pen this weekend. A very enjoyable experience . For those of you unsure about the set up, this is what you get. The day before I arrived this was full of calves!

This was my first time at this event so I had spent quite a lot of time agonising over how I was going to hang the work. However, with the help of a few cable ties from Poundland the work was soon securely attached to the railings.

With 64 other artists and makers exhibiting there was a very diverse range of styles, techniques and subject matter on display. Although there were only about five other printmakers we all worked in different disciplines so avoided competing with each other. The artist in the next door pen was an etcher which was good,  between us we demonstrated both intaglio and relief printmaking techniques.

The weekend went very well and so I would like to say a big thank you to all the people who came and bought my prints. I had a great time meeting some very interesting people and some very talented artists. Check out the following :
www.braemoor.co.uk/ajc/
http://www.janisgoodman.co.uk/
http://www.janetbrownetextiles.com/

Art in the Pen Skipton

Off to Skipton tomorrow to set up for Art in the Pen this Weekend. The preview is tomorrow evening from 7pm to 9pm. So if any readers are in the area either tomorrow night or over the weekend then please drop by for a chat. I will have a number of linocuts, both framed and unframed along with watercolours, scraperboards and some pencil and ink wash drawings.

Badger Prints

Finished both of the Badger prints. Both of them have come out ok, but considering it was pretty much an after thought, I am especially pleased with the second one.

Autumn Badger.

7 Colour Reduction Linocut. 120mm x 75mm.

Moonlight Badger.
6 Colour Reduction Linocut. 120mm x 75mm.

More work on the Badger Prints

 Print 1. Colour 4. A dark russet brown colour for the dead bracken fronds.

 Print 2. Colour 4.
A further dark blue colour.

 Print 1. Colour 5. The final dark grey colour, mainly for the shadowed part of the animals body.

 Print 2. Colour 5. The penultimate colour only one more final dark to go on this print. Print 1 will need a further two colours before it will be finished.

Print 1. Colour 6. A dark brown colour for the earth around the Badger, only the final dark to go now on both prints. Should be finished in time for Art in the Pen on Friday.