"The artist...is also a born adventurer. His explorations, unlike those of a tourist, are rewarded by the discovery of beauty spots unmentioned in the guide books, and with tireless curiosity and an exceptional proneness to wonderment, he will come upon objects of remarkable interest overlooked or even shunned by more disciplined observers."

Augustus John, R.A.




Sunday 15 November 2015

Wild Wet and Windy at Malham

Just got back home after spending a very enjoyable weekend at the Malham Tarn field centre teaching a linocut workshop for the Field Studies Council. The weather was a little wild to say the least; gales, floods and hail. But unlike the 6th form students who were also at the centre we didn't have to go out in it and study geography, other than to walk up to the bar in the evening. It's a bit of a big ask to produce a multi-colour linocut in two days considering I take around two weeks to make mine. But after some intensive work we managed to create some really good work. We printed flat colours, blended rolls and did some pretty complicated cutting. Each student printed editions of 10 and of the fifty odd prints created only around five or six were lost to mis-registration which is a better average than I manage sometimes.


Christina's sunset scene inspired by the view from her home in Richmondshire.



Lynne's lovely sunlit scene of a beach on Iona.



Liz's wonderfully atmospheric sunlit sheep on the top of Malham Cove.



Sue's skilful use of blends created this print in just 3 stages.



Marie's frog leaping from his Escher inspired ripples, who also found time to do a little mono-printing. I certainly had a good time in wonderful company and I hope everyone else did too.

Monday 9 November 2015

Sgurr an Fheadain


Sgurr an Fheadain
Mezzotint
200mm x 150mm

Finally started to edition this mezzotint. Decided to print with a blend of Prussian blue and green rather than just black and really pleased with the atmosphere in the print. Its a slow process though, after 3 hours of inking, wiping and printing  I have 8 prints nicely drying off. I'm not sure of the edition size yet though as I don't know how many prints I will get before the plate starts to degrade.