Taking A Risk

Today was Puffins day. Picking up on where I had left off with the Puffins....it has been a while....the first task was to lay down the next layer of grey. I thought I was being very careful getting the right tone and everything looked good as I was mixing it.

Mixing grey

I inked up the plate and away I went. 20 Puffin prints were gradually being rolled off the press and at first I was pretty happy with the results but I can't help picking over the results so by the end of the print run I was starting to think the grey was just that bit too dark and way to dark for the birds white chests. So a bit more head scratching.

Result of the grey

Detail of a foot

After a couple of days thinking it through and trying to work out what to do next I decided to jump in and take a risk. I managed to make a space between the wet canvases, re-cut the stomach of the puffins whilst still trying to keep the form, then mixed white with a lot of extender to allow the  grey to show through.

Creating form on the white

White and extender over grey

And voila, a very strange looking group of puffins but I am feeling quietly confident that my maverick exploits will pay off as I start to put down the next layer. Unfortunately the prints are very wet and the air has been damp this past week, so I will have to wait another week before I can put on the next layer, but that's OK as I can spend that time working on my Cornish paintings.

The Beginning of an Idea

This week it's all been about the under painting. This is a set of paintings depicting cloud formations that we get along the south coast of England. Some are taken from looking out to sea while others have been observed across farm land between Chichester and Portsmouth. Being next to the sea we get some amazing skies at dusk, this summer being particularly stunning, so depicting them in paint has been reasonably straight forward.

Seeing how they sit together

As I painted them in quick succession the colours in these underpaintings are sitting together quite nicely and are working well as a series. If this continues I will hang them in a square formation at the arts trail.

Drying Paintings

Having spent all day working on them I will have to wait a few days before I can apply the next layer. If I decide to start introducing glazes I may have to wait a week otherwise I risk lifting the paint underneath.

Storm Clouds and Underpaintings

Back in the studio from my trip to Cornwall and the amazing smell of the oil painting is filling the air. The pallet is loaded, the easel is set up and my head is full of ideas of big landscapes with sweeping atmospheres.

Paints on the pallet

I have had a clear up and found a selection of small canvases to get my initial ideas down, then from there I will work up to some very large canvases that I bought earlier in the year.

Small canvases at the ready

As painting is a bit more of a free flowing experience for me, compared to the printing, it doesn't take long to work out where I am going with this. The romantic atmospheric sweeping landscape is starting to breathe life and every brush stroke is melting into the next.

Under painting working out colours and composition

I now have a series of exciting paintings to work on ready for the 2018 Arts Trail. I don't know how many will have a splash of red but this one seems to be working.

Cornish Inspiration

September turned out to be a reflective month due to a leaky water mains and a total computer melt down, so art work was put on hold and major house jobs suddenly became a priority. Having spent the past few weeks doing DIY I finally got down to the studio and reorganised my space ready to work on new paintings.
As luck would have it a family trip to Cornwall has been the perfect inspiration for some big landscapes.

View from Pendennis Castle

With photos and sketches to hand I have spent the morning working on underpaintings and new compositions.

Puffin prints are also staring at me from the corner, and working out the best way to tackle collagraph ideas is next on my jobs list. Monday morning is going to be all about art with no distractions....hopefully!

Beaks, Feet and Stencils

Carving away at the beaks and feet didn't take too long so it's been quickly onto the next layer giving those beaks that distinctive bright orange.

Carving out the beaks

Bright orange was mixed using vermilion, yellow ochre and a small amount of extender.

Bright orange

Stencils had to be recut and positioned individually but with a little tweaking they did their job.

Inked up and ready to go

The stencils lasted well enough for ten prints before having to be replaced.

Stencils in action

The next step was to do a fiddley bit of carving on the feet and then pull the next 20 prints.

Deep red for shadows

Vermilion red and a touch of didn't dilemma form the shadows on the feet and bring out some of the textures.

Feet just waiting for some rocks

The feet do look a little fuzzy but this will get tightened up as the next layers go on.

Detail of feet

Next will be a series of Grey's casting shadow and making textures on the feathers and rock.

Experiments into Textiles

There is a storm ragging across the South Coast of England today so it's been a great opportunity to mess around with some printing ideas and try out a bit of textile printing. As I enjoy sewing in my spare time it seemed the obvious thing to try, so inspired by some textile artists and patterns I had seen on the internet I cut some scraps of lino and mounted them on blocks. With some remnants of cotton I set to work using some textile printing ink.

Lino printing blocks

This pattern was inspired by the print maker Jane Walker, who makes bold shapes and patterns in her still life prints. I like the organic shapes and thought it was one of the more successful patterns as I can link it with the art work I make about natural objects.

I had just enough fabric to sew it into a purse with co-ordinated black lining which really enhanced the printed fabric.

Small hand printed purse

As I could only print with black textile ink I decided to have a quick go and printing onto paper in a range of different colours just to see what it would look like. If I decide to print these onto textiles I think I will be  a lot more choosy about my colour combinations as these colours didn't really do it for me but the process was interesting 

Mock up of peg bag

I made a quick mock up of a peg bag and started to think about the possibility of making fabric storage bags and buckets in the future....possible designs for my Etsy Shop in the future?

A variety of colours and patterns

Orange Beaks

The orange layer of beaks and feet have now been pulled. The orange was an equal mix of yellow, yellow ochre, extender and a touch of vermilion to warm the whole thing up.

A touch of orange

More stencils had to be cut which took a little time but once I was organised I was up and running. 20 puffins prints were soon hanging up drying in the studio.

Lino inked up and stencils cut

The extender made the beaks much more tacky than I expected.there was a fine line between too much ink and no ink at all, but as a lot of it will be covered by a dark orange I think the overall effect should work quite well.

Close up of orange beaks

I recently fitted my studio with day light bulbs, which is wonderful while you are working, but it is causing havoc while trying to photograph my work so the colours are a little off and yes that is my shadow in the right hand corner. It's becoming mildly irritating as no matter where I stand I am always casting a shadow across the work but you can get an idea of how far the print is progressing.

Very grey puffins

Next step will be to cut yet more stencils for a darker orange then onto the rest of the birds. Everything is looking very unbalanced but as the final ink layer will be black I know the whole thing will pull together in the end.