First Day of Spring

With the first day of spring upon us I have been looking back at previous botanical works from last years Arts Trail. 

'Snowdrops', Reduction Linocut

This Reduction Linocut of Snowdrops proved very popular last year and with the trail fast approaching for 2018 I have been painting new botanical subjects.

'Orchids'

 'Orchids' has been an observational painting in Oils. Influenced by Mary Delany it has been refreshing to paint architectural flowers on a black background. I am now looking forward to tackling new botanical studies, and with landscape paintings also taking shape ready for the end of April there is plenty to think about.

When Ideas Crash and Burn

Sometimes things just don't go to plan and today has been one of those days. Before Christmas I had an idea of printing cards with a nautical theme to sell in my Etsy shop so I sketched out some designs and chose two that I thought could be fun to produce.

I deliberately designed them so they would use three plates to add a splash of colour. OK, so I had never tried this before but that's never stopped me. 

Ship in a Bottle

Under the Sea

I split the layers and drew them on to tracing paper, colouring in the sections so I could see which to cut out. All was looking good. 

Three layers

I transferred the images onto vinyl lino because I knew I could get a refined cut and, although it was hard to see where I was going on occasions, for the most part I was happy with the plates. I then spent the next few weeks cutting away all the fiddly bits (and there were a lot) and did some quick test prints half way through in black with positive results.

Christmas and family commitments bought everything to a temporary halt, then January was spent finishing the lino. At last I would get to do a test print with three coloured layers.

Layer 1 in pale blue

Layer 1 went down in a pale blue. The print was clean and the line up on the paper was good so I quickly printed off a few more so I had some wriggle room to adjust the print if I needed to, after all spares are always useful.

Layer 2 in mid blue

I didn't want to wait as it had taken me so long to get this far so I simply added more blue to my mix and printed straight onto wet. I liked the colours and the print was clean. I printed off  the rest and got to work on the black.

Layers lined up

It is at this point that my heart sank. Possibly it is because I like a refined look to my work (I am very particular) but this looked like an all out disaster. Weeks of work, hours of labour and valuable time wasted when I could have been so much more productive flashed before me.

Layer 3 in black

For me this simply doesn't cut it and will have to go in the rejection pile. The lines are far too chunky making it look almost child like. The black flattened out the mid range blue so there are huge areas of flat colour and the fun element which I still think lives in the original sketches has died somewhere in the process.

The finished card

I guess you don't know until you try but this has been one very frustrating test piece. On reflection I have to work with the lino rather than force the image to be successful no matter what. All is not lost as I have other ideas in the pipe line but this has taken up too much time to start another test print straight away. The Arts Trail deadline is starting to loom on my calendar so paintings are now my priority. At least I am on safer ground for the next few weeks!

Emsworth Arts Trail 2018

This week the weather has taken a turn and the temperature has dropped. Not that that has stopped art being produced with paintings being worked on, designs for cards being drawn and a little bit of wood engraving on the side as I have been trying out a new sandbag.
I guess the most important event of the week has been the first Emsworth Arts Trail meeting on Monday in preparation for the 2018 trail. All thoughts are now turning to producing a show and working on a new painting for the Arts Trail web site.

With Christmas around the corner the next few weeks are going to be super busy but can't wait to get planning and putting the show together.
There maybe a nautical theme if these sketches are anything to go by...............

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!