Emsworth Arts Trail 2018

The Emsworth Arts Trail kicks off tomorrow morning with local artists opening their studio doors around the town. With a wet weekend forecast, my show will be tucked in the studio for the first Saturday and Sunday with (hopefully) a sunny bank holiday the following weekend where I can drag out the gazebo and hang some extra work for everyone to see.

A selection of reproduction cards with new hand printed cards

Paintings hung ready for the Arts Trail 2018

This year I will have some paintings and prints at reduced prices as I need to make space for new works. I have also added some hand printed cards to my stock. I was very pleased with these 'Octopus' cards that I created from Linocut. I love the black on cream design that always looks so smart. Over the next few days I will be posting this in my Etsy shop.

Hand printed 'Octopus' cards

I am very excited to start new botanical/still life paintings with photos and studies already underway. New subjects and a new palette is like a breath of fresh air and a welcome change to painting landscapes. The natural forms of the flowers are really beautiful and interesting as well as the many combinations of colours.

One Week To Go.....

Would you believe there is one week before this years Arts Trail kicks off. 
Nearly all the work is done with a few prints to get ready and the long and painful task of emptying out my studio has begun.

'Cloud Formations' Series

If you've been following my Instagram you may have noticed that I couldn't resist and have managed to squeeze in at least one small study of a pomegranate. Loved working with different colours of pinks and reds that normally I have very little use for in the landscape paintings. I don't think it will be long before I embark on a few more studies in preparation for some larger paintings that I have already made notes for. 

Pomegranate

There will be a few stormy landscapes in this years arts trail inspired by some very blustery visits to Cornwall this year, along with wintery scenes of snowy fields and small botanical studies. 

Stormy Weather

Over the next few days I will be looking to hang the work and make some hand printed cards. All we need is some sunny weather and this years Arts Trail will get off to a great start.

April 2018 Newsletter

Spring has sprung and April is hotting up, well a liitle bit, so I thought I would give an update on what I have coming up this month.

I am currently finishing off paintings for this years Emsworth Arts Trail and starting to organise how I will exhibit them in my studio. It takes me a week to lift and shift my cupboards and tools to make way for wall space and lighting, but eventually it will become an exhibition space.

Arts Trail 2017 in the sunshine

'Cloud Formations', 2018

'Cloud Formations' is a series of nine paintings recording dramatic skies that form at sunset along the coast of West Sussex and Hampshire. These will be hung along side landscapes inspired by visits to Cornwall and storms that hit the south coast this winter.

'Orchids', 2018

To celebrate the start of Spring I have been focusing on botanical art, painting a selection of flowers on to MDF. Mary Delany has been an influence in the triptych 'Orchids'  that I will be exhibited during this years Arts Trail with other studies planned.

The art of Alonsa Guevara has introduced to me the idea not only of fruit and vegetables, but also a complete change in palette. The idea of painting with bright colours is a very exciting proposition and I am looking forward to exploring new compositions over the next year.

Alonsa Guevara, Fruit Portraits Installation 2014- 2017

But I'm getting ahead of myself..... before I even think of embarking on new work I will be finishing the 30 very wet paintings ready for the Arts Trail launch on the 28th April. Over the next few weeks  I will be posting the finished results on my blog, Facebook and Instagram hopefully with some success.

'Cloud Formations', series of nine paintings, 2018

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.