New year, new things
Over the last few months, we’ve visited London and Bristol several times to see some excellent exhibitions at WCPF, the Bankside and the RWA Open in Bristol. Whilst there, I was also fortunate enough to visit the artist’s books section of the UWE library at Bower Ashton with a friend. I enjoyed spending a day looking at all the excellent examples on show.
St. Paul’s from the Oxo Tower
I’ve been teaching collagraph printmaking at Ocean Studios and will be starting another course on January 30th. It’s fun helping people to learn how to make these textured colourful prints made with found materials.
At Ocean Studios there are now quite a few printmakers and I’ve enjoyed collaborating recently with Alan Qualtrough where he’s teaching me the photopolymer gravure process and I’m teaching him to make collagraphs. I also attend Barton Hargreaves’ Friday etching class and have enjoyed meeting other printmakers and learning from The Bart.
I’m now a Co-Director of CAMP (Contemporary Art Membership Platform), Contemporary Art Membership Platform (CAMP) - a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts workers, and other creatives. CAMP collectively promotes and supports doing, making, and sharing contemporary art across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. I’m looking forward to playing my part in making things happen for our members so watch this space…
Autumn in Plymouth
It’s been a very busy few months - no sooner had we returned from Kent than the students returned to Plymouth and I began working again. I work part-time as a specialist ASC study skills tutor and ASC Mentor for neurodivergent students at the Arts University, Plymouth and the University of Plymouth, which I enjoy very much. It uses my brain, it is a worthwhile and rewarding job, and means that I’m part of a bigger community once more.
In mid-September we went to London to the RE ‘Small but Mighty’ exhibition where one of my collagraph prints was hung. In late September I joined several other studio holders at Ocean Studios to participate in Devon Open Studios and during October, we’ve had the Plymouth Arts Weekender - a great success - and Artober. Along with other CAMP members, I’ve been involved in two exhibitions at the Royal William Yard, which was very busy and it’s always interesting to meet lots of visitors. Plymouth has also hosted the New Contemporaries exhibitions over three venues, well worth a visit.
At Ocean Studios, I ran a collagraph evening class over three weeks which was fun to do, and the more local CAMP PrintKin members came to OS last Saturday for a cyanotype session.
Summer’s end
Aaaargh - I’ve just done a whole post and didn’t save it before it closed…what an idiot. So, deep breath, start again: it’s the middle of August and I’m here in Wiltshire, looking after my mum and my sister’s dog. It’s very hot and thundery and we’re going on a road trip next week with Ted, my son’s dachund, in a motor home, so I’m hoping we will get a good night’s sleep. My grandson, who recently came to stay for a while, informed me that Ted sleeps on mummy and daddy’s bed….noooooooo
Because of family commitments I haven’t done much making this last couple of weeks but before I left Plymouth I did turn a lot of the cyanotypes I’ve been doing into concertina books and the like. I sewed pages together on my vintage Singer treadle machine; such fun, making cyanotypes (and books). I have turned some of the cyanotypes into cushions thanks to Adobe software and a digital textile printing bureau; if these look good when they arrive then I’ll take them to the Devon Open Studios event at Ocean Studios (where I’m now sharing a studio with Sue Lewry: F29) that I’ll be participating in, along with many other studio holders, which should be a lot of fun. Ocean Studios’ address is The Factory Cooperage, Royal William Yard, Plymouth PL1 3RP. The dates and opening times of the event are as follows (not everyone is opening on all of these, but this is when I’ll be there): Saturday September 7th from 11am to 3pm, Wednesday September 1th from 6pm-8pm (the Opening event), Saturday and Sunday 14th-15th Sept 11am-3pm (both days), and 21-22nd Sept from 11am-3pm (both days). Hope to see some of you there!
I’ve decided to use the OS studio space as a gallery to display my prints, 3D prints and booklets. If the digital textile prints on cushions are well received then this is something I’d like to take further, as I think the digital print-on-demand model is an environmentally sound one, and shouldn’t produce any waste. I enjoy mixing digital and hand-made processes and I’m also looking forward to collaborating with Matt Holmes, who makes digital fabrications at Ocean Studios. I think it’s going to be a very good move and I’m looking forward to getting down there more, once we return from the road trip…
Moving studio…
I’m very excited to be moving my studio to Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard, Stonehouse, Plymouth from August 1st, where I’ll be sharing a large studio with Sue Lewry, whom I studied with on the MA. I’m sure that this move will lead to a lot of new opportunities and I’m really looking forward to getting involved with everything on offer.
I also decided to enter Opens again this year and am happy to say that so far, I’ve been accepted at 2 out of 3 places. Rejection is still horrible when it happens but it’s all part of the process and I’m not going to let it put me off.
I’ve also enjoyed going to some cracking exhibitions this year - the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize touring exhibition showing the winners from 2023 was recently on at the Arts Institute, UoP and it was first class. The BA graduation shows at Arts University, Plymouth were also excellent and I enjoyed seeing the work of some of the students whom I’ve supported over the last two years. We’ve also been to Roscoff again on holiday so my thoughts are now turning to thinking about making the next body of work…
March 2024 - still experimenting
What I’ve been up to over the last few months
I haven’t posted for a while so here’s a quick recap: back in early November I was invited to work with fellow artist Beverley Roach at ‘Grow’ in Plymouth where Beverley was having a week’s residency. Later in the week we were joined by another friend - Beth Heaney - and we really enjoyed using the space and naturally occurring inks and paints made with plants, fruits and ground up from material found on Bev’s beach walks, whilst Beth did some weaving using willow sticks.
A printmaking friend who popped in to see us recommended that I buy a copy of ‘Experimental Printmaking’ by Mary Dalton and I have enjoyed working my way through several processes that she describes in her excellent book. So far I’ve tried using drypoint on card - which means you can cut it easily - combined with freehand mono-printing followed by using these pieces of drypoint card cut up smaller to print onto plaster. I’ve really enjoyed trying these methods out and next up is what Mary terms ‘Lithino’. I want to make layered prints and finding a method of hand drawing over the top of other prints - using paper lithography and lithino - is my next challenge.
In February we went to Edinburgh to see my son (who wasn’t there, long story) and had a lovely few days seeing exhibitions and visiting galleries and the Edinburgh Printmakers new space. I saw some original Joan Eardley paintings alongside Elizabeth Blackadder’s at the Scottish Gallery and the Printmaker’s Art at the SRA plus the annual watercolour exhibition that was showing some amazing work. The Fruit Market gallery had a lovely shop and two interesting exhibitions and then, completely saturated with art, we had a beautiful train ride home along the NE coastline.
The Printery in Mutley closed recently and our Camp printmaking group had gone dormant so in January I volunteered to start the group up again. So far we’ve met twice and once online, several new members have joined us and we’re hoping to do some printmaking events and show work at the Hatherleigh Festival in July. I’ve recently joined Drawn to the Valley which is a group of artists based around the geographical location of the River Tamar and I’m hoping to exhibit with them during the coming year.
Finally, I took a workshop in papermaking at Double Elephant print studios, Exeter given by Jim Patterson of Two Rivers Paper company (Watchet, Somerset) which was much harder to do than I thought it would be. My attempts were pretty useless being full of holes and uneven but it’s definitely something I’d like to try in the future.
Forgot to say - the tiny 3D cubes are in an exhibition called ‘Women Walking’ at the Falmouth Art gallery, Cornwall, from now until April 27th..!
The happy printmaker
A ‘new’ press and lots of experimenting this summer…
Lots has happened since last I wrote here. I bought a second-hand press from a good friend and since then I haven’t looked back. I’ve become a member of the FabLab community and have learned how to make my own perspex laser cut matrices that I’ve enjoyed layering over monoprints and collographs. All of the scrap pieces of paper I shall make into a sketchbook so that nothing is wasted… I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make collagraph plates; some are perspex, some are on mountboard and I’ve tried different ways of varnishing them - button polish shellac is my favourite, to date. I’ve been using different oil based inks, Hawthorn Stay Open and Caligo Safewash. Both are fine and I’ve been layering thin monoprints over collagraphs, very enjoyable. I don’t worry if a print doesn’t work out as I can use it in a collage or sew into it or make it into a book.
Several years ago I bought an old Singer treadle sewing machine that I haven’t used and an ex-colleague from Westonbirt came to visit and helped me to get it threaded and running. It’s really good fun and I can oversew all of the torn pieces of print and newsprint scraps into something more permanent. It has opened up a world of possibilities and after doing some research on Google I discovered that the machine was made in 1896 or thereabouts and amazingly it’s in fine running order. Being manually operated it’s environmentally friendly and I’m really excited by all of the possibilities on offer now.
Spring has sprung
Spring has arrived - sketching outdoors, using sketchbooks and the digital/handmade crossover
It seems a very long time ago that I posted here; since then, I’ve continued the investigation that I began on my MA into the crossover between the digital (starting with my photographs) and the handmade in my work. I like moving from one realm to the other and using these ideas, I’ve made some concertina books, taken some digital photographs into charcoal drawings and lino prints at Double Elephant studio in Exeter, made stitched and printed tissue paper and filled some sketchbooks doing plein-air painting in Central Park. These sketchbooks and photographs will be the basis of my work over the next few months.
In between trips back to see family in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, we’ve visited The Box to see some of their excellent exhibitions and have been to watch Plymouth Argyll in their quest for promotion this season. Nervous times ahead… I also had some more work shown at The Artmill Gallery, which was nice.
Double Elephant: https://www.doubleelephant.org.uk/courses
The Box: https://www.theboxplymouth.com/events/exhibitions Sue Williamson: Between Memory and Forgetting, a selection of wonderful collaged prints; Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings: Portraits (these are beautiful prints too) and Making a Mark: Dazzling Drawings from the Cottonian
Late December 2022
A brief round-up of the year and images of what I’ve been making and seeing
Wishing you all a Happy New Year!
It’s that time again, in those few quiet days between Christmas and New Year where it’s traditionally the time to look back over the last year, to pause, consider and reflect. (This blog isn’t about politics, so although we’re all affected by what has happened globally and nationally, I’m not going to comment on it.)
Looking back over the year since we moved to Plymouth, I’m very happy with everything that’s happened. I love living in a city and being so near Central Park there’s always somewhere to walk and observe. I’ve tried to draw and paint en plein air this summer and will begin that again in January. I’m working on a large body of work based on the park that will consist of paintings, drawings, prints and mixed media pieces. I have some work in the Artmill Gallery in Peverell and am delighted to say that 4 pieces have sold, which is really pleasing from the point of view of gaining credibility as an artist. I now share a studio with a fellow MA graduate at Grow, right next to The Box in the centre of town, and it’s lovely to belong to a small community again. We have plans to do lots of group things next year, which I’ll report here.
I’ve visited the British Art Show in Plymouth of course and have also managed to get across to Make Southwest’s hq in Bovey Tracey to see the joint exhibition by printmaker Anita Reynolds and ceramicist Kate Lyons-Miller entitled ‘Rippon’. It was well worth the trip and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the powerful and varied work on show. I especially liked Anita’s concertina books of prints. The drive over Dartmoor was also beautiful so we stopped to take photographs, something that I shall continue to do in 2023.
Make Southwest and Rippon: https://www.crafts.org.uk/all-exhibitions/ink-and-clay
Grow studios, Plymouth: https://www.growplymouth.co.uk/
Artmill Gallery, Peverell: https://www.artmillgalleries.co.uk/
November ‘22
This month the BAS9 has arrived in Plymouth and there’s lots to see. I’ve also taken a new studio at ‘Grow’ and have work in the Artmill Christmas show
This month sees the arrival of the British Art Show 9 in Plymouth and very interesting it is, too. On a personal level this is also an exciting time as a fellow artist and I have taken a studio in the ‘Grow’ building, next to the Box; we think this will lead to many other opportunities. I’m happy to say I will have 9 mixed media pieces on show at the Artmill Gallery, Peverell, Plymouth as part of their Christmas show that opens on Saturday 12th; the Private View is on Friday 18th 5-7pm. I’m a member of the CAMP group [Contemporary Art Membership Plymouth] and have a short film on show with them at the Vacancy Atlas, Cornwall Street.
I’ve recently been on a course at Dartington Hall (‘Dark River Rising’ led by Anthony Garrett) and have made several gouache paintings as part of a body of work based on the Dart. I’m also starting a project based on Central Park involving paint, print and stitch. Below are some images from BAS9 and from the last few weeks...
Autumn 2022
It’s been a long time since I posted but here are some photos of what I’ve been doing
It’s been a while but here we are again…I’ve had a busy summer that included a trip to Amsterdam and have just got back from Dartington Hall.
