End of my second year

Meandering River and Meadow - Diptych 8 x 16 Oil/Panel

Well, that's the second year over and done with.  We all handed our portfolios yesterday and then went to pub!  After an hour or so of being there, I couldn't stop thinking about my portfolio and whether I had actually handed in the correct one!!  (I have two similar portfolios).   I found myself wandering back to the Print Room to take one more peek!  Very silly of me, I know, but once 5 pm had passed it would have been too late!  Of course, I had submitted the correct one.

Now I am getting back to some serious painting, packing up from Cambridge, going home to spend some time with my Dad and Aunt and then off to New Mexico until the end of August.  I am looking forward to New Mexico, but shall miss being in the UK for the summer...  the luscious overgrown green.

May is here and it's still cold!

Well, the essay is handed in and what a relief that is!   It felt quite odd not to be spending all weekend writing.  Now I just have to sort my portfolio and hand that in on 20th May and that's my second year over.  What a life changer it has been.  The third years are leaving and I am very sad.  They are such a great bunch.  I shall miss them so much.

Below are some photos of some of the things I have been busy about, besides the hotel painting commissions and essay writing!

On June 6th, I am boarding a plane for New Mexico for a couple of months to get some big paintings done.  I am looking forward to that for obvious reasons, but also to warm my bones... spring has barely arrived here and today it's blowing a cold wind... 

Waterways i soft ground etching 7 x 7 cm

Lake i soft ground etching 5 x 15 cm

Fen with monoprint on Tosa Washi chine collé  7 x 7 cm

Field and Stream soft ground etching 5 x 15 cm

A painting..

Tranquil Pool - 20 x 20 cm

I suppose this is what you call a distraction from writing my essay!!  .. updating my blog.. catching up really as I did this painting a while back but didn't post it. 

I have booked my ticket to return to New Mexico in June and will be there until the end of August, which will be lovely.  Anyone who contacted me before asking about workshops in New Mexico, please email me and  we can arrange something.  I am really looking forward to getting lots of painting done and feeling the heat of the sun!!  Now back to the essay...

Still writing my essay and other things

I am definitely making a meal out of this writing business... it's only 4000 words and 10% of my final MA mark, but I obviously want to do the best I can!  Plus, it's fascinating, and the research goes on and on.  I can't imagine how I wrote my really long dissertation back in the day when I couldn't type and we didn't have the web.  It doesn't seem possible.
 
Koichi Yamamoto is one of the artists I am writing about, in particular this print.

Koichi Yamamoto - Rakujo

 I think his work is incredible and he has been so generous in answering my questions.  Another artist which I have discovered along the way with the help of my fellow students is Susan Derges.  Her work is so beautiful.   She is best known for her pioneering technique of capturing the continuous movement of water by immersing photographic paper directly into rivers or shorelines. She often creates her work at night, working with the light of the moon and a hand-held torch to expose images directly onto light sensitive paper. (Purdy Hicks Gallery)

Susan Derges -  River Taw - Photograms

 Meanwhile, I have been experimenting a great deal with soft ground etchings and chine colle, plus a two plate etching, soft ground and sugar lift aquatint.  

Unfinished soft ground with tosa washi monoprint chine colle.

Soft ground etching with tosa washi monoprint chine colle.

Two plate soft ground etching with background sugarlift aquatint.

Catching Up..

Goodness, how time flies.  Barry came and went and I got back into my University work, plus a couple of commissions and now struggling with my final essay.  I just couldn't catch up with my blog until I settled on the subject matter and that kept changing every week!  I think I have clinched it now and am writing on the abstraction/semi abstraction of landscape/nature.  There!   I have said it out loud and now I am committed!  It's a big subject, so I am honing it down to a couple of artists.

Do let me know your thoughts if you have any.  I have always been very fascinated by the transition from representation to abtraction and how we change what we see and why.  I am enjoying looking into this in more detail.

Here are some two plate sugar lift aquatints that I have been working on.  They are tiny, barely 2 x 2" or 5 x 5 cm.   I just love the 'abtraction' of these images and played with colour.  Plus I was practicing my registration skills.  There is something very satisfying about getting two plates to line up perfectly... almost perfectly!

 

Below is a photo that Barry took of me.   We happened to be near my old school and I wanted to show it to him, but sadly we couldn't see it!  Nevertheless, we got some good photos of mist! 

Me and the Mist

Happy 2013 to you all!

Obviously I have not posted for a while.. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New year to all.  The end of last semester came and went so fast, which included my husband, Barry arriving from the US at the end of November.  Then we both got sick!  I am still dealing with the residue of painful pulled muscles from coughing too much!  It was the worst bug I have had in years.  I think a lot of people have had it, so sympathies for all those who did!

Glastonbury sunset

The dates for our workshop are now set.  These are 27th May to 31st May.  If I can get enough people to sign up and pay a deposit now, I can book Sparkford Hall for a very good price.  My daughter has a connection with this beautiful house and because of that I am being given a good deal.  Please let me know if you are interested.  May is such a glorious time of the year in the UK.  Photos to follow.  I hope you will join Barry and I for our first major workshop in UK together.  You can also stay over the weekend for a little extra. They will also organise meals so that you can concentrate completely on your work. 


Since I last wrote I did a three day refresher course with Jason Hicklin, which was great!  These workshops are so intense and since the ink, paper etc., is all prepared for you, all one has to do is create!  The image below is a combination of soft ground and sugar lift, stopped out by using Litho crayon.  Lots of possibilities here and rather excited about using this method when I get back to University at the end of January.

Fenland - 9.50 x 9.50 cm - Etching (soft ground, sugar lift)

Botanics - this is an etching which has gone through many lives.

Barry and I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park yesterday on our way back down from Scotland.  It's such a beautiful place.  A great setting for incredible sculpture.

Oval with Points - Henry Moore

Me between Three piece reclining figure no. 1 - Henry Moore

Barry with Reclining Figure, Arch leg - Henry Moore

R.K. Burt and some Paintings

Hello everyone, 

Things really got busy this last few weeks, with our R.K. Burt exhibition in London. We hung the work on 5th November, had our PV on the 7th.  I looked after the gallery on the following Monday and then we took it all down last Friday.  It was quite an exhausting and  educational experience to say the least.   Sadly, not much was sold, but I did manage to sell five unframed prints from the browser.  Obviously, I was very pleased about that.  What was absolutely wonderful about having our exhibition in London, was that many friends dropped in to say hello!  One old school friend visited whom I hadn't seen since I was 16, one not seen for 19 years and one who actually lived abroad... it was really really fabulous!  Ahh, the power of the internet!  Thank you all who came by.  We so appreciated your support.

Here are a few photos from our private view.  That's me in the first photo inside the gallery, refilling my glass I think!!  (Thanks Karin for the only photo of me at the exhibition!)   Plus some photos of my fellow students and tutors being silly!

Below are also a few paintings that I have also been working on.. (apologies for the sheen on the last photo).  This last Friday evening was the opening night for the Small Works, Great Wonders exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma.  Barry and I sold all four of our paintings!  We are so happy!  Thank you Oklahoma!

In addition to all this running around I managed to get to Tate Modern last Sunday, with my son, to listen to a talk by William Kentridge, followed by a visit to the Tanks to see his installation... absolutely brilliant.  Very powerful.  Do go and see if you are in London.

That's it for now... 

Wicken Fen Summer Evening Oil/Panel 10 x 10

Summer Meadows - Oil/Linen 14 x 18

Summer Meadow with sheep 6 x 10 Oil/Panel

More Sugar lifting!

Two plate sugarlift etching, testing my skills at registration!

In my quest to move away from drypoints, as you know I have been experimenting with sugar lift aquatints.  Here are a few of the tests and experiments.  The bugs got a little more creative inspired by a recent visit to the reserve collection in the Zoology Museum in Cambridge.  What a treat that was!  We also visited the Tate Print Collection on Wednesday and got to see some beauties close up.  I just loved this early Hockney print, which I believe is his first etching... puts me to shame!  Below are some photos from last week.

Abstraction from a landscape painting in sugarlift aquatint

Dragonfly Abstraction - 1.50 x 2 approx.

Flower Mantis sugarlift -  1.50 x 2 approx.

David Hockney - Myself and my heroes. Better image to be found with Tate link

Stephen Chambers at Lynne Strover's Gallery and a new work in progress!

I have just returned from a talk given by Stephen Chambers RA at  Lynne Strover's beautiful gallery in Fen Ditton, near Cambridge.  What a treat!  Just a fifteen minute drive from Melanie's and I get to hear Stephen Chambers talk about his new large printed work inspired by the 1958 American Western, 'The Big Country', which will be opening at the Royal Academy on 24th October.

I was pleased to be able to see his smaller series of prints again, 'When Trouble Meets Trouble' which I absolutely love, and first saw at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.  This suite of prints are a wonderful mix of etching and chine colle and has certainly inspired me to add this technique to my printmaking repertoire!

Marie Antoinette - Stephen Chambers

A few miles outside of Cambridge,  Fen Ditton is an unlikely place to find such an exquisite gallery as the  Lynne Strover Gallery, but well worth a visit to see some really good art!

When Trouble meets Trouble - Stephen Chambers

 

Stephen Chambers signing his book

And here is my latest little bug, a hornet, given to me by a fellow student, (thank you Susi!) .. it is a work in progress.  It started out as a test plate on the back of another test plate (copper is so expensive!!) for a bigger etching, using sugar lift, but I like the way it's going and now want to do more little creatures.  This little one is only about 1.50 in square.  Sugar lift is a technique whereby you mix sugar and water and some black ink and paint it on a degreased plate.  The image you paint, is the image that is eventually printed.  You 'stop out' the rest of the plate with either a varnish or a hard wax ground and then put the plate in hot water, which lifts off the sugar solution.  After that you add an aquatint, which is what etches.  Some people put the acquatint on first and paint the sugar solution over this.  Ahhh... the joys of printmaking, so many ways to do the same thing! 

Susi's Hornet - sugar lift with burnishing and scraping out.

Back to school..

Well, I have been back at University now for three weeks and as usual trying to figure out in which direction my printmaking will go.  I have been looking at insects and seedheads again, but finding  it hard to let go of the landscapes, especially after spending last weekend at the beach!  I spent most of the time painting and sketching on the beach, except of course for a little paddle with my friend Melanie.  I also went into a school last week, The Thomas Clarkson Academy, to give a little talk about my work and to assist the students.  Here is a link to their website and a little piece about my visit.  It was a good day and I thoroughly enjoyed working with the class. 

All the above, sketches executed at the Botanics Cambridge.

A dry point created on the beach this weekend, of course I forgot about the fact that when printed it is in reverse! 

Fen Mist - 5 x 7 oil/wood

Walberswick, Suffolk