The Open Eye Gallery - Edinburgh.

We made it to Edinburgh! (and back).    All my worked packed in my little car, plus Barry, Eddie, the dog I was looking after and myself.   I think I had the best seat.  Barry was surrounded by bags and a very lovely but hairy dog!  Lots of precious cargo, years of work and two beings that I love dearly.  It took forever to get to Edinburgh as the A1 was closed, so we had to make a detour.  All good though and we arrived at my friend, Jasmin's place safe and sound.

The Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh did a wonderful job of installing my work.  It looked amazing.  I was so happy.  The exhibition opened last Saturday morning and lots of friends and family came.  It is on until 25th July.  I enjoyed meeting other wonderful artists too... Rachel Ross, who recently had a very successful show at the gallery.  Plus John Struthers, whom I enjoyed talking to a great deal, but wished I had been wearing even higher heels!

 John Struthers and me

Without this man I could not have managed.

Angie and me looking at my drawings.

And here is a little bit of Scotland for you, with Eddie and Missy.

Back in the UK.

After a quick visit to Los Angeles to help my daughter Rosie settle into her new flat, Barry and I dashed back to New Mexico last Saturday, (it's a long way to drive in one day!!).  I only had one day to finish the big painting before leaving last Tuesday. 

I arrived back in Lincolnshire last Wednesday,  unpacked, packed and paid some bills on my Dad's house, loaded up my little car with my beetle cabinet and beetle boxes and drove up to Scotland on Friday to deliver my work to the Royal Scottish Academy.  Phew!!   My work had been pre-selected for the Scottish Society of Artists exhibition and I am now waiting to see if I have made it through to the final exhibition.  Luckily, I can stay with my friend Jasmin whilst I wait to hear.

As many of you know,  Edinburgh is not flat, so we had to be very careful not to let the sack barrow run away with us!  Here is Jasmin holding onto the cabinet.  She is very strong!!

Last post, I had promised to include the stages of the large painting I was trying to finish before returning to the UK.  I hope you enjoy them.  Please don't hesitate to ask questions.

I used to cover the whole of the canvas and then wipe out, but I work more directly these days.

Building up the image.

Although from my reference material there wasn't a river, I put one in because I thought it needed something for the eye to follow into the landscape.  Plus I wanted to echo a little of the sky colour and not just have a lot of green fields!

At this stage I began to mix Ultramarine blue deep with the Burnt Sienna to create the darks.

Big decisions to be made on the colour of the fields,  to bring some fields forward and push others back. 

I found it difficult to find the appropriate colour for the distant hills, wanting them to be fairly true to the colour which is quite warm,  but needing them to recede.  Forming the structure of the hills.

Adding the sky, hoping to create the atmosphere. 

Rolling Mist - The Lake District 40 x 64 Oil/Linen

When the whole painting was covered and I had worked on all the tree shapes, tweaking the lights and darks and the distant hills, I let the painting dry.  Then I covered the distant hills and the sky in a milk glaze... transparent white, paynes grey and a tiny amount of ultramarine blue.  This pushed the hills back.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the US.  My birthday once again falls on Thanksgiving day.  Last time it did that was when I was 50 and Barry and I took off to Oaxaca.  That does sound very appealing, but I will be happy to stay in Scotland.

Bye for now.

Views from my MA show.

Hello all,

Our private view was fantastic.  I couldn't get over how many friends and family came.  Friends from Scotland, Gloucestershire and London and my daughter and son came from Somerset and London.  It was incredible.  I felt quite overwhelmed and honoured.

Me installing the show.

For the show, I had bought a secondhand museum cabinet and installed various different little projects in each drawer.  It was fascinating to watch people gravitate to the drawers.  Forget those prints on the wall... it was the drawers that grabbed the attention!!

Here are some photos of the installation, plus Barry and I at the opening.

Barry and I at the Private View

The installation

I placed some of the copper plates in the bottom drawer.  Amazing how the colours matched!

Pond, wings and landscape etchings.

Entomology containers with beetle etchings.

I included some little specimen paintings in one of the drawers and the painted the lids of two specimen boxes, which contained a beetle etching.

The specimen drawer -  showing many variations of prints, some two plate etchings and prints showing the stages of a print.

Nineteen plate etching of beetles.

This drawer contained the seven stages of the etching, including a ghost print.  

I really liked this grouping, but it was changed in the final installation.

The show continues until 11th September and then I have to take it down on 12th.  It will be sad.  I had so much fun installing it, with the help of Barry.  It is finally the end of three years of hard work and some really great times.  What next?

Another session of catching up!

Hello everyone, 

Can you believe that it is now July and the last post was in April? 

Three beautiful years came to an end when I handed in my Final Masters Project on May 16th and left the print room for a while.  It has been such an amazing experience and I am thankful to everyone who supported me during this time, especially my husband, Barry McCuan.  I have to say that the Print room at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University is absolutely wonderful and I am going to be dragged kicking and screaming from the print room when it is finally all over in September!   John Williams, our genius of a technician has added to the fabulous experience with his technical prowess.  Not only is John a wonderful technician, but he is also an inspired artist in his own right having graduated with an MA from Camberwell School of Art a number of years ago.  So anyone thinking of doing an MA in Printmaking.... Cambridge is a great choice!

Barry arrived a few days after I handed in my project and we drove down to Cornwall and had a lovely few days down there.  I needed the break before we came back to sort out my Dad's house.  It has been really tough,  and the newly discovered underground water leak hasn't helped!   Hopefully it will be fixed soon... it has only been five months since I first reported it.  Lovely insurance companies!!!!!

Painting on Chapel Porth beach

On the Coastal path above Kynance Cove, Cornwall.

We had Eddie to stay for a week or so and we took him on a little painting trip into Norfolk searching for a poppy field, which amazingly we found.  I think it might have been the only one!

Eddie the perfect painters' companion!

I have managed to get a small amount of painting done, mainly in my sketch book, but now I am back in the print room preparing for our MA show.  There are just a few more things I want to add to my installation, but here is a sneak preview!

Entomology - etchings

Will be back sooner next time!

The research goes on...

Three trips to Margate in a month and now Pushing Print is over.  It was a good show, lots of interesting work and getting to meet other artists was lovely.  I also got some good entomology suggestions too, so the beetle project is developing. 

Unfortunately the Zoology Museum in Cambridge is closed for renovations,  however,  I was kindly allowed a morning's access to a few beetles last week.  Can you imagine the work it is going to involve packing up all those insects, birds and shells, etc?    

It is such an amazing experience going into these more scientific/academic 'zones', which are obviously so different from the messy, yet controlled hubbub of a print room.  I was given a desk in a quiet corner with a magnifiying table light and I sat quietly drawing all morning.  I am intrigued by all the entomological equipment, the perspex boxes, the pins, the little platforms of styrofoam,  where cork or something similar was used before... (note to self - check this out!). 

Musk Beetle

I have produced so far a few beetle etchings.  I am trying out different methods, hard ground, soft ground and sugar lift aquatint to see what I think works the best.  Here are a few to begin with.

An assortment of beetle etchings in progress and sketch of Darwin's Beetle box.

Hister Beetle - Sugar lift Aquatint, hard ground and burnishing.

Rhinoceros beetle -  Hard ground etching.

In addition, I have just finished a  Nuthatch painting.   Now to finish my tax return.... that's no fun at all!

Nuthatch on a branch - 10 x 10 in Oil/Panel