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.

Exhibition - Edinburgh

I knew this would happen... we are finally closing on my Aunt's bungalow on Friday and guess what, Barry and I are driving up to Scotland with all my exhibition pieces on the Saturday! It's going to be a crazy week full of packing and finalising bits and bobs for my show.

So here is my invitation and one of my new pieces for the show.....but that's all for now folks!!

Pond Life box - photopolymer prints from original drawings, with pond insect etchings, oil painting on lid. 

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?

Paul Klee, Mira Schendal, new etchings and my 60th Birthday!

Hello everyone,

Last week I entered my seventh decade and feel somewhat relieved that it has arrived and I can stop worrying about it!  My eldest daughter texted me to say that she had taken annual leave in order to help me get my free bus pass! 

On the Wednesday I enjoyed a birthday lunch at the pub with my peers from University and then drove off to London for more fun.  My wonderful children had organised some lovely birthday treats and surprises and I spent five days in London relaxing, having dinner with friends, family and going to Tate Modern.  There was lots of cake and presents and I was very very spoilt!

What an amazing cake!

The Paul Klee exhibition was large.  He was so prolific and innovative.  Just marvellous.  I fell in love with 'Gaze of Silence'.  I can't explain it really.  It is not necessarily something I would normally like so much, but the colours were so rich yet subtle and I was smitten.   Like so many paintings,  it has to be seen in the flesh in order to be fully appreciated.

                                "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible"
                                                     Paul Klee, Creative Confession and other 1920. Tate Publishing

Gaze of Silence - Oil on burlap  56.6 x 70.5 cm  1932

The other treat of the day was Mira Schendal's exhibition.  I was particularly taken by two rooms,  (for lots more you can go here as this blog has many photographs.)

The two rooms which I liked the most consisted of multiple images on Japanese paper hung between perspex.  The first space included images similar to the image below.   The second room consisted of off white writings in acrylic on Japanese paper.  The words were barely visible but hung collectively it was so effective.  I loved it.  Oh! to be able to construct something so subtle and lovely yet so powerful. 

Graphic Object 1967 by Mira Schendel, a the Tate Modern. Photograph: Mira Schendel Estate (sourced from The Guardian)

The best photo I could find to describe the rooms is below, sourced from this blog

I have also been working away at my etchings and here are a few of the latest prints.

Musk Beetle front view - Hardground etching & aquatint.

Dragonfly on Water - Soft ground, hard ground, aquatint etching.

Stag beetle - hard ground etching, sugarlift aquatint.

Finally, I played with some drafting film the other day and then exposed the drawing onto a solar plate.  Lots of fun and potential.  

Automaton beetle - solar plate etching from drawing on drafting film.

That's all for now. 

Bumble Bees

I am afraid my Ducky etching took a turn for the worse and will need more time than I have at the moment to fix! So I decided to work on some teeny tiny dry points and here are the results. I get so little time to etch and I just didn't want my last two sessions to be spent burnishing and scratching out my mistakes on Ducky.

It's Thursday and that means etching!

Wren - in progress by Lynne Windsor




El Rancho Sunflower - in progress by Barry McCuan

Whoops, I think these are a little out of focus! Will try later to get better images. I love etching, but find it challenging. I work away on one or two etchings for weeks on end. Barry usually has a few going as well, but Arlene, my cousin in law produces two in one day! Hers are usually dry point though, whereas Barry and I do the whole aquatint, acid bath (ferric chloride) thing. Quite often I will end up going too far and have to burnish back to light! We are trying to use less toxic methods, but the results are less guaranteed... or at least for me! Still, it's a wonderful afternoon and evening and great to socialise with a bunch of artists. It's a little like going back in time when we go to our class. We use a beautiful old press and it's in an old adobe building and Eli Levin (aka Jo Basiste) has been creating in Santa Fe for years and years. It's a real connection with the old Santa Fe that I never knew, back when Canyon Road was a dirt road. (Barry remembers those days too!)

British Wren

6 x 8 Oil/Panel - Sold
Available at Ventana Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

Wren's are hugely significant to me. They just seem to show up on days that have been very important to me, for one reason or another. Consequently the wren was the first bird I ever painted and continue to paint. I am also in the process of creating some etchings of wrens. They are such delightful birds.