Keeping busy
This month we’ve been to two exhibitions and I’ve been on a couple of brilliant courses
Whilst I was working towards my MA in printmaking at Plymouth College of Art, I met some lovely people who are now my friends. Some of us joined CAMP, an arts based network for Devon and Cornwall and the CAMP printmakers meet regularly at a community studio in Liskeard. At a recent meet-up, we decided to have a go with gel plate printing because none of us had ever used that process, it being fairly low-tech, and we thought it might be interesting to see how we all used it in different ways.
This month I started photographing the local allotments here in Peverell (Plymouth) but as we don’t have an allotment, I had to take them through the fence. This actually added an air of mystery and framed them quite well. From these, I made a series of mono prints; I built up layers of acrylic colour using the gel plate then used an intaglio oil based ink to make a mono print over the top, based on my glimpses through the wire fence. I also made some colour sketches which I might develop into paintings or prints.
In mid-February I signed up for a course in experimental paper making and bookbinding at Clayhill Arts centre (near Bridgewater in Somerset) which was run by Jennifer Collier over 2 days. It was a really excellent course and as I stayed there overnight - highly recommended as co-owner Deborah is a trained chef - I was able to concentrate fully on making scraps of paper and prints into something lovely. Jen showed us how to stitch into these papers and to my amazement I enjoyed the sewing part very much. I will definitely use these techniques as I often have prints which aren’t successful, being an experimental printmaker, so I can now use these to make books. Clayhill Arts is a beautiful peaceful centre and I’ll be back for more!
Deborah (co-owner of Clayhill) told me about the printmaking studio at East Quay, Watchet and the Two Rivers paper mill there so we went to stay one weekend. Watchet is a tiny coastal port on the North coast of Somerset and EastQuay is well worth a visit. We saw an exhibition and film there by Bedwyr Williams called ‘The See Wall’ which made me laugh out loud:)
We drove home via Dartmoor and called in at Moretonhampstead to visit the Green Hill Arts centre where we saw a lovely two man exhibition called ‘Form - Landscape - Shape’ by Neil Beech and Jeremy Speck; I especially enjoyed the colourful screen prints.
I was pleased to hear this week that one of my digital prints ‘Dahlia 3’ has been chosen for the Green Hill Arts Open and I’m looking forward to seeing it in this tranquil calm space. I’d never crossed Dartmoor from north-south before so the sheer breadth of it was breathtaking to see.
Having moved to Devon, I felt it would make sense if I joined the MAKE Southwest organisation as a graduate member so here I am: https://www.crafts.org.uk/graduate-makers
Finally this month, I’ve been working towards making my work more abstract by joining Liz Hough’s courses online at St Ives School of Painting over the last year. I think these work very well as we also have an online community where we share our work and we can discuss things that have worked and those which haven’t. It saves travelling to St Ives and is a lot cheaper as a result.
Liz set us 5 tasks this month and I’ve really enjoyed working through these in black and white, using white acrylic, PVA, graphite powder, Indian ink and different weights of charcoal. Highly recommended!
Settling in…
Making prints with CAMP Kin printmaking group, at The Printery and in my studio
I’ve done my H&S inductions at the Printery in Mutley and following on from watercolour monoprints, this month I’ve been learning how to make screen printed monotypes and experimenting with adding a chine collé monoprint to an etching. I’ve also been to Liskeard to work with a small group of printmakers who belong to CAMP - this month we worked with the humble Gelli plate with some surprising results - viscosity inking up worked very well. Taking the time to work, sit and chat to each other is a lot of fun and we’ve had several good ideas about possibly showing our work at a later date.
I’ve also joined MAKE Southwest’s Graduate Membership Scheme so this year I’ll concentrate on getting a body of work together. I’m going on a two day experimental bookbinding course at Clayhill Arts centre near Bridgewater shortly where I’m hoping I’ll learn new ways of combining my prints and papers into a book form because I need to find ways of using up prints that didn’t quite work out so that nothing is wasted. My husband has also made me two screen printing frames so that I can do some in my studio and last but not least, we went to the ‘Songlines’ exhibition at The Box which is well worth a visit.
We’ve moved to Plymouth!
We’ve moved to Plymouth as we missed living in a city
We made the decision to move to Plymouth because we missed living in a city... here we have the best of both worlds, and we’re a lot nearer the rest of the family in the Cotswolds now. We chose a house that had room for me to have my studio in the roof so I don’t have a train journey to make each time I want to do something, which is great. I’ve joined Devon Artist network and will be participating in the annual Devon Open Studios (September 10 -25th 2022).
I’ve also joined The Printery open studios in Mutley and have put my name down for several courses which I’m very excited about. I’ve also bought an Akua pin press so I can do watercolour monotypes at home in the studio. They are very delicate and pastel in colour and look like faded Persian rugs. We live right next to Central Park which is a great place for inspiration and ideas, being full of mature trees and home to many allotments.
Using an Xcut Xpress
I find I’m missing being able to print so I bought a tiny portable press.
I did some research about small portable printers and discovered the Xcut Xpress. I Googled it and came across Sally Hirst’s video on YouTube where she described using this machine. It is actually a die cutter but you can quickly repurpose it with a longer bed and felt from HandPrinted, which I also bought. I got the Xcut from eBay as it isn’t actually in production anymore and read the articles on how to use it from Sally, HandPrinted and Colin Blanchard. I’ve quickly tried it out just using paper stencils and I’m very happy with it and looking forward to getting to grips with it properly.
Here are the links in case you’re interested:
Colin Blanchard - https://www.colinblanchard.com/blog
https://www.colinblanchard.com/blog/the-handbag-press
Handprinted - https://handprinted.co.uk/blogs/blog/printing-with-the-xcut-xpress Accessory pack: https://handprinted.co.uk/products/printmakers-accessory-pack-for-xcut-xpress
Sally Hirst - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6er85l12Bdc
Jenny McCabe - https://www.jennymccabe.co.uk/blog/2020/6/21/printing-in-lockdown-using-the-xcut-xpress
The Curious Printmaker - https://thecuriousprintmaker.co.uk/x-cut-xpress-little-printing-press/
As well as trying out the new press, I’ve been experimenting with stencils. I tried making my own which was a dismal failure, then bought some by ‘StencilGirl’ after watching another Sally Hirst video on YouTube. I’m looking for ways to combine media and I really like the delicate charcoal and pencil effects; I’m going to start doing a lot more drawing now that the bad weather looks to be here.
St. Ives
In the last week of September, Emma Bennett, Frances Staniforth and I held an exhibition at the Salthouse Gallery in St. Ives. It was something I’d booked a long time ago (a pop-up exhibition space) but due to Covid-19 nothing happened last year, and as we’d actually graduated in the meantime we thought we’d put up our work as a kind of celebration and to get ourselves ‘out there’.
Because we don’t live close to each other we had to do a lot of the admin and decision making by WhatsApp and amazingly it did all come together well. The Cornish Framing Company at Crowlas did the framing for me and are a lovely company to deal with. Coming in and on on the train daily was a nice way to start and end the day although the weather was changeable to say the least. We survived on a diet of chips, paninis, pasties and ice-cream and learned not to walk back with any food through The Sloop car park as the seagulls who patrol it are very fierce and not at all scared of attacking you to get the ice-cream.
St. Ives was really busy, post-Festival, but the Salthouse is tucked away down some alleyways and we weren’t sure that many people would come. In the event, it was reasonably well attended and as well as our friends, we met some lovely people, many of whom were interested enough in what we were showing to spend time discussing ideas, further plans and so on with us. Fellow artists such as Paul Wadsworth and Spencer Shakespeare popped in for a chat and it was great hearing their advice and tips. Some of our old lecturers and fellow students from PCA came to support us as they were in St Ives and we also sold some work each, which was the icing on the cake, really. We also had time in between stewarding to visit the many exhibitions and galleries ourselves, and the work by Sax Impey at Anima Mundi - seascapes - is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and I highly recommend a visit.
Blog Post: August
Table-top litho printing and experimenting with small paintings
Since I went on the Liz Hough course at St Ives School of Painting in July, I’ve been trying out ideas using acrylic on board.
Last week I went with some fellow artists from Krowji to a CAMP printmaking kin day, organized by Nicky Harwood of the Creative Gym and Caroline Wilkins which was a lot of fun, topped off by an excellent veggie lunch at the local cafe. Nicky showed us how to do a tabletop litho print using very simple materials and this is something that I’ll definitely incorporate into my workflow and I’ll also try to overprint onto a drawing or painting next time I’m in the studio as I’d like to find a way of combining these that works.
The selection of images above shows some of the little paintings I’ve done, the litho print I made, and Nicky demonstrating the litho technique. I’ve also taken some work in to be framed ready for an exhibition we’re having at the Salthouse Gallery in St. Ives from September 25th for a week.
Blog Post 1
It all begins with an idea.
This week I’ve completely redesigned this website. I just wasn’t happy with it because the work it showed wasn’t the work I’m making now so I wanted to take back control and make it look how I had imagined it could do. I also thought it was about time I started a blog so here we are.
Last week I went on a course at the St Ives School of Painting called ‘Paths to Abstraction’; it was very interesting and showed us different ways of making one’s work less representational. Since I started the MA in 2018 I’ve got used to reading around everything that I do, so I’ve looked at ‘Search for the Real’ by Hans Hofmann, ‘Peter Lanyon’ by Andrew Causey, and ‘Ben Nicolson: drawings and painted reliefs’ by Peter Khoroche. I really liked the drawings in the Ben Nicolson book, I had no idea that he was such a brilliant draughtsman but what I liked was that he made the view he was drawing his own, it wasn’t just a representational drawing, it had a life of its own, containing him as well. I found the book engrossing to read as it described the development of his career and artwork and how this intertwined with his family life.