BURIED TREASURE 2010

This post is from this time last year. I am re posting it as part of Seth Apter's Buried Treasure 2010 project to be found on his blog The Altered Page. He has asked folk to collaborate by re posting favourite past posts. I felt that it would be apt to post this one as a celebration of my blog being just over a year old now...Happy Blog Day to me.

Enjoy going back in time.

I have just spent a wet week in Bude, Cornwall with my husband Rob and son Toby. While they spent the days frolicing in the waves in wet siuts, I had an enjoyable time exploring rock pools and collecting stones.
I find seaside pebbles irresistable, the Bude coast line is edged with these gorgeous stones before the sand appears when the tide goes out.

The rocks on the edge of the beaches are covered in the deepest blue clusters of mussels

and although the orange fishing net is really rubbish it looks fabulous against the blue.

I knew I would have sometime left to my own devises so I cut up a larger sketch book to make this square format, 11 x 11cms and at the end of the week decorated the front with beach finds.

I managed 2 to 3 drawings a day, some on the beach, some inspired by the day.

I prepared pages with acrylic paint and wall paper before coming away,

and used collage to inspire some pages.

I am left with a personal reminder of a lovely holiday that is easier to look at than a set of photos.

PRINTMAKING PROGRESS

My work is beginning to take on an independent life of it's own. Once made it needs to leave home...if you see what I mean?
Atonement (the pelican) has been accepted in the RBSA Print Biennial 2010. The exhibition opens on the 15th July to 21st August. For those of you who are printmaking fans the exhibition is a must. The gallery is round the corner from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery which is also worth a visit as it has a fantastic collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Check out the RBSA web sight for details, www.rbsa.org.uk

These 2 crow images are appearing at Art in Action this year. I am delivering a collagraph workshop on the Saturday and the collagraphs are forming part of the teachers exhibition and one will be in the Nature in Art area.

Art in Action is this weekend 15th -18th July at Waterperry, Oxford. It is an incredible day out for lovers of art, there is every kind of art form being demonstrated and you get to meet makers face to face in action. Sharon Mc Swiney will be in the market place tent and I am running a couple of high speed collagraph workshops on the Saturday afternoon. Come and wave at me. For more details www.artinaction.org.uk

SKETCH BOOK EXPERIMENTS

I have been neglecting my sketch book recently, I now need to do some solid playing to generate and consolidate a few new ideas. I start when I am feeling at my most lack lustre, not a creative thought in my head
and spend a day filling up pages with random wall paper and paint texture with a wash of ink for good measure.

I then start drawing incorporating and covering whatever the mood takes me. Having something already on the blank page helps hugely, I have never got over the blank page thing!!

Spending time working in this way gets me kick started again, this sketch book is a small 4inch square trifle and I now can't wait to do more pages. Who knows where it will lead?

ENAMELS

More experimental enamels, yes it is beginning to look like , if it moves enamel it!!
These are cut down teaspoons and a butter knife together with the screen printed transfers

I made earlier in the term. I have also been playing with gold leaf which fires into the

surface of the enamel giving a delicious twinkle under the sifted colour.

COLLAGRAPHS

As you can see I am still experimenting with tile cement and carborundom plates.
I have also tried to be a bit daring (for me) with the colour in these prints.

Simultaneous colour separation inking really shows up the textures in these plates.
I am really enjoying the little birds at the moment. I have had a family of sparrows come to visit my tiny town garden.
But I am really excited about this visitor, I believe it is a Garden Tiger Moth, please let me know if I have got that wrong.

I had three of these beauties flying just out of reach of Iris the cat this evening. A gorgeous flash of colour!

RESEARCH METHODS

I have just finished my assignments for the Research Methods module of my MA course, everything has to be handed in next Thursday. To celebrate I have made a homage to the language of Research Methods.
This is a collection of enamel experiments put together as a collection of moths, genus Researchium Metholepidoptera. Inspired by the curious names moths have been given, collected here is the Large Heuristic, the Scarse Phenomenologist, the Artium Magister and of course the very rare Bloody Deadline. All a bit of fun, but will mean I will not loose my experiments or forget the new terminology I have had to learn.

COLLAGRAPH AND COLOUR SEPARATION

This weekend at Hampen Factory I ran a class teaching collagraph plate making
using the two plate colour separation technique. Making plates with glue, textured wall paper

and Carborundum powder, a variety of images were made and printed.

It is a versatile way of working, plates can be printed singly

or layered together for interesting results.

It is fantastic what can be achieved using card, glue and a craft knife.