May is a popular month to be born, it seems and I am no exception. |
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My birthday proper was spent at the pebbly beach of Worthing. It was this trip which gave rise to the next in the series 'the space between us'. Alison loves a full English breakfast, not that she ever eats it all, and so we spent my birthday morning sitting on the pier at Worthing in the warm sunshine. |
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The Space Between us is a series of screen prints I am just working on now. They look at every day relationships, the space around the people in them and the dent they make in that world. I use a combination of hand-drawn images and printed text to make each one. The first is shown bottom right, 'The Kiss'. More to follow on this one. P.S. I have stuck the edges down too! |
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Meeting of minds The last quarter saw four artists getting together to talk about what drives us, let our imaginations run free and see where it took us. The second gathering took place in Sarah Ball's garden studios in the quiet village of Beckington. Sadly Emma couldn't make that time but she did for the next. Already it looks as if we are starting to create something together. That aside, it is about the experience itself. We all get something out of it, which is good. | | |
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In the first, mark making led to some interesting results and we had a play about with cropping and colour. The next meeting will see us getting more figuartive. The idea is to simply see where we go with the experience of creation without ownership. | | |
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We built on the mark making idea, containing it, using the resulting negative space, and applying it to abstract still life. |
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Hayley and I then went on to Hauser & Wirth, Bruton, showing SUBODH GUPTA: INVISIBLE REALITY, an exhibition focusing largely on the Indian cooking pot. My favourite was the large hanging copper pot, looking like a golden sun. Gupta's work featured crushed metal pots and saris, interlinked to a square as if they had been in a car crusher. The curator suggested it was a comment on overpopulation but I saw it more as a window looking in on a domestic scene of pots and colourful fabric. |
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If you've seen past posts, you will know about the 'Stone' project which has taken up pretty much the first half of this year. Focusing on the experience at Avebury, the collagraph, drypoint etching and carborundum prints are all made using strongly-coloured oil-based relief printing inks and are designed to illustrate the skies in the stone. The next step of this project was to start on a 3D represnetation, so I spent the morning (and had lunch with) with Jenny and Jo at Enigma Pottery in Frome. | | |
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Both these pieces above are ready to be fired, the left a secondary firing for the glaze, the right needs to dry and be first fired. Assuming it doesn't split and break. |
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The exhibition had started out small last year, but now underway, Jo has been busy and it tours around until the end of the year. Check out Jo's Twitter (button above) for more information including touring venues and dates. |
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This half of the year has been a bit busy, but it was so good to get down to see a small part of Dorset Arts Weeks, specifically to see Maureen Nathan, a portrait artist who also makes linocut prints. She even opened early for me! So kind , and so good to catch up. Here is the link to the Dorset Arts Weeks site and more. |
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Just for a bit of fun, four Twitter artsts got together to take part in a Moleksine exchange project. All buying a Japenese Moleskine, choosing a theme and starting the first pages, the books were all posted in rotation round the group for each artist to add to. The four were Annie of @AnniesFineArt (I couldn't upload her image) Viv Styles of @VivStylz Maggie Goodwin of @Printsbymaggieg and myself. |
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I am hoping my next newsletter will see me posting images of finished 'stones'. Hoping to find a gallery in which to show the series, please message me if know you know of anyone who might be interested. I am also hoping tohave finished 'The Space Between Us', but am running out of sessions at the print workshop. As you all know, there is never enough time! I hope you have enjoyed reading the catch up. (Kind) Feedback welcome :) |
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