The chickens have landed

A whole month has gone by without any etching... a few drawings of hands for a project I may be involved in (more about that if it comes off) and some wrapping of prints for Printer Wonderland this Friday and that's about it on the art front.  Mostly I've been busily preparing and now thoroughly enjoying our newest residents, three twenty four-week-old warren hens. They truly are the most fun EVER. It's hard to imagine how such small creatures can produce so much poo though - and do so much damage to the garden... It's worth it for their entertainment value however, and fresh eggs of course.

Dull post alert

Never did post pictures of the bench post-restoration...

I am doing some artwork, honest!

 

This is a little aside I've been working on before wading into the next Captain PB image. It's based on a Korean roof tile in the form of a dragon. These are used to frighten off evil spirits and are often placed over water pipes.

A restoration project

In the general garden tidy up this summer, I decided our rather elderly garden bench was in need of some TLC. Belonging to my father's grandmother, it must be at least eighty years old and was showing its age somewhat. It used to get regular paintings but has been neglected over the last few years, so a good sand down and new coat of paint was much needed to preserve the dear old thing. I doubt it'll last another eighty years but it should give us a few years yet. Unless our new arrivals have other ideas... More on that next time.

Summer in the garden

Dear me, it’s been a long old time since I last posted. I’ve not been idle though, just channelling my creativity in other directions, mostly the garden. It’s a mature garden that quietly gets on with it by itself but it does need some encouragement to keep itself tidy and I’m afraid it’s rather been left to its own devices the last couple of years with minimal input from me. Many hours were needed this year to get the weeds under control, which like everything else in the garden, had exploded due to all the rain and mild temperatures we’ve had this year. I don’t actually mind weeding… I find it quite relaxing. Needless to say, it’s all done by hand; no chemicals in my garden thanks.

So, borders weeded and tidied, plants moved, new plants planted, some fruit and veg put in and our old garden seat sanded down and repainted. And I’m already planning for spring; 195 bulbs planted this week. I do love to watch things grow!

then strange ground now

PB3 is finished all ready to accompany PBs 1 and 2 in the Summer show.  He was surprisingly quick to do; at least, he took a fair old time but maybe I was just more focused. Deadlines'll do that I guess.

Now for my next project...

Lucian Freud: Portraits

Finally managed to get to The National Portrait Gallery in London yesterday to see the Lucian Freud exhibition (had booked to go in April but had to cancel due to inspection - grrrrr...).  And what a splendid exhibition it is; well worth the wait. 

The show spans his whole career, from teenage sketches to the painting he was working on when he died at the grand old age of 88 last year.  Poignant.  I don't think there's really any point in me saying anything about the work as it has been much talked about and surely everything there is to say has been said already.  All I can say is that I enjoyed the opportunity to contemplate such a range of his work, some of which I'd seen in his retrospective in 1987.  To view those paintings again was great and to see later work just as much of a treat. 

It wasn't as crowded as I'd thought it would be; had a slight twinge of gallery rage at one point but think that was about it, and we didn't have to queue.  Much.  It's on until the 27 May; still time to get there if you haven't seen it yet.

then strange ground now - work in progress

The boring bits

Four days into my time off work and I’m making good progress with preparations for the Summer open studios.  In between working on PB3, I’m printing, labeling and packing prints for sale.  Can’t say I particularly enjoying this part of the process; it’s time-consuming and not very exciting, but necessary and quite satisfying when done.

Post-inspection

It’s been an odd Spring so far; apart from the persistent rain, which I don’t really mind at all, I lost virtually all of April and the beginning of May to several weeks of inspection hell at work.  Stressful and time consuming which left little opportunity or energy for creativity.  Having a week off now so hopefully I can get the creativity going again.

The summer exhibition is fast approaching at RHP and I’d like to get PB3 finished in time for that.  PB1 and 2 and done (collected frames from the framer this week) so it would be good to be able to submit the trio.  Then I think I’ll have a break from PB and do something different for a while; don’t know what as yet…

The Undertaker's Nuptial revisited

I’ve been wanting to revisit The Undertaker’s Nuptials for a while.  This is a series of etchings based on a story I was working on a couple years ago, but sort of stalled after one and a half images.  Captain PB could run for a while so I think I need another project on the go at the same time so he doesn’t get stale.

I started writing snippets of story to generate images; the text was never meant to be read really, but having made some interesting concertina books, I think The Undertaker’s Nuptials might work quite well in that format.  Text and images.  I started experimenting this week… but need to write more of the story and make more images.  I also want to play around with the layout of the text more – would be great to do the whole thing in letterpress with etched images but I think that may be a little too ambitious at this stage.  So digital it is - for the moment at least.

Captain PB the Third

height over flat water, high suspended nothing, then strange ground now, looming, towers tight close-huddling, colour-losing grey damp, dull heartsick ache...

The layout for the third image in my PB series is nearly done; just need to arrange the text (which is proving problematic at the moment) then I can start work on the plate. Ideas for image four already beginning to germinate...

Nearly ready to go

Here’s my edition for Green Door International Print Exchange 2012, all trimmed, numbered, titled, signed and dated. There’s nothing so satisfying as a pile of prints… a whole edition, fresh and neat. Just need to cut the tissue for wrapping and they’re all ready to go.

The creative process

We had the second meeting of our artists’ group this week; another interesting and inspiring session. I took along the first two Captain PB images, the second still in progress. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to talk coherently about the work (my ideas are still free-floating to some extent) but actually, in putting my ideas out there, it really helped me to consolidate what I’d been thinking about.

I think this series really began last summer when I was sitting in the military cemetery looking at a pile of pine cones I’d collected. What an interesting juxtaposition; all these seeds lying on the surface of the ground, ripe for new beginnings, whilst underneath them, all the bodies of those dead soldiers rest. Lives extinguished. Life and death; beginnings and endings. I started thinking about newness, new beginnings, starting again, blank canvases, clean slates (to coin a phrase or two...). When a person is born (or something is created), there’s all this potential; everything about them is fresh and clean and unaffected by the detritus of life. What would it be like if that were able to continue… if he or she were free to experience life in that fresh, unadulterated way? Inconceivable really; or impossible at least, but an interesting idea to play with maybe. And then Captain PB strolled onto the plate, a little glowing ember of spirited free-will and expectation. Who knows how he will develop and where he will travel.

Really, he’s a metaphor for the creative process; the birth of an idea with all its potential. Quite often, as an image develops and is influenced by other factors, new elements are added and it changes course to become something quite different from that originally imagined. And that’s the most exciting thing about the whole process.

Bookbinding weekend

What a splendid weekend I’ve just had learning how to make books at Red Hot Press. Over the course of the two days, we learnt how to make three and five-hole pamphlet books, double signature pamphlet books and a variety of concertina books. The really groovy one pictured below is actually much easier to make than it looks.

We also made Japanese stab bound books which are simple enough to build but complicated to stitch together (well, I found them so anyway; my hemp leaf stitch went somewhat awry). This technique can be used to make simple photo albums for example – at some point I would like to compile a book of small prints using this method.

Today we made hard cover books; a five-holed pamphlet book with a hard cover and a 64-page A6 book where the four signatures were sown together with unsupported link stitch – real bookbinding. We even glued the spine with mull and everything. Mine were less than perfect, but oh how satisfying to make. And how much nicer to sketch and write in a book you’ve made yourself. You’ll have to excuse me now as I’m off to drool over bookbinding supplies as Shepherd’s…