Four figures

Day six and the kitchen works are still doing. The plasterers arrived at some unearthly hour this morning; painful but it’s good to be getting it all done in one go rather than dragging it out. It’s beginning to look like a kitchen again now although still no sink or cooker. The absence of the sink has been the worst thing; you don’t realise how much you rely on it until it’s not there. We’ve resorted to paper plates to minimise the awkwardness of trying to wash up in a small cloakroom basin. It’s like camping only worse!

The studio has been full of kitchen parts, dishwasher and workmen all week so no printing or painting sadly. I have been drawing though; with a collection of small objects (above) which don’t take up much space, I’m pursuing my still life studies. Quick sketches of these four figures which I gathered together in a random but connected way… they seemed to fit well together, similar size and colour. Brass bell, Buddha and bodies. The brass bell has been knocking around since I was a kid – I remember playing with it when I was only just old enough to remember. The jade Buddha figure is a relatively recent acquisition and the two armless, legless, headless torsos I made from FIMO whilst doing A level art at sixth form, too many years ago now. They are quite satisfying shapes to draw and remind me of a fairly pivotal time in my art career. A little paint next I think.

What’s the purpose of this blog?
Partly for me to record my progress learning a new technique and partly as a place for me to reflect on my art practice. I would say that 80% of the creative process for me goes on in my head. I tend to mull over ideas for weeks before actually putting anything on paper, card, zinc or wood; presumably this can be said for most artists to some extent. I do make a few notes in my sketchbook but they’re minimal.

The first thing I discovered about wood engraving was that it’s by no means as easy as it looks! Much more difficult than linocutting, not just because the matrix is harder, but because one is working on a much smaller scale. I very much admire the work of engravers such as Hilary Paynter and Jim Westergard and I suppose in my ignorance, I was aiming for that kind of neatness and detail straight away. Think again Jo. Obviously, to produce that kind of work takes years of practice and an innate talent that no amount of hard work can produce. So, here on this blog, you can see my humble, clumsy but well-intentioned beginnings.

I started off with a box of practice blocks; hence the odd shapes of some of my initial prints. I quite like that actually – gives another dimension to the work. Certainly I think it worked with Comedy and Tragedy (below in previous post).

Wood engraving (as any method of relief printmaking) produces very different results to etching. I’ve had to reorder my way of thinking about an image; instead of working from light to dark as one does with etching, drawing the darks onto the plate, I now have to work from dark to light, cutting out the lights from the dark of the block – if that makes sense. Also, the whole process of creating tone and texture is very different. The possibilities are endless with etching – with wood engraving, there seem to be many more constraints. And yet, look at Hilary Paynter’s Goblin Market or Jim Westergard’s The Artist as a Viking and you see that it can be done. First task then is to experiment with different mark-making techniques.