skill

.......and by the professional photographer........

Finally........

Finally "The Book of Kingdoms" prints are complete, all 15 of them. I have learnt so much doing this, its been a great, frustrating, satisfying project. I'm taking them to be photographed today so that in the new year a poster can be reproduced.

yellow man

The yellow man is gone. He travelled to Guernsey to be exhibited in the JJ Fox exhibition and " a very discerning client" (Guernsey Arts Centres words) bought him. I'm thrilled to bits, although I will miss him, he's had a great year!
I do still have the rest of the series, in different colours, with different titles.
Here we are in the summer at the opening of the Open Studios exhibition.

Christmas card : Crazy Santa

 

 

                                                             Don't freak out! Dance!

Peculiar

One of the words which came up in the theatre workshops was "Peculiar". Jersey is a peculiar of the British Crown and so answers directly to the Crown, not the British Parliament. One thing I love about Jersey is stories, I wanted to include a sea monster as they often appear in tales of the sea and the sea is an intrinsic part of Jersey. So my peculiar monster swims past the peculiar rock (based on a 17th century map), the ship is the Janvrin, a cod trading ship built in Jersey, both are printed on hand made paper and the map is printed on part of a map of Jersey which was found at an auction and donated by a kind friend. My father is horrified that I have been chopping up maps which would otherwise be useful navigational aids!!!

Chine Colle

Experimenting with a bit of chine colle.
Tissue has a slightly glossy surface so the ink takes forever to dry. I will use hand made paper which is much more absorbant for the actual poster production line. Hoping to get most of this job done this week. It is Corbiere lighthouse of course (sorry dont know how to do accents....there should be one on the first e).

The Book of Kingdoms

Finally finished The Book of Kingdoms poster for the Jan-May Arts Centre brochure. I will play around a bit with colour now that I have some time before making another copy for the actual 'advertising the event' poster.

Ready......steady......

Finally, after weeks of carving, I have finished all the lino cuts for The Book of Kingdoms poster I have been working on. The Book of Kingdoms is a devised piece of Theatre in Education inspired by workshops with the Youtheatre and some of the islands primary schools. It is based around the fact that it is the 350th anniversary of when Charles II gave the royal mace to the island after his exile here. It is also about what it means to be an islander so I have tried to include some of the many things which we associate with Jersey (I could have gone on forever!!)
This is a shot of all the lino pieces laid out in position ready for inking.
Hope to include a shot of the print later today.

Ha-Hah!!

Ha-Hah!! I have just realised that it is not entirely my (lack of) photographic skills but the fact that some dear person has smeared butter or something on the lens!

 

So, here is another shot of my mermaid eating ice-cream at La Rocco Tower printed on hand made paper and a title piece for a poster commission I'm working on.

Print

So it's back to the studio now to refine her a little..............
Note to self: Must improve photography skills!!!!

The finished cut

I actually took this photo after I'd printed it so you can see a residue of the blue ink I used.
Sorry about my bad photography.

The first cut is not necessarily the deepest!

The surface of the lino is blue on one side and green on the other with a lovely deep black beneath the surface making it very easy to see what you have done.

New Lino

So here is my little drawing of a mermaid eating ice cream at La Rocco Tower.....and a new type of lino to experiment with. It's double sided which appeals to my thrifty nature!

Cutting Edge

Mrs Prink, Mrs Prink, Where have you been?
I've been to London to visit the Aladdin's Cave that is Intaglio Printmaker!

How wonderful to have new tools which cut through the lino like butter and new types of lino to experiment with.

Slapped wrists

Oh dear, clearly I'm not a very conscientious blogger.........yet! Must try harder. Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days of over stimulation so hopefully I'll be inspired to get back to my blog.

Last year I took part in my first Open Studios here in Jersey. It was a great event and after an introductory exhibition where all the artists showed one piece, I was very thrilled that people actually came to visit. Not just very supportive friends but complete strangers who actually bought my work!! Here are three pieces from that show. Unfortunately, in my over excitement I forgot to photograph the finished pieces which I had mounted on different collaged backgrounds.

"Girlie goose ready for a little retail therapy" was backed by till receipts.

"Salty bird waiting for a high tide" (tides are a big part of Jersey life!) was backed with local tide tables.

"City pigeon ready for a night out on the town" was backed by birds' lonely hearts columns which I had great fun writing (and I learned a lot about birds!) 

I realised in retrospect that this harked back many, many years to when I hand made, painted and collaged all the frames for the etchings in my degree show.

Artist's proof. This is one of a big series of linocuts Ive been working on. The series is called "Deceptive Appearances".

This one turned out quite well although I'm having problems with registration. I've tried rolling the two lino sheets through the press in the same direction and I've tried using mounting card to stop the lino moving with mixed results. I'm wondering if maybe loosening the pressure might work. The background texture is made using caustic soda and wire brush. Steve Edwards who uses caustic soda, very kindly gave me some advice as I was having problems with it. I think the face that I was using floor lino instead of art lino might have something to do with it. One good thing is that I now know that if I spill caustic soda on my studio floor, it's unlikely to damage it as long as I mop it up within a few hours!!!

Welcome to my new blog

I have recently built a studio; a room all of my own away from the 6 adorable men in my life. So far I have collected; 1 husband, 4 sons, 1 dog. My only female ally is lonely Peggy Sue, the last of the hens. (R.I.P. Babs, Dolly, Tammy, Specky, Flo with the 'fro and Queen Latifah).
So, my aim is to improve myself, mostly as an artist printmaker but also as a teacher and a student of all things technologically scary.
Today has been a great day. Not only did I get published in the Saturday Guardian colour supplement, flagging up the inspiring Linocut Boy's blog but also, was then thanked on aforementioned blog! This has inspired me to attempt a wrestle with my arch rival: technology. I'm quite pleased that I've got this far with blogging...it's been a struggle....pathetic isn't it. Tomorrow I aim to attempt uploading photos.