paintings prints and stuff

Yesterday I went to a workshop on collagraphs using carborundum. Carborundum is used in lithography and is fine pumice dust. In collagraphs it's used to create wonderful darks, where the carborundum grips the ink and creates intense colour. This is one of my favourite methods of printmaking - I love the painterly qualities you can achieve with it. It won't make as many prints as an etching but enough for me. The printing plate (shown left with traces of ink left on them) is made with Daler Rowney mountcard. Simple lines cut in with a craft knife will print as thin line, for thicker lines 2 cuts are made and the top layer of the paper between them is peeled away. Areas of darkness are created by peeling away the top layer, light areas are created by painting with wood glue and the very darkest areas are created by painting with wood glue and covering with carborundum. When the glue is dry, the whole plate is sealed with shellac varnish (brushes cleaned in methylated spirit). Wh...

Yesterday I went on a coach trip with a group I belong to, to see the Van Gogh exhibition at Compton Verney, a stately home with a large art gallery and lovely grounds, then on to Warwick University to see some conceptual art. The Van Gogh exhibition contained some of his early works and it was so reassuring to see how not-really-very-good they were :) Later works and drawings were wonderful. I especially liked one large painting - the subject was simply a patch of grass with butterflies. At Warwick University we saw an exhibition of a huge piece by Tomoko Takahashi, filling a large gallery space. The handouts included copies of 2 reviews - one slating her work and the other praising. I'd gone determined to keep an open mind but, to be honest, thinking I may not like it - but it was really very interesting. She'd visited all departments of the vast university and spoken to staff and students and collected stuff that was being thrown away. This varied from huge items like scaffo...

I meet up with 9 friends once a month and we talk about painting, crit our work, have people come to talk about their work, go out sketching (in smaller groups) and occasionally put on an exhibition. Last weekend we put up an exhibition in a local village hall. This is part of my section. We all work very differently. I took mainly canvasses - so much easier to transport and hang than framed work behind glass :). These range from 3ft 6in high to about 4ft 6in

Some more paintings in the Harlequin series (small paintings this time) 12in square 10in square 8x13in 12 in square - all oil on canvas. These are in a show starting next week along with the original larger canvasses.