The Four Elements: Earth

Continuing my work inspired by Matisse, I have started a series of prints based on The Four Elements, combining figures in motion with symbols of the elements.



Three stage reduction linocut, 10 x 10 cm.

Landscape patterns: 2

Here's another linocut that I have been working on that uses both the patterns of the landscape, and the effect of using multiple images in the same print. The images here are all views from Firle Beacon.



Four colour reduction linocut, 16 x 16cm.

I like the effect of the multiple images, and some of the shapes have been simplified towards that point where you can't quite tell if it's a landscape. But the colours (blue sky above green grass) give the game away. And I've ended up with four colours, which is too many for what I am trying to do...

Sheri Gee_life drawing 20 Feb 2010

Here's my work from today's life drawing session. Two five minute pastel sketches, and one oil painting.

New exhibition

I have a new exhibition opening on 13 March, at the Hop Gallery in Lewes.


Click here for more information.

If you'd like an invitation to the private view, please leave a message in the Comments below.

Group 16th Feb 2010

Here are a few of the pieces from tonight's group:

Michael Gage

Marina Casarino

Sheri Gee

And the work in progress

Après Matisse

I was very excited to see the prints from Matisse's "Jazz Suite" at the Pompidou Centre last month: bold, primary colours; simple shapes on the boundary between recognisable and abstract; and a great feeling of movement. So I had to have a go at my own version. The "Jazz Suite" edition was stencilprints, created from Matisse's original paper cutouts; my version is a linocut.



First stage: I've cut away the areas of the linoblock that I want to stay white (that is, where the paper will show through), and printed the block in light blue (ultramarine plus lots of white).



Second stage: I've cut away the areas of the block that I want to stay light blue, and printed the block in darker blue on top of the light blue.



3 stage reduction linocut, 16 x 16 cm.

Final stage: I've cut away everything except the two outside figures, and printed the block in black. (The blue looks different in this photograph from the earlier stages; it's actually the same, just slightly different lighting.)

Print finished. Did it work? Not sure: it's a lot bolder than my usual linocuts, and I like the simplicity of using only three similar colours (actually four colours -- the white of the paper is an important part of the design). But it's still not as bold or as simple as Matisse's.

I'll try some more.

South Downs: 2

I've done some more work on the three landscape paintings that I started the other day.



This one's got some definition, but it still needs more.



This one has more definition too, and there is a sense of distance emerging.



This one's still loose in the foreground, but oops, those cliffs are already too realistic. I don't want this to end up like every other picture of the Seven Sisters.

Landscape patterns: 1

Another linocut, combining multiple images. Trying to extract the abstract patterns of the landscape. Some of the sections within this picture work for me: there's enough naturalism to make them look like landscape, and enough abstraction so that the landscape isn't the first thing you see. But it's a fine balancing point: some of the sections are too naturalistic, and some of the sections are too abstract.



Three stage reduction linocut, 16 x 16 cm.

Bramleys

Here's the final version of the painting that I started last week.



Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20cm.

(This has to be the final version... We just made apple crumble.)

South Downs: 1

Here is the first stage of some landscape paintings that I am working on. But there's a long way to go yet.


View from Firle Beacon


Lewes from Firle Beacon


Seven Sisters
Each acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50cm.

Prints in progress

After several weeks of struggling to produce some new linocuts, I've finally done something that is starting to move the right direction. It's a bit different to what I've done before.

Two-stage reduction linocut, 16 x 16 cm.

There were several aims behind this print:

• First, I wanted to simplify my technique, and product linocuts that actually look like linocuts. Some of the linocuts that I've done before had as many as eight or nine layers. Each layer takes about a day to dry, and so each print takes far too long. So this print has only two layers.
• Second, I wanted to avoid twee landscapes. Pictures of Venice are very nice, but it's about time I did something different.

This print was inspired by several sources:

• the "Revolution on Paper" exhibition of Mexican prints at the British Museum. Powerful use of two colours: red and black. No twee landscapes here.
• the Warhol room at the Tate's Pop Life exhibition, which had a wall of his celebrity portraits.
• and even the way we hung my paintings in groups of four and nine at a recent exhibition. Putting multiple images together creates narratives and relationships between the images that make the total greater than the sum of the parts.

More prints coming soon...

Work in progress

Work in progress. The first piece of work I've done outside life class, and that isn't in pastel, for ages. Its a commissioned portrait (so painted in a particular style) of an 11 year old girl being made for her mother's 50th birthday.

Group 2nd Feb 2010

A few photos from work in progress from this week's group.

Lynn Warren

Marina Casarino


Michael Gage

Sheri Gee


Richard Wombell