Michael: Merry Christmas!

My first attempt at letterpress. Freeform Victorian woodblock type, printed in green and red, A5 image size printed on A4 paper.

Printed at Ink Spot Press in Brighton.

Sheri - Art & Craft Market

On Sunday I'll have a stand at The Craft Collective's Art & Craft Market, at Caterham School. I've been busy mounting some paintings and drawings and shall be making the final selection tonight and tomorrow.

The market will have some super work,very diverse - glass, ceramics, textiles, paintings. If you can spare the time, pop over for a cup of something hot and a bit of crafty Christmas shopping.

Michael: Reduction linocut, final stage

A final layer of dark green ink over the shadow areas completes the print.



Six stage reduction linocut, 10 x 10cm.

Michael: Reduction linocut, stage 5

A darker green layer over the previous layers. Nearly there.

Michael: Reduction linocut, stage 4

A small change: I printed a grey-purple shadow area just on the edge of the road, using a mask to keep the rest of the image unaffected.

Michael: Reduction linocut, stage 3

The sky is finished, so that's all cut away; I also cut away some more details of the hedges and fields, and then printed the block in green.

Michael: Reduction linocut, stage 2

Second layer, and already the picture is quite detailed. Another gradient blend: darker shade of blue down to a bright green.

Michael: Reduction linocut, stage 1

And we're off again. First stage of a new reduction linocut: gradient blend from cobalt blue with lots of white at the top down to yellow and a bit of burnt sienna.

Ashdown Autumn

I've been a bit remiss in posting work in progress recently. This is a picture I finished a couple of weeks ago. Oil on canvas, 24"x24".

Michael: Grumpy chicken

Wendy was having a bad day in the hencoop.

Michael: SGFA exhibition

Last night, we went to the opening of the SGFA Exhibition at the Menier Gallery in London.

Found one of my prints in the window!

Photos (C) William de Wilde

Fred Cuming, RA opened the exhibition.

Lots of good and inspiring drawings in exhibition. I was fascinated by this picture by Marie Blake: at first glance, we thought it was a watercolour, but closer inspection revealed that it was a linocut, slowly built up from about five carefully cut blocks, printed in pale thin colours.

And some excellent work by Myrtle Pizzey (sorry, I don't have a photo), and this print by Eric Gaskell.

Again, we were deceived: the detailed, close cutting made it look like wood engraving... but it's a linocut.

I liked this print by Shenac Rogerson, of one of my favourite places, Avebury.

There's some texture on the stones (which unfortunately doesn't show on this photo) which I think was created by spattering ink onto the plate before printing it.

The exhibition continues until Saturday 15 October, 2011.

Sheri - exhibition

During October, I have a small collection of paintings on display at Oyster Fine Frames, Lingfield. The exhibition is a mixture of my landscape and portrait work, including many of the landscapes from my recent series of Ashdown Forest paintings. If you're in the area, do pop along!

Sheri - portrait in progress

It's great to be back painting after the summer break, and great to regain a little bit of 'me' after nine weeks of looking after the adorable Lottie - a complete joy, but even so! What is better? The whiff of baby sick or white spirit? I'm not sure.

I started a new portrait in the session before last, and had a chance to work on it some more last night. It's still very much not finished, but it's coming on - do excuse the lack of nose and mouth. It's oil on canvas, how wonderful to be working in oils again after so many months of acrylic painting.

Here's the painting after the first session:

 

...and after the second session, last night. The nose and mouth will come, I promise:

South East School of Art exhibition

Pictures from the South East School of Art exhibition, including work by Liz, Marina, and Michael, over here.

Michael: Linocut, stage 3

Darker green over the previous stages.



Nearly there.

Michael: Linocut, stage 2

A tricky gradient from dark grey to yellowish green to dark grey across the previous layer.

Michael: Linocut, stage 1

This new linocut starts with a gradient of grey to grey-brown. The challenge here will be keeping the registration perfect: as the layers of ink build up at each stage, the slightest misregistration will make the white lettering disappear.

Michael: Croydon Art Society exhibition opens

The Croydon Art Society exhibition at Denbies Vineyard in Surrey starts today, and is open every day until 4pm on Sunday 18 September.

High Waving Heather
Reduction linocut • Image size 15 x 15cm • Edition of 12

Michael: Linocut, stage 4

Fourth and final stage. Near-black ink printed over the previous three layers.



Jeans, TShirts, Shoes. 10 x 10 cm.

This is another building that I found in the North Laines area of Brighton. The morning sun highlighted the clothes hanging in the window against the dark interior of the shop.

Michael: Linocut, stage 3

Red is difficult to print on top of. I printed this layer in grey (a mix of cobalt blue and burnt sienna, with white).

Michael: Linocut, stage 2

Red printed over the previous blue layer. The red ink (T.N. Lawrence's scarlet) is very transparent. If you add white in an attempt to increase the opacity, the red turns to pink. I adding lots (nearly 50:50) of warm yellow ink, which increased the opacity without shifting the colour.



The lamp and window details will have darker ink printed on them later, but I didn't want the red on those parts because I was worried that the slightest misregistration would show up too much. So I used a mask to hide these parts from the red on this layer.

Michael: Linocut, stage 1

Straight on with the next print... Cobalt blue mixed with lots of white for the first layer. Actually, it's the second layer: first, I printed the square of lino in white with a tiny bit of yellow; I find it easier to print the coloured layers onto an existing ink layer than onto plain paper.

Michael: Pink, blue, and purple linocut, final stage

Final stage: Darker-still mix of red and cobalt blue over the previous layers to complete the print.



Number 27. Four stage reduction linocut, 10 x 10 cm.

This is one of the houses in the North Laines of Brighton: endless rows of small, late Victorian, urban housing, most of which have been carefully restored. There's lots of inspiration here.

Michael: Pink, blue, and purple linocut

Third stage: I cut away the sky, the window panes, and some of the pavement, and then printed the block in a mixture of red and cobalt blue.



Oops. Not sure I like the way that this is going. Some of the cutting of the details is clumsy. The windows are wobbly.

As compensation, here's something else in the same colours.

It's a rabbit.

In a flowerpot.

Michael: Pink and blue linocut

Second layer: I cut away what I want to remain pink, and then printed blue over the pink. I was worried that the blue printed over the pink in the sky area would turn lilac, but luckily the blue was opaque enough to hide the pink. It's a mixture of cobalt blue and white, both of which are relatively opaque.

Michael: Pink linocut

A new print starts.

Michael: Quiet around here

It's been quiet around here later. We've all been so busy.

One of my photographs has just appeared in the National Trust guide to White Horse Hill. Here's the cover (not my photo):

My photo's inside.

It's in the middle, at the bottom. Their caption is "Sheep on the ramparts" (of Uffington Castle). Here's the original:



What's everyone else been up to?

Sheri - my latest work

It's been a very long time since I posted. I've been working on a piece for just over nine months now - just finished - which has taken rather a lot of my time and concentration.

Lottie April

Michael: In the garden again

Molly and Marlow in the garden. Not quite finished, because Marlow decided that the modelling fee that I offered wasn't enough.
Ink and watercolour on paper, 28 x 9 cm.

Michael: Making books by hand

I'll be teaching a two day weekend course, exploring contemporary and traditional bookmaking methods at the South East School of Art in East Grinstead.

13 - 14 August 2011, 10.30 - 4.30pm

  

This weekend course introduces bookmaking techniques from traditional casebound books to more surprising structures. This is an ideal introduction to bookbinding for both creating books as beautiful and useful objects, and as a starting point for making your own artist’s books. All the techniques that you’ll learn can be easily reproduced at home with minimal equipment.

• Make a minibook from a single sheet of paper.
• Learn how to create books with just a few folds and cuts.
• Make your own sketchbooks in ten minutes.
• Create your own hardback casebound journals.
• Fill and decorate your books with simple printmaking techniques.
• Explore the mysteries of books that move and twist.

You’re welcome to bring any photos or drawings that you’d like to include in your books, and plain or decorated papers for covering the books.

Fee: £120 for two days tuition, including materials, refreshments, and light lunches.

To book a place, or find out more, please contact the South East School of Art.

  

Michael: In the garden

Ink and watercolour on paper, 28 x 9 cm.

Michael: Sketching in Brighton

Duke Street, Brighton. 11 July 2011, 11.10am.
Ink and watercolour on paper, 28 x 9 cm.

Michael: Life drawing/linocut

I made a linocut of one of my drawings from one of our recent life-drawing sessions. Keeping it simple: just black and white.



Linocut, 18 x 18cm.

Michael: Exhibition opens 9 June

The Sussex Arts Collective "Upfront" Exhibition runs from 9 - 28 June, 2011 at the Fishing Quarter Gallery, 203 Kings Road Arches (on the seafront, right next to the beach), Brighton, BN1 1NB.

Open every day, including Sundays, 11am - 5pm (Monday closes at 2pm).