Sheri - Horse in progress

Here's my horse, my labour of love from Tuesday night's session. There were a few horrified faces half way through when I'd painted it out without leaving much to go on, but it was so out of proportion, it had to go. And I feel better for it. It's still work in progress, it will probably come back next time, but I feel more direction now than I did.

Michael: Print in progress 4

I've been thinking a lot about what to do with this linocut. I like the way the block has been cut, but don't like the black-on-white...

...I've just realised that I haven't mentioned what the subject of this print is. It's based on a sketch (and some supporting photos) made from the roof terrace of the Ambos Mundos hotel in Havana, Cuba. It's the hotel where Ernest Hemingway stayed back in the the 1930s, and has a great view across the rooftops of the city.



But the black-ink-on-white-paper of the linocut is too stark to get the feeling of Caribbean heat. So I've decided to go back a step: I'm changing the background of the print. I got another block of lino the same size, and then printed the flat block in warm white. (White plus a tiny amount of warm yellow.)

Here's a picture of some white ink printed onto white paper!



This will be the background on which I will print the block that has been already cut. It should make the highlights warmer, and soften the contrast with the black ink.

For more sketches from Cuba, see my website.

Sheri - Congregation

The Congregation painting has now been handed in and went on display from yesterday, Monday 10th of May, in a special event. From the weekend the exhibition joins Brighton's Artist's Open House Festival. Here's a flier for the event and link to my finished painting:



I'll be there on Saturday, with my model, for the performance night.

We must arrange that field trip to see the other houses!

Richard - Saturday Life Class

This time I went with a bigger format (using primed A1 cardboard). I began by drawing with Conte, then painting with oil (after fixing the drawing) using a mix of transparent washes and more opaque colour in selected places.

Michael: End of an exhibition

Today was the last day of the exhibition at the Ashdown Forest Visitor Centre. Time to take down all the paintings.


The paintings are back in their boxes.


The walls are empty again.



Small car. Good thing that most of the paintings are small too.



It's been a good exhibition: discovering and exploring the forest has been an eye-opener, and certainly inspired a new direction in my paintings.

(There's a photo of the exhibition before it was taken down on my website.)

Michael: Print in progress 3

So here's the block that I have been working on for the last week. It's all inked and ready to go through the press.



Hold your breath as it goes through the press...



It's always a bit of shock when you take the first proof off the press, and see the image the right way round, after all that time staring at the reversed image.

But I like what I see. The clutter of buildings in the top right corner is working (there's a nice play of white against black against white). The foreground right corner perhaps has too much detail, and the left side needs more definition.

But it's going in the right direction. Back to the cutting board to complete the details.

Michael: Print in progress 2

I've spend about eight hours cutting this block. Every mark affects the next mark. In a linocut, the mark is either there or not there. To define a black shape, it must be surrounded by white (so you cut that bit out); but then to define that white shape, the next area must be black. The very first cut on the block decides the entire image.





I've done as much to this stage as I think I can; it's time to take the first proof.