Moving Along

I spent a couple of days doing test prints from a sample woodblock I cut, but today I decided to get on with the design for the commission, working it up onto a large sheet of Waterford watercolour paper with my own home-made walnut ink and some watercolour paint. I’m still in the early stages,Continue reading “Moving Along”

Taking Proofs

I did some test proof prints from my sample woodblock, using Caligo Safewash relief ink onto MDF. I did a few printings onto different papers and using different densities of ink – I mixed extender in for some of them. To be honest, I don’t particularly like any of them, they’re a bit too faded. IContinue reading “Taking Proofs”

Geeky stuff

I’m starting to do some test wood blocks for my commission for Sky Arts Art50. I’m cutting into MDF, using a facemask as it’s a bit dodgy, although it won’t be generating any dust. I’ve tried MDF before and when I inked it up it soaked up the ink and I had to make 3Continue reading “Geeky stuff”

Here Be Dragons! Have Your Say!

Filming on Thursday November 8th (15.00-18.00) and Sunday November 11th (14.00-17.00) Come and be on the telly! I’m doing a commission for Sky Arts called ‘Here Be Dragons’ and part of it is filming 1-minute interviews on what people think it means to be British – or Welsh – or something else altogether – forContinue reading “Here Be Dragons! Have Your Say!”

Warm Spiced Apple Cake

  There’s a lovely exhibition of contemporary printmaking at Swansea Print Workshop this week (until September 29th) and if you fancy popping in to see it tomorrow afternoon (Sunday 22nd), I’ll be show sitting (which is a much nicer way of saying invigilation IMHO) from 1.30 – 4.30. If you haven’t been to the printContinue reading “Warm Spiced Apple Cake”

Art, Cake, Cake, Art

    Such a lot happening over the next week or so in Swansea and it all kicks off this Friday with the opening of the exhibition, “Now The Printmakers” at 5.30 pm at Swansea Print Workshop. Inspired by the work of Frank Brangwyn and Kathe Kollwitz, the show focusses on the work of threeContinue reading “Art, Cake, Cake, Art”

Like Chalk And Cheese

I went to a weekend etching course at Trefeglwys Print Studio the weekend before last with two other printmakers – one of whom was Husb. He did some beautiful work but looking at what we produced emphasised that we’re like chalk and cheese. Here’s Husb’s beautifully modulated head of a child, burnished into a copperContinue reading “Like Chalk And Cheese”

Mad Mari: The First Proof

In the last half hour or so of Andrew Baldwin’s weekend etching workshop at Trefeglwys Print Studio, I did a first proof print (on the left) of my coffee lift / spit bite aluminium etching plate, using Charbonnel black ink onto soaked Hahnemulle paper. I’m really pleased with it. It’s completely different to the fauxContinue reading “Mad Mari: The First Proof”

Spit And Splatter

Carrying on with the coffee lift plate I worked on at Trefeglwys Print Studio last weekend, after washing the coffee off the plate, leaving the black B.I.G. etching ground masking most of the aluminium, I dipped it in copper sulphate solution for quite some time to etch the exposed areas really deep so they’ll giveContinue reading “Spit And Splatter”

Mad Mari

So as well as working on a copper mezzotint plate at Andrew Baldwin’s weekend course at Trefeglwys Studios last weekend, there was also time to prepare an aluminium plate with coffee lift and spit bite. I used another of my drawings of the traditional Welsh Mari Lwyd from one of my sketchbooks. The Mari LwydContinue reading “Mad Mari”