Husb and I have been playing around with some of my drawings of Sparta Puss. There are loads of them hanging around because she really likes posing for me. So Husb has been adding little captions. She is not amused 😀
A Happy Accident
Exhibition: “Female Expressions”, Saturday 2nd – Saturday 23rd February. Queen Street Gallery, Neath.
This is an etching of mine called “Ripples” made from an original life drawing, working with a professional model. It’s part of a series of etchings of the nude which I called “Rinascere” which relates to the word Renaissance because I based the etchings on Renaissance drawing techniques. I call it Ripples because of the ripples moving over her body which were an accidental effect of the process. I used a photosensitive etching plate from a drawing on tracing paper. It looked all right but after it had been exposed in the UV light box, I noticed ripples on the plate from the slight undulations on the tracing paper. They were there because I used wet media for the drawing. But I like it, a happy accident. It’s going to be in the “Female Expressions” exhibition.
Coming To Neath!
Saturday 2nd – Saturday 23rd February. This is a detail of “The Cushion”, one of my etchings that will shortly be in an exhibition called “Female Expression” in the lovely Queen Street Gallery in Neath.
It’s part of a series of etchings of the nude which I called “Rinascere” which relates to the word Renaissance because I based the etchings on Renaissance drawing techniques.
According to the exhibition’s curator, Jocelyn Prosser, this is…
“An exhibition celebrating the female form. Each artist will give a unique and deeply personal expression of the female condition. Although diverse there is a bond in this exhibition that connects. It reveals the strength and fragility within the female psyche.”
Carry On Carving
Carrying on carving my block of MDF, it’s very slow…..
Still Revolting….
Patti McJones and Rosie Scribblah are Revolting Women. Oh yes we are. And we’re coming to a venue near you soon (well, near you if you live by Swansea, Wales, and soon-ish, around International Women’s’ Day in March).
Keep On Sketching
Sometimes the creative juices don’t flow like they should, there’s a few artists I’ve been chatting to online who are in the same predicament. I find it helps to keep working through it. You don’t have to create great art, just keep doing the exercises. It’s like a musician practicing their scales or chords. I like drawing with ballpoint pens, they flow nicely. I did these scribbles from photos of Mari Lwyds.
The First Cut
The first cuts, carving my new woodblock (MDF), removing the bits to remain white. I’m using the smallest gouge from my Flexcut carving tool set and it’s going to take me ages at this rate, so I might rethink things a bit.
One of many women who should be remembered:
Fellow artist and blogger, Patricia McKenna Jones, has done some important work about women who resisted the Nazis …..
Getting Ready To Carve
I carried on preparing a sheet of MDF for my next woodcut. After I’d reversed my original drawing and traced it onto the wood, I painted in the different colours that I need to cut away. It’s a reduction print, often called the “suicide” method by printmakers as the process results in the complete destruction of the block.
Left to right: Tracing the outline onto the MDF sheet; blocking in the white areas with acrylic paint; and the mid-tone areas with dilute walnut ink. This is the basic design, I’ll put a lot more detail into the block as I’m carving it.
scribblah 