Just Back (Female Nude)

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I’m just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop, working this week with a super middle-aged female model who has great presence. I was reading a blog about the relationship between artists and models by fellow artist Michael Richards earlier today, where he explores the collaboration between the two. It’s a good read. I really appreciate what the models bring to the creative experience. I don’t always get inspired by a model or a particular session, the actual drawing practice is also important to me. But sometimes a model, or even a pose, triggers off something inspirational. This was a quick drawing onto my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 tablet using a free Markers app.

The Last Experiment (for now)

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I’ve been experimenting doing monotypes on a gel plate from Gelli Arts, trying out different inks and paints over the last week or so. I’ve finished for the time being, ending up with Caligo Safe Wash oil-based printing inks. I used Process Yellow, Magenta and Cyan mixed approximately 50:50 with the brand’s Extender for translucency and to make it easier to roll. It gave good coverage over the gel plate, held texture well, printed with vibrant colours and also produced a decent ‘ghost’ (secondary) print.

 

I’ve tried out 6 different inks / paints, all printed in two layers onto Daler Rowney cartridge paper (90gsm). I think the best for my own professional use are the Caligo Safe Wash oil-based printing ink and the Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint.

 

For teaching, I would be happy to use both the Essdee and the Seawhites of Brighton water-based printing inks. And the other 2 media I used, Winsor & Newton Galeria acrylic paint and Liquitex acrylic inks were both too liquid to give satisfactory results on this brand of gel plate, so I’ll be keeping them for other projects.

 

 

 

Proud Pads

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I spent a lovely morning helping fellow Swansea artist and designer, Laura Niehorster, in her new enterprise, Proud Pads. Laura needed a hand cutting out the material to make a new batch of her eco-friendly re-usable sanitary pads. I think it’s a brilliant idea and they look really fun and funky too.

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You can catch up with what Laura is doing here and click here to find out about market testing Proud Pads.

Hydrangea

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Reblogged from David Reid, a delightful little work 

Jelly And Liquitex

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So, still experimenting with the Gelli Arts plate, this time trying out Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint. It gives excellent coverage and takes textures really well. Almost all the ink comes off onto the paper – Daler Rowney cartridge 90gsm – with gentle rubbing, leaving very little for a ‘ghost’ print. The only problem I think is that the colours are very intense, it’s high quality paint, and I either need to experiment with more subtle methods of removing and blending the paint on the plate or find some sort of medium to thin out the intensity of the colour without making the paint more watery.

 

More Jelly Experiments

I’m continuing top experiment with gel plate printmaking using a Gelli Arts plate. Today I tried it with Essdee block printing ink, staying with Daler Rowney cartridge paper (90gsm) for consistency,

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The Essdee inks are easy to use, roll out nicely and take a good texture from bubblewrap and scrunchy tissue paper. The ink prints easy with a firm hand rub but leaves a faint and disappointing ‘ghost’ or secondary image. It cleans off easily with babywipes.

Getting Ready

 

I’m getting ready to carry on with some experimentation. Here’s my equipment ….

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Winter Woodland

Winter Woodland

 

I have three drawings in the winter exhibition at the lovely Workers Gallery in Ynyshir, running from November 9th to December 23rd. It’s a gorgeous gallery, a local library closed because of government cutbacks and saved for the community by artists Gayle Rogers and Chris Williams. The theme this year is Winter Woodland. I’m not a landscape artist but I always carry a sketchbook with me and draw whatever’s in front of me and it just happens that I’m often in the countryside. That’s one of my drawings on the poster, on the right hand side. I hope you can make it to the gallery at some time, it’s really gorgeous.

 

Swedes, Spit And Soft Apples

Swedes, Spit And Soft Apples

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So it’s Halloween again and the streets are full of moppets in Gothic whimsy collecting enough sugary snacks to keep them in sugar rushes until the Easter Bunny brings them shed loads of chocolate. It wasn’t like this when I were a lass.

The boy opposite’s Dad carved him a swede (rutabaga) because pumpkins didn’t exist in those days, not in the UK anyway. It was a nice fat, round swede, pumpkin shaped but smaller. I was impressed and wanted one too so I went into Mam’s kitchen and found a small, shrivelled, rather conical swede and demanded that my Dad carved it for me. Dad was just back from the pub and swaying and I don’t know how he carved it without ending up in A&E (ER), but he managed to gouge out a hollow bit in the middle, stab a couple of mismatched holes for eyes and a slash for a grimace and Mam found the stub of a candle (there were no  night lights back then) and I went out with it proudly. The boy opposite snorted with derisive laughter and mocked me. I was bereft. 😦

Mam tried to cheer me up by organising an apple bob. She rounded up a few neighbour’s children (including the boy opposite with the flashy swede) and poured some water into a washing up bowl and threw in a few apples that had been in the fruit bowl awhile getting soft. They had to be soft for bobbing because you couldn’t sink your teeth into hard ones. The boys rushed forward, jostling each other and dived into the water face first, biting at the apples. I hung back and watched the carnage with distaste – the bowl was murky with little-boy spit. Ychafi (an ancient Welsh exclamation of disgust). Ychafi!

“Go on”, Mam said, “you too”. “No thanks”, I said, crestfallen, clutching my shrivelled mutant swede, watching the boys scoffing the soft apples with saliva dripping down their chins. “I’ll leave it”.

Letting People Play

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I’m working for a charity that supports very vulnerable people, running arts and craft sessions. I work in different venues across the city and I tailor the sessions to suit them and their clients. This evening was about letting people play. It wasn’t a formal session aiming to teach fine arts or enabling people to turn out a well-crafted item, but a chance to just mess around and have a bit of fun.

 

 

I took some lovely chine collé tissue papers made from recycled saris and a couple of boxes of stamps, the ones that kids use, and an ink pad. I encouraged people to try stamping the tissues repetitively to make a pattern and / or to overlay them to get a pictorial effect.

 

 

Then we put them into little ready-made mounts which set them off nicely. Quick, cheap, easy and fun. People need to play and those living in dire circumstances often don’t get that chance. Providing a safe space for arts and crafts can give them the opportunity.