Pressure’s on at the Pindi Printshop and the residency artists are working late again. I haven’t done a drawing today *gasp* because I’m working on plate preparation, so I’ll post a picture I took the other evening of the Pakistan Monument in Islamabad which is breathtakingly beautiful. It’s sure to find its way into a print – probably a monotype.
This residency is supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales
Spent the entire day in the print studio here in Rawalpindi, doing some test intaglio prints with Intaglio Printmakers paper drypoint card. I haven’t used it for quite a while and I needed some practice. I worked on some tiny scraps of the card with different sharp tools, incising lines, cross hatching tones and ripping and gouging to create dark areas.
Here are the proof prints from the little test plates. They’re not great art but I had fun doing them and it gave me the practice I needed . I’ll be developing a range of drypoints later in the week.
This residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
I’m in Pakistan at the start of a residency in the Zaira Zaka print studio, working with artists Hannah Lawson from the UK and Zaira Ahmad from Pakistan. More artists will join us later. We went to the Taxilan ruins yesterday, a Buddhist shrine a couple of hours drive away. The weather was lovely; we walked around the site in brilliant sunshine in 32 degrees C! Buddhist pilgrims come from all over the world and there were loads of tourists there yesterday as well. There is a very large stupa and the remains of an advanced community along with an excellent museum which safeguards the artifacts that were excavated. These include Greek, Aramaic and Christian ceramics, coins, jewellery and even early Christian crosses, predating Roman Christianity. I had a quick scribble and drew these heads into my little spotty sketchbook.
Later, we visited another ancient site with the remains of the very first Buddhist monastery alongside a Sufi holy place which is still in use. There’s a tendency in the West to think that Pakistan is a hard-line Islamic state, but we saw great respect for other religions on our travels, with care and concern to preserve the ancient culture of the area which has a history of Buddhism and Christianity as well as Islam.
This residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales
My first blog post in Pakistan just had to be a kitteh. This is Messi who is named after Lionel Messi, the Argentinian footballer who plays for Barcelona. Messi lives in the house where I’m staying.
There is also a printmaking studio with accommodation attached for the artists in residence. Yesterday was spent recovering from the travel; it was about 24 hours from door to door. Today I’ve been in the studio, discussing a work programme with some of the other artists and,obviously, hanging out with Messi Moggy.
This residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
I’m scribbling in a sandwich shop in Kuwait Airport on my way to Pakistan. I homed in on these two chaps having a snack nearby using a free Markers app on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8. It’s always a risk when you sketch in public that your subject might move.
This place does a cracking sag sarnie and cup of tea. It’s called Tick-it if you’re passing through.
Next stop, Islamabad. Then my residency in Rawalpindi starts in earnest tomorrow.
This residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
In a few hours I’ll be starting my journey from little Wales to great big Pakistan. It’s a return journey for me; I visited in 2007 and I loved it so much that I’ve always wanted to go back, but life got in the way. So now I’m off to be an artist-in-residence in Rawalpindi for most of April. Last time I visited I travelled up the Khyber Pass to the border with Afghanistan. This is a large monotype I did from a tiny sketchbook drawing, standing on a hill in Pakistan with a bunch of jolly soldiers (the Khyber Rifles), looking down at Tamurlaine’s ancient fort and the Afghan border and waving at the drones going overhead. I’ve called it ‘Let Peace Prevail’ because just behind me was a sculpture erected by schoolchildren with ‘Let Peace Prevail’ written on it and it really moved me.
As we travelled back towards Peshawar, I took a photo of a family of Afghan refugees returning back home, looking very happy and I used it as the inspiration for this monotype. I didn’t know at the time that the situation in Afghanistan was set to become much worse. I often wonder if these children were able to resettle safely back home or if they ended up as refugees once more.
I’m very excited to be returning as the country and it’s people inspired me so much last time. I’ll be blogging my journey every day, but might miss a blog or two while I’m travelling. See you in a day or so. 🙂
My residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
Yesterday’s weather was gorgeous and we went for a walk on the beach. It’s just a few minutes walk from my home and it’s lovely. I’m very lucky. The tide was fully in and still as a pond of mercury. People moved around at the water edge, walking their dogs, fishing, paddling. I stopped for a quick scribble. Then off up the road for a Joe’s Icecream. For tea 🙂
I did these sketches on one of the endless train journeys yesterday in London. Husb and I went up to pick up some printmaking supplies from Intaglio Printmakers in Southwark and then onto the Dulwich Picture Gallery for the exhibition of David Hockney prints. But London’s transport system was conspiring against us. Every single journey we made was severely disrupted. A 12 minute journey turned into an hour long trek with 3 different trains. Still, it gave me a chance to draw people on the way.
Here’s another digital life drawing from last night. The model, although an older man, is fit enough to hold this difficult pose for half an hour.
Just back from life drawing at Swansea Print Workshop. I chose to punish myself this evening with a foreshortened hand. It was hard. After the tea break (with a Victoria Sandwich) we had a one-hour pose and I spent the whole time working on this hand and knee.
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