Little Leftover

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Today I packed up an edition of fourteen little lino prints to send to Boise, Idaho, USA to the lovely Wingtip Press for this year’s Leftovers print exchange. The Director, Amy Nack has been organising this for five years now and attracts miniature prints from all over the world. This year’s deadline is April the 15th.

This linoprint is based on some small sketchbook drawings I did of petroglyphs, paleolithic rock carvings, in the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan a few years ago. The original carvings are possibly 10,000 years old . The petroglyphs are mostly of animals, mainly the ibex.

The image is 10 cm square and printed onto handmade Japanese lightweight paper with black oil-based relief / litho ink.

Its not the same – thank goodness!

I’m reblogging this from Knitnell because it’s so darn civilised – drawing, tea, cake, more tea….lovely

 

Its not the same – thank goodness!.

Out Of Tune

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I did my daily drawing in Waterstone’s Cafe, having a cup of coffee late this afternoon after getting stir crazy back at the studio. Daily drawing for me is like a singer practicing their scales each day. It’s fundamental to my practice as a visual artist. But sometimes the drawing doesn’t come out right, just like sometimes a singer will be off-tune. I didn’t get the proportions right between the woman and the pillar in front of her. Never mind. I’ll carry on…….

Proofed!

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I cut these little lino blocks of running hares a few weeks ago. Now I’ve done some proof prints. I’m pleased with them so I’ll print up an edition.

hare right hare leftI’ve used black oil-based litho/relief ink onto a Japanese hand-made lightweight paper. I’ll probably do an edition of about 30 of each.

Big Wig And Crumble

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We went to a Kate Bush themed birthday party yesterday and our friend, who is a strapping bloke, dressed as Kate in  mahoosive wig. Fair do’s.Drawn into my A5 clothbound sketchbook with Faber Castell Pitt pens sizes F and B.

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And today, I picked the first of the new season’s rhubarb from the garden and made Husb’s all time favourite, rhubarb crumble. With lashings of custard, of course.

 

A Day Off

I haven’t had a day off for ages, par for the course for the self employed, so today has been a lazy day. The only arty thing I’ve done is paint a mask for a Kate Bush themed party I’m off to this evening. See you tomorrow. 🙂

 

 

 

 
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The Name Game

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One of the things I find hard to do is think up names for my artworks. I don’t want to number them #1, #2, #3 and so on. And I don’t like to label them ‘Untitled’, so I often struggle to name a piece. This little lino block of a dancing March hare was easy though.

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Obvious really. Disco ‘Rabbit’ Stu. 😉

Based on an original drawing, cut into lino, printed onto Japanese lightweight hand-made paper with black oil-based litho/relief ink using a Colombian Press at Swansea Print Workshop.

 

Senedd

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The Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, the site yesterday evening for an arts event showcasing the culture of the city of Swansea. My chum, Melanie Ezra and I were asked to curate a small exhibition of visual art and some ‘live’ art as well. Here are two of my ‘live’ drawings next to Jonathan Green’s cow-in-a-microwave-on-a-plinth and Graham Parker’s sea diptych. I drew onto newspaper with chalk, compressed charcoal and a yellow ochre oil bar.

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Here’s a wider view of the amazing Senedd building. The canapes were lovely 😀

Fozzy In A Microwave

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Had a very busy day setting up a pop-up exhibition at the Welsh Senedd (Government) for this evening. It was a cultural event put on for Assembly Members (politicians) and my chum, Melanie Ezra and I curated the small show. I also did a 2 hour stint doing ‘live’ art. As I was scribbling this head onto a sheet of newspaper, a number of small boys from a drama group gathered behind me, looking at a film installation in an old microwave on a plinth. The work, by sculptor Jonathan Green, showed a looped moving image of a close up of a cow chewing the cud, mounted in a microwave.

It was very effective and the boys, about 8 or 9 years old, got very excited about it. One of them called to the rest of his mates, “Oy come over by ‘ere and look at this. They stuffed Fozzy Bear in a microwave!” Classic. 😀

Saucer Eyes

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Another day stuck behind a computer, phoning, going to meetings …… it’s a good job that I’ve committed to producing an artblog each day otherwise I’d never get any artwork done! I popped over to The Fox Project again for a look at their photos and came across a little cub with huge saucer eyes. Fox cubs also have impossibly huge ears. Just a quick scribble into my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 with a free Markers app.