I spent long hours at airports on my way to and from my recent artist residency in Boise, Idaho and I scribbled the time away. It’s a good place for studying heads. Here are two of them.
They are drawn into my tiny, leather-bound steampunky sketchbook, using a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size SX.
This artist residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
Burry Port, gateway to eternity.
More bonkers Tales from Wales ………
I’m back from the artist residency in Boise, Idaho after a 28 hour journey. OOOOFFFF! I scribbled some of my travelling companions on my way there and back. This is a very nice, very elderly Indian lady who sat next to me on the plane from Heathrow to San Francisco. She slept for a lot of the journey so I had a chance to do a longer study with some really good foreshortening.
And on the way back, I sat next to a nun and a young Irishman. Here they are fast asleep over Canada with some other passengers in the background, cwtched into their fleecy blankets. It was cold and dark, not ideal conditions for scribbling.
This artist residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
I came to Boise to collaborate with a group of artists to produce a body of monotypes and drawings, which we did, but I can’t resist the urge to scribble;it’s like scratching an itch. This is one I did of a grain elevator in Oregon. I’d never seen one before. It was huge. This is scribbled into my tiny bound leather steampunky sketchbook using a new Sharpie superfine pen. I’m not too keen on it as it bleeds through the page, but it might be better on a thicker paper, it gives a good line and flows well.
Yesterday I was at a steamroller print session in a local school. It was very hot so I spent some time sitting in the shade, scribbling. It’s great to be able to draw so many kids because they’re so completely different to adults. Skinny little Bambi legs and heads that look too big for their bodies. Scribbling in public means you have to be very quick and sometimes you get good sketches, sometimes not. This is a mixed bag but that’s what being an artist is about, you have to practice all the time.
This residency has been supported by The Arts Council Of Wales and Wales Arts International.
Hilarious blog about arty spoofs, mash-up of famous paintings. Very funny and clever.
As Marat might have said! While looking up info about Van Gogh’s portrait of his mother (Zoe Keenan’s third drawing was of this portrait) when I came across a delightful site of Photoshopped artworks.
This was entitled “Blind man fooled to poke a dead dude up the nose” and it was claimed to be a co-work-of-art between Caravaggio and Jacques-Louis David. In fact it was an entry in a Photoshop competition run by FreakingNews.com. This particular contest invited people to submit combined paintings. I’m only showing a few of the entries. Check out the site for others.
This incorporates elements from Dali and Munch into a work by Escher, while here Whistler’s mother plays cards with Frederick Goodall’s little girl.
Finally a collaboration between Degas and Monet!
There are several other Photoshop competitions based on art and artists. One speculates on what Vincent van Gogh might be…
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It’s my last day in Boise, Idaho and I spent the morning with Amy Nack, the Wingtip Press Director, at a steamroller printing session at a local school then the afternoon back at the studio to knock out a final couple of block prints. The first is a composite of a number of petroglyphs that I drew during my visit to Snake River.
When we were out on our road trip, I sat in the mountains and cut a small block. It’s the first time I’ve done any block cutting al fresco and it was fun. I used a soft, easy-cut block, the sort they use in schools. I haven’t used it before. Here are the results.
And here are some photos of the steamroller printing this morning. It was well over 90F and I had some fresh fruit salad Mexican style – mango, melon and pineapple sprinkled with salt and chili. Delicious.
This residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
We came back to Idaho from Oregon today and made a couple of sketching stops. It was boiling hot, around 29degrees C or 90F and we were on a tight schedule so only had enough time for a quickie or two. This was drawn from a rest stop in the mountains on The Oregon Trail, at Burnt River – at one point we were over 4,000 feet up.
I scribbled this in oil bars onto a canvas sheet prepared with oil-based litho/relief ink squeegeed on at random and left to dry.
This artist residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
Insomnia hit me hard so I got up and do an early morning sketch in my teeny weeny leather bound steampunky sketchbook. We’re staying in one of those hotels like in the films where the room all open out onto a verandah on the outside. It’s nice sitting here with the door open to the outside, it’s already very warm and the temperature is going to go up to 32C later, that’s about 90F! I will probably turn into a puddle of lard with a hat on top!
This artist residency is supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
A very clear explanation of the 3 colour monotype process and a lovely set of prints…….
Day 2 of the Wingtip Press Workshop:
After working for a full day on reductive drawings, we were ready to start the 3 color reduction monotype (also referred to as “stacked monotypes”). Since I didn’t bring along specific images, I chose to work from the previous days pepper drawing.
I should also mention Rose learned from Vinita Voogd who pioneered this process. Vinita taught at Wingtip Press last year.
Fearless leader Rose Davies lead us through the inking process. She combined 60% weight Graphic Chemical Litho Process Yellow to 40% plate oil. After mixing thoroughly, she used a soft brayer to apply a thin coat to the plate.
To check ink application, Rose held the plate up to a light. If splotchy, she could continue rolling the brayer over the plate to achieve an even coverage. Just keep your fingertips off the corners! This was the process used for…
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Along the Oregon Trail from Boise, Idaho to Pendleton where we visited Crow’s Shadow Press and I experienced pulled pork in a Wild West Saloon bar. Here’s a little sketch of it. On the way here I saw amazing changes of vast landscapes and went into a casino. I came back out again pretty quickly, one of the most depressing places I’ve ever seen.
It’s incredible that people managed to get here in wagons and on horseback, the landscape is so dramatic and harsh. It was so overpowering that I couldn’t really focus enough to stop and sketch but now I’ve had a chance to take it in, I’ll be scribbling on our way back to Boise tomorrow with my traveling companion, Amy Nack of Wingtip Press.
This artist residency has been supported by Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales.
scribblah 
