I am inspired by the Miners Wives from the 1984-1985 strike. And also by the radical printmaker Paul Peter Piech, whose lino and woodcut prints advocated for social justice. As well as larger complex, often coloured, linocuts for exhibitions, he also produced many small, simpler black and white prints that could be sold more cheaply, making his art accessible to a wider audience. It’s in that spirit that I have made these three and I plan that they’ll be the first of many.
I’ve been wallowing in the delicious smell of oily ink today, printing up small editions of my little lino blocks inspired by the brave Miners’ Wives from the strike of 1984-1985. I’ve got a printing station set up on top of one of my plans chests and I’m using Cranfield Safewash Relief Ink with a nitrile roller from Intaglio Printmakers of London. The paper is Somerset Satin.
I first posted these back in February 2012, although they weren’t all drawn then. I began blogging in July 2011 to post my sketchbook drawings, so I was picking out examples from sketchbooks going back years. Looks like I was going through a bit of a ‘still life’ phase.
Here’s a short film that Husb made of one of my adult teaching sessions at GS Artists in Swansea, part of the 9to90 Community Arts programme, originated and organised by the artist Jane Simpson. It’s a 2 hour session edited down to under 2 minutes.
It’s #Caturday Saturday and here are some old sketches from way back in 2011, when I first started this blog. Sparta Puss is here but so is the late, great and much loved ‘Little Ming’ aka ‘Ming The Merciless’, our tiny long-haired naughty tortie.
Back to January 2012, when I posted these to my blog. They weren’t all drawn then though. I started the blog in July 2011 to post my sketchbook drawings so I was choosing from several years worth of scribbles when I first began blogging.
I loved getting my fingers stuck into poster paints the other day, and just having fun with them. I used a big brush as well. It’s nothing really, sploshing about, but still an opportunity to see how paints work and how colours work.
Art can be very serious and it’s nice now and again to just have a bit of fun and play with it. I stuck my fingers in some kids’ poster paints and splatted them onto a sheet of sturdy paper. It was fun but also I got effects I wouldn’t normally when I paint because I’m too uptight.
I’m running a cyanotype session at GS Artists this coming Friday as part of their 9-to-90 Creative Community. I love working there, the atmosphere is terrific. If you want to come along, it’s free but you’ll need to reserve a place on Eventbrite because spaces are limited – here’s the link. There are lots of different ways to create an image in cyanotype, I’ve shown a few on the crib sheet (above).
“Cyan is the colour blue and also the first four letters of cyanide and it’s this poison combined with ferric compounds that form the chemical basis for one of the earliest forms of photography, invented by the Astronomer Royal Sir John Herschel in 1842 to take images of the moon. Other more stable forms of photography were invented soon after and cyanotype became unfashionable except as the ‘blueprints’ used by engineers and architects. It’s been having a revival recently and is often called ‘Sunprints’.
You can use lots of things to make a cyanotype image. There are Photograms where you put something directly onto the paper and expose it to light, this is great with leaves and flat objects – paperclips, sequins, feathers, cutlery, lace and we encourage you to bring small things that you might like to include in your design.
There are Photographic cyanotypes as well, using old photographic negatives on film. Or you can print out a negative onto a sheet of acetate in your printer. And if you like drawing and painting, you can do that onto a sheet of acetate or clear acrylic and make a cyanotype from these too.“
See Eventbrite to book and find out more about the session.
Husb and I went to the demonstration to support industrial action at the TATA steelworks in Port Talbot, organised by the trade union, Unite. I sat down in the sunshine and had a scribble. There was a lot of red against the dark looming steelworks in the background.
scribblah 