Tag Archives: FIRE Laboratory

Heavy Metal

I spent a happy afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop, starting to prepare for a new series of printmaking for my artist residency at The FIRE Lab. I’m planning a mixed bag of techniques based on my drawings en plein air of Victorian culverts. I rummaged around in the drawers of my plans chest to findContinue reading “Heavy Metal”

The Rainbow Roll

  Colour It’s been years since I did a rainbow roll to put colour into the background of a block print. I’ve been trying out proof prints for my “Streambed” vinyl block and that’s how I ended up doing a rainbow roll. I put out three lumps of Caligo Safewash litho/relief ink – Process BlueContinue reading “The Rainbow Roll”

Doubling Up

Carrying on experimenting with my vinyl block based on a drawing of a streambed, I printed it up twice in black litho/relief ink onto Hosho paper. I like the negative spaces between the two shapes. This merits some development, I think. I have been developing this work in response to field trips with colleagues fromContinue reading “Doubling Up”

A Tryout In Colour

After I had done the first proof of my vinyl block in black ink, I decided to try out some colour. My first experiment was with some simple chine collé using silk fabric papers, using colours I had seen in the stream bed and landscape. Unfortunately we’re in the middle of a heatwave and myContinue reading “A Tryout In Colour”

Proofing The Stream Bed

  A few weeks ago I went on a field trip up into the Brecon Beacons with colleagues from Swansea University’s FIRE Lab and while they studied the environment in culverts, I sketched. I really liked the abstraction of this drawing of a stream bed so I cut it into a block of vinyl andContinue reading “Proofing The Stream Bed”

My Geographic Palette #4 – Graphite

The next one out of my geographic palette is graphite, a slightly greasy, slightly soluble solid black pigment and mineral found in The Lake District near Keswick, which is where I bought some nice chunky sticks of it and a whole load of top-quality graphite pencils. Not far from Keswick, at Seathwaite, is an oldContinue reading “My Geographic Palette #4 – Graphite”

My Geographic Palette #3 – Walnut Ink

  About 3 or 4 years now some friends gave me a bag of fresh walnuts – that’s walnut fruit – the nut is in the centre of an apple sized green fruit. I made my own walnut ink from them, please click here if you want to see the technique I used.    Continue reading “My Geographic Palette #3 – Walnut Ink”

My Geographic Palette #2 – Bideford Black

  So, day 2 of drawing from my geographic palette. This is Bideford Black, an unique oily carbon-based pigment from North Devon, where is sits in the ground next to anthracite coal. It was mined for about 200 years up until the late 1960s but lost out to cheaper competitors and the mines closed. IContinue reading “My Geographic Palette #2 – Bideford Black”

My Geographic Palette #1 – Charcoal

  This is my first tryout with my geographic palette, a drawing based on a sketch I did en plein air on a field trip with colleagues from Swansea University’s FIRE Lab a couple of months ago when we went off exploring culverts up in the Brecon Beacons.   The charcoal I bought a fewContinue reading “My Geographic Palette #1 – Charcoal”