All Day at the Print Studio.

  Very busy day today at the printmaking studio in Swansea. Made two full-colour monotypes, plus two ‘ghosts’. Have been on my feet for 7.5 hours and I’m shattered, but reasonably happy with the results. I based the monotypes on drawings made from life with a professional model. The prints are made in oil-based pigmentContinue reading “All Day at the Print Studio.”

Pooped at the Printfair!

  A drawing in my Tate Postcard sketchbook from my trip to NYC to see the International Print Fair a couple of years ago. We had been walking around Manhatten for days, going to exhibitions, talks and demonstrations of printmaking and we were pooped! We holed up in this very modernist cafe near the BloomsburyContinue reading “Pooped at the Printfair!”

Japanese Barens [artgeeky stuff]

When I visited the International Print Fair in New York City a couple of years ago, I went to a demonstration of Japanese woodblock printing by the artist Takiyi Hamanake [I hope I spelled that right]. It’s a different way of printing; instead of rollering oil-based ink onto the cut block, you brush glue ontoContinue reading “Japanese Barens [artgeeky stuff]”

Scribbling Kitties

  Sometimes it’s nice just to scribble. I normally have a very structured approach to drawing; very analytical and finished. Now and again it’s good to loosen up and have a scribble. One day I was sitting an exhibition at elysium gallery and I started scribbling randomly in a tiny sketchbook. The scribbles built upContinue reading “Scribbling Kitties”

Enter Rocky The Dragon and The Suicide Method.

  This is a very geeky blog today. I was chatting to some printmakers on LinkedIn earlier about the ‘suicide’ method of block printing [we love talking technique], where you produce a multi-coloured print using the same block, by progressively cutting away each colour. You end up totally destroying the block, so there’s little roomContinue reading “Enter Rocky The Dragon and The Suicide Method.”

The Elder in Art. Having a Rant!

We live in a society that does not, in my opinion, value our elders. They are marginalised from mass media; stereotyped when they do appear; and shuffled off into ‘care’ homes when they become too inconvenient. Our civilisation has an unhealthy obsession with youth to the extent that barely middle aged people have their facesContinue reading “The Elder in Art. Having a Rant!”

Busy Day Making A Monotype [nude image: Parental Guidance]

I spent the whole day at Swansea Print Workshop, making a new large full colour monotype. Here it is. It started life as a sketchbook drawing done during the weekly life drawing group at the Workshop. I redrew it, scaled up onto a much larger sheet of paper in conté, charcoal and white pastel. IContinue reading “Busy Day Making A Monotype [nude image: Parental Guidance]”

Artgeek stuff – Continuous Line and Direct Monotypes [nude image – PG]

  I’m a frenetic scribbler, always sketching and I have thousands of drawings done over the years. It’s fun to go through old sketchbooks and see what I can do with the images. The drawing style I use most is the ‘continuous line’ method, where I keep the pen on the paper without taking aContinue reading “Artgeek stuff – Continuous Line and Direct Monotypes [nude image – PG]”

Printmakers – the Misers of the Artworld?

All the serious printmakers I know never ever throw anything away. Left-over ink is carefully wrapped in cling film, prints that haven’t worked out are recycled for drawing or collage, paper stencils are carefully peeled off screens and applied to a background sheet as a unique monotype/collage, old bits of wooden furniture and offcuts ofContinue reading “Printmakers – the Misers of the Artworld?”

Really Artgeek Stuff – from Sketch to Drawing to Monotype [PG]

Just completed a new large full-colour monotype using the 3-colour reduction method. I started off with a sketch which I did in a life drawing session then I developed it into a larger drawing [bottom image] in compressed charcoal, graphite block and white oil pastel onto a sheet of recycled Bockingford 250gsm paper. It hadContinue reading “Really Artgeek Stuff – from Sketch to Drawing to Monotype [PG]”