Bye Bye Birdy

Made some more gelatin prints today using one of the bird stencils and helped myself to some wallpaper samples from the local hardware store to use for the borders - they may soon become suspicious of my constant sampling and non-purchase of a whole roll.

I have been experimenting (last couple of post images and this one) with using curves in GIMP (or Adobe) which is quite interesting, particularly when using the 'freehand' tool and throws up all kinds of nuances that aren't always obvious in the original print.

I have called this Bye Bye Birdy - its probably time to give birds a rest and move on.

Fine weather and gel prints

I took refuge in the studio today, away from the heat and got down to the business of making art and a bit of a Spring clear out too - well not so much a clear out, more a shuffle.  You know the kind of thing - anything to avoid starting!  It's the first really warm weather we have had but I'm happier in the shade.  Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days and hopefully some gallery viewing.  After that I hope to have some more time in the studio and develop ideas that have been brewing since Australia.  And more time for this poor neglected blog.

The image here is one of 15 small prints (10cm x 10cm) I began in February - I wanted something very simple to give an impression of looking closely at tiny seed heads in the undergrowth.  I am now manipulating the images using GIMP or Adobe to see if I have sufficient for another Artist's book.

Went to collect some slumped glass from the previous week's session - it had not survived the firing and had shattered.  Tried another batch with fingers crossed.

Dreamtime

Back from my travels and finding it hard to get back into the swing of things - not sure what I actually want to swing from.  Great time in Australia and wonderful to see art from a different perspective.  

I was particularly interested in the aboriginal concept of Dreamtime and quote from Wikipedia (Fred Alan Wolf from his book The Dreamtime):-

"Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the 'dreamtime', more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime."'

That sounds better than any description that I could have come up with.  The little sketch here is something from my travel sketchbook.  My own Dreamtime - the whole experience has left me with so many ideas and an uncertainty of how to express them just now. 

This week has seen me at Westhope College playing with some glasswork, another area I have been wanting to try for quite a while.  Making a few sample pieces before I tackle any cathedral windows.

Journal for the Trip

I've been hunting; without success, for a good quality watercolour sketchbook and decided to make one up myself. And also wanted to continue with practising bookmaking, so it was a duel intent. Found the paper for the cover amongst some prints I made only about 8 years ago. It was worthless as a print but I'm quite happy with it is a journal cover and it has a nice heavy textured feel to it - ignorant of the ins and outs of printing ink at the time, I used acrylic paint and some linocut images layered into an abstract pattern.


I am heavy-handed with paint (watercolours usually flinch when they see me coming) and find ordinary sketchbook paper too lightweight to take a hammering.

Sydney Beckons

I did anticipate getting some work done this week but it hasn't happened. And last week I was Grandson-sitting over half-term, so it has been a couple of weeks of best laid plans going to pot. I have stopped beating myself up now and decided to go with the flow. (Flow sounds sedate but it has been more flying around like a lunatic for last minute things).

I fly out on Monday and am gathering together what I hope will be sufficient to keep me occupied and sane during the 22 hour flight - books, pens, sketchbooks, downloads - if anyone has any other ideas please let me know:(

I am really looking forward to seeing my youngest daughter and also looking at art from an Australian perspective - I hope I return full of ideas for new work in April.

I will post if I can during the trip and of course keep up with all my favourite blogs!

Madding Crowd

Just about finished the Artist's book using the gelatin prints of birds that I made back in October. I use the word finished loosely as I am not happy with several aspects of the piece, so this will probably be the prototype for something else. I spray painted the covers and found that pushing an awl through for the holes disturbed the paint - trying to rectify this with a paintbrush left rather obvious blobs on the surface. So lessons learned for the next one.

I have used Japanese stab binding.

The other piece is experimental, using an old gelatin print with some collage and chine colle. The text is taken from Gray's Elegy - there's not too much left of this little book! I am currently going through the portfolio to see what I can re-use with more layers.

Oh! the studio that was tidy two days ago is chaos once more.

Artist's Book

Bitterly cold day outside and not much better in the studio today. I needed to do a tidy out before I go to Australia at the end of the month and I wanted to spend some time working on the prints I began a little while ago with the intention of making an artist's book. (I think I posted them under 'Birds on a Wire' as a working title but think that will change).

Over the weekend I trimmed the pages and worked knots into them with some very old embroidery thread - and I do mean old. They came from some my mother had during WWII. And today I looked at some ideas for a cover - the best option at the moment is the simplest one of the stencilled bird but will look at other angles tomorrow.

I am increasingly interested in the the link between women in families and their complexities. The birds have come to represent my youngest daughter leaving home and the threads represent the continuation within this family group.

Epitaph

Experimented today with some 'failed' prints combined with collaged material and chine colle. I tore the epitaph from somewhere weeks ago and of course, now have no idea at all where it came from but never mind, I am more concerned with using the various elements together to see what happens.

I don't really want to start anything new in the next few weeks - so just being playful with odds and ends already hanging around the studio table.

(Just remembered the torn page came from Gray's Elegy written in an English Churchyard - I am glad about that, it would have driven me batty for the rest of the evening).