12th September
Creative energies this summer have had to be shared between all things green and growing in the garden, and art work in the wagon, and now it's September, and thoughts turn to the Somerset Arts Week Festival in early October, and the hall in North Wootton (venue 68) where I'm exhibiting my work alongside painters and printmakers, photographers and ceramicists.
One of the exhibits will be a print of 'The Woods', a great project which I worked on with six fellow printmakers. We took the theme and each produced a lino design on a 30mm square piece of lino (either whole or halved), first selecting the best place compositionally for the block, and how it would work as a whole. Here is the final print-
It was printed on a long strip of Japanese paper - Shiramine natural, and because it was too long to put in the press we printed the blocks using a burin or wooden spoon, rubbing with even pressure on the back. I love the result, the design working well with the smaller pieces (lettering and ferns) creating the variety and compositional 'stops'.
My contribution is the oyster mushroom and trees (second left). I have always liked strong bold form and the oyster mushroom displays this in its extraordinary umbrella shape, but with the delicacy of the gills radiating like spokes from the stem, I put the tree silhouettes on the left to counterbalance the cumulus shape of the mushroom.
I will be displaying the print individually as well, but printed in grey which gives it an air of mystery!
Meanwhile look out for the Art Weeks brochures, the festival 2015 is coming soon- 3rd-18th October- there's lots of great and exciting work out there!
