Spring! The Bullfinch, and the Sparrowhawk Tree

 Thursday 7th May - Election day! 

Spring came early this year and took us all by surprise. During the lovely weather in April I watched from my wagon studio as hawthorn leaves unfolded, celandines and primroses bloomed and the hedgerow birds bustled about looking for suitable nest sites. From the feeder outside my window I spotted nuthatches, greater spotted woodpeckers,wrens, robins, hedge sparrows, and various members of the tit family, including the long tailed tits who love to fly around in jolly gangs. Sadly one day I found a dead female bullfinch dead on the grass outside my wagon - she had flown into the large windows of the door - I took a picture of her and used it as the subject for an etching (seen here on the left) and a monoprint (seen here on the right)......

Then I had the idea of combining a collograph on top of a monoprint. Collographs are basically textures stuck on card, and can be any shape or form , they are varnished to enable ink to be pushed into the texture and printed off through the press. Here are two bullfinch collographs made from various feathers I ve found around....

Results coming up in the next blog!

Meanwhile he sparrowhawks are nesting in the old oak tree - here's their tree ......
   

inspired by this I've started a series of some small paintings about our land........ the full collection will be shown in next years open studios.

And so to this year's SAW arts festival in October - I'll be exhibiting my work with Angie Rook and a great group of painters, printmakers and photographers at the Village hall at North Wootton- more later!

January 2015 - Into a New year!

  

Tuesday, 20th January

Into the New Year from what has been for me a sad end of 2014. Before Christmas I lost my sister from cancer and although not unexpected was made all the more poignant by being at a time when all families get together. Her funeral was held in the little saxon church of Postling at the bottom of the North downs in east Kent on a most beautiful sunny winters day. She was an extremely accomplished botanical artist, and at her wake we hung her amazing paintings around the room - she was always modest about her achievements!  Some of them hopefully will be hung in the botanical exhibition at the Westminster hall this Spring- look for her name- Elizabeth Andrews.

Cushion prints - and Vicky (second daughter) and I have been printing the flower lino designs on to coloured linen squares which she will then make into beautiful cushions- they re hung about the kitchen like prayer flags........
                   
                                                                             

and draped over my fathers old desk.........

                                         

We'll keep you informed on the progress of the cushions- They should be on show during arts week this year.


I have started two etchings, both images are based on a silver birch tree on our land. I've been experimenting with aquatint -a resin process which helps you achieve different areas of tone- I stop out the bits that I want to keep light.  Here they are having had three sucessive dips in the acid.....

These are just test prints, they need to be worked into, I would like to print them in colour- and perhaps on silk, apparently Rembrandt did!

Life after Arts Week. The Sweet Pea Project.

Tuesday, 4th November.

A month has passed since the excitement of the Open Studios, and its time to show the progress of the sweet pea linocut that I was working on in the wagon. Taking an early print shows me how much I still need to cut out......

An early print not fully cut out can look quite dramatic and its tempting to leave it like this. I've painted some watercolour just to give me an idea of how the planned colours might look. After more cutting out I make another print -

How different it looks!  I love the effect - almost like a woodcut. I now have to plan and cut a new piece of lino that will print the plain areas of colour. To plan this I take a print on tracing paper, then make a collage of the shapes of colour. If I lay the tracing paper on top I can see how it might look - the tricky bit will be lining everything up....

The second piece of lino is cut and prints made using the two colours - tomorrow I  hope to print the first detailed linocut over the coloured ones- registering is going to be tricky....... I will be posting the result on my next blog-
Meanwhile on my walks across our land I am stunned by the changing colours of the leaves and the shapes of tree branches beginning to re-emerge. Wild apples hang down in the hedgerow alongside scarlet hips and haws and flamingo pink spindle berries - so much colour!

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The Wagon Studio Opening for Arts week- all the news and finale.

Monday 6th October

I wake up this morning, wind howling and the rain pelting down!-but for the two weeks of open studios we have been blessed with glorious sunny weather - I've had a good amount of visitors, and sales - people have been really interested in what I do and the techniques I use.I would like to thank all of you who have come to see me and my work, and sharing our thoughts of the landscape around the farm - both Jon and I have made some good  friends and contacts. The wagon of course has had a lot of admirers. Here is a collage of photos made by my  friend Fran, showing the gallery space inside the wagon (top left and left), its humble beginnings (top right), the wagon studio on its pitch, (right) and my daughter Vicky and I getting ready for the private view in the barn, (middle).

At the  private view opening- myself and some good friends with the wagon lit up........ Happy days!

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I shall be continuing to work in the wagon studio, and will be posting my progress on the blogspot so please keep your eye out for new posts- I am exhibiting with my printmaking group at Strode Theatre in December so I will be posting the dates up for that .If you need to contact me my details are on the Somerset Arts Week website. Looking forward to the next open studios- got fed up with the housework already!

'Wagons Roll' - the final fixing!

Thursday 18th Sept
There has been very little postings on the blog page due to pressure of work in getting the wagon studio to
its finished state ! Here are some photos of the final stages -

Peking comes to Pilton! This shows the the beautiful detail on the roof corners and a glimpse of the copper guttering- next, the sedum roof goes on.......

Finally the interior gets painted. The colours are based on the landscape- soft grey cloud and blue sky, the colour of willow... I can't wait to get the prints and paintings hung!

Lastly, an invitation to you all to come and visit- there is plenty to see- and buy! - prints and paintings, cushions, and cards- and above all the landscape which has inspired me in so much of my work.

Sweet peas and Flowers in a Jug

Thursday, 31st July

Em, my daughter grows the most fabulous sweet peas - while I have a weedy collection of pale pinks and pastels, Em produces masses of exotic looking blooms ranging from sexy dark purpley reds through to light lavender flowers edged with dark violet. She brings me a bunch now and again, which I put in a vase in the kitchen....

I love the erratic way the sweet pea stems grow- their leaves are like butterfly wings - and their twirly tendrils. The lime green tobacco flower sets off the reds beautifully.

Last year I used her flowers as a design for a lino print, alongside the sweet peas are cosmos and small sunflowers. I printed it in one main colour over different colour blocks for the jug, petals and flower centres.

                                                             'Em's Flowers in a Jug'
                                                          

Then I printed the design in one colour on calico and thought that they would make a great cushion covers.

Here's the cushion cover in the planning stage- deciding which way round the stripes should go- I settled for the horizontal....

The prints and cushions will be on show and for sale in the wagon during Somerset Arts Week  

20th Sept.- 4thOct. The brochures are out published and are out and about soon- find me at venue 143!

Butterflies and Moths

Tuesday, 8th July. 

We haven't cut our hayfields yet so when you walk through them clouds of butterflies fly out of the grass - so far, apart from the meadow browns, I've spotted small orange skippers, ringlets and the beautiful marbled white. My father was a keen butterfly spotter and I think I caught some of his enthusiasm when I was small! Moths can be just as beautiful in a more subtle way though not as brightly coloured. I took the image of a moth for a collograph idea......

This collograph print was made by sticking textures - string, hessian, feathers etc on to card cut as a moth shape - ink is pressed in, wiped off and the card rolled through the etching press on to watercolour or smooth paper. 

I did the same for the great green grasshopper except that it is set on a hessian background-

And a stag beetle with a leaf......

These prints will be on show in the wagon during Somerset Open Studios '14.

Meanwhile work cotinues apace on the wagon! - glass going into the windows and the chestnut shingles applied to the outside...