getting organised...

If you saw last week's blog, here, you will know that I had to deal with the xmas chaos in my studio before I could even think about getting back to work. So this is the pressed cloth hanging in wait for me to begin - without all the boxes in front of it!

Although it may not look like it, I did a complete overhaul/reorganisation of my materials shelves on the back wall, and the large items (rolls of paper, etc) in front of the shelves are more manageable where they are now located.

After completing all the physical tidying, I have been going through work from the past few years making sure things are signed and/or dated.

There was also a lot of work that is "sub-standard" - prints that have too much or too little ink, etc - which needs to be tossed. However, I am not one to waste paper, so I have simply ripped them in half and added them to my collection of "backs", which I use for lists, notes, etc.

Signal studio - wind down

My residency at the Signal Arts Centre studio came to an end recently -- don't know if it would have been possible to keep up such a supremely productive pace! I previously blogged about this year's residency here and here. I also had a residency last year, which I blogged about here, here, and here. I am booked in for next Oct, Nov, and Dec too!

In my last few weeks I had borrowed a press and printed up all the lino blocks I had cut. This is a test print, showing also the "window" I made from a heavy cardboard in order that the paper would be lifted off the press base. I adjusted the press roller for the depth of the lino blocks, but the cardboard had the effect of raising the press base such that printing a relief block was not awkward.

I printed all the lino blocks for my intended bound portfolio of prints, "A Short Walk To Fort Carré"

In those last few weeks I also completed a number of blank sketch/notebooks using my modified version of medieval tacket binding. I have blogged about how to do this type of binding here and here.

I also prepared nine pocket size blank sketch/notebooks to include in Signal's annual xmas craft fair. The photo below shows them before using the Japanese stab binding technique. Three have leather covers, three have vinyl covers, and three have acrylic sponge covers. Earlier in the residency I had also made a number of "handbag" books using this binding technique. Several years ago I blogged full instructions to make this type of book, which can be found here.

Once I had all the lino prints done, I wanted to make use of the press during the last couple of days of my residency. I had some oils and one of the carborundum plates I had created during a printmaking workshop I attended in September. I blogged about that workshop here.

As I was cleaning up and clearing out the studio, one of the final "clean" things I wanted to do was cut and create the covers for the series of lino prints I now realised I would not bind until the new year, but I at least wanted to get them made. I always get nervous about measuring and cutting (it's so final!) so I took it pretty slow.

The covers are made of a heavy duty, 100% acid-free blotting paper, and will fold around the print series, bound together using the simple Japanese stab binding technique. The portfolio of prints will be in an edition of three.

On my second last day of the studio, I decided to create a monoprint. Using undiluted alkyd paints on a square acetate plate, I painted the familiar figure. Unfortunately I did not blot my paper dry enough, and it ripped in the press. Rather than daunt me, it just made me realise a few things for next time, as I want to work more with that image.

This is the studio shortly before I moved out: almost everything off the walls, and a lot of work brought home already. On the table near the window, prints are being weighed down to flatten. After a final tidy, I said goodbye to an inspiring workspace and returned the key.

Signal Studio Residency - working away!

I am having a very productive studio residency at Signal Arts Centre. One of the first things I did, on a sunny morning, was cut some paper, put on my boiler suit, and head outside to do some rubbings of the metal utility shores on the street. I taped these rubbings to the wall near the door and they have stayed there for the duration of my stay. A few of them can be seen in this picture.

My painting station, which takes up half the room, also provides me wall space to affix reference pictures and some finished pastel drawings. A moveable surface under the paints table provides a space for my pastels and I sit in a chair near the window when working on pastel drawings.

This area by the sink is also the selfie station. There is a mirror leaning agains the wall and every morning I do a self-portrait sketch in a sketchbook. I have been using a variety of media for these daily selfies - soft pencil, charcoal pencil, conté, pen, inks, watercolour pencils. I especially enjoy painting selfies with ink washes (I am limited to several bright colours and black) as I have to be loose in the execution. I also really like using my watercolour pencils for selfies and other small works. 

Every day I spend most of my time painting, with breaks to work on a pastel drawing and to do a self portrait sketch. I had prepared all the canvases in advance of arriving at Signal, applying scrim texture and a quinacridone violet groundcoat. At Signal I began the blocking in of the paintings in my first week there.

Although I placed the large canvas on the easel, I simply lay the small canvases on the table or lean them against the wall and pick them up when applying a specific colour. Here are several of them in progress.

Preparations for work

I have been doing a lot of administration and organisation this past week. The administration has involved preparing proposals for various upcoming opportunities. This does involve a lot of work sitting at the computer, but it also affords me the headspace to clarify my ideas. I am looking forward then to creating new paintings, prints and books in the (hopefully) near future. With this in mind I am also trying to clean up and organise my studio. This sketch I did on National Drawing Day a few years ago used a corner of my studio as subject. If only the studio looked that tidy! I think at the time I was in the middle of working on a painting, so even though it looks a little chaotic, that is simply one corner. At the moment the entire studio looks chaotic and it would be completely impossible to work on anything. I am slowly making some headway though, proof being that I have filled 6 bags with shredded paper, have recycled and thrown out quite a lot of things. Still more to go.

Planning a holiday is always something to bring my spirits around. Last week I won a break to Edinburgh from a radio station that I listen to and yesterday I filled out all the required paperwork for the promoters, choosing my preferred dates to take the break. Something else to look forward to!

IMMA - Nick Miller & Edward Maguire Archive

 On Saturday I was at IMMA to have another look at a few of the shows there. There were three shows featured in the Garden Galleries, but I followed my daughter to the top floor to the Nick Miller & Edward Maguire Archive exhibition. There was jazz playing in the final room of the show (the sound had drawn my daughter to it), so we started at that and went backwards through the rooms.

While it's always great to see a painting show, as a painter I am always even more interested in the artist's tools, studio environment and method of working. So this final room was for me the best way to begin looking at Miller's reponse to Maguire's work.

There was even a key to the objects from the archive.

It was interesting to see the wizard costume hanging on the wall and later see it in a portrait. Theoretically one would see the painting first and then the costume, if one had followed the room chronology, but I think it works in either direction.

 Both Nick Miller and Edward Maguire are (and were, respectively) portrait painters -- Miller's work very expressionist and loose, and Maguire's almost hyper-real and controlled. In Edward Maguire's portrait of Paul Durcan (I think from the late 1970s) I could easily recognise the poet whom I had had the pleasure of hearing speak and read on several occasions in the 1980s.

I love Miller's portrait painting style. This is obviously a more recent portrait of Durcan; at least his aging wasn't a complete shock to me as I had already been made aware of the passage of time (with regard to someone else) when I saw Durcan more recently in a documentary about the Edward Maguire archive.

At IMMA, there was a display vitrine near Maguire's portrait of Anthony Cronin that contained the objects (ancient iron, pot & plate) that are included in the portrait. The exhibition was a joy -- seeing the studio artefacts in their own space, props displayed alongside paintings, jazz music (Bill Evans) permeating the space and the work of a completely different artist displayed in respectful response to Maguire's work.  I really enjoyed this exhibition of art and artefact.

Fever Afterimages - painting!

After the past week of lovely weather and dealing with the damsons - picking & canning (jams & chutneys) - I have finally gotten a chance to get back to the studio. So, I have been working out the compositions of my three small paintings in the Fever Afterimages series.

 And have started to add some colour.

I have always liked the contrast between this chromium green and the purple/pink/blue combo. But this is just the start, so who knows what it will end up looking like!

Monoprints!

I have been working on some watercolour pencil sketches for the new work, Fever Afterimages, but have found it taking too long. I want a sense of immediacy! I did some test monoprints in three different sizes with acrylic paint, but again I felt dissatisfied. So over the past couple of days have been searching, both locally and over the internet for some water-soluble ink to do my monoprints with. Happily I found one jar of Speedball water soluble block printer's ink in the local school supply shop (the local art supply shop was mystified by my description of the product!). Out came my roller, wooden spoon, various papers, and plastic utensils for drawing into the ink once it is rolled on a glass plate. If I am happy with the results I will have a look for my linoblocks, get out the lino tools and do an edition. But first things first!

Moments - more paintings!

I recently finished two more paintings in the "Moments" series. This is "Climbing", acrylic on raw canvas, approx 92 cm x 51 cm.

And this is "Snowman", acrylic on raw canvas, approx 58 cm x 72 cm.

That finishes the works on canvas in this series for me, now I am looking forward to doing some big drawings/paintings on that roll of kraft paper I got given to me in the summer. Before starting that, however, I needed to clear space in the studio and reconfigure the plastic drop sheets -- ready, steady, go!

Painting!

James edited together the film from the plantcam in the studio to create this video of me painting the egg -- 10 days of work tuned down to 2 and a half minutes.  Some feat of magic I'd say!