Tuesday2Tuesday

I have a friend staying for a week and we are each contributing something that sums the day up for us in the form of a photograph, words or a drawing - we will then collate them into book form - my working title for the project is Tuesday2Tuesday but this might change
Today we took the train along the Tamar Valley route to Calstock, where the Limekilm Gallery was showing 3 artists in the 'Drawn to the Valley' open studios.
These are my short listed images and I also have a train ticket from Plymouth to Calstock which I will scan tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are off to Exeter so it will be a very different day out ........

More green and smiling!

Lost
Beached
Found
It made me smile
And wonder about it's journey

I've collected sea glass for years but recently have become fascinated with beach plastic! This is solid plastic and quite heavy for it's size 6cms high by 5 cms at widest width - I love it's sea washed look!

and today's drawing of the rocks/ sea - I purposely left my camera at home!

graphic and white acyclic 

Back to drawing

A day on Dartmoor in very unsettled weather today with 2 painting friends - drawing plein air! We started with coffee at the Two Bridges Inn (essential) and then found a spot near Postbridge to settle down. This forest of trees on the horizon is such a perfect form you'd think it was a sculpture! Rain, wind, sudden bursts of light in the greyness, and brief rays of sunshine - not the hot sunny summer's day we wished for. We got quite cold at one point!

 My drawing is so rusty I have vowed to draw one day a week from now on - it is one of the intentions I made at the beginning of the year which has sadly fallen by the wayside - even though I'm not happy with this one it is the best of what I did today - I hope I will see the progress I am making by posting a drawing on the blog each week.... 

Drawing, graphite and white pastel 

I am starting a new project on PLACE with another artist friend from North Wales who is visiting next week - a very big theme I know,  which hopefully will be narrowed down as I/we progress - the mediums I will be using are photography, printmaking and drawing.

I realised that I haven't been out for a whole day on my own for several weeks now and need to do it pretty soon - to give myself some time for reflection - maybe tomorrow along the coastal path?

Back to the future

It is a lovely feeling to be in a print studio again after a year's absence while concentrating on the more conceptual stuff for my degree show! 
So to get me started and back to where I left off I went to a collograph workshop last weekend with Mary Gillett. 

Mary giving Brian some advice 

Wonderful to be making again , getting stuck into the messy paint mixing, inking the plate and seeing the unexpected results that come from the press. It was a playful, experimental 2 days, the prints were all quite different and not always what I hoped for but bits here and there I liked and felt I could incorporate in a larger piece of work in the future.


For the plates I used cardboard which I've previously used for collagraphs and also new to me, aluminium and thin ply. Then I used tile adesive, various mediums and carborundum to create the image on the plate. Brenda Hartill has a very useful video on using carborundum here 

Offset print from the roller I used to ink up one of the plates

Using very different colours to my usual palette! 

the ghost print of the one above which I much prefer!

I went back for a 3rd day to print up some more of the plates and I must say on Monday evening I was exhausted but ever so pleased with myself! 

About one third of my total output for the 3 days

So part of my future art practice will definitely include printmaking!