City of the World

My small contribution to the giant City of the World project in which various printmakers around the world carve a small piece and Maria Arango-Diener nobly co-ordinates, prints and sends out the final product, all married up. A labour of love indeed. Yes it has been carved in reverse, I flipped it in the computer. Called Graffiti, I felt that every city should have at least some tho' I wanted mine to share a positive note.

Spring 2012

This blog has not been updated for nearly half a year, so what has been happening? I am working through an Open College of the Arts Printmaking course and here are some of the prints made during this time. Printmaking by post? Yes it not only is possible thanks to a really switched on tutor and great materials as guides and instructions, but it is really working. I needed feedback and a good kick to get out of an artistic rut, and I believe it to be time and money well spent. Mind you it does take quite a bit of time.

The Cherry tree print was made for an online group Barenforum to help raise funds for the Japanese after the earthquakes and Tsunami in March; called 'Alone' . Next to it is 'Pompeii Memory', followed by Maiden Castle and lastly Avebury Mystery.

London exhibitions

Intensive trip to London, saw the Glasgow Boys at the Royal Academy, http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/glasgow-boys , Paul Cezanne's the card players at the Courtauld and Drawings at the British Museum.

The Cezanne little exhibition had collected together many drawing, tryouts, studies etc connected to Cezanne attempting to create a 'proper academy' picture for posterity. It is humbling to see just how hard he worked at it all, particularly as he was considered second rate at the time! http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2010/cezanne/

While at the BM as usual I popped into the Japan Gallery and thought you would enjoy the two Hokusai on show. The pictures were chosen as Winter pictures and Hokusai was 88 years old when he did them. Which reminds me does everyone know the little book 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing' A Tale of Hokusai written by Francois Place originally in French (Le vieux fou de dessin)? US ed pub in 2004 by David R. Godine, Boston . French ed pub by Editions Gallimard Jeuness, Paris in 1997. It is wholly enchanting and contains a beautifully simply explanation of woodblock printing.

Have done some monoprints and am trying to get myself to do at least one drawing a day. Have a wonderful year everyone.

Turning over new leaves

This monthly blog can show no new work as my unhappy body is still in recovery mode. All is improving and I have been swimming again, albeit very gently. The whole experience has forced a 'who am I and where am I going' rethink. At one point I thought I could never make art again, which brought realisation of how important it is to me. Now I am more hopeful, and have been wanting to kickstart a new search for individuality and originality, rather than the focus on technique which has marked the previous decade.

As a result, I have signed up for an Open College of Arts Printmaking remote learning course. I am hoping this will give me both feedback and direction, and make me work harder at keeping sketchbooks and digging deeper for that elusive origionality. http://www.oca-uk.com/

I am also working my way through the book 'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron pub by Jeremy Tarcher/Putnam ISBN 1585421464 2002. The language is a bit New Age over the top, but many of the ideas are helpful. The author recommends writing a daily 'stream of conscousness' words. I haven't done this since I was 18 and influenced by Virginia Woolf but hey.. it's fun! I hope to add random drawings to this mix, but am stuck at present, so am working through a very basic book 'The Complete book of Drawing' by Barrinton Barber instead. This provides exercises which I hope will loosen me up. Page 1 suggested a different way of holding the drawing stick which was a surprise.

So in summary, I have thrown myself into another adventure, which those that know me will recognise as something I need to do quite regularly in my life. I will send postcards along the way. Meanwhile some pictures from snowy Dorset.

Season's Greetings to you all and Happy Printmaking

Exhibition continued

Just a few extra images of some of my work and the exhibition space. We are in an old farm building ( now a Garden Centre) in what has now become Poundbury, the community that the Duchy of Cornwall is building to provide funds for the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles likes coming to Dorset and is a frequent visitor bringing town planners etc to see some of the ideas demonstrated in Poundbury.

Thank you to all who have left encouraging notes. It helps, and I am grateful.

Winter exhibition

Some weeks ago I fell off a stile walking the Dorset countryside, and various parts of me complained and the shoulder seized up altogether and has been very painful. The good news is that the Chiropractor is getting me mobile again slowly, and I am beginning to believe that I may still work at the art again.. one day.

With a lot of help from husband and fellow exhibitors the attached image shows that I did manage to get my part of the exhibition up. As I could not mount, frame etc I have added my chinese brushwork paintings to the prints as these were all ready from a previous show. Now all we need is to sell something!

Exhibition

I have updated my wesite and added some more work: http://www.jenniferscabin.co.uk at the moment I am using this space as a window of the work.

For any local readers, I have joined up with four other Dorchester artists to put on a selling exhibition of Artist made pictures, cards and presents from upstairs in the Poundbury Garden Centre, Poundbury, Dorchester from Wednesday November 17th until Monday lunchtime 22 November 2010.

West Bay again

This is the largest white line print I have attempted, approx 22inches by 33inches. Looking at another aspect of West Bay in Dorset UK. This shows part of the beach, cliffs and the boat going out to sea from the harbour. I have had great fun doing it.

West Bay

Have been having another go at white-line printmaking. This is a small port on the Dorset Coast called West Bay. There is still a fishing fleet there, and I hope to be creating more images from the area.

Am finding it all hard going at the moment, probably the usual autumn blues as I wonder why I am not living in a place with no winter. The printmaking challenge helps to keep me going. Hope all well out there!

Autumn efforts

Had a stand at an arts & crafts show at the George Albert Hotel, very quiet but as always interesting to have people's comments. Felt a bit down afterwards as sales were low even though I had slashed the prices.

So back to the studio. This is a white line print Mont St. Victoire. I find it impossible to make consecutive prints identical using the white line technique,as one is basically painting them on to the wood, with varying results. I have currently started numbering them as A/P1 + date A/P2+date etc. Does anyone have some better ideas?

Back to the studio

Finally have done some work in the studio. Up against deadlines as the grandchildren are back at the end of this week. Finally had a go at whiteline in preparation for a Xmas card. A local church. The angelic minstrals are stone carvings inside the same building, I thought they looked rather fun all playing away together instead of being stuck up on separate pillars as they are in reality.

White line

Have been to France for the last few weeks, and found some interesting ideas. In Avignon in a small collection, found some work by Gleizes and white line prints by Derain.

Will post later with more news. If anyone is in London, the British Museum Print Room has a stunning free exhibition of Chinese prints from the earliest Diamond sutra to contemporary. A must see if you can.

Exhibition

Dorset Art Weeks exhibition is finally over, and the packing up is nearly done. Good to get feedback and to see the work up, but not a lot of visitors or sales. Still it is good to review the work and to see where I've been and plan where to go!

Madrid and British Museum

Came across these Japanese style cloud trees in Madrid. Most unexpected! We looked at some wonderful art there.

A recent London trip saw us at the Van Gogh exhib, well worth even the 2 hour queue. The on to Cornelissen the art pigment people to stock up. The good news is that they are planning to set up a website with ordering: http://www.cornelissen.com/ It is a small shop full of character (and helpful staff). I always half expect Turner or someone historic to walk in.

On to The British Museum print room to see Mexican prints. Stunning collection, and of course upstairs to the Japan rooms.

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Stockton, NSW Pelicans

Finally this is the result of hard labour. I used a machine made Hosho paper in the end. It has really not turned out as I wanted as I seemed to have slipped backwards in the technique, perhaps I am getting over ambitious. Next time I will go for something smaller!

The image is of Pelicans who have come to roost in the early evening. The lights are solar powered, and the place is at the entrance to Newcastle harbour, about a 100 miles north of Sydney.

Pelicans

Here are the blocks for the Pelicans at Stockton print. (Newcastle NSW Australia) Am trying out various papers and may have to buy as I have little that goes this large. Will keep posting when I have an image that is presentable.

Wellworths

Have been having a lot of difficulty with the latest print. Imagined as a Dorset Beauty in the tradition of the Japanese beauty series, the print has fallen sadly short of my aspirations. Here are the blocks and 2 of many attempts using different paper. One effort used the lino 'background' block in blue and the other not using that block. I ended up adding hand touching to add more to the girls' features and to the range of colours in the sweets.

This has all taken far too long with not very satisfactory results. I have decided to walk away from it for a while, go into another project and maybe come back to it.

Wellworths is a shop which grew out out the ashes of the closed Woolworths in our town. Managed by a brave lass who has worked her way up in the original store from a Saturday girl. A shining beacon of get up and go in these difficult times.