Category: Art

Printmaking In Granada

These are the first etchings I have done since printmaking at Edinburgh College of Art in 1984-88 where I did a lot of mixed media using silkscreen printing with etching. They are solar plate intaglio and relief etchings. It’s a technique which allows you to transfer a black ink drawing made on acetate onto a plate, using the sun to etch the plate, by exposing it to the sun for as little as 3-4 minutes, rather than using toxic chemicals. These are my first attempts. Continue reading “Printmaking In Granada”

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Swimming Studies

Water is elemental, it’s what we’re made of, what we can’t live within or without.

So begins this wonderful book by Leanne Shapton. I’d seen her paintings at Lutyens & Rubentein but hadn’t realised she was also a writer. This is a memoir of her days training as an Olympic swimmer and of how that obsession shaped her later life as an artist. I’m no swimmer, maybe a gentle back paddle, preferably in a river rather than a pool, but I’m buoyed up by reading Swimming Studies.

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Deluge

Through this drenched and complex summer I have gazed in frustration at a garden weighed down with its own entanglements. As I hopped, skipped and jumped through incessant showers to the studio I was the beneficiary of some damp osmosis which gave me colour and form for my Deluge series, and a happy series it turned out to be. The only sting in the tail being exhaustion for weeks afterwards. Continue reading “Deluge”

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Barnacles & Dames

This arrived just too late. But the exhibition continues until 26th October so there’s time to see it. Mary Kuper celebrates 100 years of books in the Saison Poetry Library collection with an exhibition of images, poems and etymologies suggesting a play between the words poets use and the meanings buried in their forgotten roots and histories. The title is courtesy of Joseph Brodsky. There is also a beautiful handmade book printed by Mary herself. More here.

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Jelly Green At Kensington Place

Jelly Green‘s cows are now installed at Kensington Place. The famous mural has been put into storage to make way for a new exhibition space to be known as The Art Wall. As Dominic observed, it’s less of a mural, more a mooral. Which is one way of looking at it. They are very direct, very ‘in your face’ as one of our customers described Jelly’s paintings. They are a face to face encounter, one to one, nothing else is important, no need for superfluous background. There’s a spark kindled by those magical, energetic brushstrokes, a spark of recognition. Continue reading “Jelly Green At Kensington Place”

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Penwith Peninsula

Whilst writing the previous post about Cornwall I remembered this set of Richard Long photos, the first thing I ever framed for myself. See the beautifully joined corners, marvel at those hand-cut windows, but note that I neglected to put any fixings on the back to hang it, so for 25 years or more it’s just been standing around. The photographs and text were printed by Coracle Press as a concertina booklet, and although I often visited their tongue & groove lined gallery in Camberwell, I think I bought it at Arnolfini in Bristol. It was titled A Day’s Walk Past The Standing Stones Of Penwith Peninsula. Kai took one look at it and immediately decided that was to be my challenge, to walk those nine stones in one day! I’m not so sure. Continue reading “Penwith Peninsula”

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Running & Painting

Running and painting surprisingly have much in common, the main similarity being that they are both totally engrossing activities. Both are an integral part of my life where withdrawal symptoms occur if stopped for any length of time. They both allow me to lose myself in the struggle and sheer pleasure of the activity and forget any other pressing problems. Continue reading “Running & Painting”

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La Poissonnerie Bleue

Marcel Gatteaux just brought us this souvenir of his recent trip to France. It is presently displayed centre stage in The Rowley Gallery window. I’m hoping that as well as a fishmonger he’ll bring us a butcher, a baker and a candlestick-maker too. There is something about its simplicity and its proportions and the way it fits the frame that marks this as one of his best. See it here on our website and see what a difference a frame makes.

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