Back to Drypoint Etching

Is anyone else amazed that we are halfway through January already? Scary!

I haven't done a collage for ages and I had two cute pen and ink birds that did not like the background I put them into one little bit. I decided to cut them out and give them one more suited to their quirkiness. I think they much prefer being on this boat and sailing off into the sunset together.

If you cannot read the text the top one says: from quiet homes and first beginning, out to the undiscovered ends, there's nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends. The banner on the boat reads: the wing of friendship never moults a feather.

I decided to pull the wraps off my etching press at long last and produce some drypoints. It is a very addictive process with some good and some not so good results. I have the same problems with inking that I have with linocuts. The actual etching is easy by comparison. The bird carrying heart is on copper and the others are on perspex. A lot of people don't like hand coloured drypoints but I really like the effect. I have lots of ideas for new drypoints so there are more to come.

The Sun At My Back Drypoint

Bird Carrying Heart drypoint etching

White Goose Etching

I found an interesting site on the internet dated from 2009 about printmaking at the Sidney Nolan Trust. A group of artists got together with the public and made some huge prints which they printed using a steamroller. You can see the gallery photos here. Below is a wonderful print by Pam Whitehead, one of the participating artists, in which she repeats the block - absolutely gorgeous work. This would be a real talking point given prime position in someone's sitting room.

Pam Whitehead - Birds In Motion

These lovely illustrative bird ceramics are by artist Emily Jones. I love her whimsical depictions and the colours she uses. You can see other work by Emily on her website here. Apparently many years ago she used to be the "Nimble" girl in the adverts about Nimble bread. I remember those...!

We had a wonderful geocaching walk last weekend. The weather was very cold but the skies brilliantly clear. Great weather for photography. The set of photos below shows our walk as we progressed through the day to the semi darkness when we completed it. It was extremely tiring as all hills and dales, the hills being higher than the dales were deep for some strange reason. No I cannot understand it either. The last photo shows the muddy fields post snow and rain. No we didn't go through those particular fields but we did manage to find ones equally claggy. My poor boots will never recover. Plenty of sheep around but none in distress this time I am relieved to say.

I found a wonderful book on Art Quilts during one of my London forays in the old year. It is compliled by Lark Books and is crammed full of the most amazing pictorial quilts. Every one of them is award worthy but the four below are among my uber favourites. The art of the quilt maker is akin to painting with fabric and often with as much detail. The only thing that would be better would be to see them in person to appreciate the textures and the stitching - gorgeous.

Gabrielle Paquin - Scarlet Ibis Quilt

Jan Swearington - The Sea Dream Quilt

Betty Busby - Silverlight

Nancy B Dickey - Windswept

I love Michael Kidd's painting for several reasons; they are exquisitely designed and detailed, they have a lovely, fresh and modern appearance and they are intensely colourful. He uses realism but with a big chunk of stylisation and it gives the appearance that the places are not quite of this world. They are too perfect to be on planet Earth. I really enjoy that effect. Michael is a British artist who was born in London and studied in the late 60s. He has turned his hand to many things but came back to painting in the early 80s. You can find more of his intriguing work on his website here and also more if you enter his name into a search engine.

Chateau Latour, Bordeaux

Garden Of Silly Hats

Autumn, Chateau Pichon

White Garden, Sissinghurst