The sepals of a rock rose
The sepals of a geum
The daisy-like flowers of Mexican fleabane
Snow-in-summer flowers
A week of carving simple rubber stamps based on plant shapes to create repeat patterns.
Week 5 – rubber stamps
Small verbena flowers
Week 4 - water-soluble
Overlaid drawings of cornflower seedlings with water-soluble brush pens.
Sweet William with water-soluble brush pens.
A bold and a quiet drawing of Salvia with dip pen and brush pen.
Bay leaves with water-soluble pens and pencils.
Hydrangea leaves and flowerhead buds with a dip pen and watersoluble pens.
Five days of experimenting with water-soluble media – Koi Colouring Brush Pens and Derwent Inktense coloured pencils. Feel like I need to use these more to explore their potentail…
Week 3 – collages
Using an ink drawing as inspiration for a collage of coloured book pages
A rhododendron flower – look like it could work well as a rubber stamp
A ripped sugar paper collage, and a coloured pencil drawing of the collage
A collage of young sedum leaves (using random papers from my box of paper scraps)…. and a wax crayon rubbing of the collage
Phlox flower – two collages using leftover gouache strips from last October’s daily drawings
A week of daily collages – one of my favourite ways of working as I never know what I’m going to end up with when I sit down with a blank page. Always a nice surprise!
Week 2 - ink drawings
Sage flower (chinese brush on the left, and bamboo pen on the right)
Euphorbia – ink with chalk pastel
Broom - dip pen
Red Valerian – ink blob transfer technique
Penstemon leaves - negative space painted with white gouache, then covered in black ink and washed off… the ink is left in the unpainted spaces.
My second week of daily drawings in May – this week I’ve tried different techniques and drawing implements with black ink…
Draw More May
Monoprint, rubber stamps and collage
Monoprint, water-soluble crayon and collage
Monoprint, foam stamps and posca pen
Monoprint and watercolour
Monoprint, gouache and rubber stamp
Trying to get back into a daily practice of drawing this month (possibly limited to weekdays). This first week I’ve been playing with back-drawn monoprints, and - as I’m always more fond of the left behind bits - adding an additional page using leftovers each day…
Ghosts in the Machine
Rather belatedly, but better late than never... I’m thrilled to be part of the United Artists’ World Book Night publication ‘Ghosts in the Machine’ launched last weekend at BABE 2022. An ethereal - and bumper - collection of monochrome images creating a bibliography of all participants’ favourite ghost stories. I chose Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’. There’s a wonderful exhibition of all the prints at Bower Ashton Library until 29 June and you can view a short film of the project at https://youtu.be/5cHj5NQvh2c
Many thanks to Linda Parr (@lsp_books) and Sarah Bodman for organising this excellent annual collaborative project - it’s always a joy to take part...
Pages from a garden residency
Books made as part of my 2021 Garden Residency
Had fun giving a short talk at BABE 2022 last weekend on the books I made as part of my Garden Residency last year (which was ironically meant to be a break from making books!) Interesting to see them all together as a group, and it’s given me a few ideas for new future editions.
BABE at Bower
My box of books ready to go…
UWE Artists’ Book Club (ABC) table at BABE
An amazing stash of goodies from BABE 2022 - so much inspiration!
I had a brilliant time at the Bristol Artists’ Book Event (BABE) at UWE Bower Ashton campus last weekend. I really enjoyed my time on the ABC table… lovely to catch up with so many friends in real life. And such a treat to spend a whole day talking about books. I’d missed it more than I realised. It felt like waking up after a long hibernation. I sold a lot of books and bought a lot of books too - it’s a circular economy!
Plant Ink
Inspired by my trusty Pantone swatch book - in almost daily use for the past 20 years - Plant Ink is a limited edition catalogue of natural ink samples made as part of my Garden Residency last year. It could have had an alternative title of Fifty Shades of Brown, but it’s interesting to see all the colours together in one place to appreciate the subtle differences in those shades. The book will be available for the first time at BABE (the Bristol Artist’s Book Event) this coming weekend, and then in my online shop from next week…
UPDATE: Over the moon that the whole edition of 15 copies of Plant Ink sold out over the past week, so I’m afraid it won’t be listed in my online shop. Many thanks to anyone who bought a copy!
Sketchbook Revival 2022
Colour mixing with Courtney Cerruti
Taking Zoom portrait sketches up a notch with Carla Sondheim
A calligraphic folded book and pocket with Rachel Hazell
Pattern making with Faith Evans-Sills
Even the sketchbook was made in a workshop with Sarah Matthews
Apologies for the silence on here recently - I’ve been very busy but just not blogging about it as I needed a bit of a screen break. I’ve had a lot of fun taking part in the Sketchbook Revival 2022, hosted by Karen Abend. Lots of brilliant online workshops (all for free - amazing!) with a lot of inspiration for different creative approaches for filling a sketchbook.
Waste not want not
I had a stack of painty paper squares left over from December’s daily drawing monoprints. I pimped them up with ink stamp pads, Indian ink and white gouache. Here they are arranged into new grids.
A year of daily drawings
Working out how to turn my daily drawings from last year into a book. This is the first time I’ve seen the sheets all together as I stuck each one into my journal as they were completed at the end of each month. I like how there’s a shift from black and white to limited colour then brighter colour as the months warm up. Encouraging to see while we’re still in a very monochrome part of the year...
The beginning of a new book
Back in my happy place... planning a small edition of natural ink sample books (inspired by my trusty Pantone swatch book - a graphic designer’s best friend). Surprised how a couple of the inks have become much more intense (hazel catkin and hypericum) and pleasantly surprised that only one jar has gone mouldy (oak galls)...
Chinese thread books
Excellent online workshop by Gen Harrison last week for the ABC group at UWE – learning how to make a version of a Chinese thread book (Zhen Xian Bao). Layers of compartments in one small book structure. Boxes within a book. Mine was a bit clunky, despite the expert tuition, but it was so great to be making again. Many thanks Gen!
Following on from the online workshop, I made another Chinese thread book (Zhen Xian Bao) so I don’t forget how to do it. A bit less wonky than my first attempt, and fun to decorate the paper with rubber stamps...
Exciting news...
A rather belated post to mark the exciting news that following one of my Lockdown books being acquired by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, it is currently on display in their New Arrivals exhibition (running until April). Very happy to be sharing a case with the very talented Susie Wilson. Many thanks to Archivist Kirstie Meehan for including my book in this exhibition.
It feels appropriate to be exhibited in Scotland as the original book was created as part of an ABC print exchange and was posted north of the border to the lovely Gen Harrison. The first digitally printed version was bought by someone in Scotland, and the book then featured last December in an exhibition in Edinburgh’s Upright Gallery.
Many thanks to everyone who has bought a copy of this book – it’s raised over £200 for Bristol Northwest Foodbank.
Leftover stencils
Playing around with some leftover tracing paper stencils that have been coloured with ink stamp pads. I think I’m going to use this as a starting point for an embroidery. I like how it looks when inversed in Photoshop too...
A year-long test
The opposite of instant gratification... here are the results of the lightfastness test I set up last January for yarn I dyed in autumn 2020. The top lollipop stick of each pair has been sat on my sunny studio window sill for a year. The bottom sticks are the same yarn that’s been stored in a dark box during that time. The first photo shows the more fugitive colours - sloes and red cabbage are particularly unstable. The second photo shows dyes from trees and herbs - I’m surprised how little those colours have faded in the sunlight...
Reviewing the residency
I’ve been finishing off recording my 2021 garden residency (and enjoying taking my foot off the pedal a little). Looking forward to developing some of the pieces in these sketchbooks over the next few months...
Week fifty two
And so ends the Garden Residency 2021!
One final collage of offcuts for the year
My small article in the latest issue of Printmaking Today
Penultimate dye experiment of the year – Yarrow (achillea)
December’s daily drawings - back-drawn monoprints with natural ink
And so ends my 2021 Garden Residency... it’s been a diversion, an excuse to experiment, some much needed structure, and license to play. A creative sabbatical. Accompanied throughout by my trusty studio assistant, Otto (a Vizsla of senior years).
One final collage of monoprinting offcuts before the year came to a close. If in doubt, cut out circles and arrange them in a grid. Always a useful creative un-blocker.
My last two dye experiments of the year are out of the dyepot... that makes 55 in total. Shown here is Yarrow (achillea) and I have Teasel drying at the moment. To be honest the colour palettes are very similar. A rather unexceptional end to a year of colour creation, but I’m looking forward to using some of the dyed fabric, yarn and thread from my dye experiments in new work next year.
In a piece of perfect timing, I received some exciting post on the penultimate day of this year-long project. I’m thrilled to bits to have a small piece on my garden residency in the latest Printmaking Today magazine. Many thanks to editor Leonie Bradley for including me in this issue.
My final month of daily drawings... 31 days of (rather splodgy) back-drawn monoprints coloured with natural ink (mostly marigold, black dahlia and oak twigs). As with all of the other eleven sheets, it’s interesting to see the overall effect as they accumulate through the month, rather than focusing on one drawing in particular.
I’m pleased to have completed my year-long challenge of a drawing a day, and I think I may have unintentionally made it into a habit (although I may reduce it to just weekdays as this is easier to build into my work schedule). Here’s to more drawing in 2022!
Amongst many other things, this Garden Residency has been a useful exercise in maintaining a weekly blog entry – based on my many Instagram posts throughout the year. I’ve really appreciated all the words of support, encouragement and feedback – it’s been a good way of feeling more connected during an otherwise isolated year.
I now need to finish recording my work in my journal, and take some time to consolidate and reflect, before working out my next steps. In the meantime, wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year... x