I got up at 5.02am in Coombe Dingle in Bristol. My contribution to the MiniBABE collaborative tribute to On Kawara. People all over the world document the time and place they got up on thursday 7 May. If it wasn’t for Lockdown, this would have been my first morning waking up in Sweden, but it’s still a lovely start to the morning sat on my balcony (before most sensible people wake up). Suffice it to say, I am a lark rather than an owl! More info on the project at arnolfini.org.uk or look on Instagram and Twitter for #igotuparnolfini
A tiny new book
The Artists’ Book Club (ABC) at UWE set a Mail Art challenge to keep members connected during Lockdown. I made a small folded single-sheet book with rubber stamps to send to letterpress artist extraordinaire Gen Harrison up in Scotland. Sneak peeks here, and a shop update with a printed edition of the final book will follow early next week…
Lockdown drawing
One of my newest houseplants drawn in wax crayon
Illustrating the lyrics to a favourite song
A character from a favourite book (‘Accordian Crimes’ by Annie Proulx)
Something I found (an old thermometer dug up in my garden in Oxford)
My pet - the wonderful sleepy senior Vizsla, Otto
At the beginning of Lockdown last month I decided to make an effort to draw something every day. I signed up to the Brooklyn Art Library’s 28-day Challenge and followed their prompts. The challenge veered away from drawing after the first week, but I really enjoyed drawing something different and it was a good injection of enthusiasm to get me working in my sketchbook again…
World Book Night 2020
Tonight is World Book Night... this year’s theme is ‘Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?’ Strangely prescient since it was set last autumn way before anyone had even heard of the dreaded lockdown. 113 postcards from 98 artists across the world have been sent in on this theme and will be exhibited online from 5pm this evening. My entry was a painting of my bookshelves in silhouette, forming an urban landscape of a city break. I also contributed five cards with literary quotes matched to vintage postcards to be sent out to other contributors in a postcard exchange. Big thanks to Sarah Bodman and Linda Parr for organising this, it’s a real pleasure to take part each year.
A cheery new project
Cryptic treehunter
Glaucous macaw
Javan lapwing
The first couple of illustrations (on the left) were a bit patchy, so I re-did them in a simpler style and feel much happier with how they turned out. On the top is a Po’o-uli and on the right is a New Calendonian Lorikeet.
Building up shapes gradually in layers with hand carved stamps
This one has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while now. I read a story in the Guardian over a year ago about a report published by Birdlife International that identified species that were at risk. As part of this report was the news that eight birds have already been declared extinct this century. I’ve done some research into these eight birds and decided I would like to illustrate them as a record of what has been lost. My initial idea was to use collage, but I was distracted back to my favourite medium of rubber stamps. My first attempts were a bit patchy, but then I started to get into my stride using a new technique of building up semi-transparent layers of colour, and wiping the stamps to set a softer, more painterly style. This is very much work in progress, but I’ve enjoyed the process of closely examining the birds to create the illustrations and to work in a slightly different way with stamps.
Picasso and Paper
Really inspired by a recent visit to see the Picasso and Paper exhibition at the Royal Academy. An amazing range of work on display... I particularly enjoyed seeing the paper cuts and collages up close. Really worth a visit if you’re in London... on ‘til 13 April…
How did it get to be March already?!
one simple stamp, two very different patterns
Oh dear, oh dear. This blog has been very neglected so far in 2020… it’s been a very busy start to the year and this has been one of the casualties of a lack of time. I’ll add some posts over the next week with an update of various things I’ve been working on. As a starter here’s some pages from a lovely coptic bound sketchbook with different size pages and papers that was a birthday gift from Eva Hejdstrom last year. I’ve decided to use it to have a play and create various rubber stamp patterns (mostly from hand carved stamps I’ve accumulated from other projects over the past few years). There’s no end result in mind, just the fun of stamping, but I’ll also hopefully be left with a useful pattern resource once the book is full up.
Season's greetings!
A very busy year is finally drawing to a natural conclusion - looking forward to two weeks off with no deadlines to meet. This year’s Christmas card was based on a rubbing of a paper snowflake - all the fun of printmaking without the stress of waiting for the ink to dry! Wishing you a very happy Christmas and all the very best for 2020.
Way out in production-lines-ville
It’s been a bit quiet on the blog front recently… but very busy in my studio, getting ready for the Made in Bristol Christmas Fair this coming weekend at the Colston Hall. Almost a hundred books made in the past month, so I’m all stocked up and ready to go. Come and say helloif you’re around in Bristol this weekend….
Pattern play
Another workshop – this time for the local cub pack… stamping patterned papers to make into book covers for single sheet books. A lot of fun, but most definitely the noisiest workshop I’ve ever run. Who knew bookbinding could be so loud?
Woven, slotted and folded books workshop
Really fun afternoon last Friday teaching folded book structures in Shropshire. As well as using some beautiful Cambridge Imprint patterned papers, we made inky patterns on sugar paper before making them into a triangle book (from Hedi Kyle’s ‘Art of the Fold’), a slot tab book and a woven spine book (thanks to Eva Hejdström for teaching those to me earlier this year). Really good to see everyone complete three books - they looked great! Big thanks to Kate Johnson for organising the workshop...
And number three...
Another instalment in the ABC Exquisite Sketchbook project. Started beautifully by Charlotte Biszewski with marbled covers and architectural prints, I decided to use collage of some extra marbled paper she sent as a note and also use some architectural stamps from my Stampville set. It arrived unbound so I tried out a Coptic binding which alters the order of the pages. Really fun to work on, looking forward to the next book arriving any day now...
The second sketchbook
Second book in the ABC exquisite sketchbook collaboration…. an entirely different beast from the first one! Really fun to respond to what Elizabeth Tomos had already done. Decided to embrace the unusual folded shape and rebind it with a hardback cover. Remembered why I have lots of black bookcloth left over - it picks up every tiny speck of dust. Enjoyed working with a limited colour palette and a good excuse for some rubber stamping. And I don’t need much persuasion to use neon pink (child of the 80s). This is now on its way to Scotland for the next stage of its transformation...
A new collaboration
Stage one of the ABC Exquisite Book project... we start with a basic A6 sketchbook each then make some interventions before sending onto the next person. I stuck with a theme of circles and rebound the book with a hard cover. Tricky to know when to stop but quite nice not having a final endpoint in mind.
And finally – Z is for...
Zebralagen, a Swedish word meaning the law that vehicles must stop for people at pedestrian crossings. The final rubber stamp illustration for my Anglo-Swedish exchange of words with Eva Hejdstrom. 26 illustrations over 33 months - I feel both elated and a little bit sad to have finally reached the end of the alphabet. I like the fact that both of our final illustrations aptly contain the word ‘stop’. Although we have plans to make a limited edition book to document the collaboration, so I’m pleased to say it’s not quite over yet...
Embroidered book for my mum to mark the grand occasion of her turning 70 today. Flower design from the wonderful ‘Simply stitched with applique’ by Yumiko Higuchi - a bit nerve wracking turning an embroidery into bookcloth for binding but I’m relieved it’s worked without being too lumpy bumpy…
Sketchbook jottings
The weather on my holiday this year was mainly…
A small elephant found in a junk shop in Aberystwyth
ink drawing of succulent
When your collage inadvertently matches your skirt
Grid collage - makes me think of found pieces of ceramic
Seaweed on the Gower
Recent bits and bobs from my sketchbook…
Makers
Really thrilled that my books and cards are now stocked in the excellent Makers gallery on Colston Street in Bristol... the shop is chock-full of beautiful things, so it’s very exciting to see my books nestling amongst them. . .
Tree rubbings
Really fun afternoon at the beginning of the month making tree collage rubbings in workshops with Year 4 at Westbury-on-Trym CofE Academy. Many thanks to the teachers and pupils for making me feel so welcome, and for all their hard work.
Y is for...
yahoo (exclamation mark optional) meaning expressing great joy or excitement. Penultimate rubber stamp illustration for my Anglo-Swedish exchange of words collaboration with Eva Hejdström.