Sunday, 21 August 2011

Curwen summer school

What a fun week at the Curwen, attending their summer school. Monday was spent on a drawing day with Chloe Cheese, starting with Chloe showing some of her lovely work and talking about her inspiration.


Chloe is the daughter of Bernard Cheese and Sheila Robinson, both artists who lived in, and were part of the Gt. Bardfield groups of artists.

Chloe asked us to do 5 minute sketches of an object with certain types of printing in mind. Lots of interesting things to draw!


My pencil sketches haven't photographed well as they were light lines. Then we spent longer on one object using colour as well, I chose a fabulous shaped piece of flint.



This was sketched and painted using Brusho powder paints. I hadn't painted for ages so it was fun. Later we went outside and sketched anything we liked. There are lots of interesting sculptures in the grounds, I took lots of photos.


I loved this one.... and this... Chilford has it's own vineyard.


On the 2nd day John Mills, sculptor, spent the morning with us sharing his prints and telling us how he became an artist, which was very interesting. A modest and extremely talented person.


We spent the afternoon on drypoint, working on acetate. I printed these jugs.


My welsh gaudy jug and a modern design...

This one has chine colle on.
They both need some sort of background printed round them.....I'm doing some open access days at the Curwen next week, goody!! 



Sunday, 14 August 2011

Plan chest

At last after missing one I wanted, in July I managed to buy a lovely old plan chest on ebay. There were 43 bids in total, so a bit frantic!! My last second bid won it. I thought the delivery would take some time, but was surprised when the carriers wanted to deliver it on July 20th, 2 days before my final open studio weekend!! Not ideal as that week was already busy, but they came early in the morning, right on time. It looked pretty clean but decided it would be best to clean it well now, before I filled it!! It turned out to quite dirty, needing an all over wash twice, even the drawers inside and out. Then lots of beeswax polish and elbow grease.


Rather a large piece of furniture to have sitting in the middle of my studio, but I made space for it and it proved a useful place to display the necklaces I make.


It holds all my prints, paper, lino etc. which has meant the beds upstairs are no longer covered in prints!! I filled it quickly, now when I have a moment or two I will re organise it so I know exactly what's in each drawer!! Sadly I couldn't fit in a visit to Art in Action that week, I went last year for the first time and loved it.

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

Curwen exhibition

I am back online after weeks without my laptop, which sadly crashed completely, no hope of resurrection! So here I am on brand new laptop, getting used to it and catching up on everything. All because I have a wonderful IT guru, my son in law Mark who set up my new laptop and is always patient with his Mum in law!!
So much has happened in the last month. My printmaking course has ended and we held our end of course exhibition at the Curwen on July 12th. The day before was hectic,cleaning the floor!!! and setting up our boards.




 My boards are nearly ready.


On the Tuesday it was assessment time with Stanley Jones and Chloe Cheese, we each had half an hour with them to show and discuss our work. It was a very positive and helpful experience although slightly nerve wracking; eminent printmakers with years of experience looking at my prints!! At the end of the day we were presented with our cerificates; I passed The Advanced Printmakers Certificate with merit, that was exciting!

The evening exhibition was a big success, with lots of visitors.


including my grandson and daughter....


........of course, he really enjoyed all the prints..........an art lover in the making!!



Actually, he was more interested in crawling around, a new skill he had just discovered!!