nineveh_uk

Last Saturday I was supposed to have an art course on 'Painting Watercolour Landscapes'. This had already been moved twice, for obvious reasons, and was eventually cancelled. But after spending last weekend doing some writing, I decided that this weekend's creative time ought to be for art, which has the additional advantage when you've just had the coronavirus vaccine that much of it can be done sitting down and it isn't in front of a computer. So on Saturday I spent some time on exercises from a watercolour painting book I bought with the money refunded from the course*, and since this afternoon was forecast to pour with rain, today I printed the second and final layer of a volcano-inspired linocut.

I'd fancied doing something with lava for a while, and then a bit of Iceland decided to erupt and provided many inspiring photographs. I'm very pleased with how it worked out. I did a colour blend on the first layer, giving me different colours of the lava, and tried some Japanese paper that I'd forked out for, which proved well worth-it. Less friendly was the lino itself, a very old piece my mother had had hanging around, and which was rather dry and crumbly. Worked out fine in the end, especially as it was not a precise design, but a bit of a pain and a reminder to buy lino in small quantities (or use other stuff. Am currently also half-way through carving a piece in Japanese vinyl and interested to see how it prints).

See amateur red hot lava action below the cut... ( Read more... )

My principle record of spring 2020 as the coronavirus season will lie in the fact that a diary volume that normally takes 6 months to fill was complete in 4 1/2. Sorry, archive readers of the future, it is largely not scintillating political commentary but a lot of whinging and "I don't feel well". But being glued into the next volume for future reference will be my creative response, not in haiku form as I considered one morning (i must have been feverish), but lino print. I thought it would be a fun subject for continuing to learn how to use my new inks, and also done on A6 paper would not be too demanding, and so it turned out. So I thought I'd share the process of printing the second layer yesterda (the red spiky bits) in my Blue Peter inspired registration jig. I am rather chuffed with it, especially the fact that the second layer aligned well, which was definitely the tricky part, and the prints came out nicely. Unfortuntely, much as I'd like to blame this hard work for my not really getting much else done yesterday, I can't. It only took two hours.

Not sure what to do next. I've got a number of ideas, but I think I'll wait to work them up until I have some holiday. At the moment I think I am in the mood for sticking to simple and fun rather than particularly ambitious.

( SARS-CoV-2 )

This year I've been enjoying a return to art as something I am able to pursue when I'm not feeling great. It's something that can be picked up, put down, done according to the strength available at the time, and crucially does not require looking at a screen. So over the past few weeks in between lying on the sofa, sitting in the garden, and keeping abreast of the washing up, I dedicated some time to carving my next linocut print, a second skier, and over the weekend I printed it. I am very pleased with the way it turned out, with a good sense of movement. It's a design I might well return to for a multi-coloured print in future, although first, it being mid-April, I think I shall do something less snowy. As I put things away yesterday I reflected on how very much I had enjoyed it, it's definitely a medium that works for me.

( Print below cut. )