Recent History - An exhibition by current and past WSA students in The Brooks Shopping Centre, Winchester

Back in the summer I visited Winchester and saw a small show in The Brooks Shopping Centre. It was a show of work by students of Winchester School of Art and as always I took a few pictures. I don't know who all the work is by but will add names if I find any of the artists.

Meredith's first Artwork.

Things have been quiet here lately, but I'm starting to have time to do things again. Keeping Meredith amused is a full time job, so she's had to spend time with me in my studio. She's not quite old enough to sit at a desk and create things by herself yet, but she will play a while on the floor whilst I cut into some lino. 

We also made some artwork together week before last. It's pretty big. Merry is learning to walk, currently whilst holding my hand so we practised walking through paint and over paper. She wasn't sure about the paint on her feet and kept lifting them up. She was much more sold on putting her hands in it.

Here is the finished piece. I need a really big frame for it now. 

We used Acrylic and sprinkled gold dust on it whilst it was still wet. 

Her feet needed some washing afterwards.

I'll post more of our joint ventures and her own creations as she gets older.

I'm glad you're alive! at OpenHand OpenSpace Reading

A couple of weeks ago I went to see 'I'm glad you're alive!' an exhibition by two artists who have studied at Winchester School of Art. Peter Driver is due to complete his degree this year and Lydia Heath finished her BA in 2013.

I haven't visited a lot of shows lately as I had a baby 8 weeks ago, so this was the first she'd seen and the first I'd seen since she was born and it was a brilliant first show to see, despite the fact that I had a big distraction at the time.

Me and Merry look at Lydia Heath's work.

Above, woodcuts by Peter Driver.

The above woodcut 'Loving the Alien' was a particular favourite of mine, I love the colours. I actually bought this print for my wall at home, supporting fellow artists and all that!

A washing line of woodcuts by Peter.

A photographic piece by Lydia Heath.

Rich drinks some mulled cider and admires some of Peter's woodcuts.

Lydia's installation in juxtaposition with Peter's woodcut and photograph.

Collage and 'I'm glad you're alive' print by Peter.

Visitors to the exhibition could pick up a free 'I'm glad you're alive!' print.

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The woodcut plates themselves were one of my favourite bits of the exhibition. Much the same as when I saw Chuck Close's exhibition last year, there is something very beautiful about woodcut plates.

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More of Lydia's work.

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Merry seemed to enjoy herself too some of the time and so I'm sure we'll be popping to some more exhibitions soon.

It's been a busy year

It sometimes feels like I've not achieved a lot this year, when I look at what I've done artistically. However I did complete a three month print studio internship at the beginning of the year and set up a studio at home. I made a print edition for an exhibition during the summer and I also made 50 wedding invitations, 50 orders of service and 50 thank you cards for my wedding. I've also visited quite a few gallery shows.

Lately things have finally calmed down. Getting married and falling pregnant this year have both taken a lot of my time. Now that everything wedding is over, I've been in my studio playing around with oil paints and mushrooms (more on that soon).

Here are some pictures from the year, as I notice I've posted very little about what I've done, mostly I've just posted show reviews.

My studio is all set up and it's lovely to sit at a desk and mess about

 Hops left over from wedding decor. No idea what to do with them, yet.

 Thank you cards for the wedding. Simple linocut, handprinted at home with waterbased lino ink.

More lino Thank You cards.

I started printing with blue and moved on to orange.

Wedding invites, Linoprinted hops

Recently I've been collecting pinecones and spraying them gold for Christmas decs. 

A linocut I made for a fellow Moomin fan as a Birthday present back in January.

Anyway, I am due to have a baby any day now, so will I actually get more artwork done next year? Who knows. I will try though. Maybe the first few weeks will not be very productive, but hopefully I will find a balance. 

For the next few hours/days before the baby arrives, I will be making prints and painting, so I hope to post some more things soon. I've had a good 2013, seen some great work, bought a couple of lovely prints, made some fun work and learnt a lot through reading and my internship. I've especially learnt a lot about Linocutting and hand printing. I still have a long way to go though. I hope everyone had a good 2013 and I wish you all the best for 2014!

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Ochre Print Studio Summer Show 2013

Earlier in the year I completed an internship at Ochre Print Studio. I am now a member of the studio and recently I took part in a 20:20 boxed edition project. The project is a kind of print exchange, you made an edition and then you receive back one of your edition plus 19 other randomly selected prints. The final prints were displayed at the Ochre Print Studio Summer Show.

 The exhibition was also part of the Surrey Artist's Open Studios, which continues through to Sunday 23rd June. You can find more information about SAOS here: www.surreyopenstudios.org.uk/index.php and more info about Ochre Print Studio here: http://www.ochreprintstudio.co.uk/

Here are some pictures of the complete edition, there were so many great prints. I now have my own box of 20 of them.

 My bunny is towards the bottom left

Bunny!

 I also really loved the following pieces.

 Annee Robson

 Dale Barker RE

 David Dragon

  Laurie King

 Anne Desmet RA

Next year I hope to submit more prints for the exhibition.