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2012 - New and ongoing work and news
November 29th - "Dail,
mwsogl a rhaeadr fach gudd"
(Leaves, moss and
a small hidden waterfall). A Sunday afternoon walk near Capel Curig
in autumn sunshine unearthed this scene and I was hooked and happily
back in my world of waterfalls. Moving away from my 'usual' grey
palette of colours, I wanted to convey the colours and light filtering
through the trees. Having said that, the edition of 35 is an edition
varie*, so a proportion of the linocuts are in a grey palette.
This new linocut will be part of the Christmas exhibition at oriel
Tegfryn, Menai Bridge from December 7th through to the 31st, 2012.
November
21st - NEW in Gallery 1 - Three castles and a waterfall
Whilst patiently waiting
for the ink to dry on my current work, I've added 4
new linocuts to Gallery
1- Welsh landscapes.
October 27th - Handprinted
Botanical gift tags added to website -
please click here
October 25th - "Conwy
Castle - flurry of snow" Christmas card
- please click here)
September 6th - Conwy
Castle linocut
The print below, which
is currently part of the Annual Summer Exhibition at
The Royal Cambrian Academy, has proved more popular
than I had ever imagined.
I know people are drawn to images of the castle but
more often than not, it's depicted in oil
or watercolour and I wasn't sure how a linocut would
go down. However, with just over a week of the exhibition
left, 6 prints have sold, so I was on a mission to deliver
some 'back-ups' this morning. It's at times like this,
a little voice in my head says "perhaps an edition
of 15 wasn't quite enough ..." but it's a wonderful
feeling to see a little row of red dots marching across
the label in the gallery.
July 19 - New
cards ... on the cards!
Every Autumn, I aim
to produce new cards to add to
my range. As several of last years designs have sold
out, the time has come to decide which linocuts to reproduce
this year. I've had requests from some outlets for some
of my more 'colourful' work to be made into cards and
I'm also considering one or perhaps two of the botanical
studies ths time around, and maybe
one of the more stylized landscapes.
May 17 - New
flower series' linocuts in Gallery 4
 
 
I've been adding 6 new flower
linocuts to Gallery 4 today, detail
from 4 are shown above. To see
all six in greater detail, please
click here to go to Gallery
4 index page.
*Edition varie - You sometimes
see the letters “E.V.” after the edition
number on a print or mentioned in accompanying information.
This means that not every print is exactly the same.
The artist has created variety in the edition
on purpose. The most common variation
is found in the colors.
An artist will
normally print from the same block, but use different
colors. In my linocut, there are two
variations, number 1- 20 of the edition use the brown
and 21 - 35, grey.
May 14th - Something
different
Over the last few weeks,
between print work, I've been working on an image of
a hare for a friend. Her brief was a simple line drawing
and she sent me a link to the Uffington White Horse
as a starting point. This is the result.
April 25th - Whole edition
has flown the nest
I had news today that the remaining
two prints from the Caernarfon Castle
edtion have sold. It's a slightly odd feeling to think
that have all 'gone' but nice nevertheless to think
that they are now spread far and wide, most in the UK
but one or two further afield.
March 9th - Lasting flowers
The hellebores
are flourishing again this year in the garden and as
there is little else in flower at this time of year,
I thought I'd include them in my ongoing
flower series. I've just added this
single colour, very small edition in Gallery 4 and
explained why this print is a little bit different
to the norm.
February 16th - A print
for St David's Day
This year I've produced a
new
narcissi
linocut
to celebrate my patron saint's day,
St. David, or Dewi Sant. The print is being 'officially'
launched at the Royal Cambrian Academy Gallery on March
1st ... although, I'll be honest, I finished the print
before my deadline, so it's already there and on sale.
February 15th - "What
is a print"?
I hope the painter printmaker
Anita Klein won't object to me
quoting directly from her website. The definition
of a print is something which I feel very strongly about
and when I read the following, it really struck a chord;
"A print
is an image which has been transferred from one surface
to another. Many pictures that are sold as “prints”
or even “limited edition signed prints”
are actually photographic reproductions, actually just
good quality posters. These are made by photographing
an original work of art, usually a painting or drawing
and reproducing the image photographically, often these
days with a digital technology called giclee (say jee-clay)."
All of Anita Klein’s
prints are original prints. She does not allow her work
to be made into posters
February 7th, 2012 -
Galeri exhibition preparation
Just a quick update
this time as work and prep for the joint exhibition
in Galeri, Betws y Coed is underway. All my drying systems
are full to bursting with new work and I've got a lot
of editioning to do fairly soon.
January 6th, 2012 - Last
year's snow
This time last year we were up
to our ears in snow and this small linocut
of Dyffryn Nantmor evolved
as a result. It's a tiny edition of just
5 prints, and two have already found new homes.
January 3rd, 2012 - A
pair of prints for the New Year
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| Sometimes, it's difficult
to decide on a colour palette for an image and
this print pulled me several ways.
Click here to view
the pair of very different prints (in terms of
colour and mood) which resulted from the dual
printing of this lino.
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2011
December 15th
- Rhaeadr fach (Little waterfall)
available
in the Landscape gallery soon
December 9th - Deadlines
all met
All
the Christmas exhibitions are well underway,
and I managed to meet all my deadlines.
Galleries and shops that stock my greetings cards have
all been 'topped-up', hand-made gift tags have been
delivered to Plas Brondanw Gardens
shop, life drawing has ended for the winter and it seems
(touch wood) as though I have a few undisturbed pre-festivity
days to work on a new lino - fittingly,
of a Christmas cactus.
November 9th - New press!
My dream press came up on Ebay
last week ... I bit the bullet and put
a bid in, not thinking
it would be a winning bid. BUT, it was! I am soon to
be a proud owner of a superb, table top Ulmer and Son,
Albion Press, once I've been to Humberside to pick it
up.
October 7th
- Five new blank greetings cards now available to buy
online
October 6th
- New work added to website
At last, five new linocuts added
to the website, three in Landscapes
and two in Birds/Flowers.
There's one more ongoing which I hope will added in
a couple of weeks and a brand new waterfall
about to be started.
Diwedd y dydd, Cnicht - 3 colour linocut, Edition
10
September 26th - back
in the studio
Helfa Gelf Art Trail finished
last Sunday and I'm back in the studio
working on three new linos. I had a
busy, positive and productive 4 weekends
with over 40 visitors on most days despite some atrocious
weather. It's back to work now preparing for the next
exhibition, the Winter Show at Y Capel, Llangollen.
August 30th - Helf
Gelf/Art Trail Bus Trip!
Gwynedd Council have
organised a bus
trip taking
in some of the Open Studios on Saturday 17th September
(the 2nd weekend of the event). The gallery where I'll
be exhibiting and working is one of the stops on the
itinerary. You can find out more and book a seat on
the bus by clicking here.
August
19th - New "Cwm Perfedd" linocut for sale
in the Landscape Gallery
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The first in the
Dyffryn Ogwen to Cwm Croesor series is
added to the Landscape Gallery.
Please
click here for more
information and to purchase.
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August 4th -
Time flies
Where is the year going,
I can't believe it's August already? July was a very
productive month with three linocuts
that have been 'drying' (for rather a long time) completed
and editioned. August started extremely
positively with a new print which has received very
encouraging feedback from people who have seen it so
far. Because of its simplicity and limited palette,
it's one of those pieces that would either sing, or
be a complete disaster. Even I feel
it's worked well, and I'm probably my biggest critic.
Here's a small scale
preview of the new work which will be for sale in the
Landscape Gallery in the next week or so.
July 8th - Eira
trwm, Coed Meurig
Don't panic, it's not
snowing in north Wales! This
linocut was done a few months ago but
it's only now I've added it to the landscape gallery.
The print is currently part of the Summer Exhibition
at the Royal Cambrian Academy,
a quirky little selection for the time of year.
July
6th - Drawings not prints
Oriel Tegfryn's Summer Exhibition
opens on Saturday and I was asked
specifically for some larger pieces of
work to accompany the linocuts which they have in their
print browser. Working 'on demand' is a mixed bag, sometimes
is causes sheer panic, at other times, pressure seems
to result in productivity. Thankfully,
I was able to work quite quickly on two large pieces.
one a pencil study, pure and simple, the other a more
expressive work in pencil and gouache. The exhibition
starts on Saturday but here is a small scale peek at
the pencil drawing (both pieces are approx A2 in size).
June 10th - The
last month has been a flurry of
exhibition deadlines,
meetings, framing and admin.
For the rest of the month, I've promised myself much
needed studio time, and lots of it.
May 7th - Busy day in mid Wales
Travelled down to Machynlleth
today for the Royal Cambrian Academy's AGM at MOMA Wales/The
Tabernacl. The AGM took place in the chapel which made
for quite an unusual venue. I was voted back on the
Council of the Academy after a few years absence and
I'm looking forward to being involved in that side of
the things again. The day ended on a high when I discovered
that I'd sold 2 linocuts from the RCA's
current exhibition at MOMAWales.
April 22nd - Yr Ynys added to landscape gallery
Another hectic month flies by
with deadlines galore and galleries replenished.
Visited the recently opened Lion Street Gallery
Hay-on-Wye who are now showing my work, a lovely bright
space and a warm welcome. Well worth a visit.
And finally an Easter website update
to the landscape gallery
"Yr Ynys" (The island)
- 5 colour linocut, edition of 10
March 21st - Non-stop cutting, inking, printing
I'm painfully aware that my website
updates have been infrequent
so far this year. The good news is that this is because
my studio has been a hive of activity. I have four new
prints to upload to the landscape gallery and have started
the drawing for another today. Here is a quick preview
of the forthcoming print.
January 24th - A productive
start to the year
Even
though I've not been up to my elbows
in ink at all this month, I've been
very busy and as a result have three new linos almost
ready to ink up. I don't often work
on so many editions at once but the ideas were flowing,
so it would have been foolish to stop mid flow.
I had a positive meeting
with a new gallery last week and hopefully my work will
be gracing their walls in the next few months.
Final print
of 2010
Due to a hectic year
end with 4 group exhibitions to frame and deliver work
to, I didn't have time to put this, my final print of
2010 up on the website.
Castell
Dolbadarn, dwy fran yn troelli (Dolbadarn Castle, two
crows circling)
SOLD 5/20, 7/20
This
print is
now available to purchase in Gallery 1
December 20th - Planning for 2011
Already starting to plan and
write 'to do'
lists
for working
with new galleries next year. Major committments
so far include the Affordable Art Fair in the spring and the
first exhibition with the new gallery in Hay-on-Wye.
December 14th - Clematis Bill Mackenzie
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A
quick update to the Flowers and
Birds gallery to include my most recent work
"Clematis Bill Mac Kenzie".
Because of its complexity, this print has been
on the go for several months and required two blocks
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November 27th - Frames, frames and more frames
This month has been very busy, almost too busy. Frames
at all stages of construction
seem to have been a permanent fixture, work has been delivered
to three galleries for their Christmas exhibitions and I have
one more print to complete in the next week for a fourth gallery.
November
12th - Linocutting workshop at the RCA
A brilliant
day which proved without doubt how much fun it is to
share a passion for something with other people. 13
people got very messy (some more than others) today
and in doing so, everyone produced amazingly different
and very exciting prints. Everyone worked their socks
off from 10am till way past the 4pm scheduled finish
and I think I can confidently say that quite
a few people were a little bit surprised and pleased
at the standard of work they achieved in one day. It
was a bit of a strange day for me not experiencing the
highs and lows of working on my own print but guiding,
suggesting ways to develop their work, watching people's
faces and sensing their nervous anticipation as they
peeled the paper of their lino to see their final image
revealed more than made up for it. And was I nervous
at the start of the day? Yes actually, I was.
November
10th - Seeing double?
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SOLD 2/6
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rarely, in my experience, do two print editions
emerge from a single lino but as this print (above)
was developing, I was drawn to experiment
with different colours, overprinting and,
at one point, turning the lino on its head ... the
why's and wherefore's can be read
in full in the Landscape
Gallery
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November
8th - Two Cnicht prints complete
The prints
(developed from the drawing below) turned into quite
a marathon of 6 and 7 colours. My largest work yet,
and my trusty press did a grand job, coping
with printing evenly to within a cm of the outer edges
of the platen. Images and print information will be
added to the Landscape gallery within the next couple
of days.
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October
25th - Less is more, sometimes
Just
completed a small two colour lino of Caernarfon
Castle. As I normally work in 4, 5 or even 6 colours,
limiting myself to two felt a little strange and
required a fair amount of discipline but
it made me look very hard at what I was drawing
and I feel the result was worth
the effort.
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October
9th - Special offer for 'Wool Week'
To celebrate
all things woolly, anyone buying "Sheepish"
will get two free
greetings cards popped in with their print.
Grab one of the flock of original prints between Oct
11th and 16th and let me know (by leaving a message
with your Paypal transaction) which two cards you would
like to be included in your parcel.
October
7th - New Cnicht print underway
Every
day as I drove up to Croesor for the Open Studio
days and became more familiar with the landscape,
I knew that sooner or later a print would result.
Whilst there were many, many subjects crying out
to be drawn, it was almost impossible not to be
captivated by Cnicht, the mountain that dominates
the Croesor valley. I did 4 drawings 'on the spot'
and now, the drawing has been transferred (in
reverse) onto the lino and I'm ready to start
cutting and carving the first stage.
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September
27th - New print added to the Landscape
gallery
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The new
Rhaeadr Ogwen print (early stages shown below)
is complete and will be exhibited for
the first time on Friday evening. The exhibition
will be open to the public on Saturday, Sunday
and Monday in Brecon Cathedral. For
opening times please contact the Cathedral on
01874 623857
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September
27th, back to 'normal' - After
a final busy Art Trail weekend, it's back to the peace
and quiet of my studio and packing work ready to be
shipped down to Brecon for the Small Picture
Show which opens on Friday evening. I was quite
surprised at how much I enjoyed talking to people about
my prints and explaining my method of linocutting but
I'm definitely ready after three weekends of being sociable
to start working on some new prints.
September
19th - Atrocious weather for
our second Helfa Gelf (Art Trail) weekend didn't stop
a steady stream of visitors from making
their way up to Croesor. A framed "Sheepish"
sold to a lady who fell in love with
that sheepy smile and the afternoon was topped by live
music with Welsh singer songwriter Gai Toms in the cafe
- what a treat!
September
9th, eve of the first Helfa Gelf long weekend - Last
bits of preparation complete here and one final box
to take with me tomorrow. Work hung yesterday over at
the gallery and hoping for fine weather and lots of
visitors. For anyone who might be in the area over the
next three weekends, the location of the cafe/gallery
is here.
September
4th - Rhaeadr Ogwen calls again
The lino after 2 colours have been printed
In this new print, I
want
to create an impression of twilight, this
has meant biting the bullet and starting with tones
that are much deeper than usual.
The image starts
to emerge
August
24th - Up, up and away ...
Two prints
will be setting off on a long journey to their
new home tomorrow. The excitement
of selling my work to 'strangers' never diminishes and
Canada is another first time destination.
August
12th - It's all go this month
My 'to
do' list for August is ever growing but it's all looking
very positive in my lino world. Sales of prints and
cards are buoyant. I have at long last found time to
work on the design for my new website and have been
out taking photographs for background images today.
I've decided the time is right to publish 3 new greetings
cards (which will be for sale online mid September)
and preparation is starting for the Open Studios weekends
at the end of September.
July
19th - "Sheepish"
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This little
single colour linocut more or less popped
out of nowhere last night (drawing) and
today (cutting and printing). It
had a working title of "Sheepish"
but a friend has just commented that it
has a bit of a Mona Lisa smile ...
"Sheepish"
has joined the cats
in Gallery
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SOLD
2/20, 4/20, 5/20, 8/20, 10/20 |
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July 15th
- Rediscovering John Piper
It's
been a very long time since I really
looked properly at John Piper's work but today,
in need of a final push of inspiration
for a collage I'm working on, I spent some time
here
and I'm utterly smitten.
July 14th
- A very pleasant surprise
..
awaited me on the BBC website this morning. The
Things to Do section for North Wales
has picked up on the current exhibition at the
RCA and chosen one of my drawings to accompany
the
article.
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19th - 'Specially for frog lovers Whilst
sorting through some folders earlier today, I came
across 'Creepy Crawly Frog'. It's an
etching, not a linocut, but I thought I
would add him to the frog
gallery for those like myself who have a 'bit
of a thing' about frogs.
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14th - New work Two
brand spanking new prints "Rhwng
y creigiau gwyrdd" (Amongst the green rocks)
and "Y Graig"
(The rock) were amongst the works delivered today
to Oriel Tegfryn for their member's summer exhibition.
The show will open on July 10th and runs until the
end of August. |
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27th - Hours of flowers
Today I've been
drawing flowers, Aquilegia (Granny's Bonnets)
flowerheads to be more accurate and
I'm ready to start cutting for a new print
composed of a triptych of aquilegia heads.
One of 6 drawings
done today
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May
13th -
I've decided to document the latest print stage by stage,
so that people can see how the reduction
or 'suicide' relief print processs works and how the
colours build up as more and more lino is cut away.
Click here to follow
the print's progress (completed
May 27th)
May 12th - Paypal
activated As
of today, all prints can be purchased quickly and securely
using Paypal's payment system.
4 colour print Paws
added to Gallery 3
May
11th - two new prints started today
Drawn
back to one of my favourite spots on Afon Caseg to start
work on a 'pair' of prints. It'll be interesting to
see how (or if) these differ from the last one "Mi
ddaw yr Haf" which I worked on last Autumn.
May
4th - Hung and sold!
It never
fails to feel a little 'strange' to see my work hung,
whether it's part of a group exhibition or a solo show
and I can never resist loitering near the work in the
hope of overhearing an interesting comment or two. Response
to the Crûg drawings was positive and the late
nights were made all the more worthwhile when one of
the three was sold.
All three drawings can be seen below - All
now sold
April
27th - No. 3 drawing ongoing
A couple
of days drawing, then it's over to the final framing
leg, then hanging on Thursday evening. Cutting it a
little bit fine but not feeling at all stressed ...yet.
April
23rd - Drawing, drawing and more drawing
I'm currently
working on the second of three large drawings which
will be exhibitied at the Annual Plant Fair at Crug
Farm Plants on May 1st. It's some time
since I worked at this scale (approx A1) and in pencil,
rather than my usual ink. It'll be
interesting to see and hear people's reaction to them.
April
8th - Nant y Mynydd
print added to Welsh landscapes gallery
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| 10
days of intense cutting, drawing,
re-drawing, colour mixing and printing resulted
in one of my most detailed linocuts to date.
Towards the end
(with one colour to go), things weren't going
as planned and I wasn't in a good frame of mind
about this print ... But several late nights,
plenty of inky mess and a lot of determination,
saw it (and me) turn the corner to produce a piece
of work which will be exhibited for the first
time at Oriel Croesor's Spring exhibition. |
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May
4th - The first three Crûg Drawings
SOLD - RCA Annual Summer Exhibition
SOLD - RCA Annual Summer Exhibition
Edge
of the Woodland Garden (framed size 34" x 28")
- Sold
March
15th - New lino taking shape
I don't
often draw in such detail on the lino itself ... it's
normally more of an outline or 'design' with some tonal
notes but I feel that
for this new print (Nant y Mynydd), I need an accurate
drawing as a starting point. This will hopefully give
me freedom to cut into the lino quickly and expressively
without losing my way or needing to pause as the print
develops. I've stood by the stream and simply looked
and looked as well as doing several rough sketches before
reaching this stage.
February
24th - 'Pig print' commission
Commissions
are exciting but rather terrifying. Will the person
like what I've done or will there be a deathly silence
on first sight of the finished work?
Not having a 'Pig' gallery,
I popped this new print in with the cats in Gallery
3!
February
12th - Helfa Gelf (loosely translated as Art trail/treasure
hunt)
Submitted
my online application form to participate in this year's
Helfa Gelf open studios event, held over three weekends
at the end of September.
February
8th
Can't
wait to begin working this week on
a series of 'botanical' prints which have been bubbling
around in my head since the last Narcissi print. I'm
doubly excited because Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones of
Crug Farm Plants, have agreed to give the work its first
showing at the WHGT
Annual Plant Fair held at Crug on Saturday 1st May.
NEW work ... January 2010
Four new prints added
to Welsh Landscape gallery.
Mi ddaw yr Haf (Summer will come)
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
- Print exhibition
Summer 2010
The print exhibition in Aberystwyth
has been confirmed. It will open in the Aberystwyth
Arts Centre in the summer, then tour various venues
from Autumn 2010.
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Linocutting Masterclass
- January 22, 2010
I was asked (and said yes!) today, to run an adult's
'masterclass' in linocutting at the Royal Cambrian Academy,
Conwy.This one day event will take place towards the end of
the summer or early autumn. Places will be limited, so please
keep an eye open for details on this and the RCA's
website.
Date now confirmed as Friday November
12th.
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