Transistor at the Battersea AAF 2024
Transistor is a Bristol based artists collective and arts project that organises group and solo shows, open call exhibitions, pop up events and exhibits at art fairs. We work with a roster of mostly mid career South West and London based artists, who we’ve met over the years, and often become friends with. More than anything else Transistor is a vehicle for travel, a way of putting our work out into the world.
Free passes for the Battersea AAF, Spring 2024
We’re excited to be back at Battersea Park this March, exhibiting new work with the Transistor Project, a loose collective of mid career artists, mostly based in London and the South West.
For this edition we’re exhibiting work by myself, my brother Frank Elliott, Angela Thwaites and Dan Miles.
If you’d like a free pass to see the show, opening from Wednesday 6th March until Sunday 10th March, please do follow the link, choose your preferred day and time, and then select ‘gallery complimentary’ to obtain a pass for you and a friend.
Lyric / cyan base / EPC edition #26
For at least a decade now I've been exploring and writing about my interest in the hybridity between the digital and the analogue, what is gained and what is lost in the transition between these two very specific ways of working, and seeing if it's possible to navigate a path that uses components of each to create new works that couldn't have been made in the pre digital era; but that still evoke some of the beauty and magic of the more traditional techniques from our shared history. Looking backward as a method for moving forward as it were.
The Cyanotype is one such process, discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1842, it's one of the first methods artists discovered for fixing a light based photographic image permanently to paper. The studios at Spike incorporate a traditional darkroom, and so it's entirely possible to experiment with a wide range of photographic techniques there.
Binomial / work in progress
I’ve been working on a new geometry, and therefore to some extent a new series of images. I’m working with the title Binomial, not sure if that’s where I’m going to stick, probably not I suspect, but we’ll see.
In this first phase it’s been an engaging look at how best to pack a set of spheres into a toroid, a mathematical puzzle that you might think would have been broadly resolved by now, but in fact I haven’t been able to find very much about the geometry and its potential online at all.
There’s an interesting payoff between the number of spheres you want to use, the way they sit together, and the patterns they create in the larger whole, in some ways rather similar to the way seeds are packed into a seedhead in nature.
Print Club News / Editioning at Spike Print / November 2023
I’m feeling quite excited about the week ahead, and so wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I’ve finally arrived at my first week editioning prints at Spike Print Studio.
I’ll be continuing to work with Martyn Grimmer, at least initially, the task in hand being to create an edition of Cyanotypes for the Print Club.
Two new colour studies for a client in Bristol
I’ve been working on two new colour studies for a client here in Bristol. It’s always interesting to revisit a drawing and spend some time exploring new possibilities.
The framed editions, from my Wave series, will hang as a pair in a spectacular living room. I’ll look forward to having some images of them framed and installed, hopefully quite soon.
Print Club News / November 2023
I just wanted to post a quick note to say that I am actively pursuing the next Print Club edition this week!
The last couple of months have been strangely busy here, in part because I’ve been working towards the Woolwich Contemporary opening, and in part because I’ve had an unusually large number of commissions moving through the studio.
Lino / bronzed at the RWA Open 2023
Great to have a chance to revisit the RWA with friends recently, enjoy the show and take a few photos of my Lino / bronzed work in the main gallery there.
Lovely to be sited near Patricia Volk's sculpture too, we first exhibited together way back in 2008 I think.
Print Club News / October 2023
I’ve been making and refining my glass edition, entitled Vessel, over the summer. It remains a work in progress. The top image in the newsletter is of a 3d printed, one to one scale PLA maquette of the work, ready to be burnt out in the kiln, ahead of being cast into glass.
I’ll be working with Dr Angela Thwaites, a noted British glassmaker, in her London studio later in the autumn, in the hope of completing the work before Christmas. There’s a lot of polishing and grinding involved to complete the 11 glass components that make up the work.
RWA 170th Annual Open 2023
Really pleased to have been selected for the RWA’s 170th Open Exhibition. My piece Lino / bronzed is hanging in the main gallery.
The RWA has been beautifully refurbished recently, so if you haven’t been for a while it’s a great show, and well worth a visit. Open from 9th Sept 2023 to 14th Jan 2024.
Rock / Singularity / EPC edition #25
Rock singularity is the latest work for my Experimental Print Club, and also a component of the work I’ve been making during my residency at the Centre for Print Research at UWE, here in Bristol.
I’ve been building a new kiln fired glass sculpture - Vessel, a reliquary for the Holocene - and as part of that work I wanted to create some form of base component to ground the modular sculpture.
So I thought it would be fitting to choose a rock from my own locality, my garden, and use it as a part of the support for Vessel. There’s a whole load of thinking there about the rock as a barren, weathered surface, and the reliquary that contains the germ of a seed being planted on it.
Rock singularity / EPC edition #25 / WIP
I’ve been busy completing the latest Experimental Print Club edition over the last few days and weeks. It’s all come together rather nicely I think, definitely in my own top 5 so far.
Vessel / a reliquary for the Holocene
I’ve been working on a few new CG visualisations of my kiln fired glass edition Vessel / a reliquary for the Holocene recently, of which this is probably the most successful sequence to date. A lot of new things to learn to make this happen, esp working with DaVinci.
I seem to have been drawing, printing and refining this sculptural model on and off for four or five months now, in between working on my other projects. It’s been an interesting challenge, and one that has consumed a lot of energy this Spring. I think it’s finally ready for editioning now.
Print Club News / May 10th 2023
Thought I’d post a teaser image of the 3d rock scans I’m working with at the moment. I found this rock in my garden, a rather lovely one, part of a path edge, and thought I could use it as a plinth for my glass work, but in fact the images from the scanning process have their own potential too.
Capsule / A folio of six photopolymer etchings with gilding and chine collé, work in progress
I thought I’d post a few images of work in progress from my latest series, Capsule. A set of six photopolymer etchings made as part of my residency at the Centre for Print Research at UWE.
I wanted to create a folio of six prints that further my ongoing study into digital drawing and haptic making. I like the idea of seeing how the introduction of digital techniques into the traditional workflow may change or augment the outcomes of a particular project or set of drawings.
Spinnaker EPC / foiled and Matrix / ONE
I’ve completed a pair of new works for my Experimental Print Club, edition numbers 23 and 24. I’ve been experimenting with foil blocking techniques for these editions, with the help and advice of Rik at Ripe Digital in Corsham.
Centre for Print Research, UWE
I've been gifted an amazing opportunity to work as an artist in residence at the Centre for Print Research at UWE this Spring.
The CFPR has an amazing array of traditional and high tech print making technologies in a large facility on the Frenchay campus in North Bristol. The term print making is used in it’s broadest possible sense here, and includes 3d printing for ceramic and glass editions, 3d CNC routing of metals and plastics, laser cutting and 2.5d printing for low relief studies on paper and plastics, alongside screen printing and intaglio processes, amongst many other possibilities.
Spike Print Studio / Intaglio etching with Martyn Grimmer
I’ve been enjoying expanding and improving my working knowledge of intaglio printmaking techniques under the brilliant tutelage of Martyn Grimmer at Spike Print Studio here in Bristol.
The studio offers open access to some fabulous printmaking presses, all set within what must be a Festival of Britain era daylight studio with curtain wall glazing looking out over the new cut.
CFPR residency, January 2023
As the Christmas and New Year break winds up, I've found it to be an invaluable time to reflect on the first few weeks of my residency at the Centre for Print Research, UWE. A really useful moment to pause, collect my thoughts and focus on what I’m hoping to make over the next few months.
Print Club News / Winter Solstice, December 2022
So we’ve reached the Winter Solstice, the beginning of the holiday period, and a beautiful moment for reflection and celebration. If like me you’re a gardener, you’ll know that today marks the point in the year when the light levels start to increase again, albeit slowly at first. As a point of interest, I found out recently that the rate of increase is sinusoidal, so maths and nature intertwined perfectly as ever.