Notes from a locked down studio
Where to start!? It seems like a long time ago that we were locked down in response to the Coronavirus, and I have to say that at the beginning of the process I rather assumed that it would be the end of the studio as I’ve known it over the past 25 years. The strong sense of an impending recession, coming hot on the heels of austerity and Brexit, seemed to me to sound a death knell for artists working with high street galleries as their primary source of income. Inevitably I retreated to my garden to think, and to labour. The simple task of tending the garden in Spring is a fantastic tonic, and of course, allows one to think and reflect at some length.
Critique and action / Plastic pastoral / Tao
These two latest prints are entitled Tao. One is earth, one is sand. Back in the eighties when my main concern would’ve simply been about how to create and sustain a creative studio practice, I was hugely influenced and impressed by the work of April Greiman. I’m not sure if her works have stood the test of time, but in many ways that is not the point, I love the idea that a work in some way defines or represents the moment that it is made in.
Print Club, edition 13 in progress
I’m working on some initial colour proofs for my first Experimental Print Club edition of 2020. If you’d like to know more about my Print Club. It’s an ongoing experiment in contemporary print, and an opportunity to collect exclusive limited edition works from the studio, posted out directly to club members, alongside invitations to events, and studio news. All powered by Patreon.
Hive #1 / EPC / duality : singularity
I’ve been working on a new series of drawings called Hive. It’s currently unclear exactly how these studies are going to ultimately manifest themselves, but I suspect it’ll be as a series of large format panels, possibly in sequence. For the moment however, I thought I’d print a single, smaller component of the series as a new piece for my Experimental Print Club. I’ve been thinking about the nature and problem of working in a rapidly climate changing world, and how best to integrate that thinking with my daily studio practice, both as a series of reflections, which is a large part of what the studio is about I think, and as physical works that can create some kind of response to the concepts we’re being asked to consider, and act on.
Experimental Print Club #11
I’ve just dispatched edition #11 for the print club. It’s titled interStella / EPC / home. The piece combines a variant from my new interStella series with photography from the garden, specifically the soil under my sweet peas. I like the idea of experimenting with ideas around combining drawing and photography, and of course the subject matter alludes to ideas including the sense of place, the idea of growth, and the earth, or soil, as root, and begins to unpack some new ideas about permaculture, and how that may sit with my practice in the future.
Edition #10 sent!
Pleased to let you know that Edition #10 of the Experimental Print Club left the studio yesterday, so I hope it'll be with you shortly. Please do let me know if it doesn't arrive in due course.
Stellify 3 / EPC / Experimental Print Club Edition #10
I’m just completing the first of what I hope will be quite a few new Print Club editions for 2019. It’s a little behind the spring equinox, but nevertheless I hope it may represent a small celebration of the lengthening days, and increasing light levels as we head into the summer. It’s an exciting time of year to my mind…
New website launched today!
After several months of editing, writing, retouching and designing, I'm delighted to have finally launched my new website, v4.0, which seems to have been too long in the making, but is finally complete, at least until the inevitable first update is required!
Stellify EPC in progress, Feb 5th 2019
Thought it was about time I sent over a sketch of my latest Print Club offering. Not entirely sure where the work is headed yet, but thought you might be interested to see an in progress image - Stellify EPC v04 SET_A 12k COMP v09 FLAT. You can tell from the working title that there have been quite a few iterations of this piece already.
Happy New Year!
I was visiting Ripe Digital recently, a superb short run commercial digital printer based locally in Corsham, where Bath School of Art have some of their studio space, and Howard Hodgkin used to teach. Rik at Ripe Digital introduced me to their new digital foiling machine. In essence, this is a short run, or one off, opportunity to apply metallic foils to my print work. A process that previously demanded bespoke metal dies and long print runs to be even vaguely affordable. It's an idea /process that I hope will continue on from where the recent Klint / cut piece left off.
So I'm experimenting with the idea of making a pair of foil based works for the club, in which several, perhaps four, coloured foils will be used to create two new works, probably with some inked areas too. Maybe ish 12 inches square each. Not sure yet, but will keep you posted as the work progresses.
Klint / CUT, Experimental Print Club Edition #9
Spent a good day yesterday working on the 9th edition for my Experimental Print Club. I’ve been making 3 or 4 smaller ephemeral works on paper each year for the club, as a kind of loosening up idea, with the intention of trying out new ideas that may feedback into my main practice, whilst simultaneously creating some hopefully quite collectable smaller works that go out to club members in the post. It’s a nice concept that coerces me to make some new smaller works each year.
EPC edition 9, Klint / cut
I’m just on the brink of making Edition 9 for the print club. The autumn edition for 2018. Having told you that I'm planning to make a piece on silk, and a ‘mantle piece’ in my last post (I’m still intent on making both of these) I’ve been somewhat waylaid by an interesting colour proof print experiment, which I think will make a good new edition to colour up the autumn. Time will tell. In essence it’s a kind of collage from some proofs of my Klint prints, mixed with some foil fragments, collaged onto a sheet of Somerset paper, by way of a backing sheet, with debossing. That's the plan anyway, I'll send some progress images shortly…
Print Club Edition 8
Edition 8 is going to be a celebration of Spring, and in particular that particularly beautiful combination of greens, pinks and deeper carmines that marks out the first flush of really powerful colour that comes out here in May. I've attached an image here of my new tulip border, that I planted deep in the midst of last winter, with freezing hands, sure in the knowledge that I would get a sensational blast of colour as the gardening year really gets going this spring. I have to say that I didn't plan for the bright orange ones, but in fact they have been a serendipitous addition that has no doubt been bolder and better than my original choices.
Editions 6 and 7 sent today!
Hello, hope this finds you well and getting ready for the holidays. I've just completed making, packing, and sending my Experimental Print Club editions #6 and #7 with MyHermes. I hope they'll arrive with you sometime over the holidays, and that the work will add a little colour to the season.
Edition #6 is a good sized version of my recent Dazzle drawing, in yellows and blues, and cropped to 12 bars, which I think has a certain sparkle about it. Edition #7 is an exploratory understudy that I made whilst working on Lyric SV, for my recent Catto Gallery show. I've refashioned it here with some quite earthy winter tones, and entitled it Lyric / undertow, as it is very much an underdrawing for the final works.
Christmas / Winter Solstice 2017
Seems to have been a busy few weeks since I last posted. After a phenomenally busy run up to my recent solo show at Catto Gallery, which opened on October 19th with over 30 large pieces on show, and is still on in a reduced form in their lower ground floor space Catto Below, quickly followed by an amazing opportunity to exhibit 7 new pigment prints with TAG Fine Arts at the IFPDA's Ink Miami.
Dazzle / 12 bar
I spent the weekend making a new 10 colour pigment print for the opening night of my new show 'Current' at Catto Gallery. And now that it's packed in cellophane and looking rather fab, I realised that I could tuck a few prints to one side for my Print Club members. So I'll look forward to posting one out to you in a week or two's time. I hope it'll brighten up your home as autumn settles in…
Gallery opening, Swindon, Friday June 2nd
With just 2 weeks to go, I thought I'd send over a final post for today, to invite you to the opening of a small solo show at Swindon's latest gallery - Oink. Curated by Mark Pepperall, it's a delight to be included on the roster, and for this 6 week show, I'll be exhibiting about 15 pieces, including an 8ft edition of Eight Ball mounted to Perspex, which I hope will be quite something.
Experimental Print Club Edition 5 proofed
For Edition 5, being posted back to back with Edition 4, I've made a new print of one of the best 'Systematic Variations' that I've been working on over the past couple of months. For this Print Club edition, the work has been printed 'cut to colour' on Kodak metallic stock, and then 'tipped in' to a debossed sheet of handmade Somerset 100% cotton paper. I like the locality of the stock, and I think there's a certain interest in the idea of 'tipping in'. A little like the way colour plates used to be added to books before mass market colour printing really arrived. There's a lively contrast between the crisp clarity of the cut edge and the altogether more haptic debossed edge too…
Print Club Edition 4 proofed
I've been working on a pair of new Print Club editions over the past few weeks and months, and as they near completion I'm pleased to be able to send you a little news to let you know how they're shaping up. To celebrate the arrival of the new 10 colour digital printer, and indeed the arrival of summer too, I'm going to send out a double Print Club mailing, editions 4 and 5, at the same time. I hope you like them! In truth I feel a little behind the curve here, so I hope this double edition will go some way towards catching up…
10 colour digital printer arrives... or the Kraken awakes
I thought I'd post a little news, to let you know what's going on here in the studio. Things seem to be changing quite rapidly, in some quite interesting ways. The biggest change is certainly the arrival of a new ten colour digital printer. It's a really huge digital printing machine, that not only offers the traditional 4 colour set - cyan, magenta, yellow and black - but augments that with orange, green, violet and extra greys, all of which can be combined to offer 99% of the Pantone spot colour ink set. The paper size can be up to 44 inches wide, by a staggering 10 metres long. Amazing!