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.
Print Club News / December 2022
I hope this finds you well in the run up to the Winter solstice, Christmas and the New Year. I have to say I was hoping to be a little further on with the latest Print Club editions by now, but in fact, it has been pretty busy here, with a lot going on in the past couple of months, and the foil work I'm experimenting with hasn't been totally straightforward. It's an interesting challenge though.
Spinnaker / cerulean aegis, recently installed in a stylish Victorian home here in Bristol
It was a real pleasure to be asked to make a new Spinnaker piece by a collector here in Bristol. They wanted to place the work above a wood burning stove, so after much consideration and consultation, I commissioned the piece from Genesis Imaging who produced the drawing as a CNC milled Chromaluxe edition.
Artist in residence, Centre for Print Research, UWE
I’m really excited to be working as an artist in residence at the Centre for Print Research at UWE over the coming months. It’s an incredible opportunity to realise some new works both in 2d and 3d, using some of the centre’s state of the art technology…
Ink Miami Art Fair 2022
Opening today, Ink Miami 2022. Really pleased to be exhibiting selected works on paper with Hobby Limon and TAG Fine Arts in Miami again this year…
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2022
Really enjoyed visiting the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair this November. Great to be exhibiting work there with Hobby Limon, and TAG Fine Arts. This was probably my favourite stand, in large part due to the fabulous Ian Davenport etching on the far right…
Studio News / September 2022
I've just completed a new Chime / cerulean crop edition for a collector in Canada. Courtesy of Avida Mohseni and the fabulous Avi Gallery in Ontario. I’ve spent a little while rebalancing the colours, and working on the colour profiles, so it has a little more vitality than before, quite a lot more in fact! Loving the new Fotospeed metallic lustre paper I’m experimenting with too, it seems really radiant in use.
Print Club News / August 2022
I've finally completed a new set of photos to document my Stellify 4 print club editions. They've been a little while in the works. I thought I'd post a few of the images here.
Sennen / EPC edition #22 dispatched
I just wanted to wrap up the week with a little Print Club news. I've completed the summer edition, #22, which is titled Sennen / EPC. I've also ordered some new packing tubes for the piece, which I believe will be here on Monday, so I'm very much hoping to have the work in the post to Print Club members on Monday or Tuesday, all being well.
Sennen / proofing the edition
I’ve been working on this new drawing on and off for a couple of months now, and feel it merits some kind of outing, so I’m going to proof it, think about sizes, and make it into a piece for the Print Club. I think it’ll work best on a flat matt paper, so I’m going to try it on the Hahnemühle 305gsm 100% cotton rag, at least to start with.
I started drawing this piece in response to my XGen CV series, sometime back in the Spring. Like XGen, it takes on the idea of creating an underlying grid structure and then building some kind of framework around it, that pushes the geometry in some unexpected and hopefully quite lyrical ways.
XGen / EPC edition #21 dispatched
I'm just scribbling a quick note to say that edition #21 of my Print Club will be in the post today. I hope it'll brighten up your spring, with a blast of colour. That's certainly my intention for this piece!
I'll look forward to writing a longer email about the work, and the studio asap, but for today I just wanted to let you know that I'm packing and addressing the parcels this morning, so you can look out for the print in the mail.
Work in progress / EPC edition #22
Seems like a little while since I last updated you on my studio work here, so I thought I’d stop and take a moment to get in touch. I have to say that the winter months have been quite challenging with all the awful news about the war in Ukraine. I think the combination of Covid, Brexit and the looming cost of living crisis have also created some real headwinds for the art world, or at least the part that I inhabit.
There’s an interesting issue surrounding the confidence required to keep at something each day, as studio practice demands. Essentially you need to feel that the challenge of spending time working on the drawings has some value in the big scheme of things, if only at a fairly ephemeral level…
Radial ONE / a commission for a new house in Wiltshire
I’ve been working on a new commission for a contemporary home in Wiltshire recently, organised by the ever fabulous Jess Lloyd Smith at Modern Art Buyer in Bath.
She recommended the work to her clients who commissioned this laser cut edition at 100cm diameter, to hang in their beautifully designed open plan dining space, located centrally above the table.
Stellify 4 / two new images of work in situ
I wanted to share these first two images from my recent Stellify 4 series of larger landscapes. I'm still in the process of resolving the works more fully, so I'll look forward to posting some further images from the series, and some backstory, later in the Spring…
XGen 2 / six new works on paper
I’ve spent the first few weeks of 2022 working on a new set of drawings, exploring and riffing on the energy contained within a simple X form.
XGen 2 / chromatic variations reference the underlying geometry used to generate the drawings, whilst simultaneously experimenting with colour and mark making, to work up the images into something a little more painterly than many of my previous editions have been.
XGen / TWO / initial colour studies
I’ve started work on a new series, the second of my XGen studies, that are exploring, and riffing on, the energy contained within a simple X form.
These latest drawings have taken on a few lessons from the Stellify 4 folded works that I made in December. In particular the idea of using colour blocks, or more specifically multiple coloured areas within a single study, as opposed to toning the whole image as a single more sculptural piece.
It’s an idea that gives a far more geometric feel to the final images, and maybe more punch?
Catto Gallery / Christmas Exhibition 2021
Catto Gallery’s latest group show is on until the end of January, after a brief break for Christmas, featuring mostly smaller works by most, if not all, of the artists on the gallery roster.
I’m lucky enough to have four pieces in the show, alongside some really beautiful paintings by Derek Balmer, PPRWA, who has become a friend since our first two person outing at Catto some ten years ago now. Recommended.
Stellify 4 / EPC Edition #19 / dispatched
Pleased to say that I've dispatched the latest Print Club edition, #19, today. I've yet to complete and pack the 2nd piece, edition #20, as it needs a little more tweaking, but I thought I'd get this first one of the two out today so that it'll arrive before Christmas.