Finding the Balance exhibition Sat 20 April - Sat 18 May 2013

Finding the Balance – exhibition  at Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Saturday 20 April –  Saturday 18 May

An exhibition of lino prints, monotypes, mixed media prints and iPad drawings exploring that elusive balance within your own life and environment

Finding the balance is a life’s project.   On a personal level when dealing with knocks, worries and demands how do you stay calm?  I asked Lilly (aged 4) and she told me that at nursery she does meditation, or as she calls it, ‘Ommm time’.   I like boxercise, working in my garden, stopping to smell the flowers, having an Indian Head massage...

 

Creating work for this exhibition is all part of my attempt at finding my own  balance.  I love printmaking and have used a combination of both traditional methods, that involve using a manual etching press, and digital prints and iPad drawings.

August - Drawing and creating a design for a new lino and monotype

I sat outside in the sun with some graphite water soluble pencils drawing bees and plants and creating a design for a lino print. I had no idea that bees could be such different sizes and colours.  As each bee came my way I drew it until it flew off and drew the next one...

 Having seen this trial print, I plan to cut away more at the bottom, removing the dark green area. Also, need to modify tone on beekeeper's headgear.

Combination of rainbow rolled ink on the perspex, drawing with a brush from memory and with reference to sketches I did outdoors.  Thinking about a possible composition, choice of colours etc.

 

This blog posting was delayed due to problems with the one of the photos - now happily resolved!

Boxercise

I've been looking at the effect of the cutout filter to give an idea of how this could look as a lino print.   Katherine Tyrell (makingamark.blogspot.co.uk) talked about this on her excellent blog some time ago.   It helps get you into the way of thinking when creating images suitable for lino prints.  A' scribbly' free style of drawing is difficult to translate into the areas of tone and, although this isn't now ready to be transferred to lino it does kick start the thinking process.   I'll be re-drawing it and making decisions as I do so.

Do I want this amount of shadow on the faces?   Should I work with just 2 tones or increase this? If so, shall I do a reduction print or a multi-block print? Is the pose too static?   Do I want these figures superimposed/layered over other figures, using transparent medium mixed into the relief ink so that both layers are visible?

Boxing - monotypes

I had some photos taken of me at the gym doing boxercise and used the photos as an initial reference and starting point to develop a rough sketch drawing. I used these as the basis of a monotype. Using a large roller I rolled ink on the plate (Graphic Chemical water washable maroon relief ink with extender to increase transparency) and removed some of it with paper and a brush handle. Using smaller rollers and a brush I added extra colour in selected areas. I then printed it on Fabriano paper using an etching press.
Boxing can help you find a mental balance as well as improving your physical balance.

Visit to Amanda and Richard's allotment. Monday 3 August

I'm continuing the 'Finding the Balance' research and wanted to see some allotment plots other than our own.

Last Monday I had a very interesting visit to another allotment. I enjoyed seeing Amanda and Richard's plot with its giant fennel; bright blue, flowering forest of borage; sculptural seed heads and runner beans. Some of the beans were a fabulous purple.

On another plot there were some giant onions, beautiful silver grey/purple cabbage; tall sweetcorn with large cobs and fruit bushes and trees including some narrow, tall gooseberry bushes.

How can having an allotment help create a balance in a person's life? Successful crops from an allotment can change the balance of what you buy and what you eat. It also provides exercise that you don't always realise you are getting while you are absorbed in planting,weeding or picking crops. Perhaps it's the contact with plants and the soil that is most balancing for some people. Thoughts to take away but the strongest impressions is of the shapes, colours and textures of the crops.

I plan to make some stencil shapes, draw some more on our own allotment plot and in the garden to see what develops.

Meeting a beekeeper and finding out more about bees - Saturday 4 August

Saturday 4 August I went to see to see Jim who keeps bees. They are situated next to a field of rape which is a food source for them. It was fascinating putting on the bee suit and getting a feeling of going into a different world. It was an eerie sight watching Jim disappearing down the garden in his suit, holding the smoker. There's a kind of sci fi look to the whole thing. Of course wearing protective clothing is an important precaution, though the smoke should calm the bees. Apparently, the smoke makes the bees think that there is a fire so they feed to increase their stores in case they have to abandon their hive. Consequently they are more interested in feeding than in stinging you and the activity of feeding distends the abdomen which also decreases the ability of the bee to sting.

It was interesting to see the honey in the wax on the frames and also the queen excluder. After a while I retreated, unstung, in the bee outfit and wellies with trousers tucked inside (essential as it stops the bees running up the inside of your trousers leg to who knows where!

Bees - finding out more about them

Some time ago I was drawing in the garden on my new iPad and wondering what kind of images I might create for the cover of a book of environmental poetry and a swarm of bees buzzed in. I watched and drew them for some hours until they took off again. In the event, a text-based image was chosen and the book will be launched in October 2012.

Since then! I've been finding out more about bees.