This weekend I spent most of Saturday out running in the forests and to the lake. The purpose (besides for enjoyment) was to explore the area better and I made a pact with myself to run up every tiny trail that I found to find out where it went and to check out good places for drawing. The result was a short period of being completely lost! However, 16miles later and I managed to find my way home 🙂 I saw lots of jays, nuthatches, a woodpecker and a squirrel amongst other things. I also found a beautiful hazel coppice which I’ve done some little drawn monotypes of. I was pretty tired for most of the rest of the day but managed to do a couple sketches before  bed.

Today I went and had a proper look at the Resident Artists Exhibition in the gallery. It is an amazing space.

The prints are hung unframed and attached to the wall using magnets so they are undamaged but able to be viewed close up. This is such a great idea because often with glazed works you can’t see some of the velvety dark tones and texture that you find in many prints and with this method the viewer can also see the weight and character of the paper.

A lady looking around the exhibition asked me to explain the prints of the Japanese printmaker, Tomiyuki Sakuta.

I explained that the prints above are portraits of the artists that he met whilst on his residency here. She then asked me what goes through his head…couldn’t answer that one. She said she liked my bird prints because she understood them and liked birds. Fair enough.

This afternoon Christina and I went into town to catch the last day of an exhibition at Flaménska Galleriet showing the work of ceramicist, Ulrika Wallin, & painter/printmaker Yvonne Karlsson. http://www.flamenska.se/ Another lovely space and I met Tommy who I have had email contact with regarding my residency here.

It’s been a grey and dank day and both Christina and I felt like we were full of ideas but unable to get them out. I did manage to complete a drawing that I hope to use a as a base for a collagraph. I’ve decided to start with a couple small collagraphs to try out the materials and techniques before I start on a large scale piece. However, I was determined to have a go at making a pine forest reduction monotype as a companion piece to my birch forest so I went into the studio this evening and set to work. It was actually a lot harder than I anticipated and I forgot to eat before I went in so I ended up feeling hungry and tired but having to battle on before the ink started to dry out.

The last part of the process was to add the dark knots to the main trees and I did this by painting them in with printing ink. Unfortunately, I put a bit too much ink on the brush and the pressure on the electric press was a bit heavier than the other press so the dots got splodged. The resulting print was not a great success but nevermind, I’ve learnt plenty of things whilst doing it (one being to have my tea before I start work!).