Wednesday 24 August 2011

Success

Living in the wilds of Wales has lots of advantages. The calmer pace of life, the beautiful uncrowded landscape, the variety of landscape and all the great friends we have met since moving here. There is one disadvantage though which is how far away it seems from that there London.

It's not really, I can jump on a train in Mach and be in London for lunch but it seems like a long way away. So generally I look at Open competitions held at places like the Mall Galleries and think "Really should enter that" and then of course never seem to get round to it. However this year I really wanted to show at the Mall and so decided to do a picture specially. To spur me on.

I also had suitable marine sketches I wanted to do something special with as I was so pleased with them. The 'wave' sketchbook done in Scotland. I have done four A4 prints already, as test pieces, but this was the first attempt at a two colour at my usual size. 

I also discovered that I could wrap up and post my prints down to the Mall, negating my usual excuse that, well really I couldn't be bothered to travel all the way down there. No excuses left.



With some new thoughts on content, direction and styling swirling round my teeny tiny brain I purposely didn't ink this up to a definate edge but left it loose and rollerey. I did this with both colours/layers to get unplanned gaps and loose overlaps in the pattern. Still looking for ways to suggest the chaotic translucence and the dramatic movement of waves without it looking contrived or stiff.



 "Solent Flame off the Mull of Galloway. Rough. 8 knots."

Quite happy with the way it turned out. Heard at the start of this week that it was accepted which was great news and worth all the work.



5 comments:

  1. Congratulations on being accepted. I have used exactly the same excuses for not submitting to London exhibitions from here in Yorkshire. But like you I could hop on a train at breakfast and be there in time for lunch. By the way I was admiring your work in the Calder Gallery in Hebden Bridge last weekend.

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  2. Hi stuart, just trying to sort out my blog commentary!

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  3. Right sorted it, actually it is a glitch if you come through blogspot on Firefox the 'comment as:' below is blank and then doesn't register any comments. I shall be able to respond to your comments now.

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  4. Fantastic work..... I love the loose roller, great inspiration looking at your blog!
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  5. Hello and thanks Mariann.
    Not inking up completely helps to give a bit of unpredictability to what is such a controlled medium doesn't it. Although I get so used to obsessively making sure the block is properly inked it seems wrong somehow to just chuck the roller over the lino and not worry about incomplete coverage.

    Are you based in Mijas? I used to go Mountain Biking in the Sierra Nevada and we were based in Mecina Fondales within the Trevelez gorge. We used to cycle through Mijas and stop for lunch. It's a beautiful area and we all used to agree it would be a wonderful place to live.

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