paintings prints and stuff

detail 1: 4 inch section of Landscape, 14 x4 inches approx, collagraph with coloured pencil on Fabriano Rosapina paper detail 2 : 3 inch section of Landscape, 14 x4 inches approx, collagraph with coloured pencil on Fabriano Rosapina paper The whole image : Landscape, 14 x4 inches approx, collagraph with coloured pencil on Fabriano Rosapina paper I came across this 14x4 inch collagraph in the 'do-something-with-this-later' drawer. I think it was an offcut from a larger collagraph plate, cropped before it was printed and then printed with the same inks that I'd been using (green and yellow), just to see what happened. It had originally been vertical and part of a seahorses/underwater series of printmaking. Looking at it horizontally I saw a landscape. Using coloured pencils I worked on it in warm rosy hues to contrast with the cooler green. I want to darken and cool with deep blue the area around the right hand tree a little before I'll call it finished I think. ...

2 sketchbooks arrived from Gesa for the moleskine exchange, belonging to Brian and Lorraine - and they are looking fabulous! :>) Lorraines theme is CLOSE. She started the book off with a drawing of her beloved garden in coloured pencil , closely followed by a naughty couple in the undergrowth by David getting very close ;>) , already shown on our website. Now Gesa has followed on with this great lively view of children and tenements, washing blowing in the breeze. It somehow has echoes of the stable and Bethlehem don't you think? Gesa Helm's gorgeous lively Joan Eardley tribute - In Lorraine's sketchbook in the moley exchange. Joan Eardley is a favourite artist of mine, I love both her Glasgow tenement paintings of urchins and her beautiful free abstracted landscapes. a close up of the children by Gesa Helms The other book belongs to Brian, who started off with moody local landscapes in coloured pencil - did you use solvent Brian? the double page Marsh fe...

a digital experiment, combining collage, watercolour, coloured pencil and collagraph elements. Vivien Blackburn An experiment in combining different elements to create something new. This is made up of collage, watercolour, coloured pencil and a collagraph - using photoshop to combine, erase elements, adjust sizes to make them work together, pushing and pulling and doing I don't know what until it works for me. I'm deep in end of term marking and paperwork :>( so not a lot of painting going on at the moment. I have finished the work in the FPP and Moley exchanges though and they are on their way to Ronell and Stephanie :>) check the exchanges out here: http://flyingpictures.wordpress.com/ the flying pictures project and http://moleskineexchange.blogspot.com/ the moley exchange I can highly recommend taking part in an exchange like this - I'm so enjoying them - opening each book as they arrive is fantastic and a chance to see lovely work in real life - and...

watercolour, fragment of watercolour sketch - Vivien Blackburn I picked up Glen's book on Friday and have had fun (though it was intimidating after seeing the gorgeous images she'd created) adding to it. These are fragments of what will soon be flying on to Ronell in France :>) I've done 2 pages and just have to do the half page, where the next person - Ronell - can interact with my image. My book is on its way to Lindsay in America now with Ronell's work added - I'm dying for Lindsay to get it and show what Ronell has done with it :>) I know it's going to be gorgeous! Once Ronell receives this I will be able to show the whole of the images and the book so far .... and another fragment from the other page - any idea what it's done with? I'm thinking it might be good to produce a Blurb book of ALL the images from ALL the books when we've finished - what do you think? I shall be so sorry to say goodbye to the ones that won't return to...

Fish 1, collagraph and coloured pencil, 9x7 ins, Vivien Blackburn Whilst sorting through old work to store in my lovely shiny new plan chest I came across unfinished pieces that were worth working further on - these 2 collagraphs were put in the 'To Work On And Finish Later' drawer. This morning I got out the coloured pencils and added just a few thin glazes of colour to push the colour range a little and add warm and cool variations. Polychromos pencils work beautifully over the printing inks on Fabriano Rosapina paper. Fish 2, collagraph and coloured pencil, 9x7ins, Vivien Blackburn Collagraphy is a printmaking process - in this case the 'plate' was the card used for the mats in picture framing. The lines are simply cut into the surface with a craft knife, the darker areas are where the top surface has been peeled away, leaving a fuzzy surface. The lighter areas are where PVA glue has been painted on - this repels the ink and makes it easy to wipe it off. Befor...

sketches of birch tree bark, done plein air. Vivien Blackburn How do I use sketchbooks? Using sketchbooks to work out ideas and sketching plein air are very important to me. The plein air sketches are done simply to study scenes or weather or texture or light ....... whatever has grabbed my interest. They aren't intended to be finished pieces for framing, though sometimes they do become finished and are framed. In that case I scan them and keep a print in the sketchbook, part of a series of linked sketches and ideas. The time spent looking intently and studying colour, form, line and light fixes the subject in your memory. These sketches were of the bark on some birch trees that fascinated me with the multiple 'eyes' in the bark pattern. I had no thoughts at all as to what I would do with the information in the future. When I was sketching it was pure research. Developing ideas from sketchbooks Sketches of Trees At home I looked at the sketches and the idea of some long t...

collagraph, Undergrowth copyright Vivien Blackburn I came across this collagraph that I did ages ago in a folder - it was languishing there because it wasn't a particularly good print. So I worked on it with coloured pencil and Pitt pen - the coloured pencil takes really nicely on the Fabriano paper in a fuzzy way. I'd shaped the plate slightly in this one, it isn't the plain oblong of the seahorses. For those who don't know, collagraphs are made by cutting, peeling, incising and sticking stuff on to mount/matt card and then printing from it after varnishing it with shellac to protect it. Inking it up with oil based printing inks and as it's an intaglio process it needs a printing press or at least very high pressure to print it. I have thought of experimenting with a flower press but I'm not sure that the pressure would be even enough. I have heard of people putting the papers and printing plate between boards and driving over them - and they assured me it work...

It worked! so this show is done with photobucket, where my images are stored to go online anyway, so access is quick and easy. Anyone wanting to add a slide show to their blog, and who isn't already light years ahead of me in technology and knows already :) , can join the sites and create their own by simply clicking on the 'get your own' tab next to the images Apart from the pencil sketch these are variations on the beach at nightfall, from sketches done plein air. There's a small 12 inch square oil painting, some collagraphs and a pencil sketch of the sea defences. Collagraphs are a lovely printmaking method using mount (matt) card as a plate. It's inexpensive and I really like the marks you can achieve with it. It does need a printing press though as it's an intaglio process like etching and not a relief print like lino.