Just taking a break for a quick snack so went to the fridge and picked out a carrot which to my surprise brightened up my day after the shock horror of finding out that 1st class stamps are now 60p each…but not just any carrot……. it’s a cactus carrot…

also a hand puppet carrot

or it could be a nice bit of quirky advertising for the local MP at election time..

I have just returned from a week in Ulverston, a small market village south of the Lakes district. I was shown absolutely amazing hospitality by the director of Printfest, Janice Benson. I was given a tour of the surrounding areas including the coastal road all the way down to Barrow in Furness, an area which historically was a working town for the nearby ship yards.

The residential area there is somewhat dodgy to say the least but the architecture reminds me a little of Edinburgh tenements. I loved the carparks in between which had cars, boats, caravans and wheelie bins in the parking spaces!
Our tour ended on a baltic, yet beautiful beach which had an unusual backdrop of the hilly Lakes District in the distance.

There was a few Edinburgh look alikes, for example Ulverston has an Arthurs Seat but with a light house on the top, it’s called Hoad Monument, complete with sheep. Perhaps we should think about putting some sheep on Arthur… it would certainly add a more farmy feel to the city!

So the point of the week was to be completely inspired by something and document it with some initial sketches, etc. I was quite overwhelmed with all the fab subject matter to be honest, but I had to go with what made me go WOW… so I did. As to what that is you’ll have to come along to the Printfest Exhibition on the 5th/6th May where I’ll be unveiling the commissioned print.

There will be over 40 printmakers exhibiting that weekend, all with their own exhibition space so you can speak directly with the artists and vice versa. It’s the only all-print exhibition in the UK, gotta love that! I will be there no doubt, not only exhibiting my new ‘locally inspired’ work but I’ll be doing a screenprinting demonstration and an artist talk in that time.
On the final day of the residency I did a demonstration at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. It went very well, the members of the audience were having fun, I know because I asked them and they said yes

www.breweryarts.co.uk/

The town of Ulverston is completely embracing Printfest which will be held at the very beautiful ‘Coronation Hall’. There will be a Printfest Art Trail too which is over 18 shops taking part by displaying an exhibitor’s print in their shop window. There is a handmade linocut map which will guide you around the tiny town so you can identify all the work on the trail. Cool idea. I have submitted a framed print of the image that’s on the flyers…. you can see the flyer below, as photographed on the inside of a toilet door. What a classic, you must admit it’s going to get women looking at it…I hope there was one in the mens too, an all women audience at an exhibition isn’t ideal

I even got involved with the publicity side of things and was featured in the local paper, twice, not to mention a little radio slot on Radio Cumbria which did a feature on me walking into the local chippy, called the Chippy Bank, (to pretend) to order a fish n chips and a pot of mushy peas. My favourite was when the woman behind the counter pretended to wrap up the fish and chips in midair and then proceeded (to pretend) to put the money through the cash register and it beeped constantly on her.

I have a stunning print to get on with now…hope to see you at Printfest!!
www.printfest.org.uk/

I am very pleased to announce that I have been voted ‘Printmaker Of The Year’ by Printfest UK!  Classic, UK’s Printmaker of the year is an Australian!!

Printfest is an annual printmakers exhibition held in the village of Ulverston near the Lakes District. It aims to promote printmaking as the wonderful medium it is, through it’s diversity of mediums (ie wood cut, lino cut, etching, lithography and of course screen printing) as well as educating the public on how printmaking works. As Printmaker of the year I will be demonstrating silk screenprinting during the Printfest weekend, held on the 5th and 6th May, with a private view on the 4th. I will also have the opportunity to exhibit my work that weekend alongside 40+ other printmakers. Wow!! It sounds like printmakers heaven! Aside from that I will also be involved in a residency, based in the Lakes District in order to design and produce 1 limited edition print which will then be used on the promotional material for Printfest 2012. While currently researching the surrounding area I can see there’s a diversity of fantastic subject matter to draw, from green lush fields, mountains and not to mention my favourite…realllllly old architecture!!

To find out more about Printfest, the exhibition or the organisation you can visit www.printfest.org.uk/

Hmm yes well one was supposed to be working on a website, but well what can I say…there was just way too many distractions.

After my down time in Australia I had a couple of stopovers on the way back to Britain….

First stop, Singapore, the Switzerland of Asia where the friendly english speaking taxi drivers offer both a safe haven from the heat and humidity and an opportunity to ask anything you’d like to know about the culture, the food, the people, the buildings, anything you fancy.

then onto Vietnam

There is a million and 2 distractions in Vietnam, such as the beautiful vege and rice fields

the local made and distributed food

the beautiful French architecture…look, it’s Notre Dame de Vietnam!

the beautiful locals..

the intriguing weasels that are responsible for making the world famous weasel coffee…

I learn’t how to make traditional Vietnamese food..

as well as the local rice wine..

..while appreciating the stunning wall textures of some 16th century chinese and Japanese style architecture

Vietnam is a visual treat but if I were looking for a relaxing, clean, tranquil place to put my feet up and ponder about the world, then this wouldn’t be the place to go. Vietnam has a system of organised chaos which with it brings creativity in places we wouldn’t expect, and limits that have been pushed beyond our expectation.  I was inspired by the colours of Vietnam as well as the coast line and the fishing villages with their blue and red fishing boats that head out during the night. The boats can be seen in the image below, beyond the couches by the sea.

There may be a Vietnam series in the pipeline!!!

Well well it’s already 2012. I didn’t make any new years resolutions this year but I’m starting to think I should have. It’s still the first month of the year so I’ll go for it. My mission for this month was to start my new web design. I flew to Australia at Christmas time with a plan to stay for the summer months and what can I say…up til now there’s been distractions…. ..

I’ve been visiting this…
…swimming in this…

Walking over this……

watching a LOT of this…
in particular for this amazing player..

riding on a few of these…

celebrating Australia Day by eating this…

and enjoying the local wildlife

but I thought if I posted my mission onto my blog then I’ll make it happen so safe to say Watch This Space!!!

Well well that time of year has come again, time for the population of Edinburgh to have the opportunity to check out the Edinburgh Printmakers workshop, and have a go! I always try to do my bit so I helped our fabulous master screenprinter with some little simple stencil demonstrations, mainly for the kids but the adults who participate have loads of fun with it.

The results from the kids were really amazing, they drew and cut out some very cool designs, we had a dinosaur (which was going to be called (Tyranoscreenprinterex),a dainty cat and even a native New Zealand birdie to name a few. Creativity seems to come naturally to kids..I think as adults our education replaces creativity in many ways, like our ideas are becoming too mainstream and jaded as we get older. I think that’s why art school is so important, it encourages a ‘mainstream idea’ clear out in the creative side of the brain to make room for the new creative ventures ahead.

So as well as demonstrations I also gave an artist talk which to be honest became a pro screenprinting monolgue instead. I think the people watching my talk learn’t more than masses of information about the nitty gritty cool workings of  the screenprint process, and probably wondered whether I even took a breath….you can see the passion radiating from my expressive arm action in the photo below, check it out! You’d think I was talking about something politically racey but no, it was about the UV exposure unit! Great stuff!

Well as promised I have attached a few pics of my trip to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park. It’s a fantastic set up, especially for printmakers! Artichoke print Studio organised a demonstration area where anyone can participate and draw onto a piece of perspex which is then inked up and printed.
So of course I made a print, along side mostly children and a wee Indian guy who just wrote some random indian words on his perspex square which of course when it was printed then became backward indian text. I decided that since Paris was the flavour of the month that I would draw a little frenchie themed squiggle, below.
That was fun, but of course the main reason I was there was to see my lovely gallery representative Anna and her equally lovely brother Toby. The exhibition space looked fantastic although I couldn’t get a clear photo for all the people, but you get the idea.

Great news! For the first time, I will be represented at the Affordable Art Fair at Battersea Park in London, this weekend.
It will run from the 20th to the 23rd October. I will be represented by the fantastic Anna Smithson, who is a Bristol based gallery. She is exhibiting a very exciting selection of artists, and the reason I know that is because I received a beautiful double page leaflet highlighting all the artists and their work. It’s definately worth a visit. I will be going to London this weekend, I wouldn’t miss it. I’ll make sure I take a photo of the exhibition space for the blog
The details of opening hours and tickets prices are on the website, click here

http://www.affordableartfair.com/battersea/visit/157/Times-&-Admission

I decided to make an opportunity out of  an exhibition invite for a Sydney gallery who are featuring their up and coming summer show with a French theme.

So i booked a flight to Paris. I spent 3 days getting myself reaquainted with the city which was fabulous. I took a 30 page sketch book with me, with a mission to filling every page with drawings…but Paris is one of those cities where you can’t walk around anonymously…well I can’t anyway. …if it’s not the people, it’s the bird population..

One afternoon I stood drawing the Seine from the south bank when two guys came up to enquire how much it would cost for me to draw the both of them with a Parisien backdrop… I’m not sure whether they really wanted a drawing or to practise their English…perhaps they were just very friendly Frenchies. Either way I opted to take photographs after that.. lots and lots of them! 

I found myself returning to Montmartre, my favourite part of town, every day I was there. There was a lot of quite cool street art in Paris too…

a wee bit of stencilling, nice little touch

but my most inspiring ‘sight’ was the Georges Pompidou centre…I love that inside-out building more and more with every visit…I just think it’s super super cool yet extremely stylish.

Georges Pompidou Centre

Cutting edge, a bit raw yet classy all at the same time. Very inspiring. There’s a retrospective of Edvard Munch on at the moment so I went and checked that out while I was there and it worked out to be a bonus that it was on the top floor so I was able to get a glimpse of the view out over Paris, it turned out to be a nice little detour!

I think this photo would be one of my favourites..it’s a wall pertaining to a school which has an eclectic mix of phrases/words in different languages. The kidies were chasing eachother in front of it, I just think the wall makes them look so tiny.

I have proofed the Parisien artworks already and am very happy with the results. I’ll post some images once I’ve completed the final pieces. Watch this space !

I think it’s very important to get down time after an extended period of up time, so I took myself to Málaga for sun, food and wine, and then to Berlin for some art. Málaga has become an annual destination for me, it ticks every box and never fails to do so.  I can’t not mention the new Carmen Thyssen Gallery which opened in Malaga this summer. Apparently Carmen used to holiday in Málaga so she wanted to give something to the people of Málaga. It’s a purpose built gallery with a central courtyard Andalucian style. All tall white walls dotted with some absolutley stunning pieces. there were two artworks in there which I stood in front of for at least 30 minutes each, taking in all the beauty. While I was in AndalucíaI checked out the Mezquita in Córdoba too, wow what a joy!

La mezquita

Me in the Mezquita

After I plugged my batteries in to be recharged I then took up an opportunity to visit Berlin. Berlin has been on my list of places to visit for at least 4 years now, but something, or somewhere has always seemed to take precedence. Well it must be said that the cityscape of Berlin is the most ugliest i’ve ever seen in Europe, even though it has perfectly good reason. Saying that though I compared Berlin to a rose garden….it looks ugly and messy from a distance but as you get closer you begin to smell the roses and then one deep wiff of a rose gives off such a lovely fresh aroma that it feeds the soul. You need to participate in a city like Berlin, it’s very interactive, there’s a lot of very exciting creative and social ventures going on like an invisible network of brightly coloured cables running all over the city, crossing over eachother and interlinking on the way. I met some very inspiring people and saw some very inspiring street art.

some streets are highly decorated

This beautiful mural is at the start of a very groovy street

I love a bit of street humour art

I checked out the Berlin modern Art Gallery which had a superb, varied selection of Germany history artworks including a section on the Dada movement as well as very contemporary installation pieces. A nice mix. I liked the range of books they have downstairs in the bookshop. Apparently photographing in the gallery is subject to a €2 fee at reception… also quite a modern concept I thought.

Berlin has quite a lot of quirk!