Large scale drawings

Ever since hearing that I'd been awarded the year 2 Watershed residency I knew I wanted to take the opportunity to stretch and challenge myself, especially when I realised how large the exhibition space is at Cliffe Castle. Consequently I'm having to think big.

I've started work on the largest drawings I've ever made. The paper dimensions are 5 ft wide by 8 ft tall for each drawing!  Just finding a suitably large, empty wall space has been a challenge, not to mention fixing up a sheet of paper that size.  Interestingly though, after a very short while it just seems normal and not a problem.  I'm using charcoal. Its one of my all time favourite mediums and ideal for the purpose.

If all goes to plan I'm hoping the drawings will make a strong impact at the exhibition so I want them to be a bit of a surprise.  All I will say here is that they are of structures connected with the water gathering system, so you may well guess what they are.  Here's a couple of texture details.

The Enfolding Landscape - Bigger Book

A while back I mentioned I wanted to make a longer, taller, double-sided version of the Enfolding Landscape book for the residency exhibition at Cliffe Castle. I started work on this over 2 weeks ago.

Three new A2 blocks needed to be cut, each 60 cm long and 42 cm tall, featuring the cotton grass and two versions of rippling water.  The birch plywood blocks are considerably harder than the Japanese ply but I like the crisp lines you can get in this surface.

Anyway it was a mammoth cutting job with lots of areas that needed to be completely cleared and I had aching arms, wrists and fingers for days.  In the photos you can see where I've painted the design onto the block as my guide for cutting.  Sometimes you can't stop the gouge from carving deeper down into the layers than is necessary, so the block looks a bit rough, but none of that will show in the print.

I realised that I had seriously underestimated the number of prints I will need to pull.  Including the covers and all the flag 'pages' I will have to ink up and print the A2 blocks 84 times!

On Monday and Tuesday I printed all the cotton grass ones on one side, using black ink.  Here they are in the drying rack with part of the ornate converted mangle press peeping through behind. The oil-based ink I like best takes a few days to dry.

On Wednesday I started printing the water and today I wanted to complete that part so I've needed to work really hard to print 31 sides - all day, hour after hour, inking and printing. Its amazing how much ink you need to cover A2. I forgot my camera so can't show you but the print rack is full of lovely bluey grey sheets now.

On Monday if I can face it I'll print the reverse side of all 22 cotton grass pages.  Then the printing will be over and it'll be long sessions of folding, cutting and gluing.  At this stage its easy to lose sight of what you're trying to achieve, and to feel a bit overwhelmed by the drudgery but hopefully I'll have the stamina to get to the end.

Outdoor Art Group go to Widdop

Photo by Geoff Mitchell

Here we are on Widdop Dam at the start of a wonderful Sunday of drawing, photography, poetry and sound recording for the inaugural trip of the newly formed Outdoor Art Group.

The heroic 906 bus brought us up from Hebden Bridge on a switchback ride through Heptonstall and Slack, along the tops and round a couple of hairpin bends, to get us in the mood for shaking off any preconceived ideas about a sedate Sunday stroll.

Soon enough we were bounding down the rushy north bank, organising base camp under the trees and setting to with cameras, pencils and the occasional quill pen made on the spot from moulted feathers the Canada geese had kindly left for us.

As you can see at the end of our lovely day we were all none the worse for our adventures, despite the odd tumble and a mud paddling incident about which I will remain silent!  The 906 provided a reliable though bouncy return trip back to civilisation.

The beautiful Widdop landscape inspired a whole array of delightful images and thoughtful poems from the group and to see a slideshow of their work please click here. This is a special page devoted to the activities of the group, with information about the next trip when this is available and contact details if you'd like to get involved.

Watershed Journey - more pages from the book

Woodcuts of Widdop

Here's a slideshow I've put together of a brilliant day at Cliffe Castle Museum yesterday with the art students from Titus Salt School making woodcuts based on their drawings from last week's trip to wild, windy Widdop.





Despite never having done anything like it before, the students quickly grasped the idea and ran away with it.  After getting their heads round the need for reversing the image and thinking in negative/positive, it was heads down for some solid concentrated gouging.  Then the really fun bit, when the ink goes on for the first time and the image is revealed.

The resulting prints are fantastic and perfectly capture the mood of our day at Widdop, so well done all!

Watershed Journey

Since the beginning of April I've been working on a concertina book called Watershed Journey.  Its one of those works that for one reason or another is taking a long time to complete. There have been times when I've felt stuck and I had to cut 2 pages off after spending a week trying to make them right.

I'm using collaged prints, a combination of Woodcut, monoprint and engraved surface print.  The original plan was to make use of a large collection of offcuts and oddments from previous printing sessions but in the end I've had to make some specific prints and so the offcut pile is growing and changing.

So far I've done 12 pages but now I've realised I need to work on the reverse side of the concertina so the book can be displayed standing up and be viewed from both sides.  And so the journey goes on.
These pages are from the start where the emphasis is on winter colours and textures up on the high moor.

Studio work in progress

This is a selection of Watershed images I've got up on my studio wall for inspiration, mainly photographs with a couple of quick sketches and a cyanotype of Widdop water.

I'm still looking for a solution to the problem of how to convey a sense of the conduits winding across the moors.  I guess I may have to settle for the Enfolding Landscape sculptural book representing both the reservoirs and the conduits. See post dated 10th June for photos of the artwork.

I've got so many ideas for work celebrating this landscape but time seems to be running out as everything must be completed by the beginning of September for the exhibition at Cliffe Castle.  The main thing about the space at Cliffe Castle is that its huge and anything small will be lost.

I'm going to remake the Enfolding Landscape book - it will be twice as long and twice as tall, and be double sided with printing on both sides of the paper so there's no blank areas.  This means it can be displayed on a low plinth and be viewed from any angle.  I'll have to cut new, larger blocks and print about 30 sheets of A2 on both sides; so a major undertaking.  I do feel slightly daunted by the physical effort required but know it'll be worth it if I succeed.  I'm really excited by this new development in my work, the 3D print, getting away from flatness.

Another area of experiment continues to be using the router for engraved marks on paper as I love the tactile result.  Here's a kind of sampler page from my sketchbook:

I'm wondering if I can include this kind of mark making in an extended flag book, either instead of woodcut printing or alongside it.  I'm not sure I can achieve this in time for the September exhibition as I've already set myself another huge goal that I've not even mentioned here yet!

Technically speaking I'm Watershed artist in residence from April 2011 until April 2012, and it seems strange to have the exhibition this early on.  I'll carry on producing work long after the exhibition goes up at Cliffe Castle.

Drawing workshop at Widdop

Had a great time at Widdop Reservoir on Tuesday with the art students from Titus Salt school. They worked really hard and seemed to quite enjoy it.  The grandeur of the setting at Widdop is very inspirational I think.

It was pretty windy when we set up on the dam, so difficult for doing A1 charcoal drawings with no easels or boards, hunkered down on the ground.  Thank goodness for the plastic sheets I brought, and the enthusiasm of the students. I was impressed by their willingness to have a go, making large drawings of the lichen and plant life that grows on the dam wall. Staff member Heather Graham also joined in.

I loved this drawing of just the outer edge of the lichen, a great use of the smudged line, and an ideal way of using charcoal for interesting effects.

The huge rock face above the reservoir was looking especially fantastic, all purple and green and dramatic.  The local sheep took an active interest in the drawing activities.

After lunch the weather had gone off a bit so we moved round to a more sheltered spot on the north side of the res where masses of lovely foxgloves are in full bloom just now.

Next week we're transcribing the drawings into woodcuts at Cliffe Castle and I can't wait to see what comes out.  The students always manage to surprise with their unusual ideas and inventive approach so it should be a good day.

More photos from Leeming Valve Tower

Its all about sharp angles and circles in this series of photos documenting my tour of the valve tower at Leeming Reservoir near Oxenhope.

Water - it seems so simple when you drink a glass of it without even thinking about the complex systems we've devised to get it there, uncontaminated and clear.  The giant rivets on the outflow pipe are a reminder of the powerful forces of nature we seek to control.

Inside Leeming Valve Tower

At last, after years of curiosity, I finally get to see the view looking out from inside a reservoir tower. And what a surprise to discover that inside not only is there no giant plug on a chain, there's nothing much at all, except a large scary pipe under the grating that leads down to the water and ultimately underneath the reservoir to the outlet further down the valley.

I went to Leeming with Anna and Gavin from Pennine Prospects and we joined John the very pleasant and informative engineer for a mini tour of the doings.  I'll post more pictures soon but now need to concentrate on tomorrow's creative field trip to Widdop reservoir with the Titus Salt art students.