Tuesday, 17 January 2023

Great Print 8 2023 Friday 20 January to Sunday 7 May

Great Print 8

Opens Friday 20 January 2023


See my prints on the walls of Rheged's Gallery in their annual Great Print 8 exhibition, opening on the 20th of Jan. This free exhibition gives you the chance to learn how hand-pulled prints are made and see a wide range of printmaking techniques and styles in one place. All artwork on display is available to buy, including framed and unframed pieces.

Open daily | find out more: https://rheged.com/gallery/

Shown above alongside the exhibition poster are two of my mountain monotypes, 'Schiehallion, Perthshire' and 'Striding Edge, Cumbria'

This year I am also showing some pieces on a theme which I developed during Lockdown when access to the mountains was severely restricted. Instead I began to work on coastal themes inspired by my drawing trip to the Outer Hebrides and Cape Wrath in June 2019.

On the left is the lithograph, 'Call of the Isles' which I made in collaboration with master printer Lee Turner at Hole Editions, Newcastle upon Tyne.

On the right is the Monotype,' Westering Home' which I made at Northern Print workshop, Newcastle on Tyne.



In addition, there will be some of my distinctive mountain etchings available. Seen below, 'Blencathra', 'The Cuillin from Sligachan, Skye' and 'Buttermere from Haystacks'. 

This is always a fascinating exhibition with so much to learn about original printmaking. Keep an eye out for related workshops during the exhibition and maybe have a go yourself!

Facebook - @rheged

Instagram - @rheged_centre

Twitter – @RhegedCentre

https://rheged.com/gallery/

 

Friday, 2 November 2018



The Great Print Exhibition 2018
Thursday 8 November, 6-8pm

With live music from the Misdemeanors


Enjoy a glass of prosecco and an early mince pie as we celebrate the opening of The Great Print Exhibition 2018!

The Great Print Exhibition 2018 is the largest exhibition of its kind in the UK. With over 350 framed artworks on the wall by over 60 printmakers from up and down Britain, it’s an excellent chance to see and buy original art. This year the exhibition will include an array of new artists who haven’t shown in the exhibition before, as well as some firm favourites from previous years returning.

You’ll be able to learn about this widely varied art form, with information on how different prints are made and videos showing artists making their work, along with examples of tools and printing plates used to create prints.

The exhibition is open daily, Friday 9 November 2018 – Sunday 3 February 2019, 10am-5pm daily. Free entry
Three of the lovely mountains included in my exhibition -  two of my new Himalayan images and a mountain closer to home! 

Frozen Flow (Khumbu), Monotype
Blencathra, Cumbria, Monotype
Island Peak, Khumbu, Monotype

Visit this exciting exhibition if you are in the area. Plenty of time. It's open until 3 February 2019!


Wednesday, 15 November 2017

The Great Print Exhibition 2017

You can see my work in The Great Print Exhibition 2017 @ Rheged near Penrith, Cumbria. (M6 J40 A66 dir. Keswick
The exhibition opens on Friday 17 November and runs until 
Sunday 18 February. 
For those of you living in the area, the preview opens at 6pm on 
Thursday 16 November. See below for details.
If you are visiting Cumbria over the festive season, do call in and see the wonderful array of original prints on display - 350 pieces of work from 65 professional printmakers - and browse related products available in the Gallery shop. A great place to find those special Christmas presents.
Or treat yourself in the New Year!




Friday, 5 February 2016

Inspirational Places 2

In March, eager for more snowy mountains, we set off for the Dolomites. Misurina was looking breathtaking under its mantle of snow with its icy mountains crowding in beyond the frozen Lago. Under moody skies or fair weather cloud, it never fails to enchant.
 
Waking to clear blue skies, I just had to head up to Cinque Torri with its spectacular panoramic views.
 
 
L. Marion Davidson, writing her travel guide to the Dolomites in 1912, begins, ‘The Dolomites! What are they? ROCKS!  ROCKS!  ROCKS! all in Capitals. Just ROCKS. ROCKS, sitting on top of mountains’. Gates of the Dolomites
 

And so they are - a glorious description indeed - and when those rocks are covered in snow they are simply magical. Drawing in the mountains that I love is essential to my practice as an artist. Here in this dazzling light I made my first watercolour of the trip.
 
By the way, isn't this just the best hot tub in the world?
A fortnight of delight followed, walking and drawing in some of my favourite mountains - the forbidding bulk of Sorapis, new perspectives on the distinctive Cadini di Misurina, a fantastic new viewpoint at Prato di Piazza only accessible by jeep (or skis) at this time of year - one to return to for its views of Cristallo and Croda Rosa.
 
 
 
Back home, I booked in for several sessions at Northern Print during April. Using my drawings (these two from previous trips) together with my memories of sunlight on snow I spent many hours absorbed in making some new monotypes.
I think they capture something of the spirit of the place in its winter glory.
 
 
Several of them are currently on display in the The Biscuit Factory Winter Show, Newcastle, until the end of February 2016. Still time to catch them!
 
 
 


Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Inspirational Places 1

February already, a year on, and high time I brought you up to date with the highlights of 2015!


I had my wish to find snowy mountains in Scotland magnificently granted during a wonderful day on Cairngorm in February. Clear blue skies, lots of sparkling snow, gleaming ice and sunshine.

The wind was so high that it made drawing the Fiacaill Ridge quite a challenge, and blew the dog’s coat off her back! It was found by climbing friends a day or two later wrapped round the first aid post in Coire an t- sneachda. Velcro is a wonderful thing!

As Nan Shepherd observed in The Living Mountain (1977), '...as I penetrate more deeply into the mountain's life, I penetrate also into my own. For an hour I am beyond desire....I am not out of myself, but in myself. I am.'

After the dazzling light of Aviemore, we headed to Sutherland and I found myself in the softer, moodier light of the West coast.



Here low cloud made for some beautifully atmospheric views but limited drawing opportunities.





After fortifying ourselves at the brilliant pie shop in Lochinver, I got to work making a couple of watercolours of the distinctive Assynt mountains Canisp, Suilven and Cul Mor from a nearby viewpoint.





Later in the month, I spent time immersed in memories of the snow in Scotland, making monotypes at Northern Print.




This is one of the Fiacaill Ridge. Currently on show at The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne until the end of February 2016.




Friday, 6 February 2015

New Work


In October I returned to Northern Print after quite a long time away from the printing press, equipped with brand new rollers! My former college tutor, Brian Waters, passed on the set of lovely handles and I bought new rollers for them. They are gorgeous!

I christened them by rolling up a polycarbonate plate with some sumptuous blues and a touch of viridian and got down to wiping the plate with high mountains and glaciers in mind.
 
These are the two images I created - the first one tending more to the abstract, but both of them celebrating the seductive forms, textures and light of snow and ice under sunshine and blue skies.
 
 
A month or so later I was busy again, working on some Cumbrian subjects and further afield, the Matterhorn (Swiss Alps) and Nanda Devi in the Indian Himalaya.
Here you can see the original drawing I made at Gornergrat above Zermatt, from which I drew out and wiped the inked up polycarbonate plate. When finished I passed it through the press to produce the final image.
 
 
The same process was used to make these monotypes of the Langdale Pikes and Wasdale in Cumbria.
 
 
In January I had a very satisfactory day at Northern Print making these totally contrasting images - Nanda Devi in the Garwhal Himalaya and Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick.
 
 
These are the studies that inspired them.

But now, it’s off to North West Scotland in search of snowy mountains and some new drawings.
I’ll leave you with a taste of the two monotypes I made this week, hot off the press. One is from the Torridon Hills - Liathach - and the other - maybe wishful thinking for finding something similar ‘up north’!
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Reviewing 2014


It’s a while since I posted on my blog, so here’s a brief review of 2014.

After my Lithography sessions working at Edinburgh Printmakers in January and the preparations for the Lit&Phil exhibition in April, we sailed away to the Outer Hebrides for a short break exploring the islands from Lewis, through Harris, then North and South Uist and down to Eriskay.





My head was filled with memorable colours and textures, wonderful coastlines and skies, always with Kathleen Jamie’s beautiful descriptions of the islands in mind. I also had fun spotting the locations in Peter May’s ‘Lewis Trilogy’!  Mixed weather sent us back to Skye in search of some mountain views - but the weather closed in even more - so no drawing from this trip.



Back in Newcastle, we installed my exhibition, ‘Mountains in Mind’, in the Lit&Phil main reading room - a wonderful space.

 











It was great to be able to show a lot of my drawings alongside some amazing early mountaineering books from the library’s collection.


The symposium, ‘Mountain Legacies,’ organised by Drs Abbie Garrington (Newcastle University) and Chris Donaldson (Lancaster University) and the opening of the show were well attended.



My presentation, ‘Meditations and Inspirations’, about spending time working in the high mountains was also very well received. To my delight, someone fell in love with my monotype of Island Peak in the Khumbu, having stood on the top of it himself, and took it home with him.




At the end of June I had an exhibition at the lovely Customs House gallery by the Tyne at South Shields. This was part of the International Print Biennale which is organised by Northern Print. My large monotype triptych of Ama Dablam was on show for the second time this year!






Then it was time for our annual trip to the Alps and Dolomites. Unseasonable weather again limited my drawing opportunities, but I did make some work in the Chamonix valley.


Recently a visit to Barter Books in the old Alnwick rail station yielded some inspiring mountain books.
 
In the introduction to his book, ‘Peaks and Valleys’, published in 1938, wonderful photographer, Frank Smythe writes:
‘..there is no more difficult subject for the artist than a mountain, for mountains are essentially static…. They are inimical to life, and the movement is restricted to clouds, streams and the play of the wind, whilst the scale on which they are built is as deceiving to the eye as to the brush. A skilful drawing or painting of hill scenery needs no justification, but the daubs that find their way…even into the Royal Academy…are proof that to any but an artist of exceptional skill and experience, who must perforce devote himself to his subject, hills are better left alone.’
 
 
No pressure then!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Autumn found me back working at Northern Print at last! (More of that later).
 
 
 
 

 The year began with inspiration from William Tillyer’s amazing watercolours in his exhibition at MIMA. ‘Against Nature’,
and from Ornulf Opdahl’s magnificent Nordic landscapes at University Gallery in Newcastle. It ended with the equally inspiring late Turner watercolours at Tate Britain and the enormous Anselm Kiefer paintings and sculptures at the Royal Academy, topped off by the moving late self portraits by Rembrandt at the National Gallery.

 
 
 
But now I’m off to read some more of Mrs Aubrey Le Blond’s collection of colourful accounts of ‘True Tales of Mountain Adventure’ published in 1903, courtesy of the Lit and Phil. With chapter headings like ‘A Wonderful Feat by Two Ladies - a Perilous Climb’ - the ladies being Miss Anna and Miss Ellen Pigeon of London, in 1869 - how can I resist!