Yardley Arts Summer Open 2026

 

I couldn't resist the open call for this when I saw it. A small art centre in Northants. Kind of like the Alex a few years on. It's in a former Victorian school house of the one-room type. Anyhoo. I've got 3 works accepted - Paradise Lost, Loaded down on James Street, and Fallen from Olympus VI. So I'm pleased. I delivered the work yesterday and will go to the PV on Thursday. As the poster says, the exhibition runs from 25 June to 19 July.

Another press in the studio

 Eric had this rather cute galley press lurking unused in the basement of the local adult education centre. So he decided to reclaim it and give it a new home at the Alex. My guess is 1930s, age-wise. Had a little play. Did the "tools" linocut on it and now broken out the old wooden letters...

 

Just Cuz... Anna Bloom

 I was riffling through some papers the other day and what should fall out but this! The original bad translation of Anna Blume that I found in a second-hand wallet I bought about fifty years ago. How magnificent it's still here. Testament to the enduring power of art. AI will never get it.

Tools

 I did this quick little design to adorn my next lot of "Art is my Bag" paper bags. Decided to print them on the last half-dozen postcard blanks as well. You never know. It's a little celebration of everything you need for relief printmaking.... Well. Decent ink, decent roller, too. The rest is kinda optional.

2x2 Linocuts

 

I’ll tell you something. There’s something better than getting into an exhibition with “International” in the title. It’s when an artist for whom you have the greatest regard asks you to participate in a two-man show.

Even better. This exhibition has been a surprise to me. Eric showed me pictures of the pieces he planned on including, which gave me a rough idea of those of mine I might include. But the act of pairing up the actual works and propping them up around the place gave a whole other perspective.

They are an unsentimental collection. They are a direct engagement with things in the world. Not “unmediated”, but mediated through that part of the artist that lives between eye and hand. That part immersed in the history of art.

The subject matter here is broadly “traditional” – still lifes, nudes, townscapes – the bread-and-butter subject matter of art. And that subject matter is presented with a matter-of-factness born out of looking, interrogated through drawing. An assertion of the human in this age of technology.

Leicester Print Workshop - Smallprint International

 Got the news that I've got one piece accepted for this exhibition - Naomi Salient, which was the best of the bunch I submitted. So I'm pleased that happened - confirms my own judgement, as it were.The exhibition runs from 5th June through 11th July - They are open Weds through Saturday each week. My plan is to send the piece in by post, so that I can make the PV on the 5th. 

I know Leicester is only just up the road, but getting into an exhibition with "International" in the title is totally cool. 

PS 23/05/2026 Here's the PV invite. Eric gets the picture at the top in the middle.

 

Loaded down on James Street

 A second of what could be a series of local scenes with people. This is our friend J who is often seen on her way to one of her many jobs carrying everything she may possibly need. Plus all the stuff she didn't unpack from the last one. Such is life...

My method in these has been to do some very quick notes in situ, and then try and make the picture from memory based on those original notes. This frees me from being too beholden to reality in the composition. I then go back and check for any glaring omissions or things I've added that aren't there. With this one I had remembered six upper floor windows when there are five. 

Same thing with J. I turned a corner and saw her coming towards me. The drawing was then based on the "snapshot" I took in my mind.