Thursday, 20 February 2020

Coventry Open 2020. 29 February – 19 April


Really delighted to have Purgatory (see also previous post) chosen* for this exhibition. Good to have something on show in the run up to City of Culture next year. So please pay a visit if you can.

Unlike the Rugby Open, Coventry allows you to add a few words by way of description/explanation. So I wrote this: “Waiting Room. Purgatory on earth. Is this what waiting for St Peter will be like? How do you jump the queue?” No idea what they'll do with that. We shall see.

This is the biggest print I've done so far, and was to some degree a test of the limits of my press. The image is 48cm x 35cm, printed on to A2. If I wanted to go bigger, I'd have to go for the spoon method, which could be tiring.

There is an art-historical inspiration which is this etching by Emil Orlik** from about 1896 that I saw on sale towards the end of last year.

I've seen a couple of examples of this print, one described the scene as a Theatre and the other as Waiting Room. Anyway, its a group of disconnected people sitting closely together. I didn't buy it as it was a bit expensive for me, especially being an etching. Woodcuts are more my thing. Anyway, it's still a great lesson in drawing, I think.

* When I went along to pick up the rejected print, I found out that 58 had been chosen from around 300 entries. Waaaaa!

**Orlik was a Jugendstil/Secessionist artist who, following the enthusiasm for Japonisme, went to Japan around 1900 to learn about woodcut at the feet of Japanese masters.

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