Wednesday 25 August 2021

Concentration


My wife has a “hole” in the vision of one eye, caused by a bleed inside the eyeball. It apparently manifests itself as a greyish patch in the middle of her field of vision. Most of the time the “good” eye compensates and she hardly notices. But when she’s concentrating, or doing close work she needs to close the “bad” eye as it interferes too much with what she’s seeing. 

It’s normally when she’s occupied with something that I can manage to try a quick drawing before she moves. I decided to work this one up as a print. I felt I’d captured something of her in the way she unequivocally screws that eye shut. No half measures. 

Interestingly Edvard Munch developed a similar complaint and, being Edvard Munch, painted what it looked like several times. Check it out here.

Sunday 22 August 2021

Another press


This one’s an etching press made out of an old mangle. An ebay purchase. The Guy of Warwick print and its off-cut fragments have given me the opportunity to get used to its funny ways. I’m still not wholly used to how the adjustable pressure works, and I think I tend to overdo it, but I’m getting there. 

The previous owner(s) had a more temporary way of supporting the bed as it moved from side to side, so I made this structure with drawers under that I think makes economical use of the space. I also made another bed with side-rails for lino so that I don’t have monster pressure and don’t get the big bump up and down as it negotiates the thickness of the block. 

The press was also missing its foldaway handle, but a handy washing-machine shock absorber has made a strangely comfy alternative.


 

Thursday 19 August 2021

The making of… Guy of Warwick

Okay. Warwickshire. I’m so not a landscape painter. So my response to Warwickshire had to be… human. So I wanted something peopleish that says Warwickshire to me. Had to be Guy of Warwick, really. The clue’s in the name. And slaying the Dun Cow. On Dunsmore Heath. Where I live. 

You may object that its a Mediaeval story. Where’s the relevance? But relief printing is a Mediaeval craft. So it fits. And as I suggested in the previous post, there’s plenty for today if you think about it. It’s not just for dead people. 

This is the first version of the picture as it came into my mind. 

 Man and horse and cow as one combined shape. When I was a kid the Daily Mirror carried a comic strip called Andy Capp. It was the misadventures of a gambling, hard-drinking, brawling working-class bloke. It spoke of the environment I grew up in, and seemed perfectly normal to me. Anyway, the periodic fights outside the pub were shown as a grey cloud with fists and boots sticking out at random places. That’s how I saw this battle. Very cartoon-like, which seemed to me to fit with an overall chap-book vibe. 

I started trying out what the different “characters” would be like: Guy, the Dun Cow and the horse.


 


Then other things started creeping in. I thought about placing the battle on Knightlow Hill with a view of Coventry in the distance. And an audience. The audience ended up being a monk and a naked woman caught in flagrante delicto behind a wayside cross. 


 

I’d got some way in cutting the block before I decided this was all just a bit much and reverted to the original idea. Hence the two printed fragments of the naked woman and the cross

My wife suggested printing it in brown, “so it would be a dun cow.” It also has that sepia/faded look that hints at age. I always try to cut “meaningfully”, even if I’m clearing largish areas. I cut the sky horizontally, the sloping ground at an angle, the long grass in clumps. Then I see if and when any of it shows up in the proof prints, I can decide whether it adds anything to the design and cut away or let stand as I see fit. 

I’ve enjoyed this foray into “historic Warwickshire” so much, I feel fired up to do another similar scale picture as a companion. Lady Godiva, I think. A different kind of heroism, but heroism nonetheless. Let’s see if I manage it.


 


Tuesday 17 August 2021

Guy of Warwick slaying the Dun Cow


I’ve done this for Wright Hassall’s 175th anniversary calendar competition. The theme is Warwickshire and the deadline 30th September so still plenty of time to get your picture in. So... Well… This.

It’s a stupid story, I know. But it’s spoken to me as I made the picture. The Big Question it provokes in me is, “How can you be a hero when the Age of Dragons is over?” It’s a big, Big Question and really relevant to young men today who wish to win the hand of fair Felice.

I don’t have an answer, but I feel this is a way of asking the question.

 

Thursday 12 August 2021

Fragment: Lonesome Cross


Another off-cut from the larger print. It’s interesting how much sadder this looks now that it’s removed from its original context. This is still in its rough-and-ready state. If it had remained on the original, I might have tidied it up a bit, but I think I’ll let it stand.  

Again a picture in search of a meaning. 

It’s smaller than postcard size – but it fits nicely on the reverse of a tea-bag box. So I might use it as a give-away.

Wednesday 11 August 2021

Fragment: Naked woman open-mouthed in the woods


This print began life as part of another, larger print. But the large print ended up being too busy so I cut off the unnecessary bits. With a little bit of tweaking this piece has become a postcard. Its meaning… who knows? It’s a bit like a fragment of an antique Greek vase, where you can make up the story that it’s part of.

I’ll talk about the larger print in its proper place when I’m finished.