Tutton & Young's Open Exhibition

It was a lovely surprise to find out my new screen prints 'Sunflower' and 'Peace' have been selected for the Tutton & Young Open Exhibition at Atelier Beside the Sea in Brighton. Both prints are entirely made by hand using simple hand cut stencils and overlapping layers of colour. It's a technique I've been working hard to perfect over the last few months. So I am especially pleased that these prints are going to be part of an exhibition featuring work by 130 different artists!

The open exhibition takes place at Tutton & Young's new shop and gallery space, Atelier Beside the Sea which is on Brighton Seafront. The private view is on Thursday the 14th of July from 6-8pm and the exhibition runs until the 3rd of September. But don’t worry if you aren’t able to go to Brighton… because all the work will be available to view online! https://atelierbrighton.co.uk/pages/atelier-open

The Art of Screen Printing

Packed up some of my favourite inks, squeegees, screens and even a bucket to take to Hall Green for a two hour demonstration! The theme of the demonstration was 'The art of Screen Printing' and it was for Hall Green Art Society, a group of local artists. I prepared two different techniques of screen printing to do during the evening but wasn't sure I would be able to get everything done! Luckily what I had planned actually filled the two hours perfectly. I started by screen printing this sunset using hand cut stencils and three overlapping layers of bright coloured ink. Then I also printed this flower design using photo stencils and three different colours. I just managed to print the final colour on a couple of flowers and that left ten minutes for the prints to dry!

 

 

Rainbow Coloured Flowers

Here's a pretty pastel coloured flower screen print I've been working on using just three colours and some basic hand cut stencils. Originally I created the design as an example for workshops but it was so popular I decided to screen print a finished edition! There were meant to be twenty five prints in the edition but my squeegee bade fell out and ruined one. Then I dropped the metal handle and it ripped my screen, what a disaster! It's a shame because almost all the other prints were perfect and I ended up with an edition of twenty two plus a couple of extras. I always try and have some spare prints just incase any in the edition get damaged... which they usually do!

A few of these rainbow coloured flowers have already sold, others have gone to shops and galleries and a few will be coming with me to events in Spring and Summer. My first real world event of 2022 is the Blue Magpie Craft Fair on Saturday the 30th of April. It's a lovely event organised by Anna Taylor who makes the most amazing food including lots of delicious cakes. The fair actually takes place in Anna's home Elmslie House in Malvern. More information can be found on the Blue Magpie website https://www.bluemagpie.co.uk/

Tutton and Young - Made for Ukraine

I screen printed a finished edition of twenty 'Blue and Yellow Sunflowers' using hand cut stencils and just two colours. They are printed on A4 size 300gsm white Snowden cartridge paper and the colours are lovely and bright. But I was a bit nervous about trying to sell all the prints for charity on my own. Very luckily Tutton and Young decided to organise 'Made for Ukraine' on Instagram and they put a call out for makers to participate by selling or auctioning work in aid of the Disaster Emergency Committee's Ukraine appeal. I was glad to be able to participate in the week long online event alongside fifty other makers! The event started on Monday the 14th of March and by Tuesday evening my edition of twenty sunflower screen prints had all sold out and raised £500 for the DEC! The prints sold so well I decided to screen print a small second edition of ten 'Blue and Yellow Sunflowers'. They have almost all sold and so far raised about £750 in total. I'm really hoping this will help people fleeing the devastating war in Ukraine. The news has been so distressing and I think we all need something positive to hope for.

Blue and Yellow Sunflowers for Ukraine

I've been working out how to screen print my sunflower design using hand cut stencils and just two colours; the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag... or at least what Google told me they are! I redrew my sunflower design so it had a background similar to the flag. Next I carefully hand cut a stencil for each of the two colours. Then I screen printed the blue background including some of the details like the petals and leaves. Finally I added a layer of yellow and where the two colours overlapped they created green. There were some problems printing the little sunflower seeds so I needed to make some slight changes. But apart from that the sunflowers worked well and I decided to screen print a finished edition to sell to help raise money for charities working in Ukraine. The wonderful culture, traditions and folk art of Ukraine often inspires my work so I wanted to show some support and solidarity for the Ukrainian people. 

Rainbow Stencil Screen Printing Workshop

This never gets boring! I've been using simple hand cut stencils to screen print overlapping layers of magenta, cyan and yellow ink which creates rainbow coloured prints. It's so much fun and the possibilities are endless which is why I'll be teaching a 'Rainbow Stencil Screen Printing' one day course at Leicester Print Workshop. To prepare for my course I'm making new examples and resources which will help me show how to create designs suitable for screen printing, how to make hand cut stencils and how to screen print rainbow coloured prints! As well as demonstrating the technique and supporting participants to make their own prints I'll also provide handouts with instructions and a list of all the materials and equipment needed. My course takes place at Leicester Print Workshop on Saturday the 19th of March 2022 and runs from 10am until 4pm. It's a great location near Leicester city centre and easy to get to on public transport or by car. More information about the day and details of how to book can be found on the LPW website http://www.leicesterprintworkshop.com/courses/