Stay Home, Stay Safe & Save Lives

It's easy for me to say stay home, stay safe and save lives during this terrible pandemic. Luckily my home studio is already set up, I'm used to working from my little house most of the time and there's always plenty to do here. I also spent a few days frantically preparing for the lock down... juggling my finances and ordering some of the necessities I need to carry on working and screen printing. But even so I am finding the situation hard particularly as I've had very little income for the last two weeks and will have almost no money coming in for the next few months. One by one all of my workshops, projects and events have been cancelled until at least June. There probably won't be sales from shops and galleries now because most have had to temporarily close. My expenses on the other hand will continue as I still have monthly subscriptions and other work related bills to pay. Many of my friends and colleagues are also freelance, self employed and run small businesses. We are all feeling as if we have forgotten about and there generally seems to be a lack of understanding of what we do and how we contribute to the economy.

Happy Prints for a Sad Day

Here's a reminder of happier, more positive times... some of my colourful screen prints from a few years ago. They're all inspired by Polish and Eastern European folk art. Through my work I've been lucky to have met many interesting people from Central & Eastern Europe as well as British people with Eastern European heritage. So today I am thinking of all those who have made the UK their home and in particular the ones who have become my friends. I am hoping they will be treated fairly over the coming months and allowed to continue living and working in this country.

Colourful Screen Print Commission

Earlier this month I finished my first commission of 2020! It was a bit of a challenge as I was asked to screen print larger versions of two of my limited edition screen prints. Luckily they were both one colour designs but matching the original colours was harder than I expected and meant printing quite a few samples. Once that was done I had to print out A3 transparencies then coat and expose two screens. Lastly I spent a morning screen printing the two designs and making sure there were no mistakes! Printing was a little stressful but worth the effort in the end. It was nice to see my artwork bigger for a change and I feel inspired to create more larger prints in the future!

Snail Mail

2020 got off to a slow start with these new snail greetings cards for people who like snail mail! I screen printed a little test run of them with green and metallic purple ink on some left over recycled card. Printing was slow though as the second colour was very difficult to register. But at least the colour combination worked well... it's not true that green and purple should never be seen!

Christmas Angel

There's just one angel decoration left so that must mean it's almost Christmas! Happy to have survived another year and to have made it through another very busy festive season. Looking forward to some time off to recover from everything and hopefully starting to feel creative again. Already planning what to screen print for the new year. Have a good holiday however you choose to spend it and best of luck for 2020!

Summer Screen Printing Workshops

I have a few screen printing workshops coming up so at the moment I'm preparing some new examples to help explain the technique. Today I decided to go back to basics and create a very simple design inspired by George Braque's 'Birds in Flight'. First I hand cut paper stencils of my design and then I used one stencil to screen print a blue background. While that was drying I washed my screen and set up to print my next layer of colour. I used my second stencil to add some pale blue birds on top of the blue background. I did this all in just a morning and that is the great thing about screen printing with paper stencils... it's so quick and accessible! It doesn't require any nasty chemicals and all the materials and equipment are affordable as well as readily available. I'll be teaching this technique on Saturday the 10th of August at the RBSA Gallery. I also have another workshop there on Wednesday the 23rd of October. More details about these and lots of other workshops can be found on the gallery's website http://www.rbsa.org.uk/

More Art in the Park!

Back in Birmingham after a busy weekend at Art in the Park Festival in Leamington Spa. I enjoyed exhibiting my screen prints in the beautiful setting of the Royal Pump Rooms alongside other artists and designer makers. Although we didn't get the same footfall as stall holders in the park I still met lots of friendly visitors... including someone who I was on art foundation with about 20 years ago! It was lovely to be with fellow exhibitors from Birmingham especially Gosia Weber. She very kindly took me and my work to Leamington every day which was a huge help and meant I could take some framed prints. I also displayed plenty of publicity materials for future events and the RBSA Gallery leaflets were particularly popular with visitors! Overall the experience was a positive one and I feel I made the most of it. I hope I have the opportunity to take part in future events in Leamington and Warwickshire.