Field Work

 Drawings made on last Sundays trip out with Carly. Leaving the car at Widdop Gate on the Hebden Bridge to Colne road we walked up the Gorple track and skirted round Lower Gorple Reservoir then cut up the small valley to the ruined farm at Raistrick Greave before climbing on to the moor top by the medieval reaps cross before dropping back down to the car. Good numbers of Green Hairstreak Butterflies, Curlews everywhere and at least 5 pairs of Golden Plover on the moor top.

Green Hairstreak Butterfly, although almost all the individuals seen only had a few white dots rather than the full white hairstreak on the hind wing.

Raistrick Greave Farm, dating from around the mid 1600's and abandoned sometime around 1890 ish.

The medieval Reaps Cross, much repaired over the centuries and now missing it's cross pieces.

Reaps Cross and Golden Plovers flying passed. Lower Gorple reservoir in the middle ground and the watershed between the Calder and Aire Valleys on the horizon.

Slow Start

I've been struggling for ideas for the last couple of months and the old year kind of ground to a halt in a pile of half finished and then abandoned images. At the end of last summer I finished grounding a new mezzotint plate but since then I haven't started any work on it. I just can't come up with a suitable subject or image that I feel inspired enough by, to commit to for long enough to finish the engraving. So earlier this month I packed my sketching bag and went down to St Aidens for a days drawing. This hasn't immediately resulted in a new print but it has got me working in a positive vein again.

Great Crested Grebe. Pencil and Watercolour

Male Stonechat. Pencil and Watercolour

Glossy Ibis. Pen and Ink

Glossy Ibis. Pen and Ink

Glossy Ibis. Pencil and Watercolour

Great White Egret. Pencil and Watercolour

Great White Egret. pencil and Watercolour

Great White Egret. Pencil and Watercolour

Little Egret. Pencil and Watercolour

The view south across the reedbeds. St Aidens. Pencil and  Watercolour.

Back in the studio I stuck a piece of engravers plastic onto an mdf block and working from an old pen and ink scraperboard drawing of a Dipper. Made this little 75mm x 100mm engraving.

Engraved and inked block

Dipper

75mm x 100mm

Plastic Engraving.

Edition of 50

Printed on some of my last remaining sheets of Zerkall smooth paper.

Delving into the archives

Usually my prints are made from recently drawn sketches and fresh ideas. Sometimes though a sketch may have laid unused for years. This latest print evolved from one such drawing. Looking at my range of subject matter it's all a bit haphazard and I thought it might be a good idea to create a body of more unified work. Something that I haven't done since a solo exhibition I held at Doncaster Art Gallery 8 years ago. With that in mind I started thinking about some of the memorable encounters that I've had over the years; Pine Marten in Scotland, Golden Eagle in the Lake District and Otters in Wales, Leighton Moss in Lancashire and also in Scotland. Thinking along these lines I realised that it was a long time since I had last seen an Otter. It's even longer since I last saw a Pine Marten but going back to the subject of Otters I turned up the drawings of the last sighting I had. Twelve years ago my wife and I happened to be in Dumfries in Southern Scotland. We had parked in a carpark beside the river and on returning noticed a large crowd of people leaning against the railings looking at something in the water. Naturally we went over to be nosey, assuming they were just watching kids playing around in the water. What we saw was an Otter fishing below the weir just underneath the footpath. Fortunately I had a small A6 notebook in my pocket and a stubby bit of pencil and managed a few scribbled sketches, more as a record of the encounter than with any expectation of them being the basis of anything further. I splashed the watercolour on later to fix the pencil and stop it smudging any further than it already had.

Looking at these sketches recently I began to think that maybe something could be made of them and I doodled up the design below in black biro.

It had possibilities so I drew a more refined design in pen and ink to the size of  a spare wood block that I had.

and then made a tracing to transfer to the block.

After a couple of days engraving I had this

The Fisher King

Wood Engraving on Maple Wood

100mm x 75mm

Fieldwork

 A couple of pages of drawings made yesterday at the RSPB St Aidens reserve in the Aire Valley between Leeds and Castleford.

Black necked Grebes, Pen and Ink and Pencil and Watercolour.

Holiday Sketches

 Just back from a week in Norfolk, although a family holiday I did manage to get a few sketches done for future reference.

Happisburgh Lighthouse - Watercolour

Figs in the cottage garden - Pen and Ink and Watercolour

Cormorant perched on a groyne - Watercolour - and pen sketches of a Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

Groyne - Pen and Ink

Quiet Lane near Paston - Watercolour

Knapton Church tower - Watercolour

Sailing Boat on Horsey Mere - Pen and Ink

Red Admiral Butterfly - Horsey Mere - Watercolour

Cut wheatfield near Mundesley with quick sketch of a startled Chinese Water Deer - Pen and Ink

Paston Great Barn - the sketch that didn't work - Pen and Ink

and the one that did - 2nd attempt - Pen and Ink

Grey Seal - Horsey Gap - Pencil and Watercolour

Fossils and Flints - Pen and Ink and Watercolour

Towards Bacton Church - Watercolour

Partly cut Wheatfield near Paston Villlage - Watercolour

Paston Church - Pen and Ink

Holiday Sketches

Just got back from a week on the Northumberland coast, a bit of a working holiday as I managed to get some sketching done which will form the basis for a new body of prints over the coming months. Struggled a bit with the watercolours as the only sketch book I took with me was filled with really smooth paper, which whilst ideal for the pen and ink drawings that are my usual sketching medium didn't take the paint well.

The first sketch, drawn from the kitchen window on the evening of our arrival. A coble drawn up from the beach against a grey sea and sky. Pen and Ink and Watercolour.

Budle Bay, drawn whilst waiting for the tide to drop low enough to cross over the causeway to Lindisfarne. Watercolour.

Following the advice of Augustus John quoted at the head of this blog page. I don't usually go for the obvious and iconic views but couldn't resist this. Upturned boats converted into sheds with the castle beyond. Lindisfarne. Pen and Ink.

Whilst driving up the coast road there were hundreds of Butterflies all moving inland. Mostly Painted Lady's but with some Red Admirals too. On  Lindisfarne they were everywhere. Watercolour.

Another go at the boat sheds. Lindisfarne. Pen and Ink.

Quick pen and ink sketch of a lobster boat offshore with Gannets flying past.

Alnwick Castle drawn from beside the old Great North Road. Pen and Ink and Watercolour.

Pen and Ink drawing of the old Lime Kilns on Beadnell Harbour. Now seemingly used as the village dump. They were filled with old discarded fish boxes, lobster pots, a couple of rusty bicycles and an old freezer.

An evening view of Dunstanburgh Castle from the south. Watercolour.

Dunstanburgh Castle again, this time from the north looking across Beadnell Bay on a flooding tide. Evening. Watercolour.

Looking north across Budle Bay to Lindisfarne Castle on the horizon. Watercolour.

High tide at Beadnell. Pen and Ink.

Inner farne from the ramparts of Bamburgh Castle. Pen and Ink.

Great Black-backed Gulls, Cormorants and a couple of Goosanders at Beadnell sitting on rocks at high tide. Watercolour.
Click on the images to enlarge.