More clever woodcutters

Finally found a few minutes to sort out a couple of photos from my woodcut class at Brooklyn Studios last Sunday.  The sheer inventiveness and skill of almost complete beginners never fails to surprise and delight me.  So here's two different takes on a woodland theme - Anna with her beguiling stag, and Rachel with her fabulous foxglove in the forest.

If you are interested in learning how to make woodcuts, my next intensive one day course is on Sunday 21st November, 10.30 am to 4 pm, at Brooklyn Studios off Valley Road in Hebden Bridge.  For more details contact me via, angie(dot)rogers(at)talk21.com.  This will be my final workshop during 2010.

Messy Studio

 

This week I've been working very intensively on a commissioned series of woodcuts, and the studio has started to become chaotic - you can't really see the mess in this photo but there's heaps of wood shavings all over the floor and my main work surface is piled high with tools, coffee cups, bits of tracing paper, ink and paint, ugh!

The commission is for Pennine Prospects, a local regeneration organisation based in Hebden Bridge.  Its the same company that's involved in the Watershed - Inspired by landscape residency I'll be doing next year. 

 

Working out the design for this Twite aka Pennine Finch in its natural habitat has been a challenge.  The leaves of the Yarrow are so feathery and finely detailed, my eyes are all mixed up.  The thing that looks like a giant bee, hovering over the Yarrow is actually a large knot in the wood, exposed when I gouged too deeply in a moment of wandering concentration!

My Studio Space

This is part of my studio space looking pretty cluttered.  Its a very small area and I have to fit in all my various tools, equipment, materials and work in progress, so unless I'm very disciplined it all breaks down quickly into a chaotic mess.

December trees in October

I've been asked to deliver an arty workshop for around 25 people attending a project evaluation day at Cartwright Hall, Bradford in December.

There's only one and a half hours to complete the task so it has to be something simple and straightforward.

The project is connected with the natural environment and the people will spend time viewing the botanical garden around Cartwright.

The magnificent mature trees are a dominant feature of the grounds and I wanted to focus on these if possible.

So I've designed this small book, made from 3 pieces of A3 card with a black jute closure.  The structure is a very basic flag book and is easily adaptable in terms of colour for any season of the year.

I doubt if it will actually be snowing at the start of December but you never know...

Edition in progress

So here's the result of cutting out the strips and joining them together to make the concertina.

I've printed this on my trusty old Epson 2100 pigment ink printer, using Somerset Enhanced paper. I love the matte surface and the richness of the colour but I'm not sure how well this paper would stand up to the wear and tear a book undergoes. So still plenty of work to do before I can make my edition for selling.

To compare this facsimile with the original hand-painted book go to: http://www.angierogers.com/#/land-books/4532044100

Artist's Books

Preparing portfolios of work for recent  interviews has made me take a long look at all the artist's books I've made in the past few years.  At Cliffe Castle Keighley for the 'Watershed - Inspired By Landscape' residency interview I was given plenty of time to set out my books on long tables which was ideal as they are mostly in the concertina format. I was pleased by the impact they made en masse and the reaction of the interview panel.

Nearly all of the books I've constructed are 'unique' in the sense that there is only one copy. This means that even if I wanted to sell them, they would be too expensive for marketing in my local area. I'd love to make more editions using wide commercial printing to speed up the making process and I'm hoping that an exciting new development might enable this, but its still hush hush until I've had confirmation, so more of that later.

In the meantime, here's a picture of the lay-out for A3 printing of my Walk Around Ogden Water book.  I quite like how it looks all in a block, but its actually meant to be cut into strips to make the concertina.