Later....

OK -back at the coal face :here are the Dublin photos I mentioned, without further comment:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might notice that there hasn't n=been a lot of mention of screenprinting...... that's not because it hasn't been happening but it hasn't been happening very well.

I have been trying out other modes of screenblock - screen drawing fluid, oil pastel, tape, screen filler - all with limited success. For example, crayon does not dissolve anything like as easily as the books would have you think.

The other thing is, I am not at all sure that I am doing the right thing with the acrylic to make an ink - a lot is coming through the screen with consequent over loading of the print;

Anyway, I will take some pictures of what I have done and will try once more.

 

 

As you can see, pretty messy, but I think I have one idea as to what is going wrong  -impatience!!

 

 

 

The Path Warms up

Was back in Limerick by train this morning - up early and out ; they thought in the station that I was back in school - No, dry run only , I told them!

Nonetheless, I resumed reading Robert Hughes and immediately came upon something interesting; he was reviewing a David Hockney show in MOMA (New York, 1988) and mentioned his prints. This prompted me to look up a book on Hockney I picked up a few years ago and these a re some of what I found:

 

Joe McDonald - lithograph 1976

 

Rue de Seine - etching, aquatint, 1972

 

Contre-Jour in the French Style - etching, 1974

 I hadn't associated Hockney with printwork at all and it just shows how important reading is.

This is probably a little more like what one might expect from him but it is a wonderful demonstration as to how effective watercolour can be -having been to this place I know how well it captures the atmosphere:

 

Andalucía. Mosque, Cordova, 2004

Why was I in Limerick  -to meet Barry and do some painting  - didn't go very far:

 

 

The photo is poor - as there was a lot more contrast; the picture was acrylic - it was strange to stand out at the end of the platform on which I walk most days and to paint there.

 

In Dublin again the other day and picked up some more interesting street images:

 

Ok I am getting a bit of resistance from the meedja so will return later.

 

 

The Printed Path

Here are a few books I have picked up in various places throughout the summer:

 

This one fascinated me following the letter press demo I was at - some great ideas

 

175 artists are profiled and 'the media, influences and themes that shape their practice' are described succinctly - quite sharp.

 This one is strange in that it is an attempt to portray information graphically rather than simply through words..... its very colourful, anyway!!

 

This is v new - Vol 4 of an old friend - admittedly a number of artists are repeated from previous vols , but new images - I still feel that these books are indispensable for anyone wanting to be au fait with contemporary art practice

 

I picked this up in one of my favourite shops - a remainder store on Georges St. in Dublin - the actual title is ' Newspeak - British Art Now from the Saatchi Gallery, London' - so at least you know where it is coming from;  it is a small bit pretentious  and even a little parochial,....and satisfied with its own coolness, but the publisher is Booth-Cliborn Editions who have produced some interesting volumes in the past.

 

Here are two artists who have always been very high on my personal list; Calder's mobiles really caught my imagination in the 60s; Durer's draughtsmanship is, I believe still without parallel and those woodcuts....

 

 

 

This is the second volume of Richard Noyce's work and I believe there is another on the way - this is, of course more directly related to printmaking but again it is right up there with contemporary practice - again mandatory reading for printmakers.

 

 

This is the catalogue for Circulation .... a small bit of ego -waving!!!

 

 

 

Journals are also making an impact:

 

Kiblind  is a free art magazine that is distributed throughout France and I picked it up in a hotel in Marseille during the summer - it has a good website  -  kiblind.com  - which is worth visiting

 

Just yesterday, I picked up this:

 

This seems to be a re-branded version of the journal I have previously bought because the editorial staff are the same but the layout is completely different. I have just noticed what is written along its spine:

 

No one love art like we love art - our experts show you how to love it safely

 

I hope this is some sort of an exercise in deep irony.

 

Anyway, there seems to be a lot more ad content but I must show you one entry from the 'Listings and Classified' section:

 

 More irony ....... or what?

The last thing I would like to talk about is a review from London Review of Books; this is a regular column on art shows -'At Tate Britain' - which attends various big exhibitions and this one is really interesting in that it is a 2 -page (usually max of one, or even half) in depth on ' Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life'.  What is perhaps surprising is strength of positive feeling expressed in this piece. It would certainly seem as if there is a reassessment of Lowry's abilities and his place in modern art.
On the other hand, I wonder is this perhaps part of what appears to be an increasingly introverted view England (Britain?) seems to be taking of itself. Maybe this is a slightly more subtle version of the apparent rise of nationalism all over Europe - and maybe the world.

That said the Lowry show is fascinating on his drawings but does not mention his late landscapes which I always thought where quite arcane:

 

Wuthering Heights -Lowry        - not what you might expect

The Palindromic Path

...a little esoteric, that title..........well, the last post was the 12th....ok?

As per the overarching tone of this summer - continued travel with a trip to Dublin followed the next day by a cross-country run to Ros Muc in Connemara to visit the ancestral house of a friend which has been refurbished; very remote and with its own pier which allowed some gorgeous swimming at high tide - lying on ones back looking at 'mare's tail' clouds dry-brushed across a cerulean sky: doesn't get much better than that.
A couple of interesting images:

 

Couldn't get a better angle on this as it was rather high up on an internal wall - it could be an idealised view of Connemara but the interesting thing is that it is a collage... of overlaid sheets of copper; I have never seen anything quite like it but unfortunately nobody seemed to know anything about it. That's not a great description but it was very unusual.

 

 

To the left front was the swimming area; I reproduced this one in B/W because I feel that the west of Ireland is very stark in its tones and shapes .

 

 

This totally demonstrates how kitschy nature can be - no artistic sense at all; that said, all present maintained that they had never been so close to the end of a rainbow but that the water was a bit deep for gold-hunting.

 

Another tasteless view from the same point:

 

 

 

 

The little sign says 'Valley Ice Cream' - used to be made in Thurles (home) in 1980s - dear me how parochial one has become!

 

 

 

One final cliché - a poet friend of mine (now sadly dead) once said to me that clichés are clichés because they are true - take what you want from that.

During the course of my travels I was doing a lot of driving and at one point I was quite tired: when I opened the door of the car to get out this was what I was  parked over:

That has to be one of the best pieces of ground art I have seen.



Ok  -you might think I was just swanning around enjoying myself but there has been a fair amount of work done as well:

 

This drawing which continues to ruminate on the theme of teeth,steel, rust and decay was done while in Ros Muc (not just sitting around enjoying myself y'know) and will hopefully eventually produce some interesting prints.

 

The second screen print was completed too, with very mixed success . Here are some shots of the process and then I will comment:

 

 

The original photo taken from Georges quay on the way to CCS last March

 

Pastel and charcoal study from the pic

 

 

rough drawing for print

 

Gouache colour study for print

 

drawing for stencils

 

 

Stencils

 

 

Various stages

 

This one was out of register for one stencil  but I decided to keep it

 

Ok - I have to tell you that the pictures probably look a little better than the reality; there was a lot of cleaning up to be done. I think my biggest problem was that I wasn't all that familiar with stencil-making and I was a bit mean with the freezer paper; consequently there were a number of leaks around the edges of the stencils; I have made up my mind that I will recut the stencils and give it another try -at least this time  I have  a better idea of what I am at.

 

At the same time there are a couple of other things I would like to try.

 

Next post will be about books and steel..........gnomic comments.

 

the Path from the Past

In my haste to tell all about Dublin, I almost forgot another art-orientated trip we took last Tuesday. About a week before, this arrived in the post:

 

It proved to be an invitation to a book launch ,the person concerned being Gerry Waldron , who was a school-mate, college-mate and flat-mate and ultimately  best man at my wedding. He gave up dentistry twenty years ago to concentrate on his art and has become a very accomplished sculptor and painter( but mainly the former).

The launch was in Mullingar; we drove up for it and a wonderful evening it was, renewing friendship . Really, though we will have to meet again when we can discuss our respective views on art which are rather different.
Here is the book, front and back:

 

Wouldn't want to have missed that.