Notes from the Sketchbook

 I always enjoy heading off in whatever direction my feet happen to carry me with a sketchbook and selection of drawing equipment. Normally fairly basic, quick and easy to use items like watercolour pencils, a few soft pastels and plenty of soft pencils. This year has taken me to Shetland, Sutherland, Galway, Skye, the Lake District and the Perthshire hills so far with some great wildlife spotting including huge bird colonies, dolphins, orca and a sparrowhawk which made itself at home on my parents lawn on Skye one morning.

Here is a small selection from the current sketchbooks....

Two books

During the spring I had the pleasure of working on illustrations for two very different books, 'The Dumb House' by John Burnside and 'A Portable Shelter' by Kirsty Logan.

'The Dumb House' published by Penguin Random House in their Vintage Classics collection tells the dark story of obsession with the nature of language, exploitation and revenge.

Meanwhile 'A Portable Shelter' is a collection of short stories which take the reader through a seemingly timeless world somewhere between dream, fairytale and contemporary life. It required the creation of a number of related works for chapter headings and a vintage style cover printed in black and silver foil onto hardback binding, published by ASLS.

All of the artwork was created using linocut printmaking, using half tones in black and white for 'A Portable Shelter' (this effect is achieved by stripping some ink from the block with a sheet of newsprint before printing). For 'The Dumb House' I opted to use two blocks with a black and white 'key' and also a colour block which could be inked up in sections. 

Both are released this month and I've just received my eagerly awaited copies so now its time to actually read the full text!
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Summer update

Well its been a wee while since the last post and a very busy few months with trips to Shetland and Sutherland plus I've been working on some exciting illustration projects. 
More about them once the publication dates are a bit closer...but I can reveal that I've been working with Scottish author Kirsty Logan on her new book "A Portable Shelter" which will be released during the Edinburgh International Book Festival next month.

In the meantime a couple of new linocut prints

Entrance to Khanderao on show in London

I'm absolutely delighted that "Entrance to Khanderao" which I made following a three month residency and drawing trip to north west India has been accepted into the RI show in London next month. http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/royal-institute-painters-water-colours

Solo Exhibition, Aberdeen

 
Here is a little preview of some of the works I will be showing at the Rendezvous Gallery in Aberdeen from 7th March 2015. Based on the walk between the homes of my parents and granny on the Isle of Skye they are a series of places which hold a special resonance for me. http://new.rendezvous-gallery.co.uk//

New linocut prints

 

 So I have been busily printing away over the last month or two making these couple of new linocuts among other things. The terns were inspired by a trip to the Isle of May nature reserve earlier in the year and the experience of being mobbed as we made our way up through the nesting site away from the jetty. Its somewhere I'd like to return to for longer with a big blank sketchbook!

Santa Fe

Well its been an incredible month or so working in Santa Fe, New Mexico during July and August with master printmakers Ron Pokrasso, Lennox Dunbar and Don Messec. I have learnt so much over the past few weeks and am itching to get back into the studio and start some new ideas. 

Much of the work was very much monoprint and monotype based allowing for very painterly results and "one-off" images rather than mulitples and editions. For me it was the perfect way to expand on that blurry area on the margins of painting and printmaking where the work is neither quite one thing or the other.

 

For example this piece again based on some of my Cuban drawings where I combined photo-etch, monotype, chine colle, collage and drawing. And below some work in progress at Ron's studio, having fun getting lots of colours, shapes and textures down onto the paper before either working back into them to bring out a composition or cutting up to use as collage.

I'd also like to say a special word of thanks to the lovely people at the Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation whose support made possible all of my travels and learning over the past year. I'm incredibly grateful for such a wonderful set of experiences.