Blog

What a time I’ve been having over the past 2 months!

I’ve been working like a demon towards the show at the Arts Club in November. In fact it has become a bit like a runaway train for the last few weeks between trying to finish work (and get it dry in time for framing!), as well as photographing it, organising invitations, flyers and publicity, (and buttering up LSH to help!).

On top of this we went to London for the opening of the (first) National Original Print Exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in London.

Please excuse my tardiness in writing recently, but I’ve been on a roll work-wise, and was afraid I’d lose momentum and come to an abrupt halt!!! It happens; and it is crippling when it does.

I am presently on my ninth new piece, the last two etchings being twice the size of the previous ones, so progress has been slower. But I took time out to do the ice bucket challenge and to see the fantastic exhibition, Art of the Troubles, at the Ulster Museum. I actually thought I’d missed it, and got to see it on the second last day! It is extremely powerful and really should travel to venues in Dublin and London - especially in light of the 2oth anniversary of the IRA cease-fire.

What a weekend! Most people are probably a bit disappointed with the classic bank holiday weather we’re experiencing….raven coloured skies and torrential rain. But I have found it fantastic to work through, even if it meant having the lights on all day. Bank holiday weekends are always great to work as most people are away, or assume we are away, and with the added “bonus” of rotten weather, I have no excuse to keep me out of the studio.

The weather’s affect in the studio has been very strange lately. It has been so hot that I have had to have all the doors and windows open. The acid bath is working very fast, a steel plate in the bath six minutes producing a velvety black! And the really odd thing is that the prints are taking much longer to dry. I have been really careful and have been changing the blotters and tissue every few days in order to make sure that they don’t get mouldy.