printed material

I am patiently waiting for 2016 to end and open a door on another chapter. I hope it will be better than the one we've had this year. It has been like a year like no other in my memory with contrasting highs and lows. Sadly, more lows than highs.

For someone of my tender age we've lost  musical heroes this year in David Bowie and  Prince, and then we lose Rick Parfitt and George Michael within two days of each other. News about Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds seals a week of strange tidings and has had me wondering 'who next?'
A phone call today tells me that 'who next' is an old friend from newspaper days who passed away in Ireland yesterday after a long fight with cancer. We had e mail exchanges this year when he was well enough to write and his humour will leave me with wonderful memories of friendship.

The political upheaval of Brexit in the summer had me wondering if the inmates were now running the asylum. Recent events here and abroad makes me conclude that they might be. So many others seems to have an agenda that differs to mine. I want the impossible it seems. I'd like to see a resolution in Syria in 2017 and hope for refugees. Faint hope I suspect.

I am not usually so introspective but I think the biggest loss, that of the passing of Leonard Cohen, has made me so this year. Revisiting the  words from 'Anthem' makes me realise what an important step change there has been in 2016. Eyes down for something more positive in 2017. Bring it on.

So, Winter is finally here. Up early to catch the sunrise, peering out into the dawn and thinking of all those people on Glastonbury Tor or at Stonehenge doing the same thing like an annual ritual. The days have already felt short and very dark so today will feel no different. Amazingly, on the other side of the world, friends are celebrating the Summer Solstice. Do take a look at Barry's incredible sunrise in Australia. Here in Wales it was dull and cloud heavy. I could happily do a swap!
It's one of those days of the year that I try to record in words. I look for a poem that says what I want to say. That means turning to my favourite poet, the outstanding Alice Oswald and the best collection ever - The Thing in the Gap Stone Stile. I have picked 'Prayer' for 2016:

Here I work in the hollow of God's hand
with time bent round into my reach. I touch
the circle of the earth, I throw and catch
the sun and moon by turns into my mind.
I sense the length of it from end to end,
I sway me gently in my flesh and each
point of the process changes as I watch;
the flowers come, the rain follows the wind.

And all I ask is this - and you can see
how far the soul, when it goes under flesh,
is not a soul, is small and creaturish -
that every day the sun comes silently
to set my hands to work and that the moon
turns and returns to meet me when it's done.

 I am finding this December such a delight. This dry mild weather means glorious sunsets and some misty mornings. Yesterday brought the first touch of frost for us in the west but it disappeared as the sun rose, leaving everything weeping tears. It is all looking decidely ragged out there in the garden now but we resist the temptation to cut down the seedheads of the teasels, eupatoriums and hydrangeas until the bitter end. There's a lot of other seedheads too which are providing food for the birds and huge joy for us as we watch them plunder the treasure. The hardy Shoo Fly seed pod cases are getting more papery by the day and I shall harvest them for next years seed  soon but they look like winter stars on their long stalks and I keep thinking they'll last a little longer yet. It's hard to believe we are in the throes of Christmas lunches although with just over a week to the winter solstice, it has started to get dark here by 4pm and the days are most definitely shorter.  But it's been a magnificent autumn this year and I want it to continue for a bit longer. Please.

 There's little point in making apologies for the lack of blogging because it has only crossed my mind occasionally throughout this autumn. Hasn't it been a glorious one here? There's been lots of walking, lots of collecting things on those walks and plenty of drawing and prints ensuing. I have been playing around with drypoint print  ideas and working on a few book ideas, one all about beetles and the other looking at childhood memories of my home town of Bristol. It involves learning to sew with my Mum and my great aunt Lilla and the books are both so different that I am really enjoying working between the two ideas in tandem.




 Using some of my imagery from old patterns bought by my aunt in the old Bristol department stores of Lewis's and Jones's I went up to Bristol yesterday and spent the day learning to expose my photos and create screenprints from them. I did a fantastic one day course with an artist named Simon Tozer who was really generous with his time and expertise. The sewing ideas are all part of the book idea but I also produced a two screen  A4 print from a photo I took of some of my 'Batsford' books.
These great little books were published in the 60's and 70's and have some unbeatable titles. Some of them have become very collectable and are no longer a second  hand bargain price, but others are still there for pennies online and the graphics and the ideas are as valid now as they were 40 years ago. Do look out for them!

I think screenprinting is now firmly  'another' of my favourite things but it's that time of year to prepare for something else... but I'm still not going to mention the C word I promise. Instead I'm going to concentrate on the things I intend to do in 2017 such as finish those beetle and sewing books and prepare for delivering more workshops.

I shall be teaching another book workshop at the Yard Artspace in March and do take a look at Sue's programme for 2017 as she has managed to lure Sarah Morpeth to Cheltenham for a weekend of papercutting and bookmaking which should be really exciting. Before that I start a five week mixed media collage course locally which will be five individual all day workshops run fortnightly through January to March. Can't wait to see that happen and I am preparing samples daily for it. This is a course I've devised from scratch so I hope it goes well!

I'm also working on some prints for a postcard print exchange I've been invited to join. There are six of us but I'm the only one in the northern hemisphere. Everyone else is in Australia and I am really excited about taking part. Given posting times and drying times I am already working on my first set of prints which has to be posted in January. No reveals as I cannot spill the beans in advance but when the time is right......

With the days so busy and posting so infrequent it may well be that it is time to shut the door on the blog. Instagram is beckoning me and I feel like it might suit my needs. Who knows?  But if I decide to take the plunge I'll let you know!