printed material

 Some friends have asked me to run a day of monoprinting for them in  a couple of week's time. Most of them are selling artists but they all paint and I think printmakers use a different part of our brains so I am up for the challenge. I will probably concentrate on the subtractive side of monoprinting as I think it will appeal to they way they work but I must not assume and need to have all the areas covered on the day. I don't do monoprinting that often so I've been working in the shed for the past week or so revisiting all of the techniques and having a play. I have had a whale of a time and found myself chomping at the bit to get up there every day, something that I am guilty of avoiding if my mind is occupied elsewhere. I have stayed focussed and found a huge range of dried plant material I layered into a few telephone directories last summer and promptly forgot about.
 As is the way with monoprinting, once you start, one print leads to another as you amass all the stencil and printed elements and keep turning them over or printing a ghost. Some are unmitigated disasters but if you keep layering print on print you come up with some intriguing things. All are completely unrepeatable and when I look at some of them I am already hard pressed to know how they came to being! I have raced through a large pile of paper and am awaiting much needed supplies in order to continue.
 I've lost count of the number of prints I've pulled but as the paper supply dwindled I needed something to use up the ink I'd put out and I found a stack of small bookmarks in the drawer that I cut a couple of years ago for the UWE Bookmarks project. I tediously cut 100 of them and then went and did something else so they've languished there for a couple of years now.....
 Well, no longer as I started to use them to finish off the ink I'd put out. On the first session I was using black and a couple of days later I'd moved onto an Azure Blue. Each time I've put some aside and then worked on a few of them in the second colour. Today was colour number three, an intense cadmium orange. I'd been looking at some bedlinen online the other day in vibrant blue and orange and knew I just had to roll out the juicy citrus shade for today. I've almost got a bit carried away with something that I started merely to use up materials. Back to the real focus tomorrow I think. Time to get subtractive and roll out the black ink again. Can't beat a bit of monochrome monoprint!

' ..the flowers appear on the earth... the time of the singing of birds is come.' Song of Solomon 2:12
 

 It certainly is the time for birds and flowers. What a wonderful Spring we are having. Everything is lush and green and for once, Wales has had a respite from the usual rain which means flowers are lasting longer. Our amelanchiers and magnolias have been nothing short of sublime. Albeit fleeting in their appearance usually, this year has seen an abundance of blossom lasting at least a week longer. Just gorgeous, but I am often drawn more to the simpler things. After a gorgeous display of snowdrops this winter the banks have been taken over now by primroses. Masses of them. It is a long time since I've seen so many. I noticed yesterday that the violets are also now in flower next to them and the bluebells are on their way. We are at that pivot point of the year when you feel everything is about to tip into loveliness.
 It is sad therefore to mention birds singing and then show this poor thing.
 We had the hottest day of the year yesterday. I think Wales touched 20 degrees but it felt much hotter up by my shed which is very open. I was working away at something in the morning and when I came back after lunch I found this beautiful song thrush on the ground outside. There are stickers all over the door to stop birds flying into it but this one was under the window and I can only think it was the reflection on such a hot day that must have blinded it. I was only away for half an hour and was saddened to return to this sight.
He or she was given a proper burial after these photographs were taken and I've now put stickers all over the window as well. I wanted to draw it but it was so hot I knew we had to get it covered quickly. Earlier in the day I noticed a pair of song thrushes in our large ash tree and I have a horrible feeling that someone has now lost a mate.
There are signs of that Spring ritual all around us. We've had huge enjoyment watching a pair of sparring young male blackbirds fighting for territory. Every time we look over to our greenhouse area they are giving it their all. Whilst they are doing that in readiness for next year, there has been a pair going in and out of one of our bay trees right by the back door. It seems too early but they are going in and out with beakfuls of worms and when I stopped by it yesterday afternoon I could hear lots of tiny cheepings. I moved on quickly and left them to it as we never interfere with nature's way.
Whilst they are advanced other birds seem to be just getting going. There is joy for us because we keep seeing a pair of goldcrests and a pair of long tailed tits in our front garden flying between two bushes. I would find either of them nesting nearby a real treat.
This morning, whilst writing this, I've noticed a couple of male bullfinches and one female. The males are striking at this time of year. Their chestnut plumage deepens slightly and becomes a beacon to the female. It's not unusual for us to see them but it is never for too long so I must make the most of it.
Got to get back up to the shed and finish yesterday's project first though. Still working with those beetles. Obsessed with the things but might have to do something bird related now. Can't say I don't have enough going on around me to inspire something!