Plays and entertainments

I decided to see more plays etc locally and in London.  Saw Importance of Being Ernest with Connie at the Old Rep in Brum and then Backbeat (which was so so) in London with her.  Pitmen Painters at Belgrade in Coventry was excellent although the background noises (eg pit, train etc) were horrendously loud.  The highlight has been One Man, Two Govnors with James Corden at The New Alexandra in Birmingham - a cross between a comedia de'l'arte with James as the Harlequin, a 60s farce, a pantomime and I don't know what else - I've not laughed so much in ages.  This is one of the reviews of the London production which actually sums up the Brum one http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/may/25/one-man-two-guvnors-review  A really funny moment was James asking the audience for a sandwich (he was hungry) and getting a response "I've got one if you want it ..."  James then explains that the whole premise of the following action is that he should remain hungry ... but "what kind of sandwich is it?"  as he contemplates what he should do ... the response "humus" enables him to decide - no!   If this was a plant (as were some others) it was a very funny one which went down extremely well with the locals!
Off tonight to see Journey's End at Belgrade - one that I've read about before but never had the opportunity to see. 
Oh, also went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at Stratford.  Not sure about the theatre but play excellent and, again, very funny.

Degas & the Ballet - Picturing Movement

Saw this exhibition on Monday with Catherine.  Really finely put together with alot of themes brought in eg photographic innovation, ballet, movement etc and how they were portrayed.  The RA had sourced alot of beautiful completed works (both oil and pastel) as well as a myriad of studies and it was really interesting to see the process at work.

Negotiated Module - Reference Books

I've had a good few weeks now of producing collagraphs and prints from them.  Learning alot about the processes which I've backed up with the following books:

Anthony Dyson - Printmakers' Secrets - interesting but not vital to my current studies.  However, have picked up an artist called Pilar Munoz who screenprints on wood and manipulated canvas.  Will investigate further.

Julia Ayres - Printmaking Techniques - some quite good information.  Betty Sellars uses cotton organza in layers onto wood collagraph plates.  A good idea is to paint the shapes with coloured acrylic medium to give some indication of tone in the finished print.

John Ross, Clare Romano, Tim Ross - The Complete Printmaker.  Interesting and very good basic stuff.

Brenda Hartill and Richard Clarke - Collagraphs and Mixed-Media Printmaking.  (One of A C Black's Printmaking Handbooks).  Excellent.  I am using it quite alot and finding out MASSES very time I do so.  

Steve Butt at uni is being very supportive too ... what I've learnt from him is that less is more ....

This one is ready inked up and had a layer of red applied - this layer wasn't awfully successful as I used a soft roller and got too much on the print.  The second print I produced went PINK of all things.  

Abortive attempt to work in the print room

Still unable to get into the uni print room - reasons have been - closed; no technician around; technician around but filling in for another staff member; technician briefing foundation students on H&S issues etc.  However, I do have an appointment on Tuesday so will try again on Monday ... if not Tues.

Came back home and thought that I would experiment with existing photographic images transfer onto bricks and wood as part of my original programme.  However ...

As soon as I put the prints into the water to remove the paper backing, all the print came off .... I had been expecting to have the transparency available so I could apply it using turpentine.  But this was not to be ... back to the drawing board!

So ... I revised my Programme and sent it off to my tutor ....

Photographic Course

This is running at the Botanical Gardens on Thursday nights.  This is what I've produced for my homework so far:

The brief for this was Bottle.  I am quite pleased with the sunshine through the wine but the main label is in shadow so I should think about spot lighting various parts of the image. 

An exercise in depth of field making the salt in focus.

These two have the brief of Shape and Space. 

Back to University

I've done what I said I would and produced a number of collagraphs to start printing up at uni.  I've had my first tutorial with Stuart Whipps for my final module and he has said okay to do the processing but I need to underpin it with context.  I am currently thinking about the things that I return to again and again for this.  My programme needs to be uploaded by Fri 14 Oct so only a week to get that sorted.

In the meantime, and what I've been doing since my last post, my mother-in-law has been extremely ill in Milton Keynes - spent her 90th birthday in hospital so my sister-in-law is over from Australia; and a long time friend has died very sadly after a three year illness.  I've also been to London, to Hartlepool and to Anglesey for holidays.  Had a new bathroom and loo and have had a bit of a Stanley Spencer fix going to Sandham and Cookham and again to Compton Verney to see the garden paintings which on balance turn out to be his lesser works albeit very interesting.

Trying to up my photographic skills so am doing an evening course based at the Botanical Gardens.