I’m not very arty, but every now and then I see something and think “that looks achievable, I could probably do that”. I do a bit of sketching, I like drawing birds in particular and have seen some amazing printing recently using linocut techniques. It seemed like something that was pretty straightforward and would work well with my basic sketches so I thought I’d give it a go.
One cheap linocut starter kit later and here we are. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I sketched out a rook on some paper until I was happy with the proportions etc. then sketched it out again on a slab of linoleum (seems like most people use tracing and carbon paper to copy designs across, which makes more sense). Once on the lino, you use the cutting tools to scrape away all the negative space, anywhere you want to show as white on the final print. This takes ages. The two small tools in the kit didn’t help, a bigger cutting tool would help with the larger areas.
Final step is to pour out some ink, coat a roller, then roll it over the lino block before placing some paper on top and pressing down with a wooden spoon. It’s so simple. I think I’m hooked. Need to think of some more designs now.
I’ve been busy with uni, work and then a family holiday this month. But I’ve still found time to procrastinate spend on a couple of lapsed hobbies.
10 years ago I picked up a Korg Volca beats just after they were released. A dirt cheap drum machine, with simple workflow, and a sound harking back to the classic modules of the 80s and 90s. I was full of good intentions of incorporating this in some low fi folk compositions. Then never really learned how to use it properly. It still sits on a shelf by my desk, unloved, to this day. However, I picked it up again the other week, when I was probably supposed to be doing something much more important and had a play with it.
(One day Threads posts will embed seamlessly into WordPress. Today is not that day. Click the links to hear the results)
Both those basic beats were drummed up (hah!) in just a few minutes. It’s so easy. I really need to spend more time with it. Frustratingly though, I don’t have a way to hook it up to a speaker at the same time as my guitar or my hardware synth (which I also should spend more time with). But if I can solve that problem soon I should start using the Volca more often while writing on the guitar and practicing in general (always was bad at practicing with a metronome).
While on holiday this week I also picked up a hobby I’ve tried starting loads of times over the years. I keep buying sketchbooks, pencils and pens, then carrying them around with me and never use them. Well, this time I spent a couple of nights sitting drawing in the holiday lodge then colouring the sketches with some pens. Mainly to try and impress my daughter really.
Blue tit (Cyanistes Caeruleus)
Goldfinch (Carduelis)
I love birds and wildlife and have always been jealous of people who can draw really detailed pictures of the birds and animals they see. Whenever I’ve tried in the past they always look really wonky. But I’m pretty chuffed with how this blue tit and goldfinch turned out. The blue tit is still a bit strangely proportioned, but the goldfinch is just about right. Think I just need to practice a bit more to get some consistency. I’ve never been a tidy artist and struggle with detail, which also comes across in these.
I might try some different pens next time or maybe even using some acrylic paints for a chance and see if that helps me get the details right.
Anyway I’m pretty happy with how both these bits of activities have turned out. Less happy about how much I’ve procrastinated from what I should have been doing instead, but that’s a whole other blog post!
The National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh are holding an exhibition at the moment called A Sense Of Place. It focuses on Joan Eardley’s work from two particular locations – Glasgow and the village of Catterline.
It’s an astounding exhibition, featuring items loaned from public and private collections far and wide. The Glasgow pieces, possibly her most famous work, are amazing. Capturing the children of the tenements and the world they inhabit. But it’s the Catterline rooms which stopped me in my tracks.
I lived in Catterline from the age of 8 until I was 18. Those are some important years I spent there. Our house was built in a new street behind the path on the cliffs to the old coastguard watchhouse which used to act as Eardley’s studio (one of three houses in the village she used). I am very, very familiar with the locations, subjects, and weather which Joan painted and the places she captured them from.
To see images of the pier which we used to jump off, the sea stack we used to climb and the cliffs we spent years roaming on large scale canvas taking up entire rooms of the National Gallery is breathtaking. It provoked a lot of powerful emotion and memories for me.
When I got home I tried to parse some of those thoughts and emotions into a poem called – A Sense Of Place, which you can hear in the reading below.
The tagline on the National Galleries website is “Art that inspires”. In this exhibition they certainly achieved that.
Mince and Skirlie 