On returning from the desert, and encountering devils….

There’s been a bit of a dearth of artwork around here lately: not a self-imposed abstinence you understand – I have not really been lost in a barren wilderness, I have simply had too many other things to do. Wall-to-wall exhibitions, and the total overhauling of my studio, for a start. The exhibitions have finished now; the studio is still in a state of flux. At some point everything will be beautifully organized, but, mirage-like, this vision seems to recede with the same speed as I approach it.

Here, for instance, are my newly painted and installed shelves for the day-to-day stuff that I need all the time (sellotape, paint, scissors, pens, sellotape, brushes, paper, stamps and sellotape, to name a few):

shelf of pears

Several dozen pears were not on the list of ‘everyday stuff I need to use’. And yet, there they were, falling off the tree, and there were these lovely clear shelves. I had to move five pumpkins from the desk as well, before I could get on with any work this week. So, the studio re-shaping continues, hampered by industrial quantities of fruit.

Finally however, I actually had to do some ‘proper art’ because the etching studio term began yesterday. One of the people who bought a set of my ‘Drinking Nudes‘ coasters asked if I would be able to do her another set of devils on coasters. I am hoping a few people might share her tastes because I decided to do them as drypoint prints, just like the Drinking Nudes. This was actually a perfect start-of-term project, because I can do drypoint at home: the image is simply scratched into the metal with a pointy tool, no chemicals. So, on the backs of the aluminium plates I had used for the drinking nudes coasters I proceeded to draw my devils. See this post for a few photos of the original printing plates.

Here are the designs I printed yesterday:

drinking devil one

I am thinking I might add a little colour by painting the wine in red, but I’ve not tried that yet.

drinking devil two

There should be 6 designs in the end, but the thing with drypoint, I am told, is that it is best to print all the prints that you want off a plate in one go, as the plate will generally not clean up and print well the next week. Besides which, I haven’t drawn the other 4! So, 13 of each design, 26 prints all printed yesterday, which took a bit of effort, even for little ones. After which time the plate was wearing down, and so was I….

26 drypoint prints

So now I need another 4 devils to complete the set, and a catchy title. Hmm…