I promised you a cat bottom, so here it is! This one was taken from the very first post of my cat-of-the-day sketchbook blog: http://catoftheday.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/3/. It’s another mezzotint of course, printed from aluminium. The print is only 8cm square by the way, but if you want to see it quite close up, just click on the image. Here is the original sketch (below). Arthur is not really that stripy, but it was a starting point: And below – a few of the stages of making the plate:
Printing ‘The Spiky Cat’… I promised this post was coming! While I was making the printing plate in the previous post it occurred to me that the mezzotint rocker – the tool that is used to put the texture on the plate first, produces a rather interesting line which might be reminiscent of the spiky hairiness of cats just on its own. The individual lines made by this tool aren’t usually seen in the final print – the idea is to ‘rock’ all over the plate in 8 different directions until you have an even texture of burrs and pock-marks,…
…at least, that is what several people have sad to me already, having seen most of this series of etchings and drypoints! Here is the latest, slightly biblical, offering. This brings the total up to 10 for the 2015 calendar pictures. I have in fact (I think) finished printing all 12 as of today, but the last two may need some additional colour, so I will post them in due course… Another Drypoint print on aluminium, and for those who like the techy details, the tonal difference between the figures and apples in the foreground and the greyish background is…
When I posted ‘The Master Plan‘ I said there was an obvious sequel, and here it is: ‘The Mistress Plan’. And they are indeed very obvious… This is of course another in my series of 12 views of Glastonbury Tor, for the 2015 calendar – you can catch up with the work to date here: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/category/artwork-by-title/2015-calendar/ Technically it’s another drypoint, created the same way as The master Plan. I am quite getting into drypoint, though I couldn’t resist a proper mezzotint rocker selling for half price on Ebay the other day (they almost never come up, ever – I think…
…more views of Glastonbury Tor Even gods and spirits of nature get fed up with the weather sometimes, though I admit I missed a trick on this one. This is another for the 2015 calendar ’12 Views of the Tor’, and the sketch was done on about the 1st of January. A few weeks later I would have thought it more appropriate to put this pair in a boat, as Somerset seems to be rapidly filling up with water. They didn’t call Glastonbury the Isle of Avalon for nothing… So, apologies to local readers: this will not seem quite as…
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…
Art by Nancy Farmer 