I make artwork which quite often gets surreptitiously tucked away; I am sure artists are all the same with this. This print of a painting has emerged from me turfing out some drawers and was from a long time ago, painted before the Life of Pi film was made and inspired by me reading the book. Only when these works have been hidden for some time does it enable me to become objective about the work as a whole. I left this style of painting behind some years ago now and since that refreshed my style completely on discovering Collagraph printmaking. Rediscovering this painting and looking at the brushstrokes I really like it a lot now and no longer feel the frustration of them as I did then.
The hare will be featured intermittently in a series of my ACEO paintings for the beginning of 2014.
This is The King of the Meadow a new painting completed today.
The brown hare is an elusive animal, I may have glimpsed one only once here in the English countryside in my lifetime. So different a shape and behaviour the hare has to the rabbit, it is in fact a different animal. A fundamental difference is that the rabbit lives below ground and the hare does not, for this reason the rabbit escapes by burrowing and the hare by running with up to speeds of 45mph. I found very few good videos of hares – so here is one of the best I found of some of a group of hares having fun in the fields of Yorkshire enjoy…
When you see artists exhibiting their wares at Christmas Fayres or in the high street hoping to catch customers in the festive season spare a thought not just for the hard work and creativity that goes into their craft. Some time will have been spent agonising over pricing before an attempt at selling either original work or prints. Framing is a conundrum, customers like to buy items ready to hang but how do you choose a frame that works with the image and works for the customers taste.
Prints and Cards
With prints and cards there is plenty to frustrate the eager artist. Enduring a fickle printer is a test of patience when it starts spitting out blank paper or prints which are off centre, the wrong size or the wrong colours and then horrors of horrors sometimes it will not work at all.
Mounts for Prints
Mounting the image is an issue of its own, lining up the print and taping the print, mount and backing board together in a professional looking way before putting into a celophane bag. By the end of it all the place is littered with off cuts, cut fingers, bits of tape everywhere, torn up prints and hopefully the printer has not been despatched out of the window.
You may have guessed that I have just completed a printing session ready for a Christmas Fayre at Horseworld Rescue Centre, Bristol, UK next weekend. Leaflets, notices and business cards are ready printed too. Just need to pack a blanket, hot water bottle and a flask.
Oh and in case you were wondering the printer is still where it should be, in the studio… 🙂
Since Wrangling with Originality I have decided to revamp my website, no great shakes the content is still the same but it’s a bit more shop orientated.
Still got a bit to do, but sadly the historical “likes” have gone off my static pages. I do think though that I should thank everyone who has commented on anything on my site, my wranglings or ramblings and my pics, and with a few tweaks to do I will put thismessage on my site somewhere prominent!
Diane Young Artist 