After our residency at Nant Gwtheyrn I asked Alison if I could do some work with one of her lino cut plates that I really liked and felt inspired by. If Alison agrees I think we could work towards making an Artist Book. If anybody from the Le Cheile group wants to join us that would be great.
Le Chéile in Australia.
Veronica has kindly sent these photographs of the touring exhibition, taken in Bordertown, South Australia. It looks good, and shows what a lot of work was involved in setting it up.
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Le Chéile at Nant Gwrtheyrn, part two.
As well as the exhilarating creative atmosphere we experienced at Nant Gwrtheyrn, one of the best things (I thought) was the saline sulphate etch, kindly provided by Don B. With a little ingenuity, the etching bath was established in the bracken outside the Heritage Centre, and prints were hung to dry on pegs in the glass-fronted area overlooking the sea.
We were able to work into and onto each other’s aluminium plates, combining images and ideas; etching and re-etching; printing and working into the resulting images. Motifs combined and multiplied to generate a dizzying quantity of experimental prints reflecting the themes of Le Chéile enhanced by the environment at Nant Gwrtheyrn: land, language, memory, history, cohesion, separation.
As part of the creative process, we also undertook some collaborative drawings; both A1 size (see right), and on a small scale as entries for the Vault Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition
And, on the first night, a “round robin” drawing session; passing drawings round the group for each artist to contribute their own marks to each drawing.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lecheile09/NantGwrth…
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Le Chéile at Nant Gwrtheyrn, part one.
Our three day stay at Y Nant has been a great success, generating a huge amount of enthusiasm and a remarkable amount of work. We created a working print studio from scratch, relying entirely upon the generosity and goodwill of participants – and the tolerance of the Centre Director and his staff. We were blessed with good weather, despite a miserable forecast, and although it rained heavily on occasion we were able to enjoy our surroundings. Drawing, painting, printmaking, talking (and eating and drinking!); we immersed ourselves in our work and generated a real buzz of collaboration.
“The creative concentration was palpable in the studio (heritage centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn) with everyone collectively working and finding ways through the collaboration to new areas. There was plenty of discussion and talking ideas, very much part of collaboration. Combined with so much work going on, prints, drawings and books the process of working on a plate, then drawing, then paint makes for fluid output. Such concentration!” Andrew Smith
“The remoteness and spectacular nature of the environment supported and set the scene for our collaborative work. Creatives usually work in isolation, if they do work together it’s with a common goal in mind. The goals appeared to emerge from the conversations we had and the work we started to produce, initially as individuals and later as collaborators. The collaborations arose out of our responses to each others work. The individual pieces of work determined the agenda and our direction as a group. On the final evening a piece of work emerged that was from the whole group.” Don Braisby
“I thoroughly enjoyed the two days I spent there- an ideal environment for total immersion in creative printmaking without any outside distractions (not even a mobile signal!). The group got on very well and the conversation and convivial atmosphere were as important in
making it a success as the printmaking itself.” Ian Williams
A.C.
The Regional Print Centre at Yale College in Wrexham is a joint partnership project between Yale College and the Arts Council of Wales. We provide open access printmaking facilities to artists and designers from across Wales and beyond. This project forms part of our unique professional printmaking diploma programme.
