So, despite the rain and overcast sky, the members of the Dover Print Club were determined to make cyanotypes so that’s what we did. It was a huge amount of fun especially as we were very inexperienced apart from 2 of my fellow studio holders who were on-hand with loads of advice.
We got the experiments done just in time before it really started to rain and meanwhile studio holder Kate Beaugie gave us all a photogram demo in the dark space, which we are making available to hire.
The devil will be in the approach as opposed to the technique, which on the face of it seems quite easy!
At the weekend I threw my first pot in 40 years! I almost did ceramics when I left school but ended up doing Oriental Studies at Cambridge… Fellow creatives here in Dover have set up Ceramic Art Dover and ran their first event over the weekend – Clay Date – which was hugely successful with so many people trying out modelling, casting and throwing… There was also a team challenge consisting of throwing a set of 4 sake cups and a pourer…
Oh and I also tried to make a Labrador…
Finally, I have decided to try and sell some work at the Parallax Art fair in July and have started packing it all up. If I ever do it again I hope the whole prep process will be easier and quicker.
I have two small prints in Small Print at The Horsebridge Arts Centre in Whitstable. The exhibition runs until 17 June.
I’ve just added the chemo drawings I’ve done since January this year to my website: Link
This one is from April.
“I am currently on maintenance chemo so since January 2019 I have been doing a drawing every treatment day, which is generally every fortnight. I allow marks to go through the paper from one drawing to the next and use that as the next starting point. By the end of the day, my eyes are rather blurry making it hard to see! These drawings are intuitive and spontaneous, with the marks contained and held by the gridlines of the paper as well as going beyond them at times.”
Very pleased to have had this comment on Twitter about this chemo day drawing:
I am a huge fan of @ClareGSmith‘s work – and this is drawing at its most direct
This year’s Dover Printfest and open studios was fairly quiet but we had a steady stream of visitors and plenty of good conversations about art and politics!
I also sold a collage!
And I was so pleased to get this message from the buyer
Clare I LOVE the landscape that I bought from you yesterday. I like all the different elements and materials you have used, and it’s shape. It is open and free, and yet, particular. Like a poem. Love it!
