Ringed Plovers at New England Bay

New print alert!

Ringed Plovers at New England Bay

I love these little ringed plovers and the way they scuttle comically along the tideline. They blend so subtly with their environment that its easy to mistake them for tumbling pebbles. I watched this little group as the sun rose over New England Bay, Scotland.

I created this print from two plates - one for the background of blue blended to sand and the other for the details in buff, orange and black. The detail plate was cut back after each inking until only the little black areas were left proud.

The print was not without mishap. I convinced myself that the orange was too much but was happier when the black was added. And there was a tricky moment with a wayward leg.

TL - the wayward leg TR- the offending section removed BL - a substitute leg carved from a sliver of rubber and BR individually added to all 18 prints in the edition!

There are just 18 prints in this edition and they are available in Folksy and Etsy shops now.

Cowichan Bay, Vancouver Island

Cowichan Bay - an original lino print in sage green

**Happy Canada Day** USE THE COUPON CODE CANADAY13 TO GET 25% OF THE COST OF THESE TWO PRINTS (excluding P&P, valid until 3rd July)

On our travels around Vancouver Island we stopped by the small town of Cowichan Bay for a quick coffee and a nosy round. I really liked the feel of this quirky little place with its stilted, shoreline stores and homes, floating houses and row upon row of moored boats. The shoreline up to the mouth of the Cowichan River is studded with tall wooden piles and I loved the way some had been customised as bird boxes and feeders and weather vanes. Cowichan Bay is also the home of the Arthur Vickers Gallery (unfortunately shut during our fleeting visit) and the True Grain Bread bakery (luckily, very much open with its fantastic selection of breads and yummy spelt cookies).  

 I've posted a few photos below to remind me that we did see blue sky once or twice!

Links you might like

http://www.cowichanbay.com/
http://arthurvickers.com/gallery/
http://www.truegrain.ca/

Leaving Saltery Bay

Finished at last, the first of a series of prints I have planned from my recent travels around Vancouver. This was the view from the ferry that links the Sunshine Coast down to the city as it left Saltery Bay. This is clearly a commuter route because we were the only travellers out on the deck gawping at the landscape, all the regulars were hunkered down inside with coffee, phones and papers. I'd give up home working for a commute like that. Better still would be to make the trip by float plane as many do, though I am sure the novelty would wear off eventually.

I broke my own "no reduction" rule for this and printed four colours on two different papers. As you can see from the wee film below I cheated somewhat on the second colour by isolating that small background area for printing. I printed a small number on my preferred Zerkall paper, but the two or more layers of ink dries so slowly on these that I printed the rest of the edition on a lightweight tissue (whose names escapes me). This had the great advantage of taking the ink very easily with only a slight rub with a baren - no endless bending over the press :-). I am finishing the prints chine colle-style by bonding them to a heavier weight paper. I like the way the tissue "disappears" and the ink really pops.

 Leaving Saltery Bay - available here  and here

oh i do love to be beside the seaside...

Just back from a blustery week in a caravan on a high hill overlooking the sea. As a lover of  wild, empty and isolated beaches Croyde came as a bit of a shock to my system but we joined in the fun all the same (I pray that no camera caught sight of me in my wetsuit on a kid's body board!). If its like this on grey day it must be bedlam when the sun shines!

My only regret (apart from not saying "be careful" before oh & son went out on a mackerel fishing trip and returned 5 mins later after son hooked 6 fish and then his own hand) was not taking the chance of a swim in this wonderful sea pool at Ilfracombe - even in the rain it look wonderful (honest!).

And just to prove that the sun did shine, once or twice...

 

Postcard from Portugal

Just back from a week in often sunny but sometimes rainy and really quite windy Portugal. Have arrived back to a mountain of tasks on all fronts and three Christmas exhibitions to prepare for, news on those will follow soon.

Gannets, periwinkles and small fry

Of all the visual feasts available on the beaches of the Outer Hebrides the dive of the gannets was the most thrilling to watch. Time and again we watched these birds circle high above the waves then abruptly adopt the dive position before hurtling towards the sea at an astonishing speed. Mostly we had to observed the gannets from a distance but on the journey back to Ullapool the ferry crossed the path of one of these magnificent birds and it passed within feet of the window where we sat, an amazing glimpse of pure sleek muscle. 

Gannets, periwinkle and small fry is available in my Etsy and Folksy shops.

a very short film for monday - barley sea

Quite hypnotic ...

Faro Fishing Village, Gotland, Sweden

I think I will occasionally use this space a place to give a bit more background to some of my work. The print I use as my banner and its pair seem a good place to start. Gotland is a large island in the middle of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Latvia, Faro is the smaller neighbour clinging to its northern tip. There is real beauty here. There are delightful country roads deep-lined with wild flowers, strange marshy plateaux where small succulents cluster on the bare pink rocks, long sandy strands and stark pebbly beaches guarded by towering limestone stacks. It was a bright sunny day when we visited but there was a real sense of the deep bleak desolation.
Special offer to my blog readers, buy both Faro prints together for £40.00 + £3.00 uk p&p (overseas buyers please contact me first for a shipping quote) and save £5.00 on the current list prices. Just purchase from my Folksy shop in the normal way, type 02faro into the message box and I will refund you the saving through Paypal when your payment has been confirmed.