Selection

Although I haven't done any printmaking for the last few months I have done some sketching in the landscape.  The original watercolour was started in Bretton Country Park (the Yorkshire Sculpture Park) last July/ Aug.  I've come to the conclusion that when I sketch I always seem to go for the big landscape view, which often then feels unsatisfactory when I come back to it.  I've been working this one up with pastel to give a bit more depth and then trying out crops using my phone camera.  There are several versions I quite like which feel better than the whole.  Maybe it might work as a mono-print so I'll need to see how I feel about getting the inks out again.

It's been a better afternoon here than morning and originally I thought about going fungi hunting.  I think I was quite inspired by a short video clip featuring Ros Hoddinott on photographing in Woodland - short with a few good points, but in the end I started to search for some photos of my friend Hilary who recently lost her life to cancer.  The photos date back to 1994/5 when we met up regularly to play badminton, to walk and to go on holiday.  Of the people in the photos three have since died from cancer, although each of them from a different kind.  In the end it started me looking through boxes of old prints which brought back good memories of some of my early holidays with Ann.  It also made me throw away a lot of those blurry portraits and those dark and indefinite landscapes that no longer mean anything to me.  There's still a long way to go!  Maybe I need to make another book!