In preparation ...

I'm going to a solar printmaking course on Sunday at Nottingham University Arts Centre and in preparation we've been asked to prepare some acetates that can be used as masks. (The black and white mask is placed over the solar plate to allow some light through and expose the plate - a bit like photograms if anyone has ever done that.) The suggestion was that we use photographs of family and friends because the workshop corresponds to the current exhibition `Saturday Night. Sunday Morning'. I've prepared a couple of straight photos to take, but I'm not sure I see the advantage of reproducing a straight black and white photo when I could do something similar on my digital printer (maybe all will be revealed). So I've been playing with some portrait sketches and Photoshop today. I've also got a couple of images of starlings in the snow that I quite like. We've been asked to create fairly small images (10.5 X 11.5 cm) which I guess is to give us a few opportunities to experiment - solar plate is quite expensive.

The weather has been pretty horrible again - heavy rain and winds. Heavy snow is forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning - maybe we'll be snowed in!