Author Archives: Gail Brodholt

Cutting the Blocks

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Somehow, I can find a lot to interest me when I’m cutting my printing blocks – for instance, delicate little curls of lino appear from the thin lines on a skyscraper and great thick wedges from clearing large areas like the sky. It’s really quite….. ok, I admit it, things have been a bit slow today.

Printmaking Today

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I am featured in the current issue of Printmaking Today, a quarterly magazine which includes articles on printmaking techniques and materials and reviews of exhibitions and workshops.
My article is titled Urban Theatre and is part of the long-running series called Artist’s Eye. In it I discuss my growing interest in the people that occupy my urban landscapes – unmissable!

Studio Fairytale

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Once upon a time, there were two honest and hardworking artists called Susie and Sonia. They toiled away in a very spacious printmaking studio called Half Moon in South London – and here is a picture as it was in the olden days.

In the years that followed, another artist, Martin, joined them, followed shortly by a little Jack Russell terrier called Nipper ( whose name is quite apposite but that’s another story…)

Next to join this merry band in Brixton were two more hardworking and honest printmakers Louise and Gail, who were then followed by a third, Karen, squeezed in some time later
Of course, this was not the end of their story as we all know that principal characters never seem to learn anything from their various predicaments and carelessly carry on making the same mistakes over and over again.

So, consequently a little shih tzu called Tommy and a huge standard poodle called Casper also felt compelled to daily undertake the long, arduous journey into this crowded studio from far-flung corners of South London.

So, children, the moral of this story is that no building can expand outwards, however much important stuff (and printmakers and dogs) we feel we need to cram into them but it doesn’t matter – we keep trying anyway.

(And that’s a kind of happy ending….)

Affordable Art Fair

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The Affordable Art Fair is over again for another year and in spite of the uncertain economic climate, we all at Half Moon Studio sold well.
To be honest though, one of the the nicest things about doing the fairs is the contrast – after the comparative isolation of the studio, it makes a change to get out and meet so many of our customers, some of whom come year after year to see us (you know who you are and thank you !).
As usual, though, things went a little awry.
The stand had the store cupboard put in the wrong place and we had to wait around for a precious hour or two until it could be re-built.
I forgot to take any photos – not a single one – which is a bit of a pain. Hopefully someone else will have some I can use.
There were a few (okay, a lot) of unscheduled trips back to the studio to pick up things accidently left behind and things we didn’t know we’d need.
And I had the very special treat of some last-minute re-framing. I don’t know what I was thinking but I’d written the title down on one batch of prints as Winter Equinox instead of Winter Solstice. As it was a brand new linocut, I was really tempted to just leave it as Winter Equinox – it seemed easier than having to open up three frames to change the name. That was, until it was pointed out that you only get the equinox over the Equator, and never over London Bridge Station….

Still, you have to look on the bright side – nothing will ever be as bad as the year we went to the Buy Art fair in Manchester, and managed to leave half the work behind
It was only when the van got to Manchester and the work was unloaded that you could see that something didn’t look right.
But before it could be figured out what that was, the mobile rang. A kindly member of Artichoke, the studio upstairs, was ringing to find out why so much of Half Moon’s work had been going up and down in the lift all day….