Affordable Art Fair Tickets

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

A large cardboard box arrived at the studio this week, full of tickets, leaflets and maps – it’s that time of year again. The Affordable Art Fair returns to Battersea Park next month and Half Moon Studio will be there again for the thirteenth (!) year.
And, of course, this is the start of the studio’s annual collective panicking – rushing to get some last minute editioning done, trying (and failing) to produce a workable hanging plan, dashing to and from the framers, etc.
Anyway, as usual, I have some free tickets for either the Charity PV evening (Wednesday 19th October) or the Gala PV evening (Thursday 20th October). The tickets will also get you in for free at any other time if you can’t make it on either of those nights.
I will be there for most of the time, if anyone wants to say hello – and don’t worry, you will be allowed to leave the stand without buying anything – all those rumours flying about last year were definitely not true….
Email me if you’d like one – first come, first served, of course….

Another Odyssey

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

Here is another linocut I thought I was happy with. That is, until I got to thinking about it. Below is the original version of One Way Ticket, of which I’d editioned ten and then stored in my plan chest.

Then I made the mistake of opening said plan chest and accidentally looking at them. I found I didn’t like that female figure at all and also, well, where are all the people? Tooting Broadway is a very busy tube station after all……

So with the help of my trusty repair kit, I added three more figures – a couple walking by, hand in hand, and a man striding into the other station entrance. I thought I’d just change the woman in the foreground too – make her hair longer and tone down her top – and add some floor tiles inside. Okay, that’s better….

Hmm – I’m sorry but it’s all so dark. I know, I’ll lighten the sky – make it daytime instead of evening. Oh, and while I’m at it, I’ll change her top again…

I still don’t like her top though – let’s try a different pattern – and, well, why not make the sky yellow and the interior of the tube station blue?
No, sorry, I don’t like any of that and what’s more, I’m not sure if it’s not all too crowded now. Perhaps I should take out one of the figures?

Okay, that will have to do – surplus male removed, blue sky and yellow interior re-instated, and I’ve gone with the original top. And if you think this was a lot of work, I can assure you this is an edited version….

RE Diploma Work

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

When I was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) this print was chosen as my Diploma Work. It’s called Rush Hour (linocut, 29 x 52cms.) Apologies for the quality of the image – it’s a bit dark unfortunately.
The RE holds annual elections at Bankside Gallery, London, for artists who would like to join the Society and enjoy the benefits of being a member. Candidates are asked submit a completed application form plus CV and portfolio of prints and drawings/sketchbooks, usually in January each year.
Applicants’ works are assessed by a jury of Society members and usually between 3 and 6 artists are elected from some 40-50 submissions each year. Elected members must pay an annual fee, which helps to cover gallery costs.
If you are interested in applying, you can download the application form here .

A Visit to the Asmolean Museum

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

On Wednesday, I had a rare day away from the studio. I went up on the train to Oxford to visit the Print Room at the Ashmolean Museum, where the RE Diploma Collection is held.
There I met up with Bren Unwin and Daphne Casdagli, respectively President and Curator of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.
Left: Arriving at the Print Room

When an artist is elected to the Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), a print is selected from their portfolio by the council and delivered to the RE archives, held at the Ashmolean.
We were there to meet Clare Tilbury, Hon RE and art historian, who manages the diploma collection on our behalf, and to hand over the prints from our newly elected Associate Members.
Left: Myself and Daphne Casdagli (right) unpacking the prints.

The Diploma Collection is a substantial historic collection of prints, dating back to the earliest days of the Society and includes work by distinguished past and present members, such as Dame Laura Knight, Graham Sutherland and Norman Ackroyd.
Left: Bren Unwin (left) and Clare Tilbury (right) taking out the relevant storage boxes.

There are over nine hundred prints carefully catalogued and stored here, as the Society has been going since 1881. The collection can be viewed on request to the museum.
And just in case anyone’s wondering what exactly I was doing there, I was shadowing Daphne as I am due to take over from her as Curator for the RE next year.
Left: looking over some of the print collection (and thanks to Bren for the photos – as usual, mine were too disastrous to use……)

New Camera Experiments

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

I have a new camera for photographing my work and I thought I’d try it out first – and what better way could there be than with an over excited dog at the beach? A baptism of fire doesn’t quite cover it…

Oh dear, he seems to have run miles away – come back here at ONCE….

PLEASE keep still – there’s a photographer trying to work here….

Well, that could have been a really great photo but we’ll never know now….

That’s an excellent idea – just keep a really, REALLY tight grip…..

…..and hold his beloved ball six inches away from his nose and out of shot. Sorted.

Website Makeover

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

I’ve just re-built my website (and when I say ‘I’, what I really mean is ‘we’, in the sense that my partner did all the work and I sat next to him, making helpful comments….)
We used iWeb, the Apple’s web software, which is very easy to use and works well with other Apple software, like iPhoto. So easy, in fact, that I was using it to tweak the pages myself.
The only drawback is that it’s not very flexible when it comes to making your site search engine friendly but we found a solution to that, which is a free tool from Rage software.
Anyway, have a look and see what you think here.

Artists Emails

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

This morning I had an email from an artist asking if we’d be interested in showing his work. This isn’t unusual as I monitor incoming emails for a couple of websites I’m connected to professionally and we get a lot of requests to look at portfolios/ invites to private views/ links to artist’s websites, etc..

I have to say, though, that I am constantly amazed by how many people don’t take the time to do some, or even any, basic research. If you’re approaching someone you’ve never met, especially when you’re asking for something, then surely you should find out a little about them beforehand. At the very least, finding a name to address the email to would help – Dear Sir/Madam is definitely not the way to go.

For example, there’s not much point in asking if there are any job vacancies at a co-operative gallery, as only a couple of minutes on the website would show them that it is run and staffed by the artist members themselves.

And asking if Half Moon Studio can show their work at the Affordable Art Fair is a waste of time, as a quick look at our website would reveal that we are five artists sharing a printmaking space, and not a commercial gallery.

I can’t help feeling that sending out these non-specific emails to hundreds (or thousands) of galleries and studios isn’t going to achieve much.

As for that artist’s email this morning – well, he wanted us to look at his paintings. Just a quick look at the name of the gallery he was approaching would have shown him that we only deal with artist’s prints…..

Giving It Another Go….(The End)

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

Here is the final block, inked up in pale blue and a thin yellow glaze. In the end, I decided to cut it up into sections so that each area could be inked up separately – then I could just push it back together again for printing.
I probably should have cut another block entirely for the yellow but I felt it was important to get the print completed this year.

Anyway, here is the final version with the barely visible alterations.
Still, I’m happy with it now- and thanks to all of you who took the trouble to comment on my progress. It’s not easy to view your work with any detachment, especially when you’d been under the impression that you’d finished it once before…..

Giving It Another Go….(Part Three)

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

After a hard day faffing around in the studio, I finally decided to print up the third block in cream exactly as I had done in the original version.
This means I have cleverly avoided making a decision on introducing a new colour until I print the last block (i.e. leaving it until the last moment, as usual.)
I have a few options:
a) Just leave the print as it was – I can print up the final block in the original light blue and have a few extra copies of the original print (very tempting, this one).
b) Carry on with the master plan and insert some yellow into the final pale blue block, with the added bonus of many more hours of fine-tuning, the results of which most people won’t be able to see with the naked eye.
c) Forget printing the last block with the pale blue and replace it entirely with the yellow glaze.
d) Go and work at Tesco’s.

Giving It Another Go….(Part Two)

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Gail Brodholt

I’ve just printed the second block, in a strong red – a mixture of scarlet and crimson.
Now I have to decide whether to add the bright yellow glaze to selected areas on the third block (cream) or to selected areas on the fourth block (pale blue).
If I add the yellow glaze to the third block, I will end up with some pale greens. (As once I’ve printed the pale blue of the fourth block onto that new yellow glaze of the third block, that’s what I’ll get.)
I’m not sure I want any green – and I could avoid it by adding the yellow glaze onto sections of the fourth block, where it will sit alongside the blue, instead of under it.
This of course means less variations in terms of the whole colour scheme. Hmm……