I am spending the whole month of February as the artist in residence at Chhaap Printmaking Studios. I am delighted to be here and have the opportunity to liaise with many local Indian printmakers. Many graduated from MS University here in Baroda, I'm told it's the best University for Arts in India.
The facilities are perfect. I can wake up and walk into the printmaking studio, literally. So for the next month I’m living and breathing printmaking and I will be documenting my progess here.
The prints will be a visual diary of the past three months I've spent travelling. I started in Nepal, in the stunning Himalayas. I then began my India trip in Darjeeling in the North West, after a very bumpy 18 hour bus journey from Kathmandu to the border crossing. I finished all the way down South in Trivandrum in the state of Kerala.
It’s been vibrant, exciting, emotional, relaxing, exhausting...it’s been incredible.
Day 1 at Chhaap:
Introduction to the studios...buying art materials...finding places to eat...meeting Mark Brusse, the previous artist who has just spent all of January printmaking here at Chhaap. (Look him up he’s done a lot!) He believes "one of the functions of art is to exacerbate the irrational side, the part of art and life which isn't reasonable".
Day 2:
I’ve started printmaking already. My first image is of the palm trees in Goa, on Arambol beach.
I’ve started printmaking already. My first image is of the palm trees in Goa, on Arambol beach.
It was also Mark’s exhibition of the work he has produced throughout his month's stay here. People from The Times of India came to interview him. And it also gave me an opportunity to meet some of the local artists and people who will be attending a workshop I will be holding.
