Team Building workshop with The Soil Association

I held this one at Hamilton House for twelve lovely people who work at the Soil Association.

Workshop's with Mount Batten School

 I spent two day’s with year 10 student’s of Mount Batten School, teaching them my process of monoprinting with stencils. 1 day per class. We worked with their theme of natural forms. Here are a few photos of some of the lovely work produced. (There was loads of lovely work, but I couldn’t get a photo of it all)…

Workshops with Imayla

In July I got another chance to work with a great organization called Imayla.

Imayla offers fun learning opportunities for young people, families and groups, combining creative arts and environmental activities inspired by the natural environment. They aim to make connections across cultural, artistic and physical divides.

I worked with young people aged 7-16. We used stencils and my magic rollers and ink to produce individual flags, which we then joined together to make bunting, which could be used for the rest of the project over the coming months.

New Meadow and Poppies print for Southmead Hospital

Two new monoprints inspired by our natural surroundings. Created using my usual method of hand cut paper stencils, a durathene roller and lovely colourful ink. 

I have just passed on thirty one of my prints to the framers. Once framed they are going to be adorning the walls of one of the wards in the new Southmead Hospital in Bristol. 

These are both slightly different versions of prints I already had on my website. Because there are thirty one rooms I needed to produce some new work. 

Also I've just started on a new course called Participatory Arts in Health and Social care and its great. It's very rewarding working within the community and using creative practice as a form of therapy. 

Woodland Inspired Monoprinting with stencils

Yesterday I met some lovely creative people. Amy, Fiona and Tom showed some serious skills in my woodland inspired mono printing workshop. I held it in the reception/gallery space at the front of Hamilton House. Alongside a lovely exhibition of Katharina Nyilas's work. Check out her blog here.
Here's some photos of the evening.

Also… I've got a few workshops coming up at MAKERS gallery/shop/studio, all round creative venue in the heart of bristol. It's a lovely little cosy venue to do a workshop in, no more than 5 people can book on and also you can look and be inspired by all the lovely things in the shop. Check out their website here for more details and how to book.

Fiona even said about one of her printed creations that she thought it was the best piece of art she'd ever made.

Hamilton House Studios

I've recently moved into my first studio in Hamilton House, Bristol. Its fantastic. I share the space with other creatives, mainly illustrators who form the collective Drawn in Bristol, which I have also just become a member of. Its a collective that supports local Bristolian illustrators and you can look at our website here: WWW.DRAWNINBRISTOL.CO.UK

Here you can see some of my latest work, created in the studio. Here I've added some line work to my usual printmaking marks.

Days 20, 21, 22. The final days of printing

Wednesday was the start of my final big print here at Chhaap. Wow, I can’t believe it’s coming to an end. I wanted a change from the lush scenery and couldn’t forget the cows. How could you, they number more than 150 million and they roam anywhere they please. Many a time has my rickshaw swerved out the way of cow casually crossing the street. They have a lot of attitude.

Day 21 was actually the final day of printing. I had finished my cow print and decided I wanted to just let loose, have fun and make a mess. So I combined the stencils I had collated from all my prints and made some smaller images and cards. I did also start on that second print of the Palm Trees. The first print I did, but with slightly different colours. This one will have to be completed in the UK after I ship the big parcel of my work home.

There was also time to visit some more studios, meet a few more artists and invite them to my exhibition on Sunday. There are over 700 full time artists in Baroda! It’s great to be in a place with art everywhere.

Day 22. I got on a bus to Ahmedabad at 5.00am! I saw some of the oldest parts, with lots of character and beautiful architecture. Then a visit to Ghandi Ashram and Konoria Arts Centre, where a talk by the brilliant printmaker Jyoti Bhatt was taking place. Shame it wasn’t in English! But I did get to see lots of his work and check out the amazing print making studios.

Day 17, 18 and 19

I completed the print of the view from the houseboat, a square image for a change. It was a challenge getting the reflection in the water. This is also the image chosen for the poster/flyer for my open house/exhibition this Sunday.

Then I went for something more urban again. These vibrant colours were typical of the houses scattered across the high hills of Darjeeling. It actually reminded me of the brightly painted houses and street art in Bristol.

I also went to visit some artists studios and to MS University to attend a presentation on the outcomes of a sound workshop. It was great up until a swarm of mosquitoes, reasonably near my head, started to distract me.  

Me, Aditi and Dev stopped for some Chai before the presentation.

Day 15 and 16:

I have one week left to make prints and with that thought in the back of my head I am working pretty hard. Here’s what I’ve been doing with the last couple of days...

The first beach I got to in India, dotted with lots of these brightly coloured fishing boats. And the fish they caught was very tasty. Arambol, Goa

This unfinished print is the view I had from a houseboat cruising down the beautifully calm, serene backwaters in Alleppy, Kerala. This print is dedicated to my Dad.

Day 13 and 14:

I wanted to try something more urban, with lots of angles and straight lines. This print is from a photo I took in Ranthambore. We couldn’t believe it when there was a pool there, luxury compared to the places we had stayed previously.

 It was tricky drawing this one, I’m not usually one for rulers. So in the past two days I have managed to draw and print the image. There are a lot of images I have floating around in my head that I want to print, but I only have a week and a half left until my exhibition!

This is the print in progress:

Day 8:

Amongst my adventures today was a trip to the Friday Market, in the morning. Basically India’s equivalent to a car-boot sale...a funny experience. It included a goat market...and I saw some goats turning up in tuk tuks.

This was one of the things for sale today...it made me chuckle

And here is your basic hair salon, guys

After a nice day out I attended to my elephants...