I am still here....

It's been over a month since I last posted anything.  It became increasingly difficult to find time to blog over this last month as my aunt's condition worsened.  She passed away on Saturday 4th May.  Since then we have been dealing with the funeral arrangements and the funeral itself.  I hope to start posting in earnest soon.  Please bear with me.

Apologies

Dear reader, I need to apologize....my blogging has been somewhat lacking of late.  I hope to resume normal service in these next few days...first there was easter and then I was ill, and then on holiday, and all the time there has been the caring....I hope you will understand.

dutch door press

After buying one of their prints the good folks, (Xoxo, Anna & Mara) at 'dutch door press' send me regular updates and news.  They are a letterpress studio based in San Francisco, and produce some really lovely work.  Their last missive contained these images of their latest creation - a  magnificent, (if not monumental) linocut.....

 

It's great to see them bouncing back after the fire which caused so much damage to their studio back in December.  You can read more about the fire and their continuing work on their blog, and purchase their work at their Etsy shop. 

Alan Sorrell Part II 'Roman Britain'

     This was one of the books illustrated by Alan Sorrell that I came across in our local library as a child.

More snow and a work in progress

       Fresh snow here.....this is this morning's pile of the white stuff.

 

 

      I thought I'd post this watercolour drawing of a Coptic ivory I made in the week, even if it didn't go quite to plan.  As you can see it went 'Pete Tong' (= wrong) in the bottom third (over worked), but the rest of it was quite good.  Apart from the watercolour the drawing was done with a cheap ballpoint pen over pencil, with wax pastel used for the highlights.

 

Work in progress

   I thought I'd share this.  Inspired by the work of two of my favourite contemporary artists EdKluz and Mark Hearld I've been experimenting with collage.  I hope you like it.

Reading

   It has been a time for tackling novels, novels half started and then put down for some reason.  Over the weekend I finally completed reading 'The Silmarillion' - J R R Tolkien - and picked up 'Unconditional Surrender' - Evelyn Waugh.