The rain of Kuniyoshi

The Royal Academy of Arts here in London held an exhibition of Utagawa Kuniyoshi block prints a couple of years ago. It was an amazing collection of work and I would say that along with the Mexican Revolutionary Prints exhibition, which I have blogged about before, it was a major influence of me wishing to start out printmaking. The skill, beauty and variety of Kuniyoshi's work is unbelievable and if you get the chance to see an exhibition of his work then it comes highly recommended. If there isn't an exhibition coming to near you soon then buy a book of his work, you won't regret it. I got the catalogue from the exhibition and it is something I regularly look at.

I particularly like the way he represents rain. In straight, deliberate lines at the foreground of the image it really gives the impression of a downpour. Something which is hard to represent while not taking attention away from the rest of the image. I'm sure you'll agree that the images above are stunningly beautiful. Towards the top of my list of things to buy when I am rich: an original Kuniyoshi print.

Richard Woods

I really like the bright, contrasting colours Richard Woods uses in his works. This combined with an hand drawn aesthetic makes everything I see done by him really pleasing. I would love to be able to commission him to design part of my house but for now I will have to make do with one of the mugs he designed!

More new designs

Been busy coming up with new designs over the last few weeks and happy to say that the below and more are available on my Etsy, shortly on my Folksy and on my upcoming market stalls.

Weekend plans

Got a busy weekend planned; full of printmaking, market stalls and exhibitions. Tomorrow is a day of printmaking and then a stall at Barboot in the evening. Barboot is a market in Crouch End, north London, where local independent shops open up in the evening and are filled with craft stalls. It is going to be the first time we have done it and it is pretty exciting. It runs from 19.30 to 22.30.

Saturday and Sunday, we're going to have a stall at the Cabbages and Kings market in Stoke Newington. Last time we did this market there was some amazing stuff there and I am looking forward to seeing what the other stallholders have this time too. It is open from 11.00 to 17.00 on both days.


Then finally on Monday we are going to have a gallery day in central London bopping around on our bikes and visiting some exhibitions. So far we have the Treasures of Heaven and Australian Prints at the British Museum, and Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want at the Hayward Gallery. If there is anything else you think we should be visiting which is on in London at the moment, let me know in the comments.

'Mingmarriya', 1997, by Queenie McKenzie

Richard Bawden

Richard Bawden is an artist with collections held in the V&A and Tate. He combines two of my favourite things: cats and linocutting.

Evening's entertainment

Wedding invites

A couple of really good friends asked me recently to do their wedding invites which I was delighted to do. We discussed some rough ideas and then I started producing proofs from lino. They gave me a couple of vector drawings to work from which ended up working out really well and which they have made into some amazing wedding merch.

Cutting lots of paper

Printing

A couple of proofs

Cutting the inserts

The front of the final invite

And the back

I had a load of fun doing these and was really pleased to be able to help out my friends in this way. As I have only just begun printmaking I was really touched that my friends would have the confidence in me to let me do their invites. Thanks to Martyn and Ilaria!

New designs!

I have been working over the last few weeks on a number of projects: some larger prints, some new card designs and a commission for a couple of friends (more on that when it's finished). I have finally been able to add some of my new cards to Etsy. Am hoping to add a couple of the larger prints in the next few days.

Devin Powers

I came across Devin Powers' work during my travels on the internet. Hope he has a show in London soon.

Southbank

A little while ago I went out onto the Southbank of the Thames river here in London to take some photos, it was first thing on a weekday and was pouring down with rain so was pretty deserted. I love the concrete structures, like the National Theatre below, which line the river. The graffitied area is a popular skate spot under one of these buildings which they tried to shut down a few years ago but after lots of public pressure decided not to; normally it is full of peope but was empty.