My new lino cut.

I have been busy working on my Lino-cut for the 4th International Biennial Ex Libris. All that is left for me to do is cut the wording, Ex Libris & Communism, which is the subject for this Biennale. After much thought and planning, I decided to change my mind, simply because Communism does work in certain situations, notably in the insect world.

I decided to use Bees as my subject, they are more liked than ants and have a recognizable honeycomb.

As communism success stories, bee hives survive through strength and numbers, an ideal communist state where all work for the hive as a whole, from the queen, the workers, the guards and the nurses.

A Greek Eutopia...

The print is a reduction lino-cut in three colours, now I can finish it off and start in on the oils again.

PS. Nice was very nice, I'll post some pics later...

More success with Ex Libris prints.

The month has almost gone. Eoin is back from his tour of foreign parts (US, Asia, Australia, New Zealand) on Friday. I have spent the last week organising the house, with Christine wanting everything fresh and clean for the homecoming. The upshot is I have still not started work...
I have a Portugeese collector of Ex-Libris wanting some prints before July. The collector wants to include some images and my bio in a book he is publishing on Contemporary Ex Libris artists. It will be a limited edition hardback (200 copies) with two for each of the two dozen artists involved, so there is no payment for this, mind you, usually when you are contacted about inclusion in books on contemporary art they are expecting you to pay for the privelege.

I am looking forward to getting stuck into some work in the studio at the moment, but I just can't find the time. I am busy with everything else going on, and I've a couple of big Angling competitions coming up next month including a fish-off (24 anglers) for four places on next years International team, and the provincial championship (which is a qualifier for the competition to provide another 10 places on the team). In the meantime I will be having a studio sale sometime in June/July as a fund-raiser towards the costs of this years International Competition in England in September. I need to create some space in my studio anyway, and I have a lot of older work in my studio that needs a new home. So if anyone is interested in something from my website http://www.artbygreglong.com , I am open to offers on much of what is on display there as many of these will be included. It will mean I have to update my website too but it is the push I need to do that! I've been threatening to do it for over 12 months!!

I have won an Award for my ExLibris Lino-cut.

I received the catalogue from the TRECI MEDUNARODNI BIJENALE EX LIBRIS PANCEVO 2010 in the post this afternoon, and lo and behold I am listed as an award winner. One of a number awarded equal 2nd prize. I am delighted, more so as the lino-cut print itself was purposefully unevenly and imperfectly printed, which although intrinsic to the work itself (spoken of earlier this year) would not particularly appeal to all "print makers" who would normally bin imperfect prints. I am not a particularly good print-maker, but as a visual artist the art shows through. I treat the lino blocks as just another painting tool, and like my other painting methods I like marks and imperfections, they are part of my process. I suppose many other artists working in print would have a similar outlook, but I always assume since they would as a rule be more proficient in the art of block printing, they would be much more careful about the actual quality of the ink transfer onto the paper.

I am now winding down for Christmas, but I bought watercolour paper today with the intention of painting a couple of watercolours over the next week or so. It is a long time since I painted in watercolour, so I am going to enjoy the experience.

Another Lino-cut goes off for display

With the sky opened up to air-traffic again I have been able to send my

ex-libris lino cut print to the Third International Biennial Ex Libris Exhibition "Danube" 2010

at the Historical Archive of Pancevo, in Serbia.

It should have gone last week, but with the grounding of air traffic due to the Icelandic Volcano...no I'm not going to try and say/write the name of it...LOL....there was not point trying to send anything airmail...

The Lino-cut is a three colour print and it is based on the River Danube (the subject this exhibition) depicted by the sinuous blue curves down the center. The overall shape is heavily influenced by the Neolithic ceramic Donii figures. These are women with wide almost pear shaped hips, often depicted pregnant, celebrating the creation of life and thought of as Mother Earth. The river curves follow the line (left hand side) of the traditional womanly curves. These Donii were created in the neolithic era by the peoples living along the Danube Valley.

These curves representing the river are then highlighted with partial spirals, a neolithic form of decoration that is common between Ireland's neolithic culture and that of the Balkans and the Danube valley.

I have allowed the 'solid' grey to print unevenly, it is hand printed rather than with a press, to allow white paper show through. My intent to have the overall effect similar to stone rubbings that we get from our carved stone artifacts here. This ties my own heritage to the heritage of the Danube Valley and helps keep the work more personal.

I like this work for it's simplicity, but it has a simplicity that comes from much planning and work. An almost art-deco feel, but one that enfolds quite deep undertones celebrating the artistic heritage that has survived thousands of years, both along the Danube River and in my own area.

Now that I have this sent, and the airplanes are flying again, I have to try and get organised for our trip to the Cote D'Azure in the south of France.

Update on my lino cut prints.

I finished the second ex-libris lino-cut, the one on the right obviously since I already posted the first one. I have sent them off to the Museum in Serbia, and now I can get back to my painting again.

I am still working on fish.. mainly sea bream, but I am nearly reaching the end of my journey with them. I may just finish off the works in progress and move on to something else.

If the weather improves I am still hoping to get some landscapes painted en-plien-air, to re-work over the winter. However this is less and less likely due to the inclement weather we have been having. This last month was the wettest August yet. We have had between 150% (east) and 250% (west) of normal August rainfall this year. Hopefully we may get an indian summer and a dry warm September so I can get out and about.

My Ex-Libris print is ready for the impression stage.

I have two draft print runs from my lino cut Ex Libris

The first is a two colour printing entitled The written word.

The background is made up of the written word in 11 languages.

The second layer is a design based on prehistoric writings and designs on some of our neolithic monuments, with script and ecrit reinforced. I opted for these as they are from the two most widely used western languages, English and French.

The second draft includes a third colour impression of a stylised quill pen. This was my intended design, but I think it is far too busy to work. For this reason I will probably go with just the two impression piece.

I have been using standard watercolour paint for the printing rather than the block printing watercolour

as I wanted to control the colour better. However I had a little problem with the

printing process when dampening the watercolour paper prior to impressing the lino-cut. (note the blurring on the second picture) I have used dry card for the two colour impression which seems to have worked better as far as a sharpness goes, however the edges have not come out clean in this one. I will try a varied level of dampness on the watercolour paper before deciding which paper to use for the final prints. I will also rework another design to send off, along with this one. I am more relaxed now that at least one is finished, as the second is not neccesary, but optional.

It has been a while since I last posted here on my blog. Mainly because I haven't really had much to say about my work. I am still working away, not really getting to grips with anything. I am at a cul-de-sac with my ExLibris ideas. My painting is not coming along as I wish either, mainly because my mind is more on the printwork than on the painting.

I spent the morning retrieving small goldfish fry from my pond and putting them in nursery tanks.... anything to avoid work. Now I am here typing a post on my blog. I have already cleaned and scraped the build-up of paint on my palette, reloaded it with fresh paint, added oil etc, it is ready to go.........

....but I am not.

My studio is in danger of getting a thorough spring clean at this stage........[shock-horror]

I think I may take the rest of the day off. I am likely to do little or nothing anyway. It is hot, heavy and thundery with regular heavy showers which doesn't help either. I will leave you with a photo of the latest finished work from the Maltese series. Oil on canvas, 90cm by 70 cm.

Another Ex-Libris invitation.

I have been invited to take part in another international exhibition of Ex Libris print. It is in Serbia again, but this time it is part of a museum collection rather than last years Biennale. Obviously they were enamoured by my work at the Biennale, although I didn't get awarded any of the prizes.

I will work on the design over the next few weeks, and then I can start cutting lino blocks by the end of the month.

Working with print is a nice change occasionally too, My painting has been going well, so I can afford to take a little break and work on the print. I had considered trying an etching, but to be honest I haven't really got the experience in the method to do it without a few practice pieces.
I will post the working sketches here, and the final prints.

2nd Biennial Ex Libris - Lighthouse

The 2nd Biennal Ex Libris opened in Gallerie Archive, Nemanjina 7, Pancevo, Serbia last night. I have a couple of linocuts showing in it. I would have liked to get over for the exhibition, but I couldn't really justify it at the moment with all the travelling I have been doing. I will be in Malta next month too.

I am looking forward to the trip, and I have arranged to meet up with an Artist friend, Francis Gallea while I am there. In the meantime it's back to work for me, paintings to paint (and finish) before I go....

More lino-cut prints

I have been working on my prints for the Ex Libris exhibition in Belgrade. The theme is to be Lighthouse. I have two works at the moment one based on a wood cut I did earlier with an ogham stone, Newgrange monument and the salmon of Knowledge. The woodcut is too big for the exhibition, it is 12 by 10 inches, but I need them to be 15 by 10 cm, 6 by 4 inches max.

I have redone the block as a linocut, the print I have is not quite right yet. I need to reprint it on a different paper, the other paper I used has too much texture.
I also did a linocut of a lighthouse but I am not really very happy with it. It is too simple and dark.

Second Lino-cut print

These are two prints from my second lino-cut. They are not good quality as I have used plain acrylic paint and sketching paper but they suffice to give an idea of what they will look like when finished. I have created horizontal strips to create an impression of writing in the book. The angled lines on the background are intended to give the idea of a rushing river with the salmon leaping out from it. I moved the 'Ex' over to the right, to help the balance of the image.

My Ex-Libris Lino-cut is coming along

I have been working on my Ex Libris print. Ex Libris from the latin meaning "from the books of",was an old way of claiming ownership of books, much like a library stamp, when books were still very valuable. The idea was to have a personal stamp to put into the frontispiece (1st page) of the book. It will be a lino cut. This is my basic outline. The design is based on Fionn mac Cumhaill, (pronounced Finn MacCool) an early Irish mythical hero, who while cooking the salmon of knowledge for his teacher Finneces, accidentally gained the great knowledge of all things....much like an avid reader does. I will be titling my print "Fionn mac Cumhaill's Salmon" and I think it is an Ideal subject for an 'Ex Libris', as it is sympathetic to the idea of books as tools of learning.

This is my first plate, although it did print well I am not totally happy with the final print. I will cut another block and try it before deciding one way or another.