It’s been a while since I last posted, during which time I’ve contributed work to a number of group shows in a number of different galleries.
My reason for not blogging has been simple, up until now I have found it quite difficult to blog using my iPad and working on my wife’s laptop has become problematic too as it has become almost as temperamental as me !
However, I think I have cracked blogging on the IPad and more will follow very soon !
Returning to exhibitions – I had a very successful show at Jack House Gallery in Old Portsmouth and this was followed by a series of shows at The Atelier Gallery in Southsea. The first of the year was Le Reve, then came La Mer, then L’Amore and we wound up the year with “Poeme” – a show not surprisingly inspired by the written word ! My contribution to Poeme was the piece featured here, which was inspired by the poet Gareth Toms, who I’ve collaborated with before, the outcome last time was a large piece of sculpture carved from a chunk of Willow.Atelier Art Gallery doubles as a studio for artist, Pete Codling, who I have known since he had his first exhibition at the Ashcroft Arts Centre in Fareham, Hampshire (many many years ago) !
In October, I was also fortunate to have one of my boat portraits selected for a prestigious show at Mottisfont Abbey – but more of that later.
Going off at a slight tangent, I will just mention the print that’s featured on the post. Over a year ago I had a conversation with a fellow ArtSpace artist – when I was complaining that the good old fashioned lino that we used to use at school was no longer available and how I much preferred it to the new grey variety which lacks the strength of the old brown lino. Well to cut a long story short my friend, the artist Jeanie Driver was on holiday in Barcelona and spotted some Spanish lino which was not unlike the old fashioned stuff that we spoke about 12 months earlier. Facebook came to the rescue and she messaged me a few times and we agreed that she would buy up a number of sheets of this wonderful find ! The print that is featured here is my first trial run on Spanish lino, which is maroon in colour, it has a gritty texture and it’s consequently stronger and better for carving more detailed images. Since I started wood engraving my lino cuts have become more detailed – hence the need for a surface that doesn’t disintegrate when you make tiny incised lines and marks that are close together. My verdict is that the Spanish lino is great and I’ll be suggesting to all my friends who visit the City to bring some more back to Blighty ! Sadly the shop doesn’t mail order lino but I will push the point when I run out of stock !
More news of exhibitions and studios later ! Cheers 4 Now
chriswoodartist 
me too ipads and iphones are temperamental for me too or is it me?
Nice to see what you are doing.
Cheers Carla – it’s not you ! I don’t own a posh phone – my ageing Motorola Razor is held together with selotape but it works and until it stops I refuse to buy another. In terms of the iPad and blogging – it’s just the architecture of the software which is very clunky but then again it could be me ! I can’t do half the things that I used to on the laptop, which recently has been behaving very erraticly and I fear it will be going to the dump very soon . In terms of blogging, I tend to use FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM as it’s easy to post visual stuff without all the bells and whistles that comes with WORDPRESS. HAVE A HAPPY AND PEACEFUL XMAS and a brilliant and creative NEW YEAR : ) }