Woodcutting

It was so lovely yesterday to have the Whole Day to sew - and to finish the project - that I was ready to do it all over again. Mid-morning found me sat at the kitchen table [studio still in unspeakable turmoil] with a new podcast to listen to - Art for your Ear, low-key, ie relaxed, interviews with artists. One episode followed another as the bits of wood moved from block to table to floor, falling much like xmas tree needles do...

The bit of wood I'm using is an offcut from some plywood that Tom used on a job, and my subject is, well, "squiggles". I think of them as monsters -

This could be in three colours, or maybe more, or maybe just two. Part is on the back of my block, than that's completely cut, and the squiggles on the front of the block are "in progress" - my elbows started to complain -

One side ready to print - only the dots get inked
(hope there's enough space around them) - the uncut
areas support the paper

The other side just started - it's about halfway now

Once the stressed elbows have a rest, I'll get back to the multicoloured monsters. At centre, that took two class sessions to cut, and I'll print it on Wedsnesday, and then think about adding another couple of layers to print in different colours, just to see what happens...

While finding my tools I also found the block cut in the summer for texture, and did a couple of quick rubbings to get some "grids". When you see a lattice in a japanese print, it's usually been done in two separate blocks, one for each set of parallel lines. That's not cheating - it's very sensible!

 As I write, the sky is incredible, very yellow due to sand from the Sahara and further dust from Iberian forest fires, brought this way by ex-hurricane Ophelia. The particles cause scattering of blue light, apparently, causing reddish light - hence the "red sun" seen earlier [missed it!] ... but yellow light? and what about the way that everything goes so green before some thunderstorms? Obviously a topic that needs investigating... where are the tame physicists when you actually need them?

I tried to get photos of the yellow light, which is amazing behind the gloriously red ash tree across the road, but the camera kindly adjusted the lighting conditions to what it thought should be "normal" -

But hey, that's the downside of digital photos.