Warwickshire Open Studios and updates!

​The last three weekends have been spent doing Warwickshire Open Studios - for those people who have been following my blog,  it also marked a year of me having my work physically out and about in the public eye rather than just on this website!  Doing WOS for the first time last year was my 'New Year's Resolution' to get my printmaking and drawing out there!

The set up took a bit longer this year as I had far more framed prints (hooray!) - and it was a nice reminder and review of how my portfolio of work has grown, and developed, over the year. 

I had the pleasure of being at Hilary Poole's house again - a glassmaker and ceramicist (her leaf is on the picture above) who also has a glass studio at her house, along with Sue Barclay a silversmith and Athina Bastien a ceramacist (it's her bowl on the picture above).  Thank you to the ladies for their chat and company over the weekends, and again a HUGE thank you to Hilary for letting us all in to her house to be able to take part.

Again it proved to be a very warm couple of weekends!  It was lovely to talk to folks about printmaking - some people came especially to see me to talk about printmaking which was lovely - and they left with lists of stuff to look at or try. It made me think that I could do with writing a blog on here specifically to do with things that I've found helpful and things I've tried too.... and I also talked to more people who haven't done printmaking before, or last did linocut when they were at school!  I'd taken along some carving examples as well as my pre-prints for a reduction linocut which helped people to understand the processes involved. 

It was a good two weeks, and this year I managed to get round some other Open Studios too by visiting on the mornings on the days we were open as I wasn't teaching on those days. It was fabulous to go and see different artists in their studios. If you haven't visited or are aware of how it works, essentially artists, or groups of artists, open up their studios or homes and show off their art and techniques for people to come and chat to them and also to buy artwork on display.

As well as Open Studios, I've also been working on some new mini-prints and drawings looking towards my next event which is Art in the Park in Leamington Spa. It's at Jephson Gardens on the 4th and 5th August from 10am - 6pm. It's free to get in and there are around 150 artists as well as dance, music, food and different art displays/installations and workshops. We went last year and it was great - such a fabulous vibe! I'll be in one of the bigger marquees in the Artist's Village if you are about to say hello. 

Time for a few photos from Warwickshire Open Studios and then next week (hopefully!) I'll pop up another blog with a couple more updates - and I'll get thinking about the blog about things that I've found out about printmaking over the last couple of years. If there's anything you would find helpful, leave a comment below and I'll see if I can get it sorted or can help out.

And a quick shout out to say my etsy shop (HERE) is up and running again for selling cards and digital prints.  The shop on here was not working too well as it was charging too much for shipping costs - on etsy it's much easier to control! The picture below is one I took for #justacard week - a way of promoting support for small businesses; believe me that one card really does help! It also shows just how many more designs I now have available!

Hope you're all enjoying the warm weather - it' s a bit too much for our dogs!

​alix  x

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