Author: Seb Palmer

Oh frabjous day…

Calloo callay!

After about five years growth, our green room wisteria is finally flowering.

I really like this film. Part of the so-called ‘Revisionist Western’ movement, it starts out seeming quite pedestrian, but gets pretty gritty and rough.

The cast is good. As is the acting. The locations are great. Script and direction are ok. The basic plot is that …

I did an early shift today. Again. Same as yesterday. Quite pooped.

Got home early enough to have a cheap n’ cheerful ‘Spoons brunch. We even had a pudding, in celebration of Teresa (& I) finally using her printing press.

Back home, out in the garden, in glorious sunshine. Bliss! Did a little art tweakage, on some previously unfinished pieces.

Actually did some work on them at the pub, as well:

It was just two degrees Celsius, when I was getting up and leaving for work, around 5-6 a.m. And it felt like zero. Now it’s allegedly 16°, but feels more like 21°!

This is the best of my first baby steps in printmaking. Two card plates. They’re supposed to align, roughly. I got the alignment all wrong!

Getting the amount of ink on the plates right is key. Soaking the paper onto which you’re printing is also important. Although how you do that – a misting spray, perhaps? – on multiple layer prints? I’m not sure.

It’s early days for us, of course… Day one, to be exact. But what fun! And we’ve got a lot to learn (and re-learn).

I scribed more linear ‘detail’ on the main plate. But forgot to re-shellac it… doh! And getting the inking right!? Nowhere near getting that right, yet.

The above is the nearest I got to getting the plates aligned as intended. Sadly the inking and printing are altogether more sketchy and random.

So… not one of these has come out as intended. Bug it’s all good. All learning and experience. We were both quite slapdash in our printing today. But enthusiastic.

A fascinating strand of cultural history… and you can view/read a whole book on this topic, Children of The Sun, online.

I do love zooming in on and cropping my art works. I feel the process yields new and unexpected but usable imagery.

I’d like to experiment with printing processes – perhaps collagraph and monoprints? – and see if I can achieve something in that line with this imagery.

There’s something a little bit Blakean going on here, I think. That’s definitely something to explore further.

Wow! Finally finished this epic whopper of a tome. 929 pages (not inc indices, bibliog, etc.); feels like I’ve been reading it for years!

It’s a very good read. Broken into 94 easily digested bite-sized chapters. And written in a very balanced readable style.

The garden is looking fabulous.

We’ll have been here nine years, this summer. And the magnolia has been growing over the Green Room for about five years. Will this year be the first to see it in proper full bloom? We do hope so.

It’s nice to be out in the morning. With the Sun casting her shadows westwards, over the pond.

Coffee and pastries. Very nice.

And here’s a gallery of lovely garden pics.

There are still several large areas that are a hopeless mess. Such as this, by the house and blue shed:

There’s a helluva lorra work remaining to be done. But, nevertheless, the garden is looking and feeling very lovely.