Art Unequalled. November 4th and 5th in Ely.

I am gathering work together for the first of my pre-Christmas events, Art Unequalled.
This takes places at the Maltings in Ely, Cambridgeshire on 4th-5th November 2017 and I am looking forwards to returning to this event. Its good to meet people and show my engravings but I also use this event to kick off my Christmas shopping!

As usual, I will be demonstrating how I engrave, developing a new owl block. On my table, I will display editioned engravings (including some framed), hand-printed cards, handmade books and my box of £10 engravings - I try to bring something along to suit all pockets.

This will be the first time I show my new work: "Apple Blossom Wren"

Here are the details (see also the Art Unequalled Website) :

I hope to see you there.

I will also be showing work at two other November events -  the Ely Cathedral Christmas Gift & Food Fair and Clare Christmas Fair. Details will follow.

Just a reminder that I now have a mailing list to keep you up to date with Work in progress, news, offers and events. You can sign up at my website - just click the "Mailing List" button and leave your email address (see also my previous blog post).

Finally - A Mailing List

For the last few years, I have relied on Social Media to keep people up to date with work in progress, forthcoming events and special offers. I am no longer confident that this is the best method, especially with rumoured further changes to the way that Facebook will deliver information.

I have signed up to MailChimp and finally have a way to offer an occasional email that I hope will interest you. The good people at The Internet Marketing Company have added a button to my website that links to a simple sign up form:

I will not bombard you with emails. I imagine that they will be sent monthly at the most.

Out of all  Social Media I engage with, I enjoy Instagram the most. You can follow me  as @andyengraver  where you will find images of my work or whatever else has caught my eye.
Here is a little taster:

Apple Blossom Wren

We are lucky enough to have a garden which is busy with wrens and they have become one of my favourite birds. This is not the first wren I have engraved but this one has taken the longest.

It is a project that has been done simply for my own pleasure. In addition, it has been a demonstration piece that I could take with me to a selling event. If you have seen me working away at a block in public during the last couple of years, it was probably this one. Here are some views that have been added to my Instagram feed ( @andyengraver ) during that time::

The last of this group of photographs shows the last few adjustments to be made, pencilled onto a proof. I finally finished engraving during my open studios this summer and then set the block aside to move on with other projects.

The large Albion was free for a few days this week so I set up the block and tried some different papers. I was particularly pleased with a very smooth, very slightly creamy, Zerkall paper and made a start on printing the edition.

Here is the print. It is called "Apple Blossom Wren" and the image measures approximately 75 x 60mm. I am publishing it in an edition of 100. You can buy it now at a pre-publication price from my ETSY store and I will have it with me at my November selling events (more details about them very soon). It will then be available from my website.

 

Open Studio 2017

I can't believe thats its a year since I moved back into my extended studio. It has been a pleasure to use it and it was getting so "lived in" that I have had to give it a good clean and tidy to be ready for this year's Open Studios. I have made a few changes to the layout from last year and feel that there will be a little more room for people to see what there is on show.

Firstly, the details. I will be open the following weekends between 11am and 6pm:

Weekend 1: 1 - 2 July
Weekend 3: 15 - 16 July
Weekend 4: 22 - 23 July

Full details can be found from the Cambridge Open Studios Website.

So what will you find here?

I will be showing a wide range of wood engravings, including new work such as A Breckland Story:

I will also be showing my most recent work, "Flying Kites Over Pakefield". Only twenty of these original prints will be available:

In addition to pretty much my full range of available printsd, there will be hand printed greetings cards. These are all printed from the original engraved blocks and signed, making each one an original print. Here is an example; the first appearance of  the second of three versions of "Tending Young" that I engraved for my Royal Mail honeybee stamps:

I have placed the card (which is blank and comes with an envelope) on Red, the 1902 Albioon handpress. Here is a view of the empty studio taken yesterday:

In addition,  you will be able to see a number of handmade books made in this studio, often involving letterpress, and published in small editions. I also make miniature books where everything is engraved, such as my tiny "A View Of Avebury":

As usual, I will be demonstrating how wood engraving works and "Red", the larger Albion, will be in use.

Here is a video of last year's Open Studio, to give you a taster:




Feel free to just come and browse and ask questions. If you want to buy, I will accept cash, cheques and can also take credit cards. Come and say Hi!

Cafe Creative. Engraving at Babylon Arts, Ely on Saturday 13th May 12 - 4pm

Babylon Arts in Ely are holding Cafe Creative - a live art week at the gallery space beside the river. You can read about the events here.

I will be working in the space on Saturday, 13th May between 12 noon and 4pm. I will be engraving and also printing from a block by hand burnishing.

In addition, I will be bringing a selection of  finished work - engravings (framed and unframed) , hand printed engraved cards and some hand printed books. These will be available to examine - and to purchase if  you see anything you like.

I will be sharing the space with Alison Hullyer' another printmaker,who will also be demonstrating, showing and selling her wonderful work.

Come along and see this rare pop-up experience. Tell your friends, say "Hi" and see how we do what we do!
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Spring Sale

Spring is my favourite season; the first warm days after Winter are so cheering.

Spring flowers are making the garden a more cheerful place:

 

The pond is teeming with tadpoles and has its own Spring flowers emerging:

I am holding a Spring sale of engravings. These are not work in my current exhibitions and I am offering big discounts and including some prints not on my website. You can see this work in my Etsy store, which you can find here:
etsy.com/shop/AndyEnglish

I have new work on my desk, an Easter card and some bookplate projects. Time to get back to work!

New Work: "A Breckland Story" and "Conker Time"

Its been a while since I showed new work here and I'm very pleased to be able to highlight a couple of recent things.

"A Breckland Story" is particularly special since it is a personal project and also, for me, a large engraving. For a change, I will start with the engraving, rather than leading up to it:

 

As you can see, itis engraved on a large natural round of wood - English boxwood. The dimensions are 13 x 12cm - very big for me.

This is one of a series of engravings which involve both a location, its wildlife and archaeology. There series has no name and are a very loose group of engravings. This one has themes of attack, danger and hiding. The kestrel is swooping down to attack the shrew, which is aware of the danger and may well escape. Underground past dangers are signified by the arrow head and earlier hiding but a hoard of silver coins, specifically those of the Iceni tribe of Iron Age East Anglia. The scene is linked to the Breckland by the inclusion of The Breckland Speedwell and a ground beetle (Amara fusca).

The engraving started with the kestrel and then the shrew:

 

Some of the artifacts were engraved from life:

 

 ... others from reference photographs or other drawings:

Engraving was a lengthy process as a result of both the size of the block and the detail of the design.

As soon as I pulled the first proof, I knew that the engraving had gone well and I only had to tidy up some of the cutting before the work was done and the edition could be printed.

 

Here are some enlarged details - firstly the kestrel:

Andy here the buried coins and arrowhead:

This engraving is initially available only from my Etsy store. It will eventually be added to my website.

 *   *   *   *   *

The second engraving was commissioned by Incline Press to illustrate a short prose piece called "In Conker Time" by Vivienne Palmer who blogs as "The Bug Woman" . I have admired the work of the Incline Press for many years and it was a treat to produce a couple of wood engravings on a theme that reached back to the boyhood pleasure of conkers.

There are several horse chestnut trees in the village and I decided to feature the one that grows on the green. I sketched both the tree and some of its fruit in pen and then using the exacting medium of drypoint:

I used the drypoint as the basis for marking up the block, drawing the design in reverse:

Again, pulling the first proof confirmed that most of the work was done - just a little tidying up to do:

I made a second, smaller engraving of a single leaf. Both have been editioned.

Here is the book published by Incline Press:

Here are the finished engravings:

My "Conker Time" wood engraving is published in an edition of 100 original prints. The smaller leaf engraving has been published in an edition of 25 and these will be given away free with the first 25 copies of the main engraving, which is available from my Etsy store.

Amara fusca

Amara fusca

Exhibition at Babylon in Ely, 24th February - 19th March

I have been framing work for my first exhibition of the year. It is a group show by six artists called "This Country Life". I will be showing about fifteen engravings, several being exhibited for the first time.

You can see from this invitation card that I am in very good company:

  

Andy here are the details - I hope that many of you will be able to visit. You are very welcome to attend the preview on Friday 24th 6 - 8pm

This will probably be my only local exhibition in 2017 (although I will be opening my studio again in July. This year I will be opening on Weekends 1, 3 and 4 and I will also be showing smaller groups of engravings in a couple of National Trust properties in Suffolk). It is good to use this opportunity to show some new work. I will be saying more about some of this work separately but here is an older work, a preview and a tease. Lets start with the older engraving:

I am including "Tending Young" which is one of the honeybee stamp designs I engraved for Royal Mail. It is one of two hand coloured engravings that I am including. Here it is:

 

"Conker Time" was a collaboration with the very highly regarded Incline Press. This started life as an illustration and now has a life of its own. Its based on a tree I know well in Little Downham near Ely:

The other engraving that I will feature is a very new work called "A Breckland Story". I only finished it last night. It is part of an occasional series of engravings that I am making for my own pleasure, rather than as a commission. 

I will jsu give a couple of teases here; the whole image will feature on my blog very soon. Here goes:

Tease No. 1

 

Tease No. 2 

That's it for this post!