Dreams of Exiled Souls

Our group exhibition The Dreams of Exiled Souls opened this weekend. I was busy having too good a time and took disappointingly few photos.. so I also forgot to get any of me with my work but there is this one that Clare Archibald took where I’m considering the correct arrangement of things during the installation.

The private view on Friday went very nicely despite the incessant rain and it was so good to meet everyone. Many thanks to David at Chroma Editions for bringing together such a beautiful show and for inviting me to be part of it along with some really excellent people.

Links to the online places of the other artists..

Clare Archibald
Richard Baker
David Banning
Julian Hyde
Neil Jackson
Joanna Pocock
Iain Sharpe
Louise Smith
Isabella Streffen

The show runs until 4th November. If you’re in Kendal please go along and see it at Cross Lane Projects, Cross Lane, Kendal, LA9 5LB

Poster artwork and design by David Banning of Chroma Editions

Group Exhibition - October 2023

I'm very happy to have 5 pieces in this group show in Kendal, Cumbria in October.

“The Dreams of Exiled Souls brings together ten UK-based artists and writers to respond to conversations around fractured terrains in increasingly broken social, cultural and political systems. Visitors are encouraged to reconnect to everyday life by journeying into mystery, mythology and folklore.

Negotiating boundaries, artist pilgrimages, Covid lockdowns, landscapes and even the atmospheric sounds of Scottish rock band Mogwai, The Dreams of Exiled Souls questions the constraints placed on the ‘body politic’.

Curated by Chroma Editions, the exhibition centres on a lingering sense of loss and the awareness that everything will eventually be consigned to ‘an archive of memories.”

The Dreams of Exiled Souls runs from October 7th – November 4th at Cross Lane Projects

https://www.creativetourist.com/event/the-dreams-of-exiled-souls/

Experiments in cyanotype

My phone gave up the ghost last week. I cannot describe the overwhelming feeling of joy and relief when I saw that flashing glitching apple logo. I've had seven glorious days of freedom. No email, no text messages, no to do list reminders, no alarms, and no surprises. I've read so much. I've done my work. I've got so much work done.

Here's a quick and scrappy cyanotype from the end of a long day of experimenting. I've been working on another image for the last few weeks but it's taking longer than expected to get right and I was starting to get impatient so I did a quick test print of this negative instead just to see how it might come out. Took a guess at a 14 minute exposure. The highlights are a bit blown out, so I decided to stick it in a bath of tea.. All a bit slapdash, I think the tray might probably have had some soap in it which might explain these errant blue blotches. Which I kind of like. And the vertical stripes are from the print lying facedown on the bottom of the tray and not enough agitation. I guess they shouldn't be there either. But I like the glitches. And I really like the colour of the toning. Iron gall. I shall write a bit about the science and history behind that at some point.

Anyway. This is a rock from Rannoch Moor in Scotland floating above Lindisfarne, Holy Island in Northumberland.