House in Rhyl

I think the positve image loses out to the negative in this shot

House in Rhyl

This was taken with the ‘camera’ in the gutter leaning up against the curb. I like the car on the right.

And now for the positive image

and the here is the flower bed as a positive

Flower bed with buildings

First pinhole images

Had a super day with Vivienne Rickman Poole learning how to make a pin hole camera. Made a drinks can camera but I didn’t have much success but my biscuit tin worked really well. So much so that I bought my mum a box of the very same M & S biscuits for Mothers Day so that I could have the box when she had eaten them. I actually rather like the pictues as negatives as they come out of the ‘camera’ although I scanned and converted them to positives too. Altering the levels was necessary with the positives.

Great fun and I can’t wait to convert the downstairs toilet which hasn’t got a window into a temporary darkroom.

The negative image just as it appeared out of the developer and below converted to a positive

Helfa Gelf

This is the third and final weekend of Helfa Gelf the Open Studios Art Trail in North Wales. I haven’t been able to do much studio visiting myself apart from going to Sonia Benskin-Mescher’s opening event  with Barry (BadgeMakesArt) on the very first Friday 10th September. Sonja’s studio, garden and house set behind the ancient church in the tiny village of Llanelltyd near Dolgellau is as stunning as her painting. It was a long wet misty drive from the coast down through Gwynedd but well worth every mile of the journey.Then Wayne Clark fired a minigama dragon kiln in his garden on Saturday 18th after the end of the Helfa Gelf day at 5pm so I got to see Wayne’s fabulous display of woodfired ceramics and work by his wife Jo who is a printmaker and illustrator working in batik, linocut and scraperboard. If you ever thought scraperboard was for hobby artists and kids then check out what Jo produces with these humble materials.

On the page What’s New-Mixed media, papercut, cyanotypes I have posted three pictures of the installation ‘Counting Magpies’ which is currently on show at Oriel Scala for Helfa Gelf Open Studios.

All the artists involved in Helfa Gelf desperately want to get out and visit other artists’ studios but of course we are all on duty over the period. Tomorrow I have a free day and as it is my very last chance I am determined to get around as many studios as I can.

The best laid plans……

Well the last three days have been almost a complete write off for getting on with my art plans…I say ‘almost’ as today I feel a little better so have done a bit more additions to my blog. I started yesterday but didn’t get much done as concentration levels were almost zero. How can something like a cold lay you so low? It’s a good job we know these things will come and go in a few days or you would be convinced it was something really serious. Still cold and sniffly and coughing but hey ho it was worse yesterday and will no doubt be even better tomorrow.