Art Prints
The Art Prints below are part of small editions. They are all hand printed & coloured. Every one is unique as it bears the marks of the maker. An etching for example, involves making the etching plate and then the creation of each individual print is a time consuming process of cleaning, inking and then wiping the plate before running it through the etching press. Each one is printed with highly pigmented etching ink or artist's quality paint on high quality acid free paper.
An original artwork created by a print maker has the value that is inherent in all hand made things - unlike digital reproductions that are frequently referred to as art prints!
An original artwork created by a print maker has the value that is inherent in all hand made things - unlike digital reproductions that are frequently referred to as art prints!
Shadows
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Belfast Print Workshop artist members were asked to create a work in response to one selected from the archive collection (40 Cubed Exhibition, The Crescent Arts Centre Belfast, October 2017).
The work that I selected was Untitled Dog by Basil Blackshaw.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Belfast Print Workshop artist members were asked to create a work in response to one selected from the archive collection (40 Cubed Exhibition, The Crescent Arts Centre Belfast, October 2017).
The work that I selected was Untitled Dog by Basil Blackshaw.
Basil Blackshaw, Untitled Dog (BPW Archive)
I choose Basil Blackshaw’s image of a lurcher drawn on lithographic stone. Blackshaw’s dog is recovering from a run, the ribcage is heaving and the tongue is hanging to one side as it pants to cool down. The intuitive marks reveal Blackshaw’s own familiarity with his subject. My own lurcher has the same stance, the same graceful shape.
My own work is based on a psychogeographical approach and the concept of the dérive. The dérive was originally associated with the Situationist International movement and is still employed by artists as a means of uncovering aspects of urban environments and their effect on inhabitants. It can take many forms but is essentially an unplanned walk, often with an initial theme but with the walker(s) remaining open to suggestions, mindful of happenings and employing some means to record the experience. In my work the dérive is central to looking past official depictions and to revealing hidden aspects of the city and its surrounds.
Blackshaw’s stomping ground was the hills, fields, hedgerows and lanes that surround Belfast. His views of the setting sun colouring the sky beyond Lough Neagh and rains plodding along the Lagan Valley before moving out across the Irish Sea are also mine. I have created a set of images in response to his based on a walk across Collin Mountain. It’s an area that featured in Blackshaw’s work and one with which I am very familiar having lived and walked my dogs there for over 20 years.
This walk was different in that I reversed roles of master and hound and followed the dogs wherever they led. I hoped that the route that they chose would reveal aspects of the landscape that had previously remained hidden in the form of images or concepts. Source material that I could include in the resultant set of images. This worked to an extent however the dogs often stopped expecting some guidance from me. During the walk I became interested in the shadows cast by the dogs and the concept of walking in the footsteps of others. I subsequently created a set of collographs based on shadows we cast. I felt that this was an appropriate response to the work of towering figure such a Blackshaw - the idea of working in his shadow. The shadows also provided abstracted shapes derived from representational forms that I felt were similar to those employed by Blackshaw in his art.
My own work is based on a psychogeographical approach and the concept of the dérive. The dérive was originally associated with the Situationist International movement and is still employed by artists as a means of uncovering aspects of urban environments and their effect on inhabitants. It can take many forms but is essentially an unplanned walk, often with an initial theme but with the walker(s) remaining open to suggestions, mindful of happenings and employing some means to record the experience. In my work the dérive is central to looking past official depictions and to revealing hidden aspects of the city and its surrounds.
Blackshaw’s stomping ground was the hills, fields, hedgerows and lanes that surround Belfast. His views of the setting sun colouring the sky beyond Lough Neagh and rains plodding along the Lagan Valley before moving out across the Irish Sea are also mine. I have created a set of images in response to his based on a walk across Collin Mountain. It’s an area that featured in Blackshaw’s work and one with which I am very familiar having lived and walked my dogs there for over 20 years.
This walk was different in that I reversed roles of master and hound and followed the dogs wherever they led. I hoped that the route that they chose would reveal aspects of the landscape that had previously remained hidden in the form of images or concepts. Source material that I could include in the resultant set of images. This worked to an extent however the dogs often stopped expecting some guidance from me. During the walk I became interested in the shadows cast by the dogs and the concept of walking in the footsteps of others. I subsequently created a set of collographs based on shadows we cast. I felt that this was an appropriate response to the work of towering figure such a Blackshaw - the idea of working in his shadow. The shadows also provided abstracted shapes derived from representational forms that I felt were similar to those employed by Blackshaw in his art.
Belfast Adrift: Go and Get Lost Manchester
I created a map that combines Belfast topography with Manchester streets. I then drifted many miles across Belfast on the lookout for public figures. I have decorated the side panels of the map with sketches of figures that I encountered while walking and indicated their locations on the map. Anyone attempting to retrace my steps by relocating the Belfast figures to their equivalent Manchester setting may well get lost. Getting lost is the whole point of this map and others like it, because in doing so the walker may uncover aspects of their city that had previously been hidden. Getting lost however, is a difficult thing to do in an environment that you think you know. To counteract this familiarity the walker must employ a strategy to introduce some elements of chance. The purpose of this map therefore is; to disorientate the walker by misrepresenting well worn routes, and to disrupt the walker’s ingrained behavioural patterns by encouraging visits to random locations. So go and get lost Manchester!
The map is on display as part of the following exhibition
Loitering With Intent: The Art and Politics of Walking
July 23rd – October 14th at People's History Museum, Manchester
For more information www.thelrm.org for The Loiterers Resistance Movement
Finished image is a hand printed silkscreen. Each one is therefore unique costing £90 (including frame).
I created a map that combines Belfast topography with Manchester streets. I then drifted many miles across Belfast on the lookout for public figures. I have decorated the side panels of the map with sketches of figures that I encountered while walking and indicated their locations on the map. Anyone attempting to retrace my steps by relocating the Belfast figures to their equivalent Manchester setting may well get lost. Getting lost is the whole point of this map and others like it, because in doing so the walker may uncover aspects of their city that had previously been hidden. Getting lost however, is a difficult thing to do in an environment that you think you know. To counteract this familiarity the walker must employ a strategy to introduce some elements of chance. The purpose of this map therefore is; to disorientate the walker by misrepresenting well worn routes, and to disrupt the walker’s ingrained behavioural patterns by encouraging visits to random locations. So go and get lost Manchester!
The map is on display as part of the following exhibition
Loitering With Intent: The Art and Politics of Walking
July 23rd – October 14th at People's History Museum, Manchester
For more information www.thelrm.org for The Loiterers Resistance Movement
Finished image is a hand printed silkscreen. Each one is therefore unique costing £90 (including frame).
Airport Road
During 2015/2016 I repeatedly walked along Belfast’s Airport Road and Sydenham Bypass. As the name suggest this area surrounds Belfast’s City Airport. It is a landscape reclaimed from the sea to provide space for industry, storage, offices and retail units. The stinking air is a mixture of sea breeze, tar, sewage, gas, diesel and other fumes. The roads are wide with deserted footpaths. It’s not pretty but it is interesting. This set of 4 silk screens considers some of the ways that people interact with this space.
Images are hand printed silkscreens. Each one is therefore unique costing £90 (including frame).
During 2015/2016 I repeatedly walked along Belfast’s Airport Road and Sydenham Bypass. As the name suggest this area surrounds Belfast’s City Airport. It is a landscape reclaimed from the sea to provide space for industry, storage, offices and retail units. The stinking air is a mixture of sea breeze, tar, sewage, gas, diesel and other fumes. The roads are wide with deserted footpaths. It’s not pretty but it is interesting. This set of 4 silk screens considers some of the ways that people interact with this space.
Images are hand printed silkscreens. Each one is therefore unique costing £90 (including frame).
A Walk Across Belfast, 2016
I was delighted to be one of 16 printmakers selected from print workshops across Ireland to create a work in response to the 1916 Easter Rising. The full set of 16 images was exhibited in the Ulster Museum (June 2016) and in a number of other venues in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. My submission is a map of Belfast. The colours and shape are reminiscent of a tattered, bullet ridden flag. The map depicts a walk that I took across the city while reflecting on the influence that Belfast had on the events of 1916.
Image is a hand printed silkscreen. Each one is therefore unique costing £90 (including frame).
Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132)
I was delighted to be one of 16 printmakers selected from print workshops across Ireland to create a work in response to the 1916 Easter Rising. The full set of 16 images was exhibited in the Ulster Museum (June 2016) and in a number of other venues in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. My submission is a map of Belfast. The colours and shape are reminiscent of a tattered, bullet ridden flag. The map depicts a walk that I took across the city while reflecting on the influence that Belfast had on the events of 1916.
Image is a hand printed silkscreen. Each one is therefore unique costing £90 (including frame).
Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132)
My walk was from ..
start to finish, morning to afternoon, work to home, Carson’s statue to Connolly’s house, right to left, covenant to proclamation, east to west, unionist to nationalist, high to low ground, parliament buildings to the city cemetery, Newtownards Road to Bóthar na bhFal, poppies to lilies, preparations to preparations, flags to flags, memorials to memorials 2016 to 1916. |
Town & Country Project:
Some recent examples of my work from an ongoing series blurring the boundaries of town and country by using animal shapes to walk an urban environment.
Images are created from an etched plate finished in watercolour. Each piece is therefore unique with prices starting from £50 (including frame).
Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132)
Some recent examples of my work from an ongoing series blurring the boundaries of town and country by using animal shapes to walk an urban environment.
Images are created from an etched plate finished in watercolour. Each piece is therefore unique with prices starting from £50 (including frame).
Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132)
Bits of Belfast - Silkscreen, Etching & Watercolour
Images of Belfast based on sketches done on location while out walking
Images are either a hand printed silkscreen or created from an etched plate finished in watercolour. Each piece is therefore unique with prices starting from £50 (including frame).
Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132)
Images of Belfast based on sketches done on location while out walking
Images are either a hand printed silkscreen or created from an etched plate finished in watercolour. Each piece is therefore unique with prices starting from £50 (including frame).
Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132)
A Map of Gresham Street
This map depicts some of the history and current activity associated with what is essentially a vacant plot awaiting redevelopment at the back of Belfast's Castle Court Shopping centre. It includes the famous graffiti 'No Topless Bathing - Ulster has suffered enough', the Good Vibrations Elvis Sign and the iconic Nelly the Elephant that appears to have gone AWOL. A framed etching costs £120. Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132) |
Good Vibrations Map
This map charts the movements of Belfast’s Terri Hooley and his Good Vibration record shops. The Elvis Sign has long been a familiar figure of the pavements of Belfast faithfully pointing out the way to Terri's shop that has now finally closed for good. The Elvis sign became an institution with every up and coming band posing beside it for a photo. The sign endured bombing and even a kidnapping as it moved around the city. This is a large screen printed map costing £150 including frame. Get in touch if you would like to purchase one. (Tel: 07962189132 |