Week 3: Padstow to St Ives 'In the Studio'

“P.I.E. WEEK”  (Procrastination. Incubation. Evaluation.)
This week I have been doing a lot of thinking, sorting and listing. Some would say that this is procrastination, there may have been a little of that but I would prefer to call it incubation and evaluation. 

I have definitely slowed down these last two weeks, and have found myself spending vast amounts of time just thinking. I find that you need different mindsets during the creative process. I have spent the first 3 weeks gathering inspiration; I now need to assimilate this information.
A book by Geoff Petty “How to be Creative” is well worth a read, he uses the acronym I C E D I P to describe the various mindsets needed. It is out of print but the main principles are available to download:
http://www.geoffpetty.com/downloads/WORD/CreativeProcess.doc

I set out on this project with far too many preconceived ideas of how I would take notes, what I would be inspired by and what methods of printmaking I would use.
I have found that on the path it is very difficult to produce a drypoint plate effectively each day. I have been mostly making a series of loose sketches and colour notes and writing.
I am going to look at using non-toxic etching as a means to translate my sketches into plate form. I feel that the marks and tonal qualities will be what I am looking for. This is not to say that I will exclude drypoints as a process, I have already made some good plates during the early weeks.
The disadvantage of this descision is that I have done very little etching, risky … yes, but risk is what you need to move forward and I may as well have a steep learning curve to match the terrain on the path!
I have not been totally idle in the studio, here is a monotype from some sketches in week 2.

Throughout the walk I have been blown away by the colour, especially in the wooded sections. This piece is called 'Beech Row at Buck's Cross'; Buck's Cross is a small settlement to the east of Clovelly.


Amongst others, this print will be at Harbour House Gallery in Kingsbridge as part of the Press Gang Printmakers Summer Exhibition. On show will be prints produced by a number of local printmakers; each day one of us will be on hand in the gallery to chat about the various methods of printmaking.
I will be there all day (10am – 5pm) on Saturday 7th July.
http://www.harbourhouse.org.uk/gallery-PressGang12.html