AUGUST already! - mary walters

Life has been busy, with some travelling and a lot of art making – and just generally getting on with life. So here is a set of photos of the highlights of the month of July: in no particular order

visiting Roni Horn’s Library of Water in Stykkisholmer

Two-tone snow shapes — two tone snow shapes on the road to Akureyri

dramatic mountain scenery on Snaefellsnes

Anxious birds — beautiful, albeit anxious birds

Nature bath — nature bath at Myvatn almost midnight

a weekend at Godafoss — weekend at Godafoss

Crater lake at Krafla — crater lake at Krafla

Boiling mud pots at Hverir — boiling mud pots at Hverir

handmade paper boats at the outsider art gallery, Akureyri

And through all this wonderful travelling and exposure to these natural wonders, some art has been attempted: always inspired and infused by these experiences, but trying not to be consistently representational. Here is some of the work as I reflect on its success or otherwise:

Inspired by a course with Paul Furneaux on Japanese woodblock printing, I attempted to make my own version – with some cut block prints and drawings of seaweed over the top. Although I am reasonably happy with the results, I have learned that this is a very difficult process and the effort that goes into the cutting is directly proportional to the success of the print. More work will have to be done to get better at this, but as I have few water colours with me, I will have to wait until my return to do any more of it.

Part of a diptych showing, I hope, the balance of air and earth in this place

Triptych — and a triptych showing the same…

Snaefellsjokull drawing — drawn “in the field” at Snaefellsjokull

Godafoss drawing — and drawn “in the field” at Godafoss

Drawing of basalt cliffs — developing the original drawings from the basalt cliffs, as they were very thin – this has more work and depth to it I hope.

Five monoprints — my recent batch of 5 prints – the challenge here was to get back into the process of mono printing – and I have to say I really enjoyed it – making do with the paper I have left, and an old fridge door for a flat surface

the other half of the diptych on air/earth

Drawing/print/mixed media — 2 drawings/prints/mixed media works

I have also been developing my “skills” in After Effects, and working with footage filmed at any watery place…..then I have exported stills from the footage, and am reasonable pleased with the results. I think this may represent another direction in which to take my work – but are the final products the photographs, or should I try to work from these ideas into screen print? So many possibilities!

Here are some of the final results so far – I can’t do much more here with this idea as my laptop is chokka, and is running very slowly with video stuff. So more later…

any comments would be welcome.