Posted by
Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa
My Sheffield-born friend Heather Dewick (a bookbinder) has got herself in the Sheffield Telegraph this week, with her choice of interesting places to visit around Sheffield. I blogged about her work last year: http://jewelsartyblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/progress-with-clowne-painting-and.html.  |
| Some of Heather's books |
Here's her Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heatherdewick/ - also, a link to a link to the bookbinding workshops she is running in Sheffield: http://www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/bookbinding
And finally an unfeasibly long link to the article about her “favourite things”, which is on the Telegraph website as well. http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/favourite_things_heather_dewick_who_is_running_a_workshop_as_part_of_off_the_shelf_s_history_weekend_books_in_with_her_pick_of_the_region_1_3038044
 |
| Pen and Ink Trees 2 - still in progress |
I have continued my second pen and ink tree painting. I’ve made the middle lighter, where the light shines through the trees. To begin with, I did this by diluting the black ink, but found that it didn’t come out pale enough, and also the lines from the pen showed. I therefore touched it up with grey watercolour for a smoother finish, but I now think it needs to be made a bit rougher on some of the trees, to suggest the bark. I also felt I should have made the sky darker around the outer edges of the paper to emphasise the sun more. At art group, Karen thought I ought to incorporate some wildlife, which is a possibility.
 |
| Maggie's water lillies now with added dragonfly |
My snow trees oil painting is still drying (three weeks on, which must be a record). I used a low odour painting medium to mix the oil paint - turps and linseed oil next time – or perhaps I ought to stick to doing oils in summer. For non-artists, you have to dilute your oil paint with something - it’s very thick when it comes out of the tube.
Maggie has recently added a lustrous dragonfly to her existing painting of water lillies. She likes to paint watery scenes, and her lily paintings are very popular. This painting is on the selling website above, here’s a link to the painting itself: http://www.artistsofderbyshire.co.uk/MR11.html
Kevin was drawing a castle/manor house, in pen and ink, with a deep orange sunset behind it. Pen and ink is a medium he often uses anyway, especially for buildings. He’d got the shadow on one side beautifully (if you want to see these paintings, you’ll have to come to our Easter exhibition, but for those of you who are further afield, I’ll try and photograph a few to show you).
Posted by
Lidya Endzo Kun iLLa
This week, I have been out and about, photographing places to feature in my painting of Clowne landmarks. Clowne is a small place with a population of about 7,000, and I have had a choice of pubs, schools or churches, but there is also the village cross, and I hope to feature the Ringer Villa, which I will say more about if I do. Here we have the “Miners Welfare”. For those of you not familiar with the mining industry, I will say that there are a few of these “welfare” buildings in mining areas, and they were built as social clubs for miners. Ours closed down last year – the mine itself has been closed for many years now. It may not look much in the photo, but I’m sure I can pretty it up using some artistic licence …
This week, I would like to introduce my friend Heather Dewick, a bookbinder. She has over 20 years’ experience of producing books and restoring old books. She began with a foundation course at Lincoln Art College, then trained as a bookbinder. She was employed by a man (possibly Tony Budge) who lived near Retford to restore his large collection of books. Heather then set up a shop at Hunters Bar, Sheffield, but it was difficult to do her work and serve customers at the same time. After having her son (now aged 5), she moved to Bank Street Studios, in the Cathedral quarter of Sheffield. She works partly to commission, and in between, makes books to sell at craft fairs and markets.
Whenever Heather goes on holiday, she looks for interesting papers to buy. She uses antique equipment, such as this embossing press. Here you can also see some of the letters she uses, in a surprisingly wide range of fonts, about 15 I think.
I can recommend her work, as she restored a large old map book for a relative, some time ago, and produced a lovely guest book for me when I got married.
I will do a second posting about Heather to show more of her work, as there seems to be a limit to the number of images Blogger will let me post.Meanwhile, at art group, Karen continued to work on her city harbour sunset, John completed his blonde Saluki (dog) portrait, and Elizabeth began a new painting, which looks like a sea shore. There was the usual jolly banter, which you really have to be there to appreciate. Today, for example, Madge said she had been stung by a nettle and John replied “and the nettle died”. All good fun. I will end here then, and do another posting with more of Heather's work.
Jewel
