A visit to Durer's House

While visiting good friends in Nuremberg, I was lucky enough to visit the house of Albrecht Durer in the atmospheric old town.  There is no original Durer work there, but it is a fascinating and beautifully preserved burgher house from the fifteenth century and the museum tells the story of Durer well. 

Albrecht Durer's house (on the right)

Inside, the highlight for me was the 'historical printing demonstration'. 

Inking up

Nobody is quite certain of the design of the Gutenberg press, but back in 1971 a working reconstruction was created based on a drawing by Durer. Today it's used for printing demonstrations and I was lucky enough to 'help' by putting my back into pulling a print of Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg, who visited Nuremberg in 1512, thanks to this lovely printmaker.

Inserting the arm

The reconstructed press ready to go

The printed image revealed

Inside the workshop

Carolyn with the printed poster of Maximilian

It was great fun and added to my knowledge and my day!

To learn more about my work, please check out my website www.carolynmurphy.co.uk where you'll find my gallery, online shop and links to my social media.

Cutting Edge Linocuts

It's a rare treat to see so many Grosvenor School prints in one place, so I visited Dulwich Picture Gallery in London to see 'Cutting Edge - Modernist British Printmaking' exhibition this month. The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private art school in London founded in 1925. 

I am a big fan of the Grosvenor School printmakers and I was not disappointed! The exhibition was large and I bought the book, to take away and study more at my leisure.

Claude Flight taught at the Grosvenor School and he pioneered, popularised and promoted linocut printmaking, bringing affordable art to the masses and showed the versatility of this 'new' linoleum material. Students included Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, Lill Tschudi and Ethel Spowers. 

'Speed', linocut by Claude Flight 

Here are just a few more images to act as a reminder for me - and to share with you. They show the wonderful movement, excitement and vibrant colours, typical of these modern printmakers. 

'The Merry-Go-Round', linocut by Cyril Power

'Concert Hall', linocut by Sybil Andrews

'The Eight', linocut by Cyril Power

'In Full Cry', linocut by Sybil Andrews

'Wet Afternoon', linocut by Ethel Spowers

It was an inspiring visit to a lovely gallery. I could have stayed for several weeks!

A Big Treat

I promised myself a big treat and it's here - and very heavy!

Special delivery - one press

You can see the size of the delivery, which somehow my husband managed to get into the house. This is my new Hawthorn etching press, which is now in my studio, up two flights of stairs (don't ask!)

The heaviest bit at the bottom of the stairs!

Assembling the parts

Pristine - on its stand

Thank you to everyone who helped; whether that's helping me to buy it or helping to get it up to the top of the house. I ran some test squares to get it printing lino evenly and then printed etchings of Malaga, as gifts for good friends on our trip in September 2019.  That's a whole different story and blog post!

First test squares

To learn more about my work, please check out my website www.carolynmurphy.co.uk where you'll find my gallery, online shop and links to my social media.

Behind the Scenes on my Twitter Art Exhibition Postcard 2019

2019 was my third year of contributing art to support the Twitter Art Exhibition and its chosen charities.

Here I'll show you more about the development of this year's work, 'Above Ullswater' - an original one-off piece of work, from a one plate linocut, printed onto a monoprint background. 

Let's start with the location itself. It's high on the fells in an exposed spot. We visited friends nearby and walked up right from their door. 

Ullswater in the distance

I decided to explore this image and the composition initially in a drypoint 'sketch', before going on to cut the lino plate itself and play with mono-printing backgrounds.

Exploring the subject in drypoint

Testing out ways to mono print backgrounds

These were some I felt worked best for starters

In the studio I tried a range of mono printed backgrounds, drawing on the colours of the landscape, some redder, some darker. I then selected one image for my Twitter Art Exhibition 2019 submission - and posted it off.

Exploring backgrounds

A range from which to select the one

My #TAE19 donation 'Above Ullswater'

I was very excited to find out later that my work featured as a Board's Choice in the exhibition catalogue and that David Sandum, the founder of the Twitter Art Exhibition, had selected it and explained why. What an honour!

'Above Ullswater' in the 2019 #TAE19 catalogue

The full page with Board's Choice text

If you would like a very quick flick into the catalogue, to see some other favourites, you can see a bit more in this short video:

To learn more about my work, please check out my website www.carolynmurphy.co.uk where you'll find my gallery, online shop and links to my social media.