Grayson Perry's Art Club exhibition

Grayson Perry's Art Club exhibition eventually opened, after various lockdown delays, at Manchester Art Gallery - and it was great to get along last weekend. 

The exhibition runs until 31 October 2021. It was far larger than I'd anticipated, so I'd like to return to spend more time taking it all in, especially as the individual stories were beautifully captured alongside each work. I found it moving to read about so many artists' experiences during the pandemic and it really captured the power of art to heal and help, as well as to capture ideas and moments.

Here are a few photos - the quality is not great, but they will act as a good reminder of some of my favourite works, well the ones I was able to capture anyway!

Paul Green's small wire sculptures 'Lockdown Birds' 

Alex Robinson's clay figurines 'ComputerWorld'

Singh Twins' 'NHS v Covid-19: Fighting on Two Fronts'

Raqib Shaw's birchwood panel 'Ode to the country without a post office'

Grayson Perry's 'Tea Towel'

My Print for Twitter Art Exhibition 2017 (#TAE17)

This year's Twitter Art Exhibition raises money for a UK children's charity Molly Olly's Wishes. The charity art sale is on Saturday 1 April - and I'm hoping my gecko linocut will help the cause.
I've included below some images of the postcard in development. Entitled 'Sticky Feet', rather unusually for me, it is a multi-plate reduction: 2 plates and 4 colours. I hadn't combined the multi-plate and reduction techniques before, so it was a little high risk! Fortunately I didn't have to resort to plan B and my gecko arrived safe and well in Stratford-on-Avon on time.

Above is the finished postcard, with all 4 colours. Process shots and some of the earlier stage images are below:

I printed on 300gsm card and cut the border off at the end to achieve and image 16 x 12 cm (postcard size) to allow for easier printing. The ink I'm using here is water soluble Graphic Chemical ink. I hope you enjoy seeing the image emerge bit by bit. The idea was prompted by the butterfly in the Molly Olly's Wishes logo. It reminded me of a trip to a butterfly house, where a gorgeous green gecko was looking on through glass. Later I looked into what geckos enjoy eating - you guessed it, butterflies were on the list!

To see more of my work, please check out my website: www.carolynmurphy.co.uk where you will also find an online Shop with currently available work. Thanks!

The Old Parsonage Didsbury - Spectrum Exhibition

I'm now at the final preparations stage for our Spectrum exhibition at The Old Parsonage in Didsbury, Manchester. There will be a mix of older and new work. I've been finishing off some new prints this week at Hot Bed Press, to make sure they will be in the show, including a new 3 colour lino print of Manchester bees and a large scale lively and chaotic screen print:

I'll also be including "Scottish Sheep" exhibited previously at Stockport Art Gallery and An Talla Solais in Ullapool.

We are expecting a good turnout at the Preview on Saturday afternoon (7 Feb) 2 - 4 pm, so really looking forward to Spectrum, the first exhibition I've been involved in for a while.