Margaret Calkin James - a family connection

I'd known for a while about the artist and musical branch of my family history but had not had the opportunity to explore it. My grandmother was Gladys Calkin and she married into the Gale family, my maiden name. Her cousin was Margaret Calkin James, best known today as one of the original female designers to work on posters for London Transport.

Margaret Calkin James - featured in the London Transport Museum's 2018 'Poster Girls' exhibition

During my research for the Level 3 Printmaking course I did this year, I visited the 'Poster Girls' exhibition at the London Transport Museum in London's Covent Garden. Margaret Calkin James's work was prominently displayed along with more of her story.

'Q.E.D' poster by Margaret Calkin James

'Trooping the Colour' poster by Margaret Calkin James

'In Kew Gardens' poster by Margaret Calkin James

'Chelsea Flower Show' poster by Margaret Calkin James

She was a calligrapher, graphic designer, water colour painter and printmaker, including linocut printing and fabric printing. It was amazing to find a book about her in the Museum shop. I couldn't resist buying 'At the Sign of the Rainbow, Margaret Calkin James 1895-1985' by Betty Miles.

The book about Margaret Calkin James I bought in the Museum shop

"After studying at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, she opened the Rainbow Workshop in 1920, the first gallery managed by a woman to promote art, craft and design," I read in the summary about her in the exhibition. She was married to the architect C.H. James.

The book features some of her linocut work, including two that were part of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in 1965 and 1966 respectively: 'Cyclamen' (detail below) and 'Dianthus Doris' (shown with four of the nine blocks she used):

Detail from 'Cyclamen', a linocut by Margaret Calkin James

'Dianthus Doris', linocut by Margaret Calkin James with some of the plates she used, as shown in the book

I particularly like the stylised aspects to her work, evident in this 'Penguin' linocut o c 1962 as well as in the details from the Q.E.D work already seen.

Stylised 'Penguin' linocut by Margaret Calkin James, also from the book

Stylised detail from 'Q.E.D' poster by Margaret Calkin James

Another stylised detail from 'Q.E.D' poster by Margaret Calkin James

I enjoyed exploring her background, life and work through my linocut project on the Regional Print Centre at Wrexham's course. Sometimes it's hard to spend the time and search down information and chance upon the book!

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

On a Poetry Book Cover

It was an honour to be approached by poet Katherine Lockton for permission to use one of my linocut images on the front cover of an issue of South Bank Poetry.  We agreed on the use of a section of 'Serenity' and Katherine kindly contributed to my fundraising efforts, as I prepare to walk over 26 miles in the Peak District 'Mighty Hike' for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Today I received the 'little book of poems' and enjoyed dipping in to explore the works inside. I love poetry and it's a delight to see printmakers and poets come together. Wishing South Bank Poetry many more successful years ahead!

The Best Art Experience of 2018?

Yesterday the Prospect Printmakers had special access to the vaults underneath Manchester Art Gallery with the curator, Kate Jesson. What a fantastic evening! We got to pick a selection of boxes of prints to see what was inside. We chose a wide selection, including unmarked boxes, and were lucky enough to see work not currently on show. We viewed works by Graham Sutherland and Japanese woodblock artists, amongst many others. 

Opening archive boxes in the vaults

The curator and a Piranesi design

Fabulous image - "after" Van Dyck

Graham Sutherland print

Utagawa Toyokuni woodcut

Hokusai - The Hanging Bridge

Liam Spencer painting

The vaults under Manchester Art Gallery

One of the real surprises was learning about the 'Manchester Corporation Rutherston Loan Collection' which allowed the people of Manchester to borrow pieces of art for their homes, like books from the library. What a superb idea!

It was truly a magical evening and great to go under the building to see the parts you usually only see on TV! Amongst the racking I also spotted a Liam Spencer oil painting, that surely should be on show!

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

A Greetings Card Journey

My new range of digitally printed reproductions of my original linocuts launched in December 2017. I introduced just six initially, to sell alongside our Printmaking Exhibition in Chorlton's World Peace Café. They have sold well - especially the bees! - and I'm now thinking of introducing some more designs. My cards retail at £2.50 (plus p&p) through Love From The Artist, they are a UK not-for-profit organisation supporting artists. To buy my cards online, please click here to go to their website.

Original six cards in the range

I've been playing with design ideas for a new set of cards - for Christmas and big occasions, like birthdays. I'm planning to have these finalised by July. Not all of these will make the grade, but I'm having fun exploring what works. These designs are all monoprints. Let me know what you think!

Possible new designs drying in the studio

I'll also be adding some cards supporting Macmillan, based on the huge linocut commission I I have just created. All profits from cards based on the 'Serenity' print will go 100% to Macmillan. They will be available from the opening of the expanded Macmillan Information and Support Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital in a few months. These are the early proofs. I'll update and share information when the cards are ready and available to buy.

First proofs of Macmillan cards based on 'Serenity' linocut by Carolyn Murphy

I'm delighted to finally have cards to sell alongside my original prints. A big thank you to the small team at Love From The Artist for all their hard work. There are lots of great cards on their website, so it's well worth a good browse!

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 Pennines and the Halo!

On Saturday 21 April 2018 a new exhibition of artworks by Prospect Printmakers will open at The Whitaker Art Gallery and Museum in Rawtenstall, Rossendale. It's inspired by the Pennines, the theme that unites the work of almost 20 artists in a range of printmaking techniques.

My new linocut 'Halo' was created for this exhibition and will be displayed alongside one piece of work from each of the Prospect Studios printmakers involved.

  

There's an Opening on Saturday 21 April 2 - 4pm at the Whitaker. All are very welcome.  I hope you can make it to the Opening or to the Exhibition itself, which runs until 17 June. Our small show runs alongside Liam Spencer's new exhibition 'Home & Away' in the main gallery space of the Whitaker.

I've outlined below some of the behind the scenes story of the making of this particular piece.

'Halo' refers to Haslingden Halo, an 18m diameter steel structure, sited on an exposed spot above the town, to mark the regeneration of East Lancashire. I hadn't visited it before working on this Pennine theme, but was interested in the juxtaposition of this large industrial-looking art sculpture and the barren moorland landscape. The Halo is lit at night too, giving it an other-worldly floating look.

The day I visited, I'd planned to make a number of sketches. It turned out to be in early March, during the snowy period and it was icy cold, windy and threatening to rain or snow any moment! I ended up walking the site and viewing the structure from all sides and taking reference images, before dashing for the car. I loved the shadows, the contrasts, the light. These are some of the photos I took:

Haslingden Halo with its shadows

The Halo looking alien in its landscape

Fantastic light and shade

Threatening weather

It was really in an exposed spot and I wanted to capture some of that sense of a big Pennine landscape. I decided to create the image from 3 lino plates, so that I could come back to the image and explore different colour ways. I cut the image from traditional lino 21 cm x 21 cm.

This is my first proof of the print:

First rough proof

From here, I made some changes to the colours and also cleaned up each plate further, cutting away stray marks. I was aiming for a more dramatic final image to reflect the light and shade, the storm clouds brewing and the warmth in the landscape.

I don't have images of every stage, but you can see that I've introduced a red/brown bracken colour and darkened the clouds. This is the print after printing just the first plate:

Printing plate 1

I have ended up with a small edition, which will be for sale at the Exhibition and later (unframed) on my website. I was printing this at the same time as drying my Macmillan giant linocuts and starting to work on new designs for my greetings cards. I'm definitely short of drying space!

 

Need more drying rack space!
 

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.

My Twitter Art Exhibition (TAE18) Postcard

Last year I entered the Twitter Art Exhibition for the first time and loved it. I couldn't resist taking part again this year for TAE18. My work 'Strumble Head' (16 x 12 cm) went all the way to Canberra in Australia to find a new home and it raised 48 AUS$ for Pegusus as a result.

'Strumble Head' by Carolyn Murphy for TAE18

The Twitter Art Exhibition manages to create a great sense of community with artists all around the world and every year there's a fabulous cause. It works like this... Each artist contributes one original signed postcard-sized piece of work. An exhibition is created and all work is sold at a fixed price per card to raise money for a great charity.

Last year the sale was in Stratford-upon-Avon and it raised £18,000 for children's charity Molly Olly's Wishes. This year the exhibition was in Canberra and on Saturday 7 April the charity sale took place, followed by an online sale, all to raise money for Pegasus Riding for the Disabled, this year's  fantastic local charity. Original works are currently still available to buy on the Pegasus RDA website.

I decided to submit a relief print this year, based on a sketch I'd done a few years ago of Strumble Head lighthouse in Pembrokeshire. I created the image using 3 plates, a mixture of lino and wood for a change.

Below I've included the stages so that you can see the image build up. The first 2 colours are using linocut, whilst the final plate is a woodcut, using Japanese plywood.

Stage 1

Stage 2

The edges were left rough, as I trimmed the image down to the standard size of 16 x 12 cm. I also took a very rough early proof of the woodcut block, to see how that was coming along. This image is below:

Woodcut block work in progress proof

 

I then went on to continue cutting the wood until I was happy. Once I'd created this one-off piece I packed it carefully and sent it to Australia. I don't know who has bought my postcard - but I do hope they enjoy it and perhaps they'll also like seeing it as it developed.

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!

Completing the big one!

February 2018 will be in my memory forever as 'the huge linocut' and snow. It's not the best combination as Hot Bed Press can be truly icy at times, even when you're wearing 6 layers and a hat!

Fighting through the snow

The good news is that all the prints in the edition are finished and drying. I started with 12 and I think I have between 6 and 8 good ones in the final edition. I won't know for sure until I've checked them carefully and transported them safely home.

The finished A1 linocut

The framed print for the wall of the Macmillan Centre is due to be delivered to them on Wednesday 21st March. I just need to arrange framing and decide on a name for the artwork! It's all on track but the name bit is proving trickier than I thought. News later on this.

The final stages have been gruelling, not just down to the cold. Every time I estimated 'a day' of cutting, the plate seemed to grow. In total 'the big one' has taken 80.5 hours of cutting and printing. The cutting stage after the spot colours took 10.5 hours before I could print colour 4. Strangely enough, I massively underestimated that!

The final stage of cutting the lino plate

Below you can see the final stages of the process of building up this huge original print:

Printing the 4th colour at Hot Bed Press

After 4 times through the press

 

Printing the final colour on what's left of the plate

To see a video of the final stage of printing check out this News story on my website.

Jake Kennedy has featured me and the making of the giant Macmillan linocut on his latest blog Probably Prints. Thanks Jake!

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!