I’ve been having a go at screen printing again, doing some tests for a bunch of t-shirts I’m working on, as I’m having a stand at a local craft fair on October 2nd. If you’re in the East Grinstead area on October 2nd, do stop by the Jubilee Community Centre, Charlwoods Road. The fair is trying to raise funds for a girl’s orphange in Kitwe, Zambia, so there will be good craft for a good cause.

I took some work in progress shots of my screen printing. It doesn’t show it here, but I wish I was a neater worker. I’ve not completely finished my designs - the tests showed me which areas I should change, but I’m getting there.

1. Cutting the stencil from a photocopy of my design, being careful not to detach any inside pieces - everything should remain attached, that needs to remain on the stencil.   2. The finished cut stencil.    3. My taped up screen, with stencil underneath, laying loose on the test fabric.

4. My pot of ink - a mix of black and blue. I got very messy.    5. Ink on my screen, ready to print, squeegee above.   6. Inked up screen

7. The test print on a spare piece of fabric.    8.The test t-shirt. This might look a bit of a plain design. My daughter is going to colour in the flowers and butterfly… I’ll show pics when I let her at it.

And some other designs I worked on…

I’m eternally grateful to this fabulous book: Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils and Silk  Screens . There are loads of designs to copy - with artwork in the back to photocopy so you can complete the book’s projects - however, for me it was great for showing the joys of printing with really great step by step photos and text. Brilliant book.

Two years ago, myself and some artist-friends submitted paintings to the Willow Foundation’s Stars on Canvas auction. Willow is a charity providing special days out to 16-40 year olds who are seriously ill. The auction was a mixture of artist’s canvases and signed, embellished canvases by famous people - footballers, tv stars, etc. The next auction is in December this year, in London, and tonight I started my canvas. We are all given the same size canvas, about 5 x 5 inches or so. Last time I painted a portrait, this time I’ve gone for flowers. Here is the work in progress so far, though there’s a fair bit more to go.

For the first time, I entered some work into the annual Lingfield art show. It’s been on all week, finishing tomorrow (Sunday 26th) at 4pm. It’s a very eclectic show, with so many subject matters covered and mediums used. The private view last Monday was absolutely buzzing. When I popped along the next day, to help steward, there were a good number of red dots here and there, which was great to see.

I put in three pieces, one of my April (horse) paintings, a life drawing, and a life painting. I was thrilled that April was picked by Oyster Framer’s Martin Scarland as his ‘best of show’ on his blog. There is so much good work on display in the show, plus this painting is in the same room as the diverting refreshments, so I’m bowled over that he picked it. Here are the three pieces I put in: April II, Reluctant, and An Unrequited Farewell.

Here is today’s life painting, though I thought I’d do a portrait instead of the full figure. The background is coming out a bit too turquoise in the photo. I’m pretty pleased with the painting and more pleased that the model thought it looked like him.

I’ve been doing a few landscapes of late and really enjoying it. These are two tiny canvases that were given to me by a friend. To show how small they are, the last photo shows a strawberry next to them!

The top painting  is a very loose bluebell wood. We have an amazing display of bluebells in the local wood every May. I adore it. The painting below is based on a photo I took of Ashdown Forest, near here.

I’m donating a portrait commission to Dominic’s Fund, a local charity to raise money for 3 year old Dominic Francillia who needs to get to the US for an operation to improve his quality of life. Dominic was diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy at 8 months old.  The operation would will enable him to walk with a walker, sit independently, be toilet trained and improve the functionality in his right arm.

I’m donating a commission for a single portrait to the winning bidder. The portrait would be painted in oils on canvas, from photographs either taken by me, or supplied. The size of the final portrait would be approximately 40cm x 40cm, largely dependent on the source photo. To see other portraits of mine, click here.

I adore painting portraits and really hope I can help make a difference to Dominic, if only in just this small way.

If you’re interested in bidding for the commission, click here, entering the auction id=9072010 and password=dominic.
It’s a silent auction, you can bid on-line at the link above or in person at the Wentworth Ball this Friday, 9th of July. Tickets for the ball are still available here.

Happy bidding!

Best wishes,

Sheri

*newsflash*  I’m happy to report that bidding went well and the commission went for over £200!

Here’s a 5 minute pastel warm-up sketch and today’s painting from life group. It was a good morning, about 10 of us drawing and painting, all with very different styles. We do three five minute warm ups then settle down for a pose lasting until the end of the session (it’s 3 and a half hours in total). I’m fairly pleased with my results. I’m usually striving for lively marks and trying not to get too caught up in detail, though I measure and draw the figure out in thinned raw umber before I start adding colour.

This is a bit different from the norm. I got a fab Speedball screen printing kit for Christmas and only just got the chance to use it last night for hubby’s birthday today. I made a stencil, which is the easiest and quickest method and ran off 2 t-shirts. I think it’s pretty cool, hubby doesn’t get retro chic apparently! He’s wearing it though.

I worked on an Ashdown forest inspired landscape last night at London Road Group, in my pursuit of looseness again. I have a bit more to do to it. I need to play down the darkness of the sky a bit, play with the horizon line where sky meets land. Hope you like it. I think there’s a series in the offing once this one is cracked.

Sadly April the horse painting didn’t get into the RA Summer show. I’ll be picking her up again soon but will try again another year I guess. I’m looking forward to visiting the show, nonetheless, to see what did get in.