Lindsey Carr Blog

Working

Painting and painting .... and slowly images are emerging.

 

 

I probably won't be posting much over the next few months, but I will post when the work is ready and going to exhibition.

I hope you all had good holidays and are painting away yourselves

X

 

Threadless - take 2

I wasn't entirely sure about my previous Threadless submission, so I tried again, keeping the fox theme. It is up for voting now here! :)

5 year anniversary

Hey all, following from the other nights ranting - here's a link for those who'd like to petition against the selling of forests: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/save-our-forests

In other news one, or possibly 2 pieces of mine will be showing (and for sale!) at Thinkspace gallery on November 6th for their 5 year anniversary show!

Dukkha will be there

 

And hopefully this fella will be too...All depends if it can be got there in time!

Any queries about either piece please send them directly to Andrew Hosner at [email protected] 

I did a short interview about the piece at Thinkspace's blog. Every day Thinkspace are posting Q&A's from each of the artists, go check it out - quite interesting!

 

 

Forests

I have a fairly dim and cynical view of politicians and governments at the best of the times, but usually I have to admit i've never been tortured for having an opinion so we're probably fairly lucky in the great scheme of things. But every now and then a politican goes and does something which is horrifying and you have to wonder how they sleep at night....For non-brits, I think you will still be able to relate.

The Story so far

The result of our recent change in government is that this politician - Caroline Spelman - is now our secretary of state for Environment.

She doesn't look like any kind of evil-overlord type.

The papers have reported recently that she is expected to announce that the government will sell off half of our ancient forests which are currently under the protection of the Forestry Commission to private firms - That is 1.85 million acres of forest. Some of these forests - like the forest of dean - are some of the only remaining ancient forests left in Britain.

There are laws protecting these ancient forests dating back to the famous Magna Carter of 1225. So you think to yourself that surely they are protected. But no - because it seems likely that the laws protecting the forests would be changed so that PRIVATE FIRMS can buy up the land for logging/amusement parks/golf courses.  

I still had to laugh when I can across the double-speak coming out in the papers. It's straight out of 1984.

"A source close to the department said: "We are looking to energise our forests by bringing in fresh ideas and investment, and by putting conservation in the hands of local communities.""

I have emboldened for effect. It's appalling & insulting to me that politicians still speak like this given how much the public now know about Spin Doctoring and PR. 

The woman behind all these plans - Caroline Spelman - also has past bad form.

She part-owned (with her husband) a lobbying firm which lobbied the very department she is now head of. During the expenses scandal she claimed £40,000 in cleaning bills for one year (she is one messy woman).

She also paid her nanny from her parliamentary staffing allowance. To avoid the public shaming everyone else got - she  claimed her nanny was also doing parliamentary work for her! Even so - A parliamentary committee still found her guilty of misusing parliamentary allowances - and yet...here she still is - in government!

You might think from this that she must be struggling financially. But it turns out her wealth is estimated at £1.5 million.

So that's the woman who thinks that to save money what you should do is sell off an asset which has been hundreds of years in the making. Sorry - you should *energise* it.

 

This has been tried before - typically of course by the Conservatives of the past - and it failed because public opposition was so fierce. We can only hope the same is true again.

Sorry for the rant but I had to get it off my chest.

Hope you're all well X

 

 

 

 

Threadless - First Submission!

Hi all. Just a wee note, i've made my first submisson to Threadless which you can view here and vote on (honestly of course!) if you don't mind!

I am thinking I will try and submit another one which I have in mind as well. It is more difficult than I expected and i'll likely continue to make many more incorrect assumptions about how designing a T-shirt works!

It's all thanks to Joe Carr from Antiquated Press that it even entered my head. Joe is genuinely helpful and community-minded artist who also happens to make some awesome drawings which have been printed by Threadless. See his great shirts here.

So, for my bit I hope I encourage all artists reading this blog to try the same if you aren't already! Especially now as there is a competition running till November 1st for people who have never submitted a design before. The prix is $10,000 so it's well worth having a shot at it. :) Also you get some good feedback and meet some great folks.

Anyway, that's all for now! Hoping you're all well.

 

 

 

Working holidays

The one problem with taking a holiday is the seemingly punishing 14 hour days I subject myself to. I haven't been for a walk or done anything leisurely. I love what i'm doing, and that's why I get sucked into it from first thing in the morning until I turn around and it's dark. But sometimes I think - I should really go for a walk or meditate for a wee bit.

Anyway, the one point about this workaholic mentality is that I do get a lot done. If I didn't then mental instability would probably be hot on my heels.

 

A peek at a part of a peacock!

 

I've been messing around with studies as well - one of which is:

And he is for sale, framed, in my Etsy shop

 

In other news

I wanted to rave a bit about a new book out recently called 'The Natural History Book'  by Dorling Kindersley.

It catalogs over 5000 kinds of plants, minerals, mammals, birds. Each photo is given against a white background so you can really see what you're looking at.

Apparently it took 5 years to make, originally i'd heard they'd been working on it for 20 years! Perhaps that was an exaggeration? I don't know but it's certainly exhaustive and very heavy! One would expect it to cost a fortune but it's actually incredibly affordable...embarrasingly cheap even.

So that was my find of the month, I reckon it would make a great gift for kids at christmas time - certainly every little 'un I know will be getting one :)

Anyway, tis all for now. Hoping you're all well...might just go for a walk today :)

 

 

A run of it

'Feeding the wrong Mother' print is now in the shop. And also, a print of 'Garden' - as pointed out to me by  excellent photographer Ellie (Check out her blog of travels!) although having an easy to frame print is good, there's no reason why you can't give people the chance to also have the slightly awkwardly sized print :) Thanks Ellie!

They are each in a limited edition of 50, each one is signed and numbered. The price for the first of the run is $20 off ($60) and thereafter increased ($80).

In other news my obsession with all things fowl continues!

 

Pecking Order

 

I didn't realise before now that plenty of people in this country keep ornamental fowl, including peacocks. I've seen them in stately homes and such but after chatting to folk in my wee village it turns out that there's a house down by the sea which keeps Indian Peafowl (peacocks to you and I!). You'd expect them to find this climate problematic given their origins but apparently they are very hardy creatures and easy to keep - also, they make a right racket.

I'm off this week to try and make progress on another large piece, but as is often the way I immediately caught a cold. Apparently there's a science behind why people get colds when they take a holiday.

I'm also preparing to send off 'Dukkha' to be in the Thinkspace 5 Year Anniversary show.

 

Other than this I am still working on a new website - all built in Flash (which is my other job), i'm hoping to make it a pleasant experience to traipse around it.

 

Anyway, all for now, hoping you're all well! X

 

 

Print making

Generally when I start thinking about producing a print I realise one thing every time - I never produce paintings on standard sized paper. It makes framing very difficult for people who buy them.

So - recently I had a Giclee print proof done of 'Garden' and it turned out beautifully.

But it was not a size which anyone could buy a standard frame for. So I got frustrated and started cutting things out and moving them around...possibly this is some kind of philestine behaviour. Anyway, I got a bit carried away - think 4 hours later. The result was something totally different with elements of completely seperate paintings.

I think it holds together well as a whole and also - it fits a standard 16" x 20" mini poster frame size, so noone has to be doing any bespoke framing. Here it is, 'Feeding the wrong mother'.

I know I know, a heron can't stand on a chrysanthemum! But, I love a complete lack of care regarding scale in old paintings. I think i've said this before - the great master of it being William Bartram.

So, anyway, I think this will be the first print I list for sale soon in a limited quantity. I am trying to offset my carbon footprint with the prints by buying recycled packaging if I can find some and bio-degradable cellophane packaging. I suppose every little helps?

Meanwhile I am working on some illustrations of botanical subjects for a commission. Hopefully I will be able to post these up sometime in the future for y'all to scrutinise. It's the first time i've ever really had to represent a thing as it really is...rather than putting any leaf I like on any flower ;)

Artists DIY Framing

One of the downsides, or costs, of working on paper is obviously that everything needs to be framed and glazed. Having each piece framed professionally, especially larger pieces, is incredibly costly so I decided to invest in some basic framing equipment. Nothing as elaborate as the professional framing tools, but you can do an adequate job with some minimal upfront investment.

I thought i'd let you know what tools I got hold of and what i've learned so far as I know i'm not the only one who works on paper. 

Frame mouldings:

I bought many meters of simple frame mouldings in bulk and cheap. Believe me if you are thinking of framing a few pieces you're better off to buy a lot of the stuff since you *will* cut badly to begin with and making a frame takes a fair bit of wood.

I decided to float mount my work in a deep shadow frame. This works by setting the glass into the frame and then using a spacer to keep the work away from the glass. Then you use some foam board to mount the work ontop. What this means is you don't need a card mount as the work is not touching the glass and you can keep any deckled edges of the paper visible. The diagram below shows how this works.

Glazing:

If you have to send your work any distance at all it's advisable to use plastic glazing. It has a lot of advantages over real glass. It's lighter, it's flexible & unlikely to crack without severe pressure, you can still get plastic glass with UV protection and reduced reflections so you can present your art in the best manner. Downsides are that it tends to have a lot of static so every bit of dust gravitates towards it - however you can buy anti-static sprays to reduce this effect. 

It can be cut much like real glass - score it and then apply quick firm pressure to snap it. But what I do is order it cut-to-size. Shop around on t'internet for local services and you're likely to find some pretty cheap deals.

Cutting the moulding:

This is generally the part where you initially spend a lot of time cutting unusable lengths of wood. My advice is that if you cut bigger than you need you can always saw off the excess but you cannot add wood.

The cut is very important because unless you cut a good 45 degree angle your corners won't join properly. For the home framer there's 2 options which you can get either alone or together. One is the mitre saw which has angle setting and is fitted with a fine blade.

This is my saw and it is excellent it's called the Nobex Proman 110. I bought additional blades for it which have finer cutting power.

This saw will do the job if you cut very carefully and sand very carefully - and also it helps if you have a spirit marker to dye the cut edges of the wood to hide any teeth marks.

To get an even better cut you can invest in a mitre trimmer, this is a strong and sharp guillotine capable of cutting at angles. Generally the home versions of these require you to cut with a mitre saw and then finish off the cut with the blade. I don't have one of these yet but I think to get a really neat corner it is something you would want to invest in.

If you don't want to invest in these cutting tools then you can have a look around locally for a chop service. This is where frame moulding suppliers will cut your wood to the size you specify and send it to you.

Joining:

This is the tricky bit but it's certainly not impossible. First of all - the best thing to do is to glue the corners together and clamp them until the glue sets. There's some really neat home solutions to clamping picture frames. I use the Nobex Picture Framing Clamp (It actually came free with my Nobex saw! yay).

As you can see you lay your frame flat and glue the corners together. The clamp is one long rope with corner clamps running around it that you adjust to fit your frame. Then you pull tight and leave it until dry.

After that you'll want to use a frame joiner to keep the corners firm. This is a tool which allows you to push V-shaped nails into the corners of the frame, generally 2 or 3 are used and they should be over half of the depth of your frame to get a good join. I use the Logan studio joiner which although can be tricky it is cheap and when you learn how to use it it certainly does the job.

Finishing:

For finishing you can go super-cheap and simply finish the back with backing board and framers tape. Framers tape is usually very strong acid-free brown tape which will hold the backing board in place firmly. This is currently what I use since I don't expect people to be reusing the frame for other things.

The other option is to invest in a tab or point gun. This fires flat metal tabs into the side of the frames to keep the backing board in place but I would say this tool is definitely optional.

Then all that's left to do is to put your hanging rings into the back of the frame and admire your handy work :)

None of my frames have yet come out *perfect* in comparison to frames i've bought, and yet they protect the work and with a little wax filler in the corners where things don't quite meet and some dilligence you can get certainly a good enough frame to hang.

The minimal investment option:

I realise that the amount of tools, even as a home framer, that you need seem to be quite excessive! But you can really prioritise actually. For a really stripped back approach you would:

• Get your glazing cut-to-size locally
• Get your frame moulding through a chop service
• Invest in a corner joiner
• Invest in a picture framing clamp
• Buy some glue and some filler waxes

So you would split your investment between tools you keep and outsource the rest.

Anyway, that's all for now. If any of you do your own framing and have any tips do sling them my way, I am definitely a beginner in every sense and still making plenty of simple mistakes!

White Heron

Morning loves! This is just a super-quick post to show you the finished painting I posted in-progress shots of a while back. I posted it to my Society6 but neglected to post it here at the time.

I'm going to try and not post all of my paintings up until the show in February or i'll have nothing left to 'unveil'! :)

 

 

 

 

And whilst I was busy getting an image of that I managed to get a scan

of the 'Garden' painting from a  while back

I've made a few decisions too about selling work...I'll be producing limited quantities of giclee prints of certain pieces over the coming months and offering the option of having them framed as well. Reducing the quantity will mean I don't spend all my time on running my shop...but it will also make some money to go towards the materials for pieces to come.

Anyway, i'll post when it happens! I hope you are all well and good!