Photo walk

I’ve organised a photo walk of Stockport this Saturday for a large group of photographers.This is my first organised walk so I’m a little nervous but it should be a good day out for all. I’ve planned a route through a useful website called Walkit.com which is at: http://bit.ly/1CHprgG

Busy day printing dry points

I spent Saturday working on two dry point prints using my new portable press. Here are my latest offerings for the project;

Lyme Hall

Vernon Mill

Printed on 200 lb ‘Langton’ watercolour paper by Daler Rowney.

Stockport Castle sketches

Sketch ideas for castle etching.

Lyme Hall Dry point print (AP)

Lyme Hall and Vernon Mill

These last few months, I have been working out what subjects to print next and what type of printmaking to exploit. I recently purchased some very thin clear plastic sheeting from Intaglio Printmakers to produce a new series of dry points for my project. My first print will be of Lyme Hall. I will be using a pencil sketch of the hall I created last summer as a starting point. My second dry point will be of Vernon Mill which has an established artist community. I visited the Spring Open Studio at Vernon Mill on Friday evening and met up with some old friends. I also visited the Manchester Print Fair No.9 at the People’s Museum yesterday. There was a lot of original and unique work for sale from a lot of talent artists. It maybe worth my while participating in one of these fairs in the future.

The Old Infirmary Building

My most recent etching and the first one for 2015 is entitled ‘The Old Infirmary’ which is directly opposite Stockport Town Hall and is been converted into offices.
Please go to my Gallery page to view it.

Printmaking Supplier

Useful link for printmakers – http://intaglioprintmaker.com

Printing press photo

Here is a first glimpse of my new printing press.

Printing Press

Yesterday, I made a big decision which should benefit this printmaking project. I decided to order a brand new A3 printing press. I’ll be printing in my Jim Jams soon. Pictures to follow… (of the printing press)

Researching the castle

A few weeks ago, I did some research on the history of Stockport castle to aid me in producing a print.

I found out that Stockport was originally called ‘Stokeport’, which roughly means ‘Stock’ (Stockdale – so called from Old English stocc ‘tree trunk’ + dæl ‘valley’. ) and ‘port’ (Wood)

Stockport castle means “A castle in the wood”. The son of King Henry II, local landlord ‘Geoffrey de Constentin’ held the fortification against the king in 1173 during the ‘barons rebellion’.

The Norman wooden fort was replaced by a stone construction in the early 13th century. Apparently, Halton castle was built in the same style as Stockport castle.

The castle no longer exists and was demolished in 1775. Few plans or images of the castle are available so a bit of artistic license may be required to reproduce an etching.

I have created a few drawings of what I think the castle may have looked like. More posts to follow…