It would be lovely if you could join me for an afternoon of cake, collagraphs and chats this coming Saturday 2nd June 2018.

I am delighted to have the Meet the Artist event at Cank Street Gallery, Leicester to celebrate the closing of my “sketchbooks” exhibition at the Gallery. It has been such a lovely show, with some very kind and generous feedback – which was a relief as I did feel that opening my sketchbooks for a display was like delving into the back of a deep, dark cupboard – one never quite knew what would be pulled out! But, Dayle Flude, the owner of the gallery, with her expert eye, has selected a beautiful collection of pages that complimented each other perfectly (I wouldn’t have known where to begin).

In addition to being able to peek further inside my sketchbooks, I will also have a range of collagraph plates for people to handle, and some new plates at various stages of construction for people to see the processes. And, you may even see me capturing the event in my sketchbook! So please do join me – it will be lovely to see you!

I will also have a wide selection of prints on display – both framed and unframed to suit a range of budgets, so hopefully everyone can take a little bit of my magic home with them.

To compliment this display, I have also written an article about my sketchbooks at the kind invitation of the Leicester Society of Artists – in which I share my favourite brand of sketchbooks, what I do and don’t put in the sketchbooks, and how many I simultaneously use at one time. It was a wonderful piece to write, and was extremely useful as it gave me some space to sit and analyse how I use these forms of bound paper. I never quite thought how many sketchbooks I had in use at once until I was asked this question – then came the reflection about my ideas bouncing back and forth between the books.

My favourite quote from the article is the opening one and sums so much up about my use and love for sketchbooks:

“I love my sketchbooks. They are places to continually improve my observational drawing, to doodle ideas, to record holiday memories, or, accidentally, to create final artworks in – which leaves me with the dilemma of how to extract the piece from the book with minimal damage. I am an avid collector of sketchbooks, all different shapes, sizes and paper weight. My favourites are small A6 ones, and I try to carry one with me at all times so that I am ready to capture a really interesting pose, an architectural detail, doodle ideas, or even write notes for a new story. They all go in there!” 

To read the full article please visit the LSA’s website.