Print and Sculpture in Exhibition

Recently I submitted a couple of woodblock prints and a sculpture for selection in the first Ribble Valley Open Exhibition. The exhibition is open to all artists of any media, the only criteria being that the artist be resident in the Ribble Valley area. (You'd be surprised how many there are!)

I received notification about a month ago that one of my prints, 'Ribble Valley Winter View', which some of you out there received as my Christmas print last year, and my sculpture 'Resting Figure' had both been selected for exhibiting.

My winter view print has been doing very well for itself, and is now in it's second edition of 60 prints. (I'm not a big fan of artificially limiting my prints to force the price up. Prints are a democratic medium, and as such, should be printed and priced with the same philosophy.)

I was asked if it could be featured in an article in the English language Japanese magazine, 'Japan Close Up' . They wanted to do a piece on foreign artists who were inspired by Japanese art, and found me on Etsy!

Susan Ashworth, of the Lancashire Museums Organisation (co-curators of the Ribble Valley Open)which manage all the museums and art galleries which fall within Lancashire County Council's responsibility called me a couple of weeks ago to ask if they could buy a copy of the print for the Lancashire Museums' permanent collection, which was great. I now have one of my prints in the collection of Lancashire's art gallery archives. I'm happy to admit it quite made my day! When Susan arrived to collect the print, she also bought one for herself, and mentioned that they're considering printing a postcard or Christmas card of the image at some time in the future.

I've included a copy of the back and front of the poster/leaflet for the exhibition. The sculpture in the image is mine.

It's made from cast concrete (about 12 inches high and very heavy) and patinated to look like bronze. The sculpture was originally created in clay, from which a 2 piece plaster mould was created. The clay was scooped out, and the mould cleaned, before very carefully pouring a finely mixed concrete into it. When the concrete has dried, the plaster mould is very carefully chipped away to free the cast sculpture which is cleaned and finished.

The technique results in only one sculpture from the waste mould, and the clay original is also destroyed during the process which makes the finished sculpture a unique one off.

I have one framed copy of the print in the exhibition for sale, and 50 unframed woodblock prints from the same edition packaged for sale in the Museum/Gallery shop. The exhibition runs all the way through until the 10th of January next year, so I'm hoping some of the visitors would like the print as a little Christmas stocking filler.