Governo trava exploração de petróleo no Algarve

In December 2016 it was announced that the Portuguese government had cancelled contracts for oil exploration in the Algarve.
More information at www.palp.pt   Platforma Algarve Livre de Petróleo.

#AlgarveLivreDePetróleo
Horror vacui #10, the finished piece hanging on the wall in my studio.

Exhibited at the Real Marina Hotel & Spa, Olhão in November 2016.

Work in progress - figuring out what goes where !

Gyotaku Postcard for Visual Aids

The 19th Postcards from the Edge exhibition for Visual Aids was held at Metro Pictures, New York and featured 1,432 postcards from artists around the world. Over 1,100 people visited the show and so far 94,000 USD has been raised.

More inspiration from Porto and Olhão

Home again 

National Museum of Azulejo, Lisbon

A wonderful day full of inspiration; colours, patterns, relief surfaces and amazing horror vacui style installations. A few of my favourites..........

Weltwand Minden

I was invited to be one of the 17 artist from across the world to collaborate on a public art project in Germany by Katja Rosenberg the artist, curator and founder of Art Catcher. You can see more about Katja's  'Art Catcher' projects at www.artcatcher.co.uk 

Cecillia Herrero from Argentina was the co-designer and Eric Nagel, musician and film maker created a short film to accompany this project.

Artists were invited to create a sketch which reflects one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals as agreed by the United Nations Summit on the 2 August 2015.

Seahorses surrounded by plankton, graphite on Fabriano Academia 250 gsm paper. Dimensions 110 cm X 110 cm.

For my sketch I chose "Life Below Water", this was inspired by reading "Poseidon's Steed" by the marine biologist Helen Scales. Also, visiting  the CCMAR, University of the Algarve reasearch lab at Ramalhete with Cathy & Bill Driedzic where I was able to see numerous seahorses in the aquariums (and Team Canada's cuttlefish). I am hoping that I will be able to watch a seahorse in its natural habitat in the Ria Formosa.

View of the banner / billboard from the street in Minden, Germany.

The finished piece for the banner / billboard.

Katja Rosenberg standing in front of the banner on 24 September 2016 installed on the wall of the Cantasgebaude, Konigstrasse 9, Minden, Germany.

Gyotaku & Nature Printing in May

I was delighted to have the opportunity to teach a variety of gyotaku and nature printing techniques to the Canadian artist, Cathy Driedzic.

More of Cathy's work can be seen at www.cathydriedzic.ca

Cathy created over 50 prints starting with botanicals; a variety of plants collected from the garden of my studio. She was able to experiment with a variety of techniques including the 'taku-ga' plant printing technique and a variety of materials. The next session introduced direct and idirect gyotaku for a selection of shells, sea urchins, starfish, seaweed and mermaid's purses which were collected when beach combing in the Ria Formosa.

Cathy also produced some excellent prints of cuttlefish, the incredibly delicate cuttlefish bone, sea bass, xaputa and carapau in monochrome and full colour.
Examples of her work can be seen below.

Gyotaku & Nature Printing in May

Printing  the cuttlefish in the Salvador Dali manner.

Cathy inking the cuttlefish with a soft sponge roller.

Cathy's indirect gyotaku of a sea urchin on Kozo paper with Caligo Water Washable Relief ink, sea urchin on the right.

Cathy's direct gyotaku of an oyster shell on Wenzhou paper with Caligo Water Washable Relief ink, oyster shell on the left.

The finished piece (Horror vacui #9)

Lizard, baby gecko, scallop shells, a dolphin bone, goldfish, mussel shells, feathers, fig leaves, vine leaves and mermaid's purses.