How keen am I?  A quick race down the motorway system to stand in a queue outside Victoria Art Gallery, hoping the two prints I've taken will result in a 'yes' postcard before the end of the week.  If they don't, well at least I got in last year so I know I can do it.  And it was anyway a lovely weekend, quite sunny, quite warm, quite breezy, which added up to just right.  Took son, who stayed awake on the journey - it goes a whole lot faster when you're chatting - and carried a picture and persuaded me that we should eat somewhere nice and then a little later that we should have a cream tea.  Very good company.  Bath was moderately overcrowded, but he claimed it was just nicely bustling.  Maybe it was. 

The next day, with the weather just as just right on the return trip, we stopped off in Nailsworth (near Stroud) which, so far as it was possible to tell on a sunday with nearly everywhere closed, was delightful.  Continuing the food theme, we decided to take an early lunch there at the Canteen, which seemed ridiculously busy compared to everywhere else and with touches of perfection (especially after our cream tea yesterday - lovely cream tea but not a fun place to be).  After winding round several corners there was a little courtyard tucked in between tall mill buildings;

inside there were more mismatched tables and chairs and I fell in love with a wall of boxes.

As a fantastically instantaneous and laid back storage system it has to be second to none.  In fact the Canteen was entirely laid back and relaxed, with a good range of all sorts of teas for those who are into that sort of thing, delicious looking salads and cakes (yes, yes, I know it wouldn't make sense to have salad and then decadent cake) and a scattering of fascinating odds and ends everywhere.  If I lived in Nailsworth, I could imagine spending a fair amount of time in there.  Find a corner, write a book - lovely,

Then we drove through Gloucester.  Could've, should've stopped for the quays and the cathedral, both looked well worth it even driving by, but by then we were travelling - saving those for next time.  A meander through tracts of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, marked by mistletoe, the Severn, the Malverns just out of reach, orchards, then it was back on the motorway for the rest of the afternoon.  Weekend over.

Ok.  So as I mentioned there's an exhibition in Warrington, Artists' Proof, opening next week.  Two prints framed for that.  And then there's the Bath Open handing-in day on Saturday (earlier this year than last, bother them).  Two prints framed for that, with of course the possibility that I'll be picking them up again when I go back down 10 days later.  And I'd really like to finish printing the two series - I have other ideas for the plates.  Next up is putting work in for Brewery Arts' Open up North.  Haven't even printed successfully for that yet, and the closing date is in a fortnight (at least the first round is a jpg submission).  And now there's the Liverpool Artists' Book Fair to work towards, though at least that isn't until July.  However, when it comes to leaving things too late for comfort, I can't deny I've got form, so I suppose over three months translates as uncomfortably close, no matter how many ideas I have fizzing around my head.

And some print ideas jostling for room too, not to mention older plates needing proofing, but they'll just have to wait their turn.  Yup, definitely should be busy. 

Here are (is?  Group nouns, what are they good for?) a couple of overlapping sections of a plate inked up with leftover ink - I was bored with what I had been doing, didn't think there was enough ink out to do what I wanted, but felt there was still too much to ditch.  Here was the plate, there was the ink and ... ta daa!  Bright.  The Wiltshire downs as (I suspect) they will never quite be seen.

Artists from the second year of the Hot Bed Press course The Complete Printmaker are having a joint show, Artists' Proof, at The Gallery at Bank Quay House in Warrington, with other printmakers from The Regional Print Centre (Wrexham).  Look, look, my print's on the flyer!

As it says, the opening night is Thursday 3rd April, 6-8pm - everyone welcome. 

Just been to see Orlando at the Royal Exchange - excellent!  Get tickets!  There's still a week left - go!

I wasn't sure what to expect, having seen Miranda Richardson in a version at the Edinburgh Festival way back when.  When?  1996, it turns out, and I remember being faintly bemused at it, more than anything else.  Whereas this, this was engaging from the very first moment, and funny and fascinating and my attention didn't waver for a moment.  There were instances of such ridiculousness that I found a part of my brain thinking that I surely couldn't be enjoying them this much, but the other part didn't understand that and wasn't even listening because what was happening on stage was too good, too much fun.  I should probably say that I haven't read the book (and am currently convinced that it couldn't be anywhere as good as this was) and  admit that I have no deep understanding of what was going on.  And I don't care.  It doubtless helps that it's surely been a long while since I've seen a play at the Exchange that truly grabbed me, but everything about and everyone in this one was brilliant.      

Brewery-headquarters-become-art-gallery The Tetley is playing host to PAGES, the Leeds International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, this weekend.  I applied but wasn't selected  (but I'm not bitter - ha! geddit?).  It's a new venue, so I was keen to see how it matched up to the old one, though I'd have been there anyway - the first book fair in an age where I haven't been helping to run it or manning a table.  So, having ventured across the Pennines, Emma and I took an inevitably circuitous route through Leeds to the car park then strode keenly off in the wrong direction (ignoring the large building next to us, whereon Tetley's was writ pretty damn large) and still arrived not long after opening time.

Straight away I have to confess that - delightful as it was to go round chatting for as long as I liked to old acquaintances and lingering over any and every thing that caught my eye - I definitely prefer to be on the other side of a table.  It felt plain wrong to be wandering about without a care in the world, however relaxing it has been not to have to prepare work in (natch) a late flurry of activity. 

Of course, I wanted to discover what exhibitors thought about the new location.  Last year's fair was held in Leeds University's Parkinson Building - and as an aside, I've just spotted that the fair has moved from one art deco building to another - which has an elegant and enormous hall where all the tables are in the same room and on the same floor.  This year's is split over two floors and (more or less) three rooms.  Some of the tables share space with the refreshment area.  I have no idea if that poses any kind of problem for those exhibitors or not (didn't happen to ask any of them) - it might even be a good thing?  When I asked a handful of exhibitors spread over the rest of the fair how things were going, there were worries (this was early on) about potential footfall because of the move and a reduction in student numbers again because of the move (some people depend more on student sales than others), there were anxieties about how many visitors might do a preliminary viewing circuit but never make it back upstairs, there were uncertainties about stretching the fair over 3 days (it opened on Friday evening).  But equally, some people thought the new location was a plus and that the Friday evening felt like a private view, with a real buzz to it.  As is not surprising, it appears the jury's still out, but the organisers have been at this game for seventeen fairs now - they know what they're doing.  For my part, I thought the interior of the building was delightful, quirky, cosy - but it lacked the airy lightness of the Parkinson Building and felt just a little cramped.  I always think there's some risk, too, in splitting any event over a number of rooms - it can be too easy to miss some rooms altogether and never know.  Before I left, it was quite difficult to get around the tables because of the crowds - but I really couldn't tell if that was excitingly high numbers of visitors or lack of space, and perhaps that it felt busy was good enough.  The Tetley has a slight flavour of Bristol's Arnolfini, in a tinier size, though without an equivalent of Bristol Docks just outside the door (it's a lovely place to pass the time on a sunny late afternoon). 

Lots of fascinating and beautiful books and such, of course.  I fell in love with lengthy, tactile, sewn books made by Joan Newell (of Page Paper Stitch) and wound on to old wooden spools, and I always seem to end up with something from Old Bear Press (no website! outrageous! but they might claim they're too busy drawing, printing, cutting, making).  There was a ton of gorgeous stuff all round, in fact, and I'm not sure I did it justice.  Maybe I should ignore the long list of things I ought to be doing tomorrow and make a second visit?  I'll look at the state of the house and decide in the morning. 

A recycling plant in Salford went up in smoke this week - lots and lots and lots of smoke.  Hot Bed Press was rather too close, meaning nightmare traffic and - when the wind was in just the wrong direction -  a distinctly kippered atmosphere.  I'm sure I heard someone today say that the fire might have to be 'managed' for weeks, but at least it's better than it was - and Manchester looks softer through smoke.

I went on playing with colour regardless.

The more I print, the more I realise that - in printmaking at least - I think irredeemably neatly.  It's not necessarily what I would choose, but it would appear to be the way my mind works - I go for clearly defined lines and/or areas to ink up.  So to combine the precision of collagraph lines with a much looser and less controlled inking technique is definitely slightly outside my comfort zone.  But fun.  Lots and lots of colour-drenched fun - and colour has always been my thing.  Here are the first couple - there are plenty more, and when they're dry and flat I'll put them on the website.