WENT TO LONDON

A LOT OF WATER MOVING

It has been too long since my last post. After the madness of this years summer season I stopped, breathed and enjoyed mooching about taking it easy, although work with surfboards kept on rattling.

It felt good but time being time the months marched on and the seasons changed to winter, which so far, has been fine. The break has served a purpose and sparked a fresh enjoyment of going out with my camera.

These shots are from a windy headland with no-one else around. I love the sea.

COAST PHOTOS

I have enjoyed photography for many years, for the most part taking pictures if I liked the composition, light or found something interesting. There was little regard for what style to follow, landscape, street, architecture, etc. Naturally when the surf was good I'd make an effort to get some photos and a camera would be with me when visiting places, of course the last 18 months have changed things a bit!

Lockdowns and travel restrictions clipped my wings and so without meaning to, my photography has morphed into the theme of seaside town and coast.

This shot is from my only journey away from Newquay last year, a few days on the south coast to visit family.

FINAL LAP FOR SUMMERTIME BY THE COAST

As ever the British weather has been a mixed bag this summer, of course just as the  kids and teachers go back to school a few days of warmth and sun arrive.

It has been very busy in Newquay, to the point I hid from the crowds, I did venture out with my camera occasionally and also made a journey to the south coast to see family.

SUMMER IN A SEASIDE TOWN

Summertime in Newquay is busy, with European travel restrictions continuing the town seems even busier than usual.

The hordes bring business, colour and interest along with crowds, queues and covid.

I have been less enthused than I thought for the chance to take photographs at this time of year, this can change and I still have my camera by my side to get the odd shot.

MORE FROM THE HARBOUR

Working with surfboards has taken a lot of my time lately, I miss getting down to the harbour and watching it work in so many ways at this time of year, plus of course the chance for getting new shots to post and print.

Instead I am going through and reviewing photographs from earlier in the year, I am specifically looking to see what could be used with my collage work.

 

SEEM TO ALWAYS END UP IN THE HARBOUR

Because of a year and a half of intermittent lockdowns and travel restrictions my photography has been based around Newquay. At first it seemed as if penned in, but with time this has proved to be a positive, I now set off to take photos and look longer at things with an aim of seeing something new.

Of course this time of year offers plenty of new things in terms of people visiting and staying for summer, not always what I gravitate towards but it gets so crowded it's difficult to get pictures without people being in them. Now a pattern is developing and it seems I end up in the harbour on most days.

SUMMER SO FAR 2021

A few shots from around Newquay just before the the high season starts.

Numbers grow with early holidays and seasonal escape from other towns and cities, long daylight hours along with warm weather encourage people to spent more time outside...some have no other choice.

NEW PAPER TEST PRINT

Enjoying some test prints with my new box of A3 Hahnemuhle German Etching Paper (310gsm). I have used this paper for a long time with the superb art printers I use and their 11 colour large format printer, they have consistently produced high quality prints of my work in many sizes up to A1.

I just received a box of this paper (A3) for my portfolio, tests and sketch/scrap book, so far very happy with the results I'm getting with some of my photographs.

DOWN BY THE SEA

A few photos from last week.

Last week was very busy in Newquay with an influx of visitors down for the school half term, the fine weather made it ideal to spend time on the beach and it was a taste of the summer to come.

It is good to see people enjoying and respecting the beautiful Cornish coastline, for those that don't, don't bother with the journey down, go dump in your own front room. 

NEW HEADER / LOGO (Turned out to be harder than 1st thought)

I always liked the idea of a handwritten logo/header but despite all the fonts out there, never found something I could settle on. The obvious thing to do was put pen to paper and rattle off something for myself in a couple of minutes, but it didn't quite unfold like that.

It is easy to write 'Sleepless ink' a few times, but to get it to be usable I found difficult. Somewhere in the enjoyable flow of writing, a rogue letter would constantly upset the outcome. A more considered approach was needed, a grid, pencil, pen, slow and fast attempts, repeat, repeat, repeat.

The new header is the result.

WINTER STORM IN LATE MAY

It has been cold, wet and windy this May and to drive it home a storm rolled over Thursday and into the weekend, with a brief sun allowance on Saturday afternoon. Winter with long daylight hours.

The good thing is I can complete my work with surfboards and have enough light to get some photographs. Driving home I looked over the bay and could see both the surf and wind had picked up, although the wind was strong and going round it was clean in the corner by the harbour, an invite to some surfers and for me some pictures.

SPRING 2020 COLLAGE

Pictured are a few of the collage pieces completed last year (2020). A few more have made it into frames of which I will show in further posts, because of lockdown restrictions they found their way on to walls at home and not galleries. The photographs used on the collage are from the allowed walk/exercise from Spring last year, the weather was so good it made it easy to take photos and use the blossom and leaves as a subject to further practice the technique of getting my photographs on to textured collage.

STUDIO

Below are a few images of the new studio, from the drawings and plans to construction and now working. Seeing it through from start to finish has been time consuming, coupled with my surfboard work and an operation in late 2020 it has played its part in new work being delayed. Anyway, the Sleepless Ink studio is now up and running. Very excited to get busy.

LET'S START AGAIN!

It has come as a surprise to me how long it has been since my last post and for that I apologise. There have been reasons, some I suspect shared, but to save us from a tortuous bullet-pointed list I'll put it under the title: Life.

There are things to show for this time. Several collage pieces completed before unforeseeable twists stalled my artwork, a collection of photographs and a new studio.

Although my design and artwork have taken a break, my photography has continued and I have found great reward from it. As time has been an issue I revived an old, unused instagram account (sleeplessink.art) to serve as a place to easily and quickly upload photos.

At first I thought of the instagram account as a dumping ground for the pictures I was taking. Because of time restraints, lockdowns and travel restrictions the photographs being taken were, and essentially still are, all from around Newquay, this has been surprisingly enjoyable and the account has assisted in creating a thread, almost a project of images from the town I live in. Ironically a place I could never see pictures in, for years I felt it necessary to be somewhere else to get good photographs.

Now with the studio, more time and hopefully opportunities to move freely again, I can start producing work for a new website and galleries.