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Mailing List

detail of digital print

There’s a link via the menu, so this is just a reminder.

If you sign up to my mailing list you will get notifications of any shows or galleries where you can see my work in the flesh and advance notice of new projects. From time to time I will be offering subscribers discounts on purchases from my shop or other special offers. I will also use it to give subscribers a foretaste of the novel I’m working on. So, if you want to be kept up to date, please sign up.

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A Selection from the Shop

Because I’m still finding my way around WordPress and its various plugins, I haven’t fully implemented searches. At some point I will be adding the ability to search by price and probably also size and medium. Until then, here is a selection from the shop of what is currently available. There are lots more on the Printmaking pages in the shop, and I’m adding more all the time.

Once we have got past the COVID-19 crisis I would very much like to hold a physical show. Follow the blog or better still sign up for my mailing list to be notified.

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Latest in the shop

I’m continuing to add new items to the shop. My intention is to do that every day, but I don’t always make it! The shop structure is now much simpler, although I’m working on improving the search to allow for searches on price and size. For now, I’m concentrating on adding work made this year, the ‘Lockdown Series‘, with some older works.

Have a look. I’m quite pleased with it so far but I would appreciate your comments. The image below is ‘I Ching’

geometric abstract print resembling hexagrams of I CHing
I Ching – geometric abstract print

I’m still working away in the studio on some ideas for more ‘pared down’ images. There’s nothing to show yet though. I’ve learned a lot making these prints, especially about colour, and I want to transfer that experience to other print forms, especially collagraph, probably at first by revisiting some old plates. I also want to explore ways to take these monotype images into screen prints.

The best way to do this is probably by creating colour separations in software. These would then be used as the base image for the screens. Working in collagraph and screen print will also mean the images can be offered as genuine editions. I know of course that I could print directly from the scanned images, but that would then be just a reproduction, not an original print and I don’t do reproductions of my own work.

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Selling your art online – getting to grips with a new world.

From Westport to Ocean Park a collagraph print
From Westport to Ocean Park – collagraph

Selling your art online. Easy enough surely? Well, yes and no. I always wanted this site to be both shop and a blog. I enjoy writing so I want of course to write about my own work but also about art in general. That’s the easy bit. The shop though is, to say the least rather more complicated. I’ve sold online before, in a small way on EBay, but mainly on Etsy. That arcane art called SEO or Search Engine Optimisation, is however much more complex on your own site than on market places like Etsy or Folksy. That’s an issue but also an opportunity of course, but it still takes time.

I’m slowly adding new items to the shop, but it is much slower than I hoped. So please bear with me for now while I work my way through the listings I’ve brought over from Etsy. For that reason I’m retaining the links to my other online venues for the time being. Eventually I will move them to the About Me page because I want this site to be the centre of my online existence. One of the wider lessons I learnt from selling on Etsy is not to dilute your brand. It’s my art I’m selling, so my brand is me. When I talk about selling your art online, I mean my art of course, but if I have any lessons to share I will try to do so.

Lessons I’ve learned

I don’t feel comfortable writing a blog post that claims to offer the answer because I don’t have the level of expertise to do that. I will however post from time to time to talk about what I’ve done and why. So bear in mind this is not advice. I’m the one following the advice!

  1. This post title has links to other parts of this site and to external sites. As I understand it a good variety of internal and external links helps persuade search engines the site is reputable. Bearing in mind my comments about brand, those other sites also use variations on the same artist name.
  2. There’s a relevant and unique key phrase used in the title, in the text (including near the beginning which gets more weight in search engines), in the page meta description and in the SEO title. This last took me a while to grasp but it is what shows up in search engine results. It needs to be long enough to explain and short enough to show up in its entirety.
  3. A good chunk of the key phrase should also appear in the url.

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New developments

Moon goddess and the sun mixwd media made with cut out preprinted shapes over a yellow wash

I’m slowly starting to add items to the shop. I’m doing this slowly to make sure I have everything set up correctly. I’m aiming to make it possible to browse by medium, price, subject and size. I’ve added the last because I know sometimes thought how a little corner of a room would benefit from just the right piece of art and I can’t be alone.

I’m also working on setting up Virtual Exhibitions from time to time. My next real time show is not until May 2021 and who knows what will happen between now and then? For the moment this will just be a custom selection on the Shop Page but I’ve seen some wonderful examples since lock down using Virtual Reality so I’m looking into that too.

The featured image is called The Moon Goddess and the Sun. It is a collage made several years ago with prepared papers over a colour wash on watercolour paper. I had it framed for myself, but it will soon be added to the shop. The frame is very heavy solid wood so it will probably be added to the shop minus the frame.

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Life in Lockdown continued…

Since my last post, I’ve continued to work on monotypes. The count has now reached over 40 prints and I’m actively looking for a venue to show them, although framing costs would be a bit daunting! I’ve learned a lot from making them which I think will be useful in my other print work.

I’m going to add lower resolution versions to my Portfolio page but I’ve also added one to this post. Almost all of them are 30cm (12 in) on a side. I’m waiting for a new plate which will allow much larger prints, up to 20″ x 16″. It’s US made hence the measurements in inches – 76 x 41 cm approximately or just under A2.

abstract monotype print inspired by Bert Irvin - red, green blue
Forbert – abstract monotype print

A set of my smaller prints, in the ‘Cross’ series, are going to be used locally in a Stations of the Cross installation. This wasn’t a sale as such. One of my neighbours is the Church Warden and although I’m in no way a religious person, I was happy to make the donation. The church is a significant part of the view from my windows. I would be willing to take on a similar commission, so if anyone out there is interested, please get in touch.

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Life in Lockdown

On the portfolio pages I’ve added some more larger gel prints to an album I have renamed as ‘Life In Lockdown’. At some point I aim to get these into mounts and bagged for sale. If in the meantime you are interested in any of them, please get in touch. They are available ‘as is’ with no mount or frame for £85.00 plus postage.

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Getting past Lockdown Lethargy

No one who is in the least bit creative will be surprised if I say that the last few weeks have been a bit barren creatively. So I was pleased to finally get some work done making some larger gel prints. I’ve added some images to the portfolio page but you can also see them on Instagram alongside other work in progress. As a build up to the larger prints I have also made a large number of smaller ones around 7″ x 5″ (18cm x 13cm) which are for sale matted to fit a 10″ x 8″ frame. These are now being added to the portfolio page. These smaller prints are being sold as part of the #artistsupportpledge or to raise funds for my local foodbank. I’ve added a contact form below if you see anything you would like to know more about.

Small prints on the Portfolio page

Cross series