My first Chapbook!

My first Chapbook!

Over the last couple of weeks I have enjoyed photographing some of my artwork to use in a couple of small books that I have compiled. I love to use the name chap book for this project as Chapman was my maiden name and means pedlar. I was always proud of that for some reason, so now, to have produced one is curiously wonderful! The historical definition of chapbook is 'a small pamphlet containing tales, ballads, or tracts, sold by pedlars.'

Copies of my chapbook ready to be stitched together.

The 'Spirit of Place' project that I have been working on with Alison Lees has really helped me explore other mediums, such as wood cut printing and it is good to see the overall variation and diversity of my creative output, photographed, set with text and printed.

Choosing photographs of my artwork to be included.

Finally I have a couple of small books to be proud of. It has been a long process and I have felt at times like there were too many obstacles to navigate to actually get something into print. But now, by scaling the 'writing project' down and producing something that I see now as 'just' another piece of art, I have managed to complete it at long last. Hurrah!

Finding the best layout of images to be used.

After photographing my recent work, I was able to select specific images that showed the various 'mark making' that I had been experimenting with over the last 2 years. For example, the brush-strokes of acrylic look soft compared to the oil painting and likewise the subtlety of a gelli-print contrasts well with the deep old strokes of a woodcut print. The printing system I have chosen to use picks up these tiny differences and I wanted to work with that.

The first book is titled 'Spirit of Place, Wanderings and Wonderings' and explores the basic inspiration I have had whilst walking and being in nature that has led to the production of the many images contained in its pages. It is not deep and inaccessible but light and easy to read, hopefully inspiring anyone who reads it to feel that they too could go outside and become more aware and ultimately inspired. I guess my aim was to produce a gentle reminder...

Getting the master copies of each page ready at Intra.

I printed the books as an initial batch of 50 and now have the repetitive but hugely satisfying task of putting them all together. The Risograph printing machine that I used is a wonderful thing and I like many others would like my own, but just to have the opportunity to travel up to Medway, to Intra and use theirs is good enough for now.

Part of the page layout for 'Spirit of Place' chapbook.

It's a great way to print and the best way to explain the function of the Riso machine is to compare it to mechanised screen-printing. You still have to create stencils and choose colours plus when making a booklet, pagination, layouts etc also need to be decided. But I love a process and now I just have 100 booklets to hand-stitch together! Some of them will be on sale at my next Open Studio event in June, so come and see for yourself!

My next open studio event will be on Saturday the 16^th of June. It will show the new progression on from my current art project 'Hearth and Home'.

The exhibition is open to all from 11-5pm in my straw-bale studio.

The studio has a Facebook page of its own, to look at its 'life story', look up www.facebook.com/Green-Build-Tankerton

10% of all sales of this 'Hearth and Home' artwork will go to our local homeless charity in Canterbury, 'Porchlight'.

I love to teach others and facilitate space for them to create, so I run art and design workshops throughout the year. These can be either 1:1 or for a small group and I charge from £15 per hour.

The next ones for the exciting and accessible art of Gelli-printing are on most Wednesdays and Fridays. throughout May and June. They run 11-2pm and cost £40 pp including all materials and refreshments.

My own personal art page can be found at www.facebook.com/RoseClarityArtist I can be contacted on 07432679164 or clare@people-to-place.co.uk