John Howard's Studio Week 3

I went back to John's studio again as I want to get to know the different artists that go in there and also to get to know John himself more as well. I hopefully after this will have an archive of artists working on their pieces and a few medium format portraits of them as well. I wanted to print these on fiber based paper and this will create an artistic, romantic look that shows myself doing an art technique just like they're doing with print making.

This week I met Michael Donnelly who has been a painter in Cornwall for many years and has done a range of series of paintings on still life, landscape and culture. For the last 5 years he's been doing a series on landscapes around Cornwall and wanted to experiment, Michael chose the subject of landscapes as he feels it neglected in the contemporary art space. As well as painting he has now been doing Etches and Print Making and has been coming to John's studio for guidance on the subject. His etches of landscapes are copies of his sketches that he does everyday and thinks it's important to draw all the time to gain skill. He will also use aqua tinting on his etches after he has printed them as this brings out shadows and makes the piece have more depth. I will be photographing John print making and aqua tinting next week.

I also met Duncan who has been an artist in Cornwall for several years, also doing landscapes at the moment, although his are more experimental and he's just practicing the technique. He unfortunately has Parkinson's so it is getting harder for him to concentrate and do art as he needs steady hands but he was an interesting man who told me about previous projects he did around his dad's garden shed and how he enjoys his practice but it's hard to say no because of his illness.

Sarah an Art Foundation student who is friends with John was also doing some print making around the subject of 'figures' and has been print making for years, she enjoys it a lot.