In the meantime, I’ll be taking part in this group exhibition at Coburg House Gallery with some of the other printmakers from Edinburgh Printmakers during August.

Along with myself there will be work by Gabriela Nuñez, Katarina Pietrzyk and Greer Pester. Gabriela has created the lovely poster for the show below. The exhibition runs from 8th May to 3rd June.

The opening nights for the exhibition will be Sunday 8th and Monday 9th May at 5pm at The Pavilion Cafe, The Meadows, Edinburgh. Please come along and join in the fun.

In Granada of course I visited the Alhambra and it completely blew me away. I don’t often describe things as ‘magical’ but it really was. It was one of those places where I just wanted everyone to go away so that I could listen to it – because the sounds of it when all the tourists are gone must be beautiful, and I imagine the sight of it must be even more incredible in turn. If it seems magical during the day with hundreds of people milling around snapping away with cameras, then what must it be like at night, when the little cats and other animals that inhabit the area prowl around undisturbed? The collection of Spanish art that’s housed there is wonderful, as was the temporary Matisse exhibition that was showing – I especially loved it as there were a lot of works on paper that I’d never seen before. It focused mainly on the inspiration that he drew from his time in Granada and the influence on his work of Moorish art and architecture.

In Barcelona I was short of time – I was en route to Italy so I had decided to save my ‘real’ trip to Barcelona for another time when I could really do it justice. In the day that I spent there though I managed to see Park Guell, la Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera (or Casa Milà). Despite being severely sleep deprived after doing all of this straight off the overnight train from Granada (seat only, no cabin, cheap but not ideal!) I still managed to thoroughly enjoy my day and what I saw and in some ways it added to the surreality of it all. I fell instantly in love with this city and I can’t wait to go back. I very deliberately did not go to any of the art museums, as I want to be able to enjoy them with no time constraints.

Next stop was Verona, which is really lovely. The buildings were more monumental than I had expected somehow, and the whole place far more impressive than the rather quaint idea that I had of it. Because the entire city is a UNESCO world heritage site it’s incredibly well cared for and really quite a feast for the eyes with frescos adorning many of the even residential buildings – pretty much every street has something worth seeing on it. Most of the main sites of interest, such as the Arena, the Roman theatre and the Basilica di San Zeno I saw only from the outside, but I did visit the Castelvecchio and the museum therein which contains an enormous amount of religious art, and also some interesting Flemish works.

After that I was off to Athens, where it was a lovely 21C – which I believe was unusual for November; I suddenly felt very much like I was really on holiday. I had been before many years ago but was very happy to have another visit to the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora, as well as the new Acropolis Museum which is truly impressive. A walk around the flea markets was a real treat as I hadn’t been able to do this the last time I was there. Next time I really must go with a big empty suitcase so that I can fill it with weird and wonderful objects.

Next I had a very brief stop in Berlin, which I must point out I have visited before and absolutely love, but this time it was really just one evening, and it was raining so hard I decided only to venture out as far as it took me to get food. In the morning before I went to the airport though I had the loveliest leisurely breakfast at cafe Zur Rose on Weinbergsweg. If you’re in Berlin you must go there! It’s delightful.

The last stop on my travels was Budapest. This was my third visit there and so I feel a little bit like I’m getting to know it now. I did less touristy things this time and got to integrate a bit more with local life – on the first evening I went to the Stylewalker Night, which is basically a kind of showcase for designers and artists where selected shops stay open until midnight and offer little treats like mulled wine and cakes. You get a map of the participating venues and can collect stickers along the way that give you a discount at the end in any of the shops. I thought this was a great idea and some of the shops had really gone to a lot of effort; along the way we got to see one clothes designer’s workshop and in another shop was an exhibition that was both a lot of fun and very inventive where a food design collective going by the name of mástészta had created a model of Budapest using breads, pastries and other foodstuffs, including colourful icing – the best part was getting to create your very own mini model of your own city, which they had set aside an area and materials for! Agnes from the group very kindly sent me some info and images from the event afterwards which you can see below, including my own rather pathetic attempt at Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street! Agnes told me “Our special field of interest is focused on food design, we research, analyse and define/redefine the connection between food and design, try to put the food in a new context, and show up new ways of consuming and new eating situations. Our event at the INSITU was designed for the Stylewalker Night, which is a guided design tour in the design district of Budapest. Our topic was reflecting to the night, our aim was to emphasize the Urban style.”

Images from mástészta installation at INSITU, Stylewalker Night, Budapest © mástészta 2010

To round off two weeks of full on art and culture consumption I visited the ‘Nuda Veritas’ exhibition at the Szepmuveszeti Muzeum featuring mostly works by Klimt along with many other artists that formed part of the Vienna Secession. I thought this was a truly remarkable exhibition – very well put together and featuring an absolute wealth of material including, once again to my delight, a great many works on paper. To see so many incredible lithographs, woodcuts and etchings in one place was a rare treat for me.

The Dean Gallery is currently home to a truly impressive exhibition of Surrealist art titled Another World which takes up (I think) eight of its rather spacious rooms - there is so much there that one visit wasn’t enough, since I arrived at 3pm and it closed at 5pm, so I’m going to have to go again and fork out for it twice – let this be a warning to anyone thinking of going!

Edinburgh Printmakers winter exhibition this year is a themed affair with the title Myths and Legends: From the Ancient to the Modern and will include members work in response to the theme. If Eleni Kalarkoti’s Slavic God is anything to go by it promises to be a really interesting and stimulating exhibition – and of course as usual all work will be for sale and prices start from as little as £30. The exhibition runs from 13th November to 23rd December. My own freak show Mermaid themed print Wonder of Wonders will also be on show.

Slavic God © Eleni Kalarkoti (part of the winter exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers)

3D 2D: Object and Illusion in Print at Edinburgh Printmakers

This exhibition is brought to Edinburgh Printmakers by the folks at the Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol. It showcases some of the amazing things that they are doing there including the slightly mind-blowing 3D rendering in print (artists can simulate 3D shapes and environments on screen and then build them in 3D through the use of a multilayered inkjet printing system. For example, Conor Wilson’s Garden) and digitally processed interpretations of the sounds of distant galaxies by Kate Davies & Peter Walters (also rendered as 3D objects!). Back in the 2D realm such beautiful objects as Charlotte Hodes large scale laser cut prints really stand out for me as does Lesley Dill’s laser cut with LED lighting piece Faith. The exhibition is on until 30 October and is well worth a visit.

For a full list of artists included in the exhibition and details of opening times see Edinburgh Printmakers website.

Craft Reactor

Tuesday evenings at Tea Tree Tea on Bread Street (6pm – 8.30pm) starting TODAY are now an opportunity for artists and makers to join with other penniless souls of the same ilk and drink tea, eat cake and chat whilst making stuff. The website states that it’s “an Edinburgh-based not-for-profit craft collective formed in 2010. We aim to promote a friendly, constructive and creative environment for the promotion of craft, and crafters” but I think artist types like myself are welcome too. Obviously I can’t really take along much that I can do in the way of printmaking to a cafe, but I happen to know there will be things there for me to do anyway and actually I’m hoping it will spur me on to widen my horizons a bit in terms of what I do. You can also become a member of Craft Reactor and details of what that involves are on their rather lovely new website… www.craftreactor.com

All images © Clare Tottem 2010

Just being away from home often seems to have the effect of stirring up some new creative ideas and this time was no different as I was literally woken up in the middle of the night on the first night I was there with a burst of inspiration. These occurences are often accompanied by a desperate feeling of panic that by the time I get home and am able to explore the idea some of it will be lost along the way. I’ve still not really had a chance to do so but it seems to have at least triggered further sparks of ideas and so I’m hopeful that something interesting will come to fruition soon. I’m really keen to work with other printmaking techniques besides screenprinting and am quite excited about learning lithography as my great granddad and great great granddad on my maternal grandfather’s side were both employed as commercial lithographic printers in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It’s also likely that I’ll revisit etching and I’ve been quite inspired by the work of several people at Edinburgh Printmakers who combine etching with screenprinting.

In some ways this surge of new ideas is interfering somewhat with progress on the current series. As I’ve already made a few pieces in the series I feel I need to stay on track and maintain the consistency of the work. It’s been quite a strange year in many ways and in general I’ve not been able to be as productive as I normally am, therefore, further interruptions are not necessarily what I need right now. At the same time I can’t ignore the fact that any new ideas that I allow to develop could improve the current work. It also doesn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever to stifle my own creativity.

Another casualty of 2010 has been my progress on the book I’m writing but I’m determined to pick up the pace again. This should in theory be helped by the fact that the non-fiction writers’ group I started back in May with fellow writer Gillian L. Jack is turning out to be something of a success. We are now listed on the City of Literature website and seem to be attracting more people with every meeting. It’s a great feeling when something you talk about doing in a pub over a pint actually becomes a reality. Although I think it was actually a cafe and a cup of coffee but somehow that doesn’t sound as good.

I was going to attempt to say nothing whatsoever about the Edinburgh Fringe in this post but having seen two of the best pieces of theatre I’ve seen in a long time last night, that’s simply not going to be possible. Both were at The Traverse Theatre (one at their festival venue in Stockbridge). Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl is visually brilliant, slightly demented and very very funny with a psychotic air and blossoming ending that could be described as optimistically apocalyptic. The cast of two (if you don’t count the taxidermied members) were so good that I would definitely go out of my way to see them perform again. The Not-so Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo was also very very funny and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, while it managed to get across an unexpectedly touching story. The prevailing commentary on small town America was more entertaining than scathing and the clever set and energy and inventiveness of the cast was used to full effect in conveying stereotypes in a way that felt fresh and had the audience laughing all the way through. I highly recommend both of these shows to anyone looking for quality productions and a good night out – especially as you easily have time to get from the Stockbridge venue to the Traverse between the two performances.

Exhibtion at Artsdepot: Images © Sharon Whyte 2010

I was fortunate enough to be in London at the same time as the Roundhouse CircusFest was on, so I was able to make it along to a couple of the events that were being presented by Professor Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. One was a talk on ‘peculiar entertainments’ featuring many of my favourite types of acts from the history of performance (plus some very rare film footage) and the other event I was able to attend was a symposium on the tradition of the ‘showwoman’ which Professor Toulmin had organised along with Marisa Carnesky (currently Performing Arts Fellow at the NFA). The day featured presentations on the personal experiences of showwomen including Sandra Wright, Anna Carter, Carol Gandey, Rose English, Petra Massey, Lucifire and Miss Behave, as well as a performance by Empress Stah which I sadly had to miss so I could go to my own private view. It was a really valuable and rewarding event and provided some interesting insights for my research.

The rest of my time down there, when I wasn’t with friends, was spent wandering around the V&A – amazingly I had never before managed to get as far as the Theatre & Performance section so spent a good portion of my visit there.

Images from the Theatre & Performance section of the Victoria & Albert Museum

So now I’m back home and back at work on the new screenprints. I’ve been making a piece featuring the great Adelaide Herrmann using one of the images that I’ve kindly been given access to by The Magic Circle in order to produce this series on female magicians. It’s one of the most complicated prints I’ve done to date, as it consists of ten layers (I usually only work with between 4 and 6) which are quite intricately intertwined, meaning that technically it’s more of a challenge than previous pieces. I’m loving it so far, and will complete the final layer this week. I’ll also begin work on the third piece in the series this week too – so time to start thinking about getting those proposals in for exhibiting next year.

Some bits of news to finish with…

My current exhibition at Artsdepot finishes on May 30th, after which I’ll be exhibiting A Sage of the Stage for (I think) the final time at Edinburgh Printmakers from July 1st – 20th. I’ll also be showing four pieces in the upcoming Out of the Blue Studio Artists exhibition at the Drill Hall from May 28th – June 10th.

I’ve also started an Edinburgh non-fiction writers group with my friend Gillian of Harlots, Harpies and Harridans which will have its inaugural meeting on May 19th at The Meadow Bar – you can find out all about it at Stranger than Fiction.

One of the prints, Extraordinary Story, made it into the magazine Artists & Illustrators this month too, in the Portfolio section (which translates to a full page showing the artwork with description).