Red Sands Radio Christmas Card pen & ink

Red Sands Radio Christmas image 2013  © Peter Gander 2013

Latest inky work for Bob Le Roi, radio presenter at local radio station Red Sands. The original is hand-drawn with scratch (dip) pen and ink, with watercolour. Santa is seen descending into one of the ‘Maunsell Forts’, a set of WWII anti-aircraft battlements still seen off the coast here in the Thames estuary in north Kent and once where Red Sands Radio transmitted from in the 60s.

Whitstable harbour

Whitstable harbour  © Peter Gander 2012

A new painting for my current show at The Horsebridge Arts & Community Centre, the harbour itself only a minute’s walk from the gallery. A simplified and graphic interpretation, it sums up the spirit of the harbour which still has a working fishing role to play. The show goes on until next Tuesday 9th October 2012 in Gallery 2. Drawn in (appropriately) a ‘Pierre Noir’ pencil which gives a very punchy line which works well with large, strong and simple compositions. Winsor & Newton watercolour with Pierre Noir pencil on The Langton 300 gsm rough grain fin paper, (with a touch of wax for foreground texture).

Fisherman Whitstable

Fisherman Whitstable  © Peter Gander

Back to my favourite subject. Fish and/or fishing. Again, hand-painted ink and brush linework (like the previous eel post), a Whitstable fisherman poses with a mighty catch against the backdrop of Whitstable harbour and its tall characteristic fishermen’s huts. Ink and digital colour.

Seasalter relics I

Seasalter relics I © Peter Gander

Seasalter, west of Whitstable is so-named after sea salt was collected here centuries ago in large, shallow, copper pans which allowed the water to evaporate after the tide receeded, leaving the precious commodity behind. These old groynes have been left behind too, pointing their battered skeletal forms towards the isle of Sheppey, to the north-west. Winsor & Newton watercolour on The Langton 300gsm (rough) paper.

The final print, hand-coloured

Black print, hand-coloured and float-framed

The above photo shows the final print as it will appear in the show, hand-coloured in watercolour (the black is essentially oil-based for this purpose, or it will run), numbered, signed and framed in a float frame, i.e the print is sandwiched between two sheets of glass, a distance from the frame’s edge.

‘I love Whitstable’ linocut, (work-in-progress)

1) A colour rough for starters © Peter Gander

My Whitstable show is coming at the end of May and I’ve been checking out what I have ready-framed in my cabin. My ‘I love Whitstable’ linocut was one such discovery and I only touched on it last year, so here’s ‘the making of’ this print,  a work-in-progress preamble. I started with a permanent pen sketch of the idea. Whitstable is famous for its oysters and is known as Oystertown. So, adapting the familiar ‘I (heart) New York’ style, I replaced the ‘I’ with a bottle of Tabasco sauce which it is served with at the Fish Market in the harbour. The heart too, is represented by two overlapping oysters, the scene Whitstable’s pebbly beach and flanking groynes. Wishing to keep colours to a minimum, I used a limited colour palette. Here I’m adding colours to the sketch at least, in watercolour, sometimes I use bleedproof professional (Magic) marker pens or Pantone Pens. I also at this point see if I can use graduated colours, such as the pebbles colour, the small swatch of colour shown outside the image to the right. A graduated colour from a dark hue to light is very effective when it comes to a linocut, not to say economical with colours that one has available. Such colours are easily blended too on the ink roller itself thus you can achieve drama with just one ‘pass’ of the roller. Once I’m happy with the colours I produce a tighter pencil drawing to the right format and scale, bearing in mind the size of the piece and understanding that fine details just aren’t going to happen if the size is small.

2) A tighter pencil drawing ready

Sketch for ‘Whitstable smack’ linocut

Sketch, ‘Whitstable smack’ © Peter Gander

For my end-of-the-month show, a preliminary sketch for ‘Whitstable smack’, which will be a linoprint using a composite of images of all things Whitstable. A smack is the distinctive sail boat shown in the centre, these were used for bringing in the oysters. Also featured are the Crab & Winkle, (after Britain’s first passenger railway from Canterbury to Whitstable); a wind farm turbine; the Fish Market standing figure, as per my previous linocut); a Maunsell Fort (ditto); The Street (sea shingle walk, ditto), Oysters, seagulls, fishing huts, an anchor and a rope border. This sort of composition is inspired and influenced by the wonderful woodcuts of British artists Geoffrey Wales (who actually lived in nearby Margate), Eric Ravilious and the linocuts of Edward Bawden.

‘Whitstable is my oyster’ (landscape) greetings card

Whitstable is my oyster (landscape) © Peter Gander

This time painted only in blue Quink Indian Ink, the lettering was hand-drawn with a bamboo dip pen for a greetings card for my upcoming end of May show.

‘Whitstable is my oyster’ (portrait) greetings card

Whitstable is my oyster (portrait) © Peter Gander

My spin on ‘The world’s your oyster’, as Whitstable is also known as ‘Oystertown’ and also ‘The Pearl of Kent’ as the town grew on its Whitstable Native Oyster industry and still does a decent trade. This small painting will appear as a greetings card at my upcoming show. Painted cloisonné style, (with a thick black outline) and Winsor & Newton watercolour on The Langton 300gsm rough paper.

Sheppey silver

Sheppey silver © Peter Gander

Again, for my exhibition at the end of May, a small painting of a view seen across the estuary from the beaches of west Whitstable, north Kent, showing the island of Sheppey, revealed here in the silvery sun, using mostly Payne’s Grey, a particular favourite colour of mine. Watercolour on The Langton paper (rough, 100% cotton). • 20 May UPDATE: Featured in The Artist magazine, July 2011.

‘Post Nude’ postcard linocut

‘Post Nude’ linocut © Peter Gander

A local art gallery, The Horsebridge Community & Arts Centre in Whitstable, where I will be exhibiting in May, has recently opened a new gallery (Gallery 3) and the curator Sarah Banville has challenged artists to produce an original work of art on a postcard. The local post sorting office is in danger of closing and in a double-edged benefit, the exhibition of tiny (A6) originals will not only make for interesting viewing for the public, but also for the lucky postman delivering the postcards en route to The Horsebridge. I already had a pack of Winsor & Newton Cotman 300gsm postcards with a semi-rough surface, great for painting watercolours on but not ideal for printing on, as the pitted surface needs a hard pressing to push the ink into them. (Thin paper is usually the substrate of choice for most linoprinters). I had to set the roller printing press so firmly in fact, that the lino left an embossed effect on the card. In the print shown, you can see the patchy areas where the ink hasn’t made it. Anyway, thematically, I chose what some might argue is a literal take on ‘Post Nude’ - (I was considering an aged life model looking pensive about her past, too ;) A few props and a neat visual twist leave much for the viewer to interpret. What’s your verdict? Seawhite of Brighton (UK) water-based ink on Winsor & Newton Cotman 300gsm postcard.