Photograms

I'm chain tea drinking in the studio today to combat the tiredness from staying up far too late last night in the studio creating these photograms (direct photographic prints created without a camera on light sensitive paper). I bought some new chemicals and dug out my old developing trays, I have no idea where my red safelight has gone so I pinched Steve's red bike light, and spent a very happy few hours rumaging around outside picking wild flowers and then sitting in the dark making these prints.

I'm currently working on a commission featuring lots of silhouettes of natural forms, and so I wanted to create some photograms to inspire the work. I'd forgotten how much I love the process of making these, the magic when the image gradually emerges in the chemical bath, and how fast and rewarding the result. I had bought a stack of really beautiful cyanotype paper (a similar process using photo sensitive paper - but cyanotypes are a rich blue print and developed in sunshine and water rather than a darkroom and chemical baths) but I'm still waiting for a clear sunny day to do these!

Lots of work to do this week, a map of all the secret gardens in London for Strutt Parker, more beauty packaging, portfolio meetings in person and on Skype and visiting the team at Harvey Nichols to discuss my second draft design stage for their September windows. Such inspiring and exciting projects at the moment, I'm finding it hard to stop work in the evenings as I'm having too much fun!

On Friday I'm attending an event at the Southbank Centre to hear Christopher Corr talk about his commission for the Folio Society so I'm really looking forward to that. Last Thursday's talk at the Hayward Gallery by Marlene Dumas was fantastic, she's such an engaging speaker and really generous with sharing her ideas and process. On Sat I went to see Dr Dee at ENO, a new opera by Damon Albarn with wonderful music and movement but really disappointing sets and staging. Sunday I visited Jenny Saville's retrospective exhibition at Modern Art Oxford it was ASTONISHING. I cannot stop thinking about it. The scale, colour, paint manipulation and confidence, and particularly the haunted layered drawings. If you have the chance to go then do, it is extraordinary.

Have a great week and please send me some sunshine, this gloomy rain is giving me the hump - I'm itching to do my cyanotypes! x