Byd Ni… Our World

9th March – 4th April 2017

I’ve spent the day at Clwyd Theatr Cymru helping to hang the work children have produced during my Flintshire schools residency. I’m really pleased with the show and relieved the work's all up on the walls! The exhibition will open on Thursday 9th March, and is in the Education Gallery on the top floor of the theatre. The schools involved are Ewloe Green Primary (Year 3), Ysgol Trelawnyd (years 5 and 6) and Ysgol Gwynedd, Flint (Year 3). The exhibition will be opened by Councillor Peter Curtis, Chair of Flintshire County Council, and I’m looking forward to seeing the pupils there too. The children have been working on the theme of birds and migration, following visits to the RSPB reserve at Point of Ayr near Talacre in January and February. Significant numbers of some species such as the curlew, pintail, shelduck and black-tailed godwit spend the winter months on the Dee Estuary before returning to Iceland or Scandinavia in the Spring. The pupils made some stunning prints of these birds!

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“Just a big thank you from me for such a very enjoyable day on Saturday. I loved every minute!...You have thought of everything in that beautiful studio in that idyllic setting - well done! I do hope to be able to take part in another day's course some time soon.”

JAN BOWDEN

Participant in Collage relief workshop.

“We thoroughly enjoyed the workshop day with you and we’re very proud of the prints!!”

ANN CUMMINGS

Participant in Collage relief workshop.

Feedback from an adult Masterclass at the Royal Cambrian Academy:

What was the greatest strength of the workshop?

Ruth gave clear, easy to follow instructions AND a handout. The best workshop/masterclass I have attended.
Very gentle and effective guidance – with great encouragement.
Excellent tutor. Very helpful. And well organised. Really enjoyed my day. Thank you so much.
Ruth was very knowledgeable and pleasant.
Tutor’s excellent guidance.
Excellent tutor who demonstrated the skills well.

The Inside Out Art Group is an informal collective of artists who work and exhibit in the North Wales/North Shropshire Borderlands region. Eight members of the group came to visit my studio yesterday morning. I’m glad the weather was kind, as some of them had travelled quite some distance! It was great to have such an enthusiastic, inquisitive group of people here, and they kept me on my toes, asking lots of questions during the talk/demonstration. Some of them made a monoprint as well, using natural objects.

https://insideoutart.co.uk/2016/11/23/fabulous-trip-to-ruth-thomas-printmaker/

It was the second day of a two day collagraph course in the studio today. Among the themes were houses, chrysanthemums, bracken, the Fibonacci sequence and this fantastic fungus! Everyone got stuck into printing straight away and experimented with different ways of working with colour. A very productive day.

The next course in the studio will be a three day course in March, looking at three different approaches to collagraph using relief and intaglio inking.

‘Aberdyfi II’ has gone to a new home.

Printed in three layers using six printing plates made with marram grass collected one wintry New Year from the dunes at Aberdyfi. Had terrible trouble getting the grass to adhere to the plates and during the inking process, some of the grass would come adrift! I applied further colour – water-soluble inks – by brush, to the finished prints.

A few years ago I worked with eleven primary schools in Flintshire and Denbighshire, to create prints reflecting various points along the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way. I converted one print from each school into a design for a rubber stamp. Eleri Jones worked with schools in North West Wales, so that the whole of the route was covered, from Basingwerk Abbey in Greenfield, Flintshire, to Bardsey Island off the coast of Gwynedd. Walkers can stamp their passports as they make their way along the route.

Recently I was asked to translate another of the children’s prints – an image of a harebell - into a stamp design for Llannefydd Church in Conwy and the rubber stamp arrived this week.

www.pilgrims-way-north-wales.org

Well done to all those who came along to one of the two workshops in the studio this month. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the great prints that were produced. Yesterday was ‘Cut & collage – creative printmaking’ - relief prints from collage.

Two weeks ago we were using natural objects to make monoprints - feathers, leaves, seed-heads, bracken, etc. - quick and experimental! One participant said the six hours felt like two.

September is a busy month! Artists across North Wales open their studios to the public for the annual Helfa Gelf Art Trail. www.helfagelf.co.uk. It's always interesting to see who comes through the door and I'm appreciative of the effort some people have to make to find my studio! Most come by car in ones, twos, threes and fours. Some come on two wheels, and arrive deliberately or by chance, and occasionally some come on foot. I had five walkers make a detour to my studio the first weekend! Some faces are familiar - always nice to see them again – and others are new. It's interesting to find out what their backgrounds are and their reasons for visiting studios. Some are artists themselves, others are doctors, builders, vets, engineers, landscape gardeners, teachers… these are just some of the different people who made it through the door this Helfa Gelf. Some visitors plan their routes and take in a number of studios each weekend, a few come from some distance – one couple came from Southampton this year – many, of course, are fairly local. It was a successful year from the point of view of sales and workshops bookings, despite being quieter than usual.

I like to have something on the go to demonstrate inking and printing to visitors and this year made quick monoprints from feathers, bamboo, geranium seed-heads and cow parsley. On the last Sunday I sold three of the cow parsley prints I had made that day.