Getting excited...

Saturday is a big day - we are getting hitched! There have been lots of preparations afoot and it seems that the spirit of celebration has rubbed off on the work I've been making recently. These new works sing with colour and co-dependency.

Excuse the photo quality. My proper camera is packed for this weekend (!) so I'm reliant on my trusty phone for now.

Voyage in the Hebrides

Whilst completing my MA in Fine Art (more on this in another post), I was lucky enough to be asked sailing in the Hebrides. Despite never having made an overnight voyage before I jumped at the chance to explore this beautiful part of the world by sea rather than by land. Seven days and nights at sea, four swims off the boat, six sea otters and plentiful seals spotted, and one engine failure later, we docked back in the loch where the boat is moored.

Wild flowers next to St Brendan's Monastery

Our overnight berth at Islay

Watching the tide run

My soon-to-be Mr relaxing in the sunshine

It was a wonderfully varied trip with blazing sunshine and driving rain alternating almost constantly and our little crew of five bonded over meals in the cabin, swims in the nude and late night whisky.

 

Wild Coastal Swimming

If you know me at all, you'll know that I love swimming. Weekends often take me to the sea and alongside my beautiful friend Dot I've been swimming early alternate mornings in our local outdoor Lido throughout this winter.

Daniel Start's beautiful (oh so beautiful) book, Wild Swimming: Coast, has to be one of my favourite non fiction works of all time. Over the Easter break we headed to Pembrokeshire with Jamie - what better to do on that craggy coastline in the spring time than a wild swim?

St Non's chapel, where legend has it Non (as she was then) birthed St David (as he became) in 500AD alone in a howling night storm, acted as a guiding marker to the steep, stony wild flower-festooned path leading down to our launch point.

The remains of St Non's Chapel

The boy leads the way

Jamie framed by thrift

Beguilingly tropical

The third cave along was our aim

Lightening skies bode well

Launching

At this point we left cameras and modern-day reality behind. Swimming into and out of an ancient cave passage, marvelling at the murky heights above our heads and hearing the sea's sounds amplified through stony speakers left us all tired, elated and speechless with wonder.

Outer Hebridean Expedition

I've been a bit quiet on here lately. Well, truthfully, I've been very quiet while hunkering down to my MA (in Fine Art) over the winter months. This doesn't mean that the coastal expeditions have stopped. Before I post about the latest trip, here are some photos from our expedition last September in the van to some parts of the Hebrides (Skye, Harris and Lewis).

Looks a bit like a Caspar David Friedrich painting...

Weather moving in on yet another sheep

Boy doing his thing

 

 

Me doing my thing

What a trip it was! Assuming that wildness and weather do for you as much as they do for me, get yourself to the Hebrides.

Pays Basque

Sometimes, a girls' holiday is just what you need. As we set off in the van, driving down the west, Atlantic coastline, both of us felt our cares dissolving in the salty sunshine. Two weeks later we are back, sun-kissed, surfed out, and very relaxed.

 A big thank you to Natty for lending us his beloved van. Next stop - Outer Hebrides. It will be a world away from sunny France but I'm looking forward to some real wilderness.

Whitstable

We had a day out, just the boy and me by the sea. We swam, ate fish and chips and then tucked up for a night in the campsite. After the recent, enforced time indoors, it felt like magic.

The sea never fails to make us both smile.

Oil Painting

I did a week of oil painting with the artist Michael Major at the beginning of June. Two large paintings later, I only wish I had more time to keep playing.

Worm's Head

Winchelsea

Michael Major himself

Oil paints are intensely satisfying to use; distinctive of smell and thick with oleaginous promise. It was a great week.

Lately

I've been inside a lot lately looking after the boy. He's much better now and it's been great to spend time outside again. This morning I rose with the lark (or not, here in Hackney) for a canalside
wander.

 I'm starting to think more about my next body of work around the waterways of London.

Smile

I've got many things I could blog about right now (amazing photography course and also a week of oil painting with Michael Major) but it's sunny so I'm just going to post a photo from last weekend that makes me smile every time I look at it.

The llama's name was Bruce by the way. I'll be back here soon with some more photos from both workshops.

What's in a Name?

You may have noticed that I've just changed the name of this blog. If the new one needs an explanation: spit bite is the most free way of applying acid to a plate in etching (my favourite way of creating images) and sand, well, sand is my favourite thing to have between the toes. I'm in the middle of building a website - this doesn't naturally come easily to me - and you will be able to find it at http://lucydevenish.com/. Seeing as I'm putting the best of my art work on there and will continue to do so, it means that I am freer to use this space as a place just for me. So here's to recording the best parts of this summer, with plenty of sunshine and sand, I hope.

Final Show

Here I am at the private view of my work
The Journey Series last week. I felt it went well and it was great to have support from so many loved faces. More pictures of this latest body of work soon. Right now, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine!

Time flies by

Golly it's been a long time since the last post. I've done two more large scale etchings but I'm waiting till my final show is over (30 May) before putting the images up here. Apart from work, things have been very exciting with the boy buying a VW campervan (all the better to make journeys with). We've already taken her to Devon and Norfolk and she is rad. I've learned to book bind - more of this in a later post - and, at college, we are busy preparing the studios for the coming exhibition. I'll leave you with a photo of Molly the van and a promise to put more art up here in June.

Departure from my norm

Since being back at college, I've been working almost non-stop on three large scale etchings from my recent trips. These are neither blog nor edition ready however, so I thought I'd share some smaller images which see a departure from my normal subject matter. I did a morning of dissection before Easter; drawing, rather than actually dissecting but in a medical context with trainee doctors. The cadavers were like nothing I'd ever imagined and I found the whole experience both intensely shocking and incredibly interesting. Here's what I have done with the images I captured.

I'm off to Bristol in a moment, then to Devon, for a very good friend's 30th birthday celebrations. Next week I should have finished a couple more etchings so will post again once I'm happy with the prints.

Scribbles

Sometimes you've just got to get out there with a graphite stick and a sketchbook. I'm learning that there's absolutely no substitute, no shortcut, for just going into the landscape and scribbling. A camera often flattens and edits without you realising and you notice so much more when drawing from life. It's hard to draw waves and seagulls though. Anyway, here in Biarritz for my wonderful cousin Sam's big birthday, this is what I've managed to scribble down in between trips to the mountains and the sea.

Cote de Basque (to the South)

Cote de Basque (looking North) 

Sea sky line

San Sebastian

Last night we went to Bar Nestor in San Seb - the best place for food I could imagine and well worth visiting if you are ever there.

It's been a while

I've definitely been neglecting this space for a while, but I think that the reasons for doing so are justification enough. In no particular order, here is why: 1) I went to Kenya for a beautiful wedding and the best holiday imaginable (wow); 2) I've had interviews for Masters courses; 3) I've been busy busy making work after Africa and 4) I've learnt to frame. Couple all that with a fab wedding in Suffolk, birthdays and generally keeping up with day-to-day stuff and I feel busy. Hoping that as summer starts a-coming (fingers crossed) I can settle back into more of a rhythm. Anyway, here's some pictures of what I've been working on. 

Grassland Path

Lewa Sunset

Paw print casting

Sunrise