Print Exchange update

 The prints have started to arrive for the print exchange. Fiona's got here from Queensland in five days flat. On the same day I received a Christmas card posted locally five months ago, so you have to admire the Australian postal service. Jane's arrived yesterday and I can already see the creative ways and means we are all approaching the print with. I am mailing Fiona's prints with mine in the UK so I will not be spoiling the surprise here by showing anything. Suffice to say, if the two I've already received are anything to go by, I need to make sure mine are up to scratch, especially as I suggested it. No pressure then....
I've just finished the first pull of my idea today, having to do a few more to get enough that I was happy with and I just started to play then with old plates just to use up ink. This is an old collagraph plate I'm very fond of printed using the inks on the slab. The fact that same thing can look so different like this is one of the reasons I love printmaking. All I have to do now is wait for mine to dry  and then get them sent out. I am so looking forward to having a collection of original prints from such talented people!

Chasing rainbows

 I spent all day yesterday painting outside on the latest module of my Aberystwyth Uni course. It rained and rained and rained..... so most of my thumbnails were given the name tag ' Poor Visibility!' It rained heavily through the evening at home too but when I went out to make a cuppa at about 9.00pm I saw this amazing rainbow and forgave it everything. It was luminous and I just wanted to grab the camera and run outside to grab a memory of it. As it was raining cats and dogs and I'd already had a soaking I had to accept I could only photograph it through glass. It was even better when I noticed there was a reflection of the rainbow in the background and a quick run to the front of the house let me see the other end of it. Just like children we spent ages at the kitchen window watching it until it disappeared. I've seen many rainbows - well, this is Wales - but none, ever, as glorious as this one. I love Mother Nature.