I’m still working my way through some of the photos I took when I was up on Blackstairs Mountain on Sunday. It afforded me great views all around, including of many of the other surrounding mountains and hills, which are now starting to become apart of my current work. About 18 months ago I did some mechanical drawings for an exhibition which I had at the Finnish Academy of Fine Art in Helsinki. In them I used carpenters profile-gauges, which had been manufactured in Finland and sold in Manchester, to create drawings of the Manchester skyline, which were then taken back to Helsinki for exhibition.  One of them can be seen on the Cow House website, but I will talk more about them as I continue through my past portfolio.

http://www.kuva.fi/portal/nayttelyt_ja_tapahtumat/nayttelykalenteri/mmu/

http://www.cowhousestudios.com/ireland/for_artists/artist_residency/residency_2011.html

The pieces I am working on now are a variation on these which uses an electric chop-saw to “draw” into wood; they are very much at an experimental stage at the moment, but hopefully I will have something to show for it in the next few days; at least I hope so, it is so messy, constantly covered in sawdust and wood chippings!

It’s an incredibly clear morning here so far, there was a great display of stars when I first got up, but it meant it was very cold, not far from frost here now I’d say. If it stays like this I may well try having another walk up the mountain later, the views should be great again.

Whilst I think about it I wanted to know; has anyone seen the advert I posted yesterday for the John Martin show at Tate anywhere before? We have been talking about it a lot, it is such an over-the-top production that we wondered if they where they are showing it? On TV in London or in the cinemas somewhere? Let me know if you have.