Tuesday 25 August 2009

Early Days


Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz


Engineering completed, the new press awaits weld cleanup and paint and construction of the wooden press bed runners and the bed and shelving



The new press will end up looking something like this one which was made from the mangle used by my Grandmother on the Mulvay family farm.


The new steam punk etching press! Won't be selling this beauty, it's a keeper..

Monday 24 August 2009

New Paintings readied for an exhibition

Chalk pastel and acrylics on canvas

Chalks and acrylics on a prepared canvas

Pastels and acrylic medium on prepared canvas board

Acrylics on a prepared canvas

Old Paintings renewed for an exhibition

Portrait, watercolour pencil on prepared paper

Two portraits, acrylic paint on canvas

Friday 14 August 2009

Stretching Canvas





Finally got the studio all tidyed up after the last exhibition and stashed away all the old second hand picture frames up in the rafters out of the way and a couple of them are too old and ugly to ever frame a drawing so I used them as frames to stretch canvas onto.
They are perfect for this as their outside edge is high, the inside tapering down, and they are strong.
Two new canvases primed and ready and they are not made in China.
New Zealand is flooded with cheap Chinese canvases and they are O.K. but have cut corners which I don't like. My canvases have folded corners on the top and bottom edges which dictates whether the canvas is portrait or landscape to hide the folds and they are primed with my own secret recipe primer which I know I can trust to last hundreds of years.

Thursday 13 August 2009

Classic Etching Presses Number Two Model



Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz



Above, number two under construction. Finished it went to a Whangarei print maker. Below is numbers 3, 4 and 5 and the cute little table top at the top of this post is number 13





Thursday 6 August 2009

A Life Drawing on Canvas

I did this at the life drawing class last night, chalk pastel on a prepared canvas. I need about 10 paintings to exhibit at a local winery/restaurant in 3 weeks and this will be one of them when it is painted.