Tracey Underhill Printmaker & Illustrator

Well Artweeks is finished for me for another year. Thank you to everyone who came along, it was wonderful to talk to so many people who are passionate about art and many about printmaking specifically. And a special thank you to my hubby Pete Underhill for making weeks like this possible! What a great week!

Final weekend of South Oxfordshire’s Artweeks so it’s your last chance to come and visit me in my studio and see what I get up to.

Today’s Artweeks theme is the British Isles, so here is my Cornish sea view. Better late than never…. I got distracted by the coronation!

Here’s the Abingdon and Didcot Artweeks Trail, for anyone wishing to look around some local artists. I’m at number venue 67 and it starts this Saturday. For a better look, here’s a link
http://bit.ly/3Mbemwm

Operation hide all the toys has been well underway, from playroom to showroom and nearly ready for Oxfordshire Artweeks starting on Saturday. Looking forward to welcoming some visitors. I’ll also have a demo print on the go to see how it’s done!

I will be taking part in Oxfordshire’s Artweeks again this year and my home studio in Didcot will be open for the occasion. So come and see my new work, take a peek at my home studio or just pop in to say hi. Hope to see you there.

Exciting! Only a couple of weeks to go!

It’s the last weekend for South Oxfordshire Artweeks and 5 other artists and myself are at St Blaise Church in Milton for just 2 more days. Sat 3.45-7 and Sunday 12-5. There is coffee/tea and cake available too. So pop along, we’d love to see you there.

A quick tour of my studio ahead of my upcoming artweeks exhibition.

Studio Tour A quick tour around my studio for Oxfordshire artweeks 2022.

South Oxfordshire Artweeks starts this Saturday and I’m exhibiting at St Blaise Church in Milton along with 5 other artists. That’s 2 painters, 2 printmakers, a potter and a weaver. So come and see us, say hi, have a chat and here’s a link to my blog to show you what I’ve been up to in preparation.. Hope to see you there.

The Road to Artweeks It‘s been a while….….and it’s because I’ve been so flat out creating new work with the aim of exhibiting as a part of Oxfordshires Artweeks this year. this has been something I’ve promised myself I’ll do for years. Now the time is close and the exhibit goes up this Friday ready for ope...

A little more info on what I’ve been up to lately, here’s a link to my blog. 😁

A Race to the Fair! No sooner had the kids got back to school after the summer holidays, than I got a relatively last minute opportunity to attend my first art fair. We’re talking 7 weeks notice and there was a lot to be done to get everything ready. There were prints to be printed, my entire inventory to be mounted ...

I may have been quiet online for the last month but I’ve certainly been busy, I’ve been getting ready for my first, in real life, art fair (details below), which has meant getting all my work ready for show and a display set up sorted and even a few Christmas prints and cards to show, it’s been crazy! So wish me luck and if you’re in the neighbourhood pop in and say hi.

It may be the summer holidays but I managed to sneak away to the studio to print up my little monsters!

I can finally reveal the two commissioned prints I’ve been working on for the last couple of months. Reduction Lino prints of Kuramathi Island in the Maldives and I had the pleasure of delivering them yesterday too. The largest prints I’ve done to date and I’m really pleased with the result but more importantly so was the customer, a surprise birthday gift for a lovely lady.

The summer holidays have officially started and I can already see that printmaking is going to slow down somewhat. So if you don’t hear much from me over the next few weeks you know why. Good news is…..both my girls will be in full time school from September and then I can really crack on with things.
In the meantime this print always reminds me of the summer, ‘Carefree’.

Well this week took an unexpected turn, when Sunday night you hear that your youngest has to isolate for the week, out goes all plans for the studio and things need to be arranged into home school nursery once again. Needless to say I have been nowhere near the ink pots but I have managed to get a bit of cutting done. A larger version of my previously seen abstract print is under way for a commission and I got those little monsters underway too.

This week has been all about sketching up new ideas and working on three ongoing commission pieces, so busy busy. But what do I start next, here is my sketches from this week. My version of the Hokusai Wave, a very famous Japanese print from the 1831, my next nursery print ‘the Little Monsters’, or the blue toned sketchy tulips. Decisions, decisions…

Well I’ve been busy upgrading the print room for a couple of larger scale commissions, larger printing press and table, larger brayer and bigger print racks for drying, so it’s been pretty busy. Now while that’s been going on, I’ve doing work on a couple of competitions submissions and additions to the nursery prints. It’s all go..

Wheat In Glass - The print that seemed to go on forever is finally done and snuggled up on the drying rack. All 10 layers complete! Great way to start the week! Happy Monday everyone!

The End Is In Sight! It feels like I've been working on the 'Wheat In Glass' print for ages, and i think i have! Here's a snippet of this weeks progress. Only one or two layers to go! I'm loving the last dark layer, it coming together now, can't wait to get it finished now.

Well its been a week of colds in our household, needless to say it has been a slow studio week but i did manage to do a bit of planning. In my head i have a green, orange and red print i want to do, as it's a reduction print i need to work out which order to layer the inks to get the best results and it always makes me happy when test pages look good too.

Fun finish to the week!
I’ve spent my time this week adding layers to my ongoing prints, wheat in glass and rollercoaster but I’ve finished off the week with a fun little experiment. Cute and colourful cars.

Doodles to designs. Every now and then, when you’re waiting for the ink to dry, you need to look back at that sketchbook, to that little biro doodled speck of inspiration that’s been nagging at the back of your mind to do something with and it’s been that kind of week.

A week off printing for half term activities but now home school is back in session and I'm also back in the studio with new layer on each of the Rollercoaster print and the Wheat In Glass print, both coming along nicely, if i do say so myself. A few more layers to go through....

It’s sounds glamorous being an artist! But not when you forget to put the studio heating on it isn’t! Rocking some lovely fingerless gloves! Brrrrrr!

Roller coaster Lino reduction print - layer 2 and all is still going well with the new print set up and everything is lining up well. Really excited about the interesting shapes emerging.

Well folks, I've finally set up my roller press with a good DIY system that gives consistently even prints, so chuffed that i though I'd share the news. A great 1st layer of my roller coaster print all done and i can't wait to do the next layer, the ink can't dry fast enough.