One year on the University of Exeter is staging an exhibition that investigates the artist’s thinking behind the piece and his experimentation with rope as an art form. As a record of his 73 mile walk Edward has made a video which explains the theory behind the Mariners Way sculpture, a number of Winter inspired oil paintings and several limited edition wood cuts.

]]> http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/news/rope-sculpture-unravelled-in-exhibition-on-campus/feed 0 http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/blog/studio-update-february-2013 http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/blog/studio-update-february-2013#comments Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:30:56 +0000 Edward Crumpton http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/?p=2798 Hello,

With the up and coming exhibition at Exeter University in April I thought I would give you an update to the new work I’ve been doing in 2013.

These are some barrel ends I’m going to be using as information boards.

I went on a Winter crossing of the Mariners Way walk just to refresh myself with the route. It was a great experience and with having all the fields full of snow it felt like a completely different landscape.

The photograph shows 3 different types of rope. 3ply Tarred Marlin (Black), 6mm Hempex and 10mm Jute. The Hempex is a new material; it synthetic rope but looks like a natural fiber.

This is stage 1 of making a rope hanging sculpture. Measured out approximately 200meters of Tarred Marlin with twelve working ends.

This is the start of stage 2 of the rope sculpture. Approximately 3,000 double half hitch knots have been made using roughly 150meters of rope.

Stage 3 is where I hang an object to the end of the rope. My original idea was to have a bell hanging on the bottom but I want to have a different element of shipping and trade involved in the piece so I decided to use barrels.

Stage 4 is currently being processed…nearly there!

-Ed

The brief for the project was to utilize as much recycled material as possible and create an object or animal and display the final piece on campus. The construction of the new Forum building had finished in May 2012 which meant that students had a variety of materials to use for the brief. What the student found out was that there were a large amount of display boards made out of plastic and tin. These large flat sheets could bent, cut and drilled to create a variety of shapes and patterns of the body and feather of a peacock. It was also a good material to use for it’s reflectiveness to things around it.

After the initial drawings, I helped students think about the practicalities of the construction and to take into account the aesthetic overall value which shouldn’t be overlooked just to save time.

The students of the Art Society where responsive, open-minded and happy to get their hands dirty! Towards the end of the months the students were in full control and competent enough to be able to finish the sculpture themselves.

It was a great experience for myself and look forward to receiving any more projects in the future.

-Ed

Peacock – 2013 – tin, plastic, wood, paint

At the moment it is difficult to display finished pieces as I am currently making work so I thought I’d update my blog with some shots of my studio and make comments about the work.

In the background is my first oil painting in over three years! Realising how long it had been I decided to have a month of colour mixing before I got started on this one.

Studio table full of knot books, rope, needles and tools for new ideas of rope sculptures.

A piece that tries to marry up a drawing and rope.

Anselm Kiefer and Richard Long both made work using these materials; Kiefer adding photographs to them.

A alternate half-hitch Monkey’s Fist knot wrapped round a cannon ball. I thought I could make more of these and have them around a gallery space.

Not quite finished yet as I have to put a bell on the bottom but its basically a Pagoda Bell Chime which was inspired by the Pagoda Bell Wind Chimes. One evening in the studio I was playing with a musket ball and realised that if I dropped it from the top it would roll it all the way down. It would be interesting if there was someway of making it into a kinetic sculpture.

Thanks to reading, Ed

In the past few months I have created some new work with a different medium; print.

The first piece I made was by using a process called photo etching. The idea was to encapsulate the large charcoal drawing I made inside St. Anne’s Chapel into a smaller etching and make an edition of it. After going to a day’s training at Double Elephant Workshop in August 2012 I was able to put the drawing onto a plate and begin printing.

Photo-etching Plate

The blue colour is the light sensitive film which was exposed to UV and hardened by the sunlight. The black is the unexposed part which has now been inked up and is ready to be printed.

Etching of St Anne’s Chapel – 30x40cm -  4 of 20

I made twenty of these etchings with several different results as I used different coloured papers and thicknesses. This example is using a printing paper called Two Rivers.

A month later I went to a wood engraving day with Hilary Paynter at the Burton Art Gallery. It was a fantastic experience to learn a different way of print making with such quick results. After about half an hours work I was finished with this piece.

Seascape – Relief wood block – Black printer’s ink – 4x4cm – 2012

This technique is different from my first print because the ink is lying above raised lines rather than lying inside the lines. This meant I had to cut out the white space, and leave in the dark. This process is called relief printing.

During the day I was able to purchase some tools and wood so that I could make some new work in my studio. Just recently I have been on a few walks and decided that it would be good to try out the wood engraving with some sketches I made.

Dennington Hills – Wood Engraving – 4x4cm 2012

This experience has begun to make me realise how important it is to depict light and dark areas when print making by using gestural or repetitive lines.

Dartmoor – Wood Engraving – 9x14cm – 2012

As a process I prefer relief printing but I think there is a lot more to discover with etching which I would like to do in the future.

-Ed

]]> http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/blog/print-making/feed 1 http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/exhibition/view-2012 http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/exhibition/view-2012#comments Fri, 05 Oct 2012 18:00:51 +0000 Edward Crumpton http://www.edwardcrumpton.com/?p=2749 This exhibition was held in the Saatchi Gallery and was part of the Marie Curie Cancer Care.

I showed a series of drawings from my Two Moors Way work.

This month I have been exhibiting some of my Artist-in-residence work in St. Anne’s Chapel. If you didn’t get chance to see some of the work displayed I have a number of photos taken of the show below.

Main Room

Upstairs area of Chapel

Small pen and ink Drawing

Three ink drawings with etching

Charcoal drawing of Chapel

Three drawings in pen and ink

Crypt

When I leave School I – 2012 – Blackboard – 1.2m x 4.8m

When I left School I – 2012 – Blackboard – 1.2m x 4.8m

If you want to know more about this exhibition please click here

Thank you for everyone who attended the event and left their mark on the blackboards