Demo with dragonfly

 

dragonfly
reduction linocut by Teresa Newham

#HertsOpenStudios should be a time for having a chat and cup of tea with visitors, while showing them new work and demonstrating techniques.  Instead, I've been posting daily themes and finishing this reduction linocut, based on a photo I took of a female broad-bodied darter on a cane in the garden.

design drawing from last year's photo
© Teresa Newham

I took photos as I went along for a mini video for the theme "Metamorphosis", to show how the original photo became the finished print. On impulse one day I stood my iPhone upright on top of a biscuit tin and filmed myself lino cutting, and posted it to my Instagram and Facebook Stories:

Having never used Stories before, I was staggered by the response, receiving messages and likes from as far away as Colombia. So I took some videos of me printing, linked them and speeded them up, and posted a second video:

While I haven't gone live with my demonstrations, the videos are a great way of sharing the process, which is what the virtual Open Studios is all about.  Only just half way through the event, I've learnt so much about video as a medium - and done a demonstration after all!