Artist Printmaker on line

Strong Waters

2012-01-19T00:23:00.000Z

Oh its a Hectic Life !!!!
and of course all self imposed - if only I had been this 'hard working' earlier on in my art life!!!!!!!!
But back then I had 'all the time in the world' or so it seemed!!! I tend nowadays, what with my various health difficulties, to try to get as much done as I can while I am able to ( i.e., feeling sufficiently well enough to do so -albeit at a paced momentum ).

Having said that my back(spine) is not as dreadful as it was before my 'laminectomy'. This being the term used to describe the surgical procedure carried out on me, two years ago now. This was performed by an excellent neurosurgeon (can not call her name to mind) at a hospital in Edinburgh whose name I also cannot dredge up from my brain.

Anyhu (as "Mister Byrnes" of the Simpsons would say) I had an email just now from Nele Zirnite.

She is a member of the Etching Guild based in Riga, Latvia, which is linked to the Latvian Artists’ Association. Having researched Nele further - I think she may well be the founder/director of the Etching Guild.

Her work is amazing - it is right up my street - I think we may well like a lot of the same things visually.
Anyway so I am honored to have my work selected, to be in this exhibition, that she is involved in organizing. The show is called "Strong Waters". Although it may have a title which is somehow linked to the Titanic anniversary, as in its the 100 years aniversary of the year it sank. Such a coincidence that giant cruiser sinking off the coast of italy in the past few days - very different outcome given that a very high percentage of its 4000 odd passengers survived. I cant begin to imagine the heartbreak of those, whose loved ones have perished - it must be unbearable.
Getting back to the works selected for this upcoming exhibition in Riga - I created the piece "Deep" especially for this show as well as another called "Last Words" so I was pleased it had a good outcome. . Oh but ............I had so much trouble getting that print to work out !!!.

Mind you "Deep" had it's difficulties as well..........I did four versions of it. Aye Carumba !!!
The first was in red and yellow. The next two were done in two different blues. The final one which I executed in a more spontaneous and speedy manner was done on black Somerset paper. I thought to myself "At last I have the ideal situation in which using this paper is completely the perfect thing". It had been hanging about in my planchest for centuries!!
Here is the "Deep"

Given that I was not at all happy with the photos I took of these prints. Taken under a flouruscent strip light - I couldnt get the daylight conditions weatherwise.

Its even more amazing that they got chosen - hopefully as a response to the imagery itself - well thats what I like to think anyway. For the net I actually made that form, by sewing it together with thin cotton wool string. Then I inked it up and and off-set it through the etching press. The figurative image is from a drawing I did which I scanned and fiddled with in Photoshop, printed onto Japanese lightweight paper and then chine-colled it using a tricky procedure of 'half pasting' it as it went through the press. Thereafter I lifted up, the upper part of the figure, which then had the imprint of the net on it and had not been rice pasted. Later on when it was flattened and dry I pasted it down and put it through the press again. It is really nice this print 'in the flesh' , as it were. It is about 54 x 74 cm.

Here is the other print "Last Words"

Again a dreadful photo. This was done using isopropyl alcohol onto water based relief printing ink. The main figurative element is collagraph with other parts being inkjet chine colle. The upper right being part of the background having been distorted and polarized to give that 'black hole' effect, oval.

Its pretty cold here in the studio now so I will have to wrap this up now. I have at last posted on here having fallen out of the habit over this past year. Lets see how we go - I have lots of other projects I have participated in, to post about, in order that I catch up with myself. I am afraid I ended up in the situation I used to always say was the reason that I didn't have a blog i.e. being too busy making art to be spending time writing about it.

Oh its a Charmed Life.......................

2011-10-05T22:07:00.000+01:00

This will take you to a lovely video by artist Felicity Powell who has curated an exhibition all about charms and amulets at the Welcome collection in London.

Sleight of Hand - Wellcome Collection

All works by artist Felicity Powell

Felicity currently has curated an exhibition focusingon amulets and charms at the Wellcome Collection in London. I found this video, which is includedin the exhibition, made by her, to be delightful.

The process that is featured within the video i.e., playingaround with wax and creating forms, is very much part of the method sheuses to create her own artworks.

Andrew Graham Dixon said of her “ she is a reinventorof the medallic tradition in the modern day.

He describes “Hot Air” (above) thus………….”is a diatribe on the theme of global warming. On oneside, a hydra-headed monster speaks with forked tongue; on the other, a pair ofhuman buttocks surface from water like the back of the whale, farting clouds offoolishness into the sky.

Her medal itself reinvents the form itself, a kindsatirical spool, on which is wound a ribbon of fatuities spouted byself-interested politicians”

Changes ??

2011-09-26T23:36:00.004+01:00

Just got an email through from Culture Inside which is just another one of those 'artists communities' websites that I was invited to join ages ago - maybe 2 or 3 years ago. As a matter of fact I did enter a competition that they organised for a project called Utopia/ Dystopia about a year ago, and had my work selected for inclusion in the exhibition in Luxembourg.

"Why they so Shout?" Igor Vaganov

Their current project, with the title "Changes" was no doubt prompted by the uprisings taking place in the middle east and Africa. Co incidentally I had decided to watch a Panorama report on BBC1 television, about Syria. "Syria: Inside the Secret Revolution - Panorama"

Reporter Jane Corbin with her team ( scary profession war reporters !!! ) reported on the popular uprising in Syria, where for months people have been fighting back against President Assad's regime. Panorama's cameras went inside the country to tell the full story of those struggling against the dictator and the truth about his brutal crackdown against his own people.

And my god, the people there are being completely brutalised and murdered by their so called leader Assad, excluding his cronies of course.

How can he stand the sight of his despicable self........ he has to maintain power at any cost. That is not power that is utter repression and I hope the international criminal court in the Hague get hold of him and his henchman. How can his wife ' Asma' known as "Emma" to her pals in London (she was born and grew up in Acton, a bus ride away, from where I used to live in London, bear to have anything to do with this monster. I wonder what she will say to Hafez, Zein and Karim about their daddy. Here's a quote from her "All three monolithic religions teach us about the dignity of the human being, respect for others, openness and the value of human life". Like me, she went to a christian school. and is a university of London graduate - mind you she did go into banking as a career so.............

cartoon by Ali Ferzat

If only it was this easy

Getting back to the Panorama reporter Jane Corbin, she set up an interview with a soldier who had defected and he spoke of colleagues being shot in the back if they were not cooperating by shooting the civilians - that 's why he felt, he just had to get out of the country and across the border. Apparently he had requested that his face be concealed when the interview was broadcast. He also relayed how the government hired thugs and civilians to pose as armed terrorists in siege situations ( video footage was shown of these 'poser' thugs ) and the soldiers would be told not to shoot at them as they were on the 'same side' as the soldiers - so the command was - "just shoot the civilians". I am wondering what hole these vermin crawled out of - perhaps they didn't like the salary being offered for mercenaries by Gadaffi or maybe there wasn't any more work available there.

There was mention made of a high up soldier in the army, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, who had defected and is based in a bordering country and who is now obviously a wanted man by the Syrian regime. He is recruiting defecting soldiers and others to form the "Free Syria Army", in a bid to overthrow the Syrian regime. He said that gradually an increasing number of soldiers WERE defecting. However about 90% of the soldiers in the army are of the same tribal origin as Assad so that doesn't bode well unless their consciences take the higher ground. I fear its going to be a long and bloody struggle my heart goes out to them.

References:

Igor Vaganov: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Vaganov

CultureInside: http://www.cultureinside.com/homeen.aspx

BBC1 Panorama: http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/

You Tube Syria videos : http://youtu.be/mGW-V3t-waE

No Ideal place to Start

2011-09-21T15:27:00.004+01:00

It's been months and months since I have truly been blogging and I do feel the loss of it. Speaking of loss - last Friday my dearest fluffy 'furbee' friend Mister Toby passed away.

He has gone to Cat Heaven. He was such a character and I was so SOH fond of him. It's hard not to be reminded of him as he spent most of his time in this house. Nearly everywhere I look, I am reminded of him poor sweetie. If I look out the front room window - I am reminded of seeing him crossing the road from his folks house, to come back over to us. If I look at the 'perches' in the kitchen ( a bit like cat feeding stations) I am reminded of him. It is sad to think I will never see him again.
The photo here was taken in August 2010 just over a year ago where he looks reasonably healthy. I loved how he'd actually kind of look at you. Not all cats do that. Towards the end he was looking terrible and had lost his 'pep'. It's an awkward situation when you have a cat practically living in your house except he isn't actually your cat. I had previously mentioned to D and H. our neighbours ( his owners) that we were concerned and felt that things were not right with him. I think it was only then that we became aware that he was already 16 years old - we hadn't realised he was that age.

Its such a dilemma where animals are concerned in that, if they are still eating (which he was) we tend to think they are kind of OK, but he wasn't. All the while there was a tumour growing in his liver.

That's what D. our neighbour, said the vet told him. He had taken Toby to the vets on the previous Friday and they had kept him in, over the weekend and then sent him home with a months worth of medication. But from the time Toby came home, after that weekend of veterinary treatment in their hospital - he was still not himself. I gave him a final pat on the head as he sat at the foot of the stairs in D.'s (my neighbour) house. By then Toby was just existing his spirit had moved out of him - away into the ether. I was surprised that he had survived even that far. I had thought that he might have passed away over the weekend. Must have been horrible for D. having taken him back up to the vets on that Friday because he 'd obviously got a lot worse. It was then that the vets along with D. came to the conclusion that it'd be for the best, to put him out of his misery and D. left the building empty handed.
That's the obverse of loving - losing - but we had so many sweet treasured times together..................love you dear little Toby - I was blessed to have you as my little companion for these past 4 years.

Artists Books

Outside of this event - the last six months or so I have been working on making an edition of artists books for the BookArtObject project. The first bound books I ever made. I am still in the process of sending them out to my fellow participants and so have not shown them online so as not to spoil the surprise.
I have been documenting the process somewhat taking the odd photo with my digital SLR and have set up a blog especially for my bookart. I will gradually build that up with additional info about previous bookart projects. Previous works have mainly been accordion format apart from one that had papier mache shoes and a scroll.

There were so many trials and tribulations that I had to go through in order to make these works. Although I am aware that my craft skills in book making still have much room for improvement despite immense effort on my part
I was none the less quite pleased with the final 15 books. So far, I have received four of the other participants books......................I can not say that much more for now. Our project is going to be on exhibition at Impact 7, the printmakers conference being held on this occasion in Melbourne Australia - if you happen to be in the neighbourhood pop in and if you go along to see thta exhibition - there are loads of them on their program - take a photo and email it to me.

References:

BookArtObject Website : http://bookartobject.blogspot.com/

Impact 7, International Printmaking Conference: http://impact7.org.au/exhibitions/index.html

The lost Hour (Wood intaglio)

2011-08-28T01:17:00.000+01:00

I made this print towards the end of last year for a print exchange at Dundee Contemporary Art Print Studio, I spent ages trying to find out about doing this technique but quite honestly there isn't wasn't much available on the Internet never mind in any of the fairly extensive collection of technical books i have on printmaking techniques. I already had this piece of wood cut in a circle shape and it had the same image - although I changed it somewhat on the reverse side. This I had printed as a relief print. I have a few proofs of it somewhere and will add it into this post, when I come across it. I have been prompted to post this image in response to a conversation that's currently going on in the Baren forum at the moment.

A course being offered by Hiromi paper is advertised as "drypoint wood block printmaking" and this piqued someones curiosity - well I think myself that it's going a bit far saying that you can do a drypoint using wood as your matrix. I mean the burr and so on ??!!! For the print shown here, I used a small scraper tool (with a triangular shaft) to incise the main lines . I also used a scalpel for the finer lines. To achieve the various tones I used Lascaux acrylic hard ground, diluted to about 3 strengths. I seem to remember the diameter of this circle is 17cm.

I tried to 'relate' to a paper Robot but it was an awful struggle !!

2011-03-17T22:04:00.002Z

Well what I mean is ......... the participating artists, which included me, were all sent a package by M.U.B.E.. This is the Museum of Sculpture in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I have previously exhibited.

The idea or should I say 'brief' for this project was that we would somehow 'transform' it by means of our own interventions with ideas / art materials and so on, and so forth.

When it arrived in the post and I looked at it I remember tossing it aside and thinking oh my gawd I can't work with that horror !!

I considered not bothering to do it at all as I had so many things on my plate ( for a change!!) but then thought no - I have made a professional commitment and I should at the very least have a go at it. If I then find that I really can't find a way to work with it - then I will withdraw.

Eventually managed to find instructions online and my clever friend Tatiana, who dropped round with her 5 year old son ( who loves all robot related matter) put it together for me in no time.
So there it stood on my work surface as a 3d cardboard robot and unfortunately I just didn't like the thing. I imagine if I had - I might have given it a name. So for now it was just the "thing".

Eventually I decided that I could only work with it very much on my own terms as in I would take it apart lay it flat and then see if I could somehow make it into a collagraph plate of sorts. The image above shows my initial experiments with the lay-out of the pieces. I thought it had the look of South American iconography and textile designs so I started looking into that. I came across some nice bits and pieces during the course of this research.

As I was doing this in a hurry I didn't take too much note of the sources and information regarding the little creatures that caught my eye. Often they were just small details in a rug or a featured image on a piece of ceramic. Made me remember a little figure I had used in my paintings when I was doing my bachelors degree and how I had found that quite liberating. I had seen it on a billboard poster, during the course of my long bus journey in North London up to the campus. How wonderful it would have been to have access to the internet, at the time, instead of 'lugging' huge piles of usually large heavy art books around in my shoulder bag which of course didn't do my back any good.

So I settled on a layout of sorts and stuck the pieces down onto some mill board. I varnished it, back and front, and then proofed it but realized much to my annoyance (with myself) that of course the pieces were too raised up from the base plate. It was a big plate and had taken me quite a while, to ink up - so I thought "oh what the heck - it's a unique piece of work I can just keep working on it 'as is' ".

Loved this little image with the jaguar warrior suit, I came across too. I seem to remember that these were the items that were placed in the burial site with the Aztec warriors and Lords. A bit similar to the way the Ancient Egyptians "packed for the journey". Mind you the Chinese did it in even more of a 'big way' as in, when you consider the guy who had the Terracotta army created to accompany him to the afterlife - to ensure nobody tried to push him around. Talk about being paranoid .......or maybe just O.T.T.

So that's what I did - I collaged it a little and also worked onto it using my trusty Carbothello pastel pencils (water soluble). I got there in the end using five of the pieces from the pack. I specifically wanted it to be a 'fold-out' print too so that it was like some map or thing that would be put into a pocket. Hence the folds.

References:

Museu Brasileiro da Escultura M.U.B.E.

Betty Esperanza's short Video made as part of making her Troyart piece.

There were about 300 pieces in total in this exhibition and I just could not select just one or two
pieces to include in this post - best to have a look at the project blog.

Troyart Blog http://toymube.blogspot.com/

Gelatin monoprint with drypoint + Engraving on Foiled Card

2011-03-09T20:45:00.000Z

Made this fairly recently- first the gelatin monoprint which I still have not really got to grips with. I used the recipe as given by Linda Germain and had trouble getting the gelatin plate out of the flat container. After about 3 attempts I finally got hold of a pink plastic tray from my good friend Tatiana and that worked.

The other problem I had, was with getting the water based speedball inks, to roll onto the surface of the gelatin - it just would not cooperate.
I then sent off for a rubber brayer - unfortunately I could only afford a small speedball one. I have not tried it out yet as I have been otherwise engaged with making a whole heap of 'background plates'.

These are on steel - that's after trying to do some aquatint sprays and etches on aluminium but they just didn't really 'take' and I got a horrible straight line (with a blurred edge) of unwanted tone ( a characteristic of the aluminium grain itself - I think) so I have decided that, that's a wrap, at least where those plates are concerned. These were 'large-ish' plates by the way............. well 50 x 50 cm. I tend to think that alumium is fine for medium to small size plates but NOT good for large plates especially where the desired areas of tonal etch are not interlinked.

Getting back to the gelatin monoprints. Those that I did manage to do which were very much trials, were using water-colour paint and water based 'Caran D'ache' crayons. I was working on a surface the size of approximately 30 x 45 cm so it was taking me a while to 'splodge up' enough colour from the little water colour pans and that was when I decided to refer back to Linda Germain's blog to look again at the materials she uses. Speedball water based printing inks - so I ordered those.

The figure on the left was made using old "printers plates" originally used for commercial lithographic printing. I have had these plates for years - I used to have those for when I taught monoprint classes but I can no longer do these , because of my disability.

So as they are quite thin and lightweight (they are aluminium) I am easily able to cut them up, just using a pair of scissors. I had to paint this one with a couple of coats of acrylic hard ground (Lascaux) and then I scribed into it , which gave me the 'ink holding' lines.

It is very feint - this proof - but I like how this integrates with the watery background.

The goat like figure on the right is made by scribing into 'foil-card' such as you get with certain items of food packaging . I can not remember which item of food it was - anyway it worked and what was good was that it didn't need varnishing. It's a bit fragile though so it had to be carefully cleaned by pouring veg oil onto a soft cloth and then quickly rubbing away the remaining etching ink. As opposed to drizzling oil onto it and then rubbing that with a cloth. I have learned from experience that when cleaning collagraph plates which are on cardboard that its best to put a small amount of oil onto a soft cloth and then quickly wipe away the remaining ink as if I am too generous with the oil it might seep into the lines in the print plate and basically ruin the plate for further use. I did varnish the back of the plate for protection easy cleaning and to add to its rigidity.

Grabado Nova Galicia 2010

2011-02-27T16:15:00.004Z

above: CD of the Catalogue for the 2010 exhibition.

My work was not selected. I submitted 2 medium sized prints. I noticed that most of the selected pieces were at the full printmaking paper size e.g., 100 x 80 cm , or thereabouts. I really do find it a physical conundrum i.e., submitting larger works for these more prestigious exhibitions. Most of my works (and especially the larger ones) are unique ( i.e., "non-editioned".

In the period 1999 -2001 - I did submit to a couple of big exhibitions such as Trois Rivieres (Canada) and another in Taiwan or China. The prints, when they were eventually returned were pretty wrecked, and more or less just fit for the bin. I would love to have other print makers comments on this dilemma ?
Maybe I should just send large ones, once again and see how it goes this time around.

What was a unique experience, for me, with Caixa Nova Galicia, was that the organizers took the trouble and expense to send me a catalogue (not sure whether the catalogue they sent me was a full version - as it is quite slim). Perhaps they are working to a tighter budget on this occasion.

I say this bearing in mind the usual standard size, one would expect from a host such as this. These people are like one of the biggest bankers in Spain/Europe.

BELOW is my winner of this competition. I am never sure whether technical skill is held in higher estimation as regards criteria by the selectors but this piece stood out to me. I mean art has to be interesting and meaningful more than anything?!........and I would have thought - thereafter technical merit?

Here is a LINK to a report on the event.

I found this on Caixa Novas Social website and translated it from Galician.

Incidentally I have a fondness for Galicia as I have exhibited there on 2 separate occasions. Boy - they sure treat artists with respect over there AND we were very well received and looked after.....when I exhibited there with the Riverside Artists group from London.

Looks like R.A.G. have just had work in an exhibition in Beijing ( !!!). Typical - that not that long after I have left London something unusual in terms of exhibiting comes about ! - I wonder if any of them went over there?

I did receive a lovely Christmas card from my dear friend Maire Gartland, who along with me was a member of R.A.G. from way back when. She seems to no longer have a website? I have two of her - artworks on my walls.

Footnote: unfortunately Jabier Herrero does not seem to have a website either - bah I was looking forward to having a look at some more of his artworks. !!

The Opening of the mouth from the Book of the Dead

2011-02-26T17:30:00.001Z

This exhibition has been on since last November at The British Museum and finishes soon i.e., the 6th March 2011.

If I could and I was going to be in London - I would love to go along and have a look round this exhibition.

I have always loved the Egyptian art of the Pharaohs. Particularly the symbolic aspect the rituals the strange terms such as "The Opening of the Mouth" which is whats going on in this image.

However I am very fortunate in that my dear friend Linda Haslam brought me the publication from the British Museum about the book of the dead so I am able to look through that whenever I feel like it. Thanks again Linda !!

Link to the British Museum

Dog and a Chair further development

2011-02-26T17:05:00.000Z

I think I have posted this image on here previously - having worked on it further I had to conclude that maybe i should have left it as it was .............. here are some images of the progress (as such!)

I think this was how the proof looked after I added some Lascaux, acrylic hard ground so as to superimpose the figurative element which you see on the left. I made sure I thoroughly degreased the plate before applying the acrylic - otherwise as I now from experience it WILL not 'adhere' to the plate surface. After it dried I scribed into it to delineate the face and so forth...........

This shows the scanned proof of the plate with the dog n chair onto which I tried a few drawings I had on my files using Photoshop - I decided this 'skiing angel' as I refer to it, would look best.

I amended the proof )the first one visible in this post) and then endeavored to delineate it more strongly by scratching into the metal, with the drypoint too..

Here's the plate - onto which I added the Lascaux acrylic hard ground, you can see where I scratched into it, once it was dry.

This is a proof with the mouth area scratched dark but I decided I didn't like that after all, so its as seen in the first image above. The amount of proofs I took of this little monkey is out of all proportion to the importance of this( just as a print ) but ho hum....you know what it is like when you get a 'bee in your bonnet' about "fixing"' a print you just ain't happy with.!!

Galway International Mini Print 2011

2011-02-12T18:01:00.004Z

I received an alert from Facebook today, informing me that some photos connected to me, were viewable on a link. I checked it out and was pleased to find that - someone there, had had the good sense, to take a few shots, at the recently held private view. This being in relation to
the Galway International Mini Print Exhibition, which was organized by Lorg Printmakers. I don't know as of yet whether this is something they have previously hosted etc or if this is the first one.

Apparently the show was officially opened by someone called "James C Harrold" (?) last Saturday and will run until the 26th of February, 2011.
An International Mini Print Exhibition - "it showcases a selection of miniature prints from some of the most promising international printmakers". it features work from eight countries.

(PLEASE NOTE click on the Facebook link below to see more photos taken at the private view/ exhibition)

The selected artists:
From Ireland
Aisling Bradley, Killian Dunne, Tina Gaffey, Joan Gleeson, Aoife Layton, Mo Levy and Jennifer McCauley.

"David and Paleocene" by Killian Dunne

From England
Chris Davis and Terry Gravett.

From Poland
Lukkasz Cywicki.

From New Zealand
Antonia O' Mahony.

From Argentina
Hilda Paz Levozah and Graciela Silvera.

From Scotland
Aine Scannell.

From Brazil
Pires Godinho Jussara Tereinha.

From Japan
Kouki Tsuritani.

From Australia
Cleo wilkinson and Sandra Starkey Simon.

Lorg Fine Art Printmakers Ltd,
Workshop and Gallery
Unit 8 & Unit 7,
Ballybane Enterprise Centre,
Ballybane,
Galway

lorgprintmakers@gmail.com
http://www.lorgprintmakers.com

http://www.facebook.com/lorg.printmakers

Nightmare on Inkjet Street -- finally seeing the light

2011-02-08T00:55:00.000Z

I am going to attempt a quick post as I am feeling in celebratory mood - its only because I managed to print out one 'chine colle sheet', using the upright paper input feed. Nowadays I put a sheet of ordinary copy paper underneath the Japanese paper I print onto. I must say that this paper which I purchased from Falkiners Fine papers (London) is not as opaque as the previous batch. What I have done to ameliorate this, is paint the underside of the printed out sheet, once its dry, with a thin layer of white acrylic. Seems to work OK- although I'd rather it was just more opaque.

Anyway - I am feeling pleased about having had success with the Epson 2400 printer, as on so many occasions it has refused to accept the paper. Mind you on those occasions I was using the rear feed input tray and also the front input tray ( which were the more correct input points for the 'media types' !!).
Unless you have to contend with the 'cantankerousness' of these kinds of digital printers - then you can not appreciate the stress and frustration as well as disappointment that is very often involved. I imagine there are many people who imagine that inkjet printing is a piece of cake - well it certainly isn't. Its a major 'pain in the butt'!!.

After I had printed the Japanese sheet - I thought OMG I better do a printout of my "Tar Baby Come Out to Play" - while the Gods of inkjet are smiling !!! So I did one of those - I also revised it and I feel improved on the previous version. It's very subtle what I have done but I think it improves it. Of course it will have the intaglio emboss element, added to it and then will be finished.

Same goes for the second one I printed, which is called "Healing Chamber" I have this one on my 'screen saver' on my computer and I really love this piece - it's one of my favourites.

I also managed to get some Lascaux acrylic wash resist, applied to a copper plate which the wonderful Bill Mc Kechnie at the FDPW print workshop, helped me apply an spray aquatint to, last Thursday. I didn't have any red wine to add to the mix once it was painted / daubed onto the surface - and I COULD NOT find the tannin I made up ages ago and bottled. I will see how it comes out when I put it into the ferric chloride at the workshop tomorrow.

I haven't got time to scan the excellent instructions I came across in a book the mobile library woman brought to me last Thursday. It shows how to do marbling using hard ground and a tray of water. I am hoping to do an experimental day soon at the workshop with my good chum Angela Heidemann, and look forward to trying it out. I will definitely post the article on here as well as document how myself and Angela get on. Better get to bed now as I want to try to get up at a civilised hour in the morning to get to the print workshop.

Countries I have Exhibited in within EUROPE and My location

2011-01-31T20:52:00.001Z

I think that this is a map from 1995, so there will, of course, have been some shifts in national borders.Please feel free to comment on that. Mainly I thought I would put a map of where I am based - just in case you are in the neighbourhood. Dunfermline is just north east of Edinburgh, which many people will have heard of if only because of the ‘Edinburgh Arts Festival’ which takes place annually. While I was marking this on the map I also ticked all of the countries that I have exhibited in, as far as I can remember.
Here's a Google map too.

View Larger Map

What ever happened to Mandy Wan ?

2011-01-31T12:46:00.001Z

Mandy was someone who I hung about with while I was doing the post graduate printmaking course at Wimbledon which finished in 2000. I always wonder what has happened to her - she was a gritty, hard working Hong Kong girl with lovely work and meticulously high standards. We exhibited together at Wimbledon Library Gallery at one point along with Pat Paxson who was also very professional individual.

Mandy also made wonderful ceramic objects. The work above is about the ancient practice of foot-binding, which she made an installation about which featured rows of casts of foot-bound feet. It was shown in an exhibition called "The Needle Woman" at the 198 Gallery in Brixton, London (Scroll down the page)

Aquatint

2011-01-31T12:39:00.000Z

I want to try to use aquatint in my etchings more than I do and to play about with the wonderful spray gun we now have at the workshop. It involves more walking about and standing (which exacerbates my pain) BUT ..............

This piece by Norman Ackroyd is just gorgeous.

Wordpress

2011-01-31T12:25:00.004Z

I have been fiddling about lately trying to find some website or other where I can set up a portfolio website of sorts because I am unable to afford to continue my subscription to Other Peoples Pixels . That is where I have my website until the 1st May 2011. Fortunately I can hang on to my domain name and email package through the provider they use. So I am hoping to have the portfolio url ready to redirect to by that time.

Here is where I eventually 'settled' although I have only uploaded 3 images or so thus far. It's a photoblog on Wordpress and so far I think it looks pretty good, the 'theme' I am using is called "Duotone".
Heres a screen grab.

Print Exchange Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio 2010

2010-12-07T22:24:00.003Z

It's been a while................thing is that I have been so busy lately that I didn't know quite where to begin. Gosh this spellcheck wizard, that they now have here on blogger is excellent. It's in a little pale blue box, with ABC written in it, and a green correct tick mark ( for those of you who haven't noticed it).I have just noticed that it also has a little red button with a big "A' and a small "a" written on it (?) and that performs the dual function of translator as well as dictionary (WOW !!!!) That is good.

Anyway as I was saying and well you can see how easily I am distracted..........Yep I was invited to participate in a print exchange with other printmakers of DCA and as I had just finished (well fairly recently) the edition of 22 for the 20:20 exchange which is organised out of Hot Bed Press in Salford, I thought ..12 prints - what the heck. Well I had originally planned to do a print which combined inkjet with drypoint. Apparently they were hoping to include 20 different print studios and 2 of these were to be international. I wont know yet whether they were able to realize this until I get my return portfolio and hopefully a sheet of text about the project. I should receive 20 prints in return. That's the 20:20 exchange though which I referred to in the previous post.

HOWEVER my naughty moody truculent Epson 2400 went on a "wobbly". It just wouldn't perform it's tasks for me. There was absolutely no reason why not. It just didn't want to do it - it was obviously sulking about something or other and.......................... well I got fed up with it and put it away off in another room. I thought I will take a break from it. Perhaps we needed to spend time apart. It's not as though I use it that much.

The print I was going to make was this one.

Its working title was "Knightbird and Puddle"
The background i.e., the blue-ish area was from washes of ink, which I thereafter scanned into Photoshop and minimally edited.
The bird like figure was done on polypropylene using a drypoint tool..But after this proof was made the Epson 2400 printer- started playing up.

Anyway so I immediately thought....... OK lets see what plates I have, that are the size required - the brief stipulated paper size 20 x 20 cm so anything that fitted it, was acceptable.
I did consider using my 'dirt poor' China girl plate I even cut it down to size BUT as I had used it for the "Leftovers" exchange I thought no - it'd be better if it's something fresh that way I enjoy it more.

Here you can see how far I got with "China Girl".
OK first I got Bill to cut the plate for me, at the print workshop.

Then I looked around at other plates for potential background prints to locate it, on top of. Then I though - like what are you doing!!?? ..... you have to make 12 of these so its better to stick with one plate and use stenciling or chine colle or some such thing as an intervention (as such).
Couldn't find anything the right size in any event . This china girl plate, by the way, was about 17 x 17 cm.

OK first thing was to take a proof of the plate after I cut it down and filed the edge.

I looked though my stack of backgrounds that I have in my digital files and looked through a few potential ones such as this blue one.

Of course by now all the photo emulsion which had been left on the surface for quite a while and which I eventually managed to remove after trying a number of liquids ........was gone so I could finally take a proof of it, to the bare metal.

Incidentally what removed the photo emulsion from the plate was a product called Johnson's Carefree acrylic floor stripper. I highly recommend it. I even think its better than Mystrol and Lascaux remover. As I am only too well aware removing acrylic stop outs (of whatever nature) can be a major pain in the butt!!
This is an update to this post and just thought i would include a screen grab which shows all the files worked on in relation to 'moving this plate on into a satisfactory print outcome' Here it is:

It sure looked a lot better than when I had used it for my "Leftovers" edition ( which was extremely variable) but it looked alright.

As can be perhaps imagined - I wasn't crazy about all of those dots but thought I would endeavour to integrate this image onto the kind of background where it didn't matter.

I considered a whole load of them such as a mottled mould stain in various colours or a washy one or a cracked wall surface - trouble was that in a way those all looked too depressing. I though maybe plant forms would be good. I am aware that I don't often use plant forms in my work so I do collect and make drawings in this direction occasionally so I had a look through those to see what I could come up with.

This particular pale blue image is a scan of a washed water colour page which then also had a stain from a cup of tea on it. I do like my tea. Earl Grey tea is my preferred ....although I will tolerate ordinary tea when I am e.g., at the print workshop or if someone is kind enough to make me some at their house and such. For some reason or other I am always reminded of the PG tips advert from my childhood which had the chimpanzee family in it with their human dresses and trousers with dubbed "speech" when I see ordinary tea bags. Well the truth is I actually think it tastes awful on the whole.......or it might be that I am addicted to the oil of Bergamot.

This proof of China girl onto a piece of yellow chine colle paper - I quite liked the look of, and had a look in my drawer where I keep such my chine colle papers which cost me a considerable amount of money from Falkiners Fine papers in London. I did buy them a while ago so they have lasted me well. This is the place where I also buy my Japanese paper onto which I print inkjet.

I thought this image I had of echinella flowers ( a name something along those lines- they look like thistles as a matter of fact), might work well so I printed it out and put it to soak.
Those of you who haven't tried printing onto inkjet backgrounds may be interested to know something about the process.

Printed paper from an ordinary everyday dye based printer will run when you put it into the water to soak.

The other thing is that it will fade pretty quickly and as such it is not appropriate for use when printmaking. Maybe if you were a student and just starting out you might use they dye based .......mind you ..........you would probably find that you had made this great print that was on naff paper on top of dye based ink and someone, like a museum curator, would ask you if they could buy it from you...........and then that would be embarrassing plus a lost opportunity.
Anyways at the end of all this - I didn't use either of these prints for the edition.

Leftovers Print Exchange Project

2010-11-04T18:00:00.002Z

This project was initiated in August 2009, by artist printmaker, Amy Nack, who was one of the co founders of Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho,U.S.A.. I can't remember exactly how I came across it - probably cross referencing from someone else's blog or maybe through one of my Google alerts. I mustn't have had much on, at the time (unlike the past few months during which I have been frantically busy) so I asked Amy if it was OK for me to be included - as I seem to remember that the closing date for sign up had just passed.

Well I mulled it over, as to what I would do for this exchange. Initially I was going to do this aluminium plate I had an image etched onto, although I wasn't too sure as to whether I would print it intaglio or relief. Currently I only have a relief jpeg of it - but I shall add the intaglio proof, as and when I come across it.

However there was something that wasn't quite right about it and I fiddled about doing little tiny alterations to the nose and veil using Lascaux acrylic hard ground to make the adjustments..........in the end though I think I just developed a deep hatred for it.

I am OK with it now though as there has been some distance in time. I also had an earlier dry point (the red one here) on polypropylene, of an earlier version of the image, that I was thinking of using but the feet were too tricky to fix up.

So in the end as I had all of these paper pieces from some 'rejected large collagraph prints from my "Aran" (2007) installation I thought I would use these.

Particularly as that had been the idea with this exchange project in the first place. I also had this image on an aluminium plate that I had made a while back when I did a course with Paul Musgrove on Photo etching at FDPW. I hadn't really put it to much use as of yet. I thought that perhaps it might work well in combination with the turquoise backgrounds. However as the plate had proven so difficult to remove the photo polymer emulsion from that proved to be a total bugbear when it came round to proofing it onto the surface of these 'backgrounds'. EEEk!!!

This just was a bad phase in my printmaking practice ...things just get like that sometimes and .......well anyway time was running out and ~ I just kept with it - I had a date( it was due in by about March/April 2010) by which I had to get the edition posted and I had to stick with it. Despite all my efforts the edition didn't turn out satisfactorily and it was indeed the most variable edition turned out by my hand ever!! I added some hand coloring to the prints and turned out a very variable edition of 12.

Lisa Cheney Jorgensen: http://lisacheneyjorgensen.blogspot.com/

Anna Paradis: no url located

I have included a few of the prints I sent. The exchange was exhibited at 2 venues in the locality. Unfortunately I can not remember the second place where they were shown.

Getting back to the 'efforts' I dispatched - I coloured them with 'Carbothello' pencils which if you don't know of them are excellent, I find for these kinds of situations where you want just a touch of colour. They are like pastel pencils that are "smudge-able" or if you want, you can add a wet brush and manipulate them as per watercolour.

Cassandra Schiffler: http://cassandraschiffler.blogspot.com/

In April, 2010, Amy Nack, the project coordinator and some of her friends, mounted the exhibition of the 70 or so, participants works in two locations fairly close in succession. The first being at Saltgrass Printmakers gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Of course I would have loved to see what the work looked like in person but as that wasn't possible - I thought that maybe eventually they would be posted onto the blog. That way we would all get to see everyone elses work. I mean thats part of the fun of it for me.

Ginger Tolonen: http://www.web.mac.com/gingert

I have done this where possible with other projects I have participated in (although I still have some more to upload from other projects). For example the Emission portfolio I participated in, which was coordinated by Mary Robinson. That was for presentation initially at the Impact Conference in Berlin and Poznan (Poland) but was later shown in Venice and possibly somewhere else - I can't quite recall at the moment.

Kathryn Polk: http://www.nonindigenouswoman.com/

Kiyoko Miyashi :

http://www.art.csulb.edu/printmaking/faculty/kmiyoshi/index.html

In the end though there were not enough images sent through to me - in fact there were only nine and as I can not set up a folio about a project with over 70 participants with only 9 images to show. As the fellow participants were good enough to send me jpegs I thought that I would like to include them here. Hope you enjoy them.

Linda Schrock: no url available

In some cases people had not scanned their print edition so in this case I requested that another print work be sent as a representation of their printmaking practice.

Marian Yap: http://www.marianyap.wordpress.com

This final piece -is by David Carrillo

Unfortunately I can not find a blog or website for David - if any of you can help on this?

Leftovers Project Blog: http//leftoversanyone.blogspot.com/

Saltgrass printmakers http://www.saltgrassprintmakers.org/

Wingtip Press: http://www.wingtippress.com

Eutopia or Distopia ?

2010-10-13T17:37:00.006+01:00

A few months back I saw that 'Culture Inside', a European based artists website, was having an exhibition on the theme "Eutopia". I read through the details and thought to myself that my installation "House Angel" was ideal as submission material. I contacted them and was very pleased when additionally they informed me, that there was no entry fee for 3D artworks/ installations. I was originally invited to be an artist on this website a few years back and try to visit it every now and again.

detail from the installation "House Angel"

Anyway so I sent the jpegs in on time and was pleased to hear very quickly that my installation had been selected. Had I not been disabled and been in possession of sufficient funds I would have loved to attend the opening event. It turned out that the reason there was no cost for submitting 3d works, was because they (C.I.) were not in a position to exhibit such pieces - although they hope to be able to do so for future exhibitions. The three selected works - we were referred to as "winning sculptors" which I find amusing as I have never considered myself as such - would have their images projected onto large screens at the venue in Neumunster in Luxembourg. The exhibition ran from end of July to mid September.

The people I dealt with at Culture Inside were very nice. Here's the press release which they sent me:

Do click on it to enlarge and make it legible.

details from the installation "House Angel"

To find out more about the exhibition and the organization 'Culture Inside' visit this LINK

I look forward to receiving a copy of the catalogue which will be a memento of the event.

I have looked through the works chosen for the exhibition again and again and there were one or two pieces that caught my eye like e.g. "Rickshaw" by Serge Strelnikoff from the Ukraine, and "Condescension" by Nick Katkov, (Russia).

Otherwise the only artists work that I truly found to be of significance was that of Basil Colin Frank as I feel it has authenticity and depth. Here's a link to his website. http://www.bcfrank.co.il/ where you can read more about the intentions behind the piece.

Agata Dymus-Kazmierczak

2010-10-11T16:51:00.001+01:00

I first came across Agata's printmaking about 3 or 4 years ago. I think she was just starting out in printmaking at the time and I saw some of her early work on her Flickr account. Have a look here to see those earlier pieces . She had an adventurous approach and there were one or two pieces that I quite liked. But my goodness she has come such a long way since then and has been doing very well for herself. I seem to remember that she got some kind of a residency at the Robert Gordon University, following her B.A. degree and most recently a place on the M.A. printmaking course at the Royal College of Art.

Go check out her website.............she seems to have that Polish "knack" for graphic art and more importantly a beautiful aesthetic and imagination.

Agata has not uploaded her more recent work to her website (reminds me that I ought to do that too!!) so her best pieces are only viewable on her FLICKR account. Of these I particularly like "Elegy about a Polish Mongrel" also a piece called "

Hamartia" both lithographs which she seems to particularly favor.

http://agatadymus.me.uk/

Jessica Brice Lambert - Photocollagraphs

2010-09-29T14:43:00.001+01:00

A while ago I was thinking that I would like to try out the technique of making a photo-collagraph - without knowing that much about it. And as is usual I search out people on the internet who have already done this technique. I found a few but not many when you think of the number of printmakers that are out there in the world!! During my search I came across Jessica Brice Lambert's works. Most of her work is in mixed media drawing although she does oil on canvas too. I think her photo-collagraph works are her best pieces. But thats just what I think - others may have a different opinion. You can see what you think by checking out her website. Here are some of her prints.

I had thought that I would try a quick one - while we were doing a photo etch course with Paul Musgrove a few months back.

So I sealed some cardboard and then rolled some Fotec emulsion on and let it dry. I then exposed my image which was based on a drawing I did, of a very old battered Victorian doll.

Unfortunately it became water logged when I put it in the developer, as I had feared it might. So I put it to one side. I have it here in my studio somewhere ??. Both the original drawing which was made using walnut crystals ink and wash / as well as the photo exposure on the cardboard.

I will add it into this post when I find it. The photo exposure had worked - it was just the water.

Since then at FDPW - we have done a further course using photo etch laminate (which Paul also taught us). The film of Fotec is laminated onto the surface of our plates, through the etching press - so yep - I will definitely use that when I make my next attempt.

Perhaps, after I seal front, reverse and sides of the mountboard - I will cover the back of the cardboard with "Fablon" ( that contact adhesive sheet that is meant for people to, for instance line their kitchen shelves) - it's quite robust and may help to keep it from becoming water logged.

Recent Discoveries

2010-09-24T15:42:00.003+01:00

I came across these four excellent artist print makers recently - trouble is I can't remember where - other than for the last one shown here. The first one is by Caitlin Sheedy. She doesn't seem have her own website which is a shame. I love the 'magic realism' aspect in this piece of hers.

The figures leap through our vision, "mermaid-like", I love her range of tones and the sense of space. The fact that one of the figures is wearing spectacles is also a humorous touch. I think that's a planet in the upper left corner?.

Next, Glen Skein from Mackay, Queensland, Australia. His assemblages and box works which you can see on his website. are very inspiring - take a look at them.

Number 3 is by my associate Naoji Ishiyami - talented fellow that he is, whose work I very much admire.

I like the surreal dreamlike quality to Naoji's imagery and his use of aquatint at which I think he is quite adept. We exhibited together at the Falun Graphic Triennial, held at the Dalarnas Museum in Sweden back in 2007. See HERE for images of the visit,

exhibition, artworks shown by the other artists.
That exhibition which really was a great experience - came about very much through the initiative and far reaching efforts of Modhir Ahmed another talented print maker friend, based in Sweden, who like Naoji seems to be very much in the spotlight when it comes to receiving awards.

I came across this photo of a page from an artists book - on Modhir's website - it's one

from a series of about 5, documenting the project he undertook as a collaboration with
renowned Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer

Here is an extract from a poem of his, called "Haiku"

"Carried by darkness.
            I met an immense shadow
             in a pair of eyes.

            These milestones
            have set out on a journey.
            Hear the wood-dove’s voice.

                                 Resting on a shelf
                               in the library of fools
                                                                          the sermon-book, untouched.

Diffused Relief Print

This final image is wonderful - I love the over layering which artist Monika Meler uses.

She refers to it as "diffused relief printing" I have got to find out more about this??

Please if anyone knows what is meant by this phrase - let me know !!!

Oh by the way I came across Monikas wonderful image on the Protius Mag blog which has some excellent artwork - well worth a visit .

FOOTNOTE: Thanks to those people who took the time to post some comments on here about this process. I even had an email from the lovely Monika, in response to my questions.

Done and Dusted (print edition dispatched)

2010-09-20T18:11:00.001+01:00

I was invited by Clare Mc Vinnie, artist and printmaking technician at the Dundee Contemporary Art Centre about 5 months ago to participate and so I said I would. I decided eventually to work on an intaglio lino image that I actually begun years and years ago but had never developed further.

It was just a linear image of a figure in the foreground well the face and then the horse image behind it. I will do a separate post concerning its progress from that 'old' state to the final b.a.t..

I used caustic soda to etch the lino and also some diluted Lascaux acrylic hard ground, to make part of the surface 'paler'. I felt that this was an excellent medium /process to go with, for making an edition - given that I don't really do editions other than for projects such as this.

I experimented on some additional plates in the course of making this blue print and learned some new things that I want to develop further especially where larger works are concerned - well let's say plates that are 40 x 55 cm.............. that kind of size. As I said, I'll share what I learned in a future post on the making of the plate/print.

Here's a photo of the finished edition

The project is originally initiated/ coordinated by Hot Bed Press where my good friend Sean Rorke, works. We were fellow students on the post graduate printmaking course at Wimbledon in London. For me the course, left a lot to be desired but I came across some great fellow print maker colleagues.

I notice that Sean's book about print workshops throughout the UK is online now. I knew he had been working on it for a while so well done Sean on getting it finished bet that's a load off your mind !!

A Dog and a Chair

2010-09-19T23:16:00.022+01:00

I started with a 10 x 15 cm aluminium plate. I painted some Lascaux acrylic resist hard ground, on to the plate - then I 'scribed' my image through the ground, using an etching needle, exerting only light pressure. The little dog like figure had evolved from my attic plate that I had done for the exhibition (New Zealand) in Mark Graver's International print exhibition back in January.

I think maybe the tiny chair which you would almost hardly even notice may have been inspired by David du Bose's gorgeous drypoint which is in the "Intaglio" book by Robert Adam and Carol Robertson... although it is a motif that I have always used in my artwork every now and again.

This Red proof shows the plate in the same state, as in the first one - I had some what over wiped it.

I seem to remember that I then left that plate aside for ages as it had just been a little ditty plate that I did while I was waiting for something else to dry.
I decided that there wasn't enough variation of tone and for some reason decided to take an additive approach to the plate using Lascaux acrylic pastel ground for the dark area - unfortunately I applied it to the plate, in far too casual a manner and well you can see the consequence of this. Although I liked the dark background and the lighter foreground.

This application, i.e., to the plate that outputted the blue proof - meant that, in a way, I was using a collagraph application onto a plate that had been etched ................but what matters to me is the final result when printed onto the paper. Where I am concerned having some kind of 'purist' attitude to etching or to printmaking gets us nowhere. I mean, if the 'technology' exists then use it........ well that's what I say.

As you can imagine - I wasn't too pleased with myself where that background was concerned so I though I would sand it down a bit which is what I did and then took another proof.

It still looked 'naff' so I concluded that it would be best to get rid of the layer of acrylic pastel ground. So I put the plate in some Lascaux remover for a while I think I had it in for about half an hour. It came off pretty easily.

Then I decided to put the plate back into the copper sulphate mordant. With plates of this size putting them into 'etch' in mordant, is so easy. I use those little black plastic rectangular trays that ready made pasta dishes come in. They are just big enough for these 4 x 6 inch plates. I painted Lascaux acrylic hard ground onto the plate which I had degreased using Jif cleaner (what you use to clean the sink and the bath) . Here's the plate with the acrylic resist ground applied.

I painted a layer of it, onto half of the area I wanted to get etched. I left it in the copper sulphate mordant about 5 minutes. Then I put it in some remover and when it was cleaned off I~ put it back into the mordant, for a further 5 mins. I ought to add that while I was applying the acrylic resist I also put a layer of that over the bottom half of the image and went over the lines delineating the figures. They looked a bit too light ..the lines...I wanted them to be a bit more pronounced. It looked a lot better.

I don't know why I hadn't done this in the first place but it might be that I had some of the pastel ground on my brush that I was applying to another plate and that I though I would chuck some onto it while I had it out. Anyway I took a proof to see how it looked .Dab a bit here dab a bit there tra la la ....what a twerp !!

Much better and I also liked that the lines of the figure were stronger.
It's funny how the colour you proof in, can make such a difference to the mood of the image isn't it?.

A few days later I did another quick proof with "a la poupee" and liked that too. When I finally do print this b.a.t, - I may add a little chine colle element, printed inkjet on Japanese paper .... we will see.

Playing with Lascaux wash resist and Lascaux Soft ground resist

2010-09-11T23:29:00.007+01:00

I was making some small plates i.e., 6 x 4 inch ( 15 x 10 cm) here, to possibly use for the Bimpe prints submission.

Yellow Proof
On to the degreased aluminium plate, I applied some Lascaux wash resist just to see how it would behave.

I then etched it in copper sulphate mordant.

I have realized that Lascaux wash resist only interacts appropriately in accordance with its performance specifications, on copper. It does not work on aluminium or on Zinc. I have tried both. Although having said, that I didn’t apply an acrylic aquatint spray (which would be the usual procedure ie one would apply it after the LWR was applied to the plate and allowed to reticulate. (see previous post)

Anyway this is how it turned out. It was in the copper sulphate mordant for 4 minutes.
I ended up using this background for one of the prints that I chose to submit to Bimpe here's the finished print

Indigo Blue Proof

This plate, was one that I had actually made, ages ago by gluing sandpaper to mount board.

I wanted to disrupt it somehow so tore parts away and then had the bright idea of applying Lascaux acrylic soft ground to the 'exposed' areas. After applying a thin coat with one of my 'pro arte' brushes - (see earlier post) - its the 5th paragraph up from the foot of the post.

The acrylic 'ground' was allowed it to dry for 12 minutes, at which point it was ready to receive items onto it, to be impressed for the 'soft ground' effect, which of course one can use in collagraph as well as in etching. This is the great thing about this range of acrylic products.
Actually if you go to the link you see above - you will see just the situation where I inter played a seemingly 'collagraph' effect directly onto an etched zinc plate in order to resolve the print.

Getting back to this plate

Pieces of fine wire wool, were arranged over it. Then I placed some pretty thick transparent acetate and ran it through the press. I like how this turned out. I am seeing it as a possible background, perhaps not with this dark colour though.

Black Ink Proof

On to some mount board, I applied Lascaux soft ground , I allowed it to dry for 12 minutes and then placed part of a torn up

steel pan scourer onto it, to impress into the soft ground.

I placed some thick transparent acetate , over it and ran it all through the press.

I think next time I might decrease the pressure (as per “monoprint pressure”). If you look closely you might notice that there are differing strengths of the pressure of the indentation - which has me thinking that perhaps on another occasion I will try out doing the pressing by hand and with weights just to see how it goes.

Pale Blue Needle Proof

This was another impression into Lascaux soft ground. I actually put the thread through the needle . Anyways - it nearly came through the card when I ran it through the press with the acetate covering it all. You might notice that on the upper left is a textural effect which I really like - thats from placing very fine wire wool and teasing the strands apart. You might also note that there's the effect of pulled away acetate a bit like what you get when kids do those paintings where they fold the paper in two and then pull it apart. I quite like it though. I need to have another look in the book by Carol and Robert about the soft ground effect with collagraphs - I mean to see what they used as acetate or whatever, on top of the stuff thats being impressed into the 'soft ground'.
I also need to use pressure similar to that which one would use when putting a monoprint through the press.

Little Boxes...........Luke O'Sullivan printmaking 3d

2010-09-11T11:42:00.000+01:00

Luke seems to be very into the innards and outards of buildings/things..........see more on his website http://www.lukeosullivan.com/

El Tobo the Terrible

2010-08-24T00:17:00.003+01:00

Photo taken today of my neighborhood cat friend, lodger. Mister Toby.

Luis Camnitzer

2010-08-23T15:36:00.003+01:00

When looking up Luis Camnitzer a while back, on the internet I came across this image by him , which I just love.

Luis, born in Uruguay and resident in USA, is an artist of note having made many conceptual works, often with personal and political resonance.

He has published many essays, books and participated in lots of important exhibitions.
He has work in a large number of collections including MOMA New York.

This second piece was last shown in 2005, in an exhibit by Tate Liverpool (UK) , that focussed on Latin American artists, within their own collection.

This piece (left) is titled "Leftovers". It refers to the continuously popular  theme of state repression and the ever inventive yet gross and inhumane treatment of the "desaparecidos". These being the thousands of mainly everyday ordinary South American citizens who disappeared and still go unaccounted for.

I participated a few years ago in an international project that Luis Camnitzer, initiated and curated. It was called The Last Book. Click HERE to read the original notice .

There were plans and agreements, regarding its showing at the national Art Library in Madrid but that fell through. It was however, eventually exhibited at The National Library of Argentina in Buenos Aires, in  February 2009.

It' s interesting to note that The Daros Museum in Zurich, held a major exhibition of Luis Camnitzers work in July of this year and "the Last Book" piece was shown, as part of that.
It had contributions from 680 artists worldwide.

There was no information as to who the other contributors were to this project, so if you were one of the artists please leave a message.
I have to admit though that I am disappointed that the contributions were not documented i.e., not viewable online.
I believe this is so important - I mean if other artists contribute towards a project that one wants to create then that's the least one should do. Thereby acknowledging their effort , their creativity their ideas...........this makes the project have a life - people get to see the work.
Thats what its all about .....other wise what's it all about.

Some images from Printmaking this Summer

2010-08-21T21:43:00.003+01:00

Book Art by Rolando Estevez Jordan

2010-08-20T23:27:00.001+01:00

I came across this artist on a post on Bibliodyssey and was very taken with this particular work by Rolando Estevez Jordan, from Cuba.

I liked how the string went round the bound feet and the top of the post to the bound hands as well as the general aesthetic of the artwork.

I was unable to find any further links to Rolando's work or anything much enlightening other than the Cuban Art Space in USA which promotes the arts of Cuba.

Locations and Associations

2010-08-11T12:58:00.001+01:00

Firstly Christiane Werner from Leipzig Germany. Two things connect me to that place.
I have had work exhibited there 2 or 3 years ago in something called “Ereignis Druckgraphik” which was coordinated by an organization called Bund Bildener Kunstler
If you manage to find the event “Ereignis Druckgraphik” on the website well done - but then the images of about half of the artists who participated, in the exhibition along with myself, have the jpegs next to their textual info. missing and no link to their website ??.
Well what can I say..I have contacted them three times BUT...........
The other way in which I feel somewhat connected to Leipzig is through my association with an artist called Ute Haring, who I met while I was studying for my M.A. printmaking at what was then called Wimbledon School of Art in London. We exhibited together at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork, Ireland. Another printmaker on the course - Angelo Evelyn made up our trio.
I put forward the proposal to T.A.C., and they accepted it. We had to put in an enormous amount of work to make it all happen. Angelo flew over from Holland, where he lives, with his works rolled up in a tube. I seem to remember he had had them specially laminated for the purpose of the exhibition. Ute took her artworks over on the ferry and she must have taken my pieces too, I was very grateful for this. I had three installation pieces one of which was quite large and had to be cut up into sections and then reassembled.
I certainly would'nt make work of that nature now - I mean one has to consider its construction deconstruction and its transportation right from its inception. Besides which I like using a method, whereby one builds up to the completed installation from many smaller units.
My more recent piece "Aran" was an example of this. I have posted it over to Sweden, with detailed installation instructions, and it was safely returned at the end of the show.
OK it was a bit costly to post BUT it was a lot easier that taking it over there or having to have a special crate made, and pay specialist art carriers.    I mean one has to consider costs as these are usually borne by the artist and although there are bodies like the British Council who promote the idea that they support artists exhibiting overseas by providing grants to help with such things - they do'nt !!
Well they probably do - but there must be some 'unknown criteria' which qualifies who gets the funding and who does'nt.
i mean .....what do you say when you get a phone call from the British Council, several weeks subsequent to making such an application and they say "What will you do if you don't get this grant"? .....
"WHAT!!!!"-----I thought to myself ...   -    I was completely caught off guard.............I had to be quick thinking - were they trying to find out if I was thoroughly professional and e.g., if I did'nt get the grant would I just drop it......it was an awful thing to do . I am thinking now I should have made a formal complaint about the matter.

Anyway I said I would try to somehow manage to still keep to my commitment to the gallery - maybe that was my downfall as we didnt get a grant from them.
I would be interested in people thoughts on this ??

I actually wish I had dropped it because the Triskell gallery let us down big time in the sense that they did no promotion of the exhibition and given that we were "out of towners" we certainly needed that.       By the time I became aware of it - it was too late.

They did print invitations and organize an artists talk which I gave which had people in attendance, but that was it..
I found out later that there had been some major internal politics going on there and a new curator/team had been instated and that this had UNFORTUNATELY coincided with our exhibition.
I think the whole experience put Angelo and Ute off me , but it hadn't really been my fault although when you are deeply involved in generating the creative work and trying to keep up to date with fellow exhibitors as to whats what - its all a bit much, to contend with. I have'nt organized anything similar since.
If I did I would be going through expectations on the side of the exhibitors and the gallery with a fine tooth comb.
I had taken it as a 'given' that they were a professional fine art gallery and that they would do the right thing by us.
Never mind you live and you learn no matter how old you are there always seems to be issues that arise.
I am afraid my posting to my blog has really fallen down lately and I had thought to make at least a wee post about a couple of artists I had come across of late that I had admired - I mean that's one of the joys of the internet.
And then I end up relating previous experiences of an unpleasant nature BUT these things do happen!!. And Yes - I have in the past been treated badly by galleries - I have had my artwork stolen and have also not been paid fully for sold artworks. I am afraid that there are as many blagards in the fine art field as there are in any walk of life.

OK
lets end with something uplifting........I particularly liked this piece by Ludmila Armata, who was born in Poland but now lives in Canada. I like the energy and the nature of the marks.
No individual website but you can see some further works by her HERE

Making a Wee Book

2010-07-28T17:48:00.002+01:00

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Guess what my cat has been up to ??!!

2010-07-26T21:47:00.000+01:00

Lascaux Wash Resist on Copper ( more trials and............)

2010-07-26T00:07:00.001+01:00

Lascaux Wash Resist on Zinc (Acrylic Resist Etching)

2010-07-25T23:01:00.005+01:00

Please note I have made a mistake with the notes written under the photo in this post

ONE APPLIES THE LASCAUX WASH RESIST ONTO THE PREPARED * PLATE

* To Prepare your plate for Acrylic resist etching

Graining

Apply some pumice powder and water (already made up into a mix to a paste consistency - in a container) . Dip your rolled up felt in this and rub your plate surface on a supporting flat work surface.
I like to use this method as it is gentle yet effective.
Carol and Robert showed us this method.

Degrease

Make a solution of 1 litre water to 30 grams of washing soda crystals (soda ash). Dilute the crystals in a small amount of boiling water and then make up to the 1 litre mark. You could make a few litres up and then its ready, in storage for when you need it.

You will need another "dedicated roll" of blanket felt for this. I put a few elastic bands around mine to keep it together. You could also use string. Maybe make it a different coloured string than the one you use for the 'graining' as mentioned above.

Dip your felt roll in this solution and then rub it onto a slab of magnesium carbonate ( if you can get hold of it in this form) . If not then just dunk it into the container with the magnesium carbonate powder. Rub that in circular motions on the the surface of your plate.

Paul Musgrove showed us this method

See also Colin Beaumonts blog which shows his explorations using Lascaux products to make collagraphs. I have put a link to the point at which he starts off - you will have to work backwards from there.

If Only I could magically shrink stuff ??!!!

2010-07-25T22:52:00.000+01:00

I made a little batch of trace monotypes recently on all of the lightweight papers I had in my possession - some from years ago. Mainly I did not know the names of the papers which was annoying.
So anyway I sent samples of them to John Purcell papers in London and true to form, they very kindly have sent me some mostly A4 pieces in return with their names on.
These were what I did the trace monotypes on. I love working with this technique. Now , using these papers I am thinking to use them as chine colle elements in future works. In addition I know which ones I like best AND will be able to order som eof them soon (as in relation to which of these I can afford).
This is one I was trying out having scanned the background print which was made using water colour media. The only trouble was that the twin image (trace monotype) is too big for the blue background. Never mind I could output it as an inkjet chine colle and then combine it onto the blue background with another non intrusive intaglio plate or a monotype plate with a few sparse marks on it - maybe made using oil sticks..

Don't you Forget about Me !!

2010-07-25T21:38:00.001+01:00

Lascaux Wash Resist on Aluminium TESTS

2010-07-25T21:33:00.006+01:00

I am posting these scans onto which I have written notes so as to share my experience with those of you, who may be moving towards using acrylic resist etch for the first time.
I began trying out these during the course I did at FDPW recently, with Robert Adam and Carol Robertson. (authors of "Intaglio" (the most up to date book on the subject, which I have had, for quite a while now AND which I highly recommend.
Anyways we had a great time worked hard .......... and if only............. we had, had more time to try out more things !!
Having said that Carol and Robert were ever so generous to us - giving us far more of their time than they were paid for.

It was lovely to see them again and they even had their sweet little dog with them called "Hugo".

I shall includes a photo of him ( at the foot of this post) with my dear friend Tatiana !!

Click on these jpegs be able to read the notes etc

Trace Monotype with Microcrystalline Wax

2010-07-21T14:16:00.004+01:00

It must be about two years ago now that I first posted on here about doing trace monotypes using a wee bit of microcrystaline wax mixed in with the oil based etching ink. Here are some scans of section from the prints which were done about 15 years ago - I did not even have a press then.
Here is a link to the post where I first mentioned the technique * followed by a link to the other post

* (The text written in purple is the relevant info. )

The Life and Times of Mister Toby………………………

2010-06-30T17:24:00.003+01:00

This is Mister Toby, a good friend of mine. The thing is that * I am VERY fond of him. I guess our affair started about 3 years ago or so. It wasn’t that long after we had moved into this house. Toby used to drop by the garage which was then still more a garage than a studio. I used to take cat biscuits in with me, to give him when he dropped by. As you can see he is a longhaired cat and he has a sweet temperament. I love how he looks up at me and slightly cocks his head to one side. What a charmer!!

He feels lovely to stroke and makes a funny noise as regards meowing. He lets you know when he is dissatisfied with how you are handling him or whatever. He sure let me know he wasn’t happy when I was gradually trying to cut out the tangles from his long fur. Boy was he cross with me and I mean I was only trying to help. Huh !! No need to growl.

I was beginning to think there might be a colony of weird little creatures living inside the rather large lumps of tangled hair and it just didn’t seem ‘healthy’ to me.

But he likes things to be ‘just so’ and that’s that. He actually lives across the road with D and H. Spends about 40% of his time in our house and also visits his Auntie C and Uncle M who live next door to his cat parents i.e., D and H. He has a ‘sister’ cat who is called Leah. She seems lovely too but isn’t given to the wandering life, as is Toby. Seems a much quieter character.

Up until a couple of months ago he was spending about 60% of his time in our house because Auntie C and Uncle M, had their son staying

with them and he had his two large Alsatian dogs staying too. This was most off-putting for Toby. I am sure that he is pleased that they

have gone back home now - noisy brutes!!! Plus they were depriving him of the goodies he usually is given by C and M.

Oh it’s a dog’s life (sorry CATS life!!). With all the extra food he must be eating on top of his regular diet at his ‘cat parents’ you would

imagine Toby might be quite overweight but not a bit of it. There’s no spare meat on him at all. In fact there’s not much to him underneath all that lovely shiny fluffy fur. Although he is quite a character and I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him if I was another cat.

Most times when Toby comes to visit (which is on average about 4 times a day) he sits with me, while I am lying on my sofa taking a wee break after my meals. My own 2 cats are not inclined to indulge me in that way so I suppose that’s one of the reasons that I particularly like his company. He spends most of his energy in the pursuit of food - I reckon that’s how he burns up most of his calories.

Cats - don't yah just love um ...I mean........yeah...... I know they are like pretty indifferent to us really but its just nice to having them around.

Additional images (lino cut prints) are by Carl Harris

Things not Turning out the way you want !

2010-06-30T14:44:00.003+01:00

Waiting for a coat of varnish to dry on a piece of Birch plywood so thought I would try to catch up with some printmaking carried out of late.

Many of the plates I was working on in April May were done using Lascaux wash resist.

When you use Lascaux Wash Resist you also have to use Lascaux aquatint spray - this is an essential part of this

product’s process. I have found, that LWR is only successful when used with copper plate.
Zinc and aluminium don't perform usefully with it, at all.

Note we have added some

Indian ink (used for fountain pens) to the aquatint spray to make it more “visible” (especially on silver coloured metals such as zinc and aluminium).

The aquatint spray we have also diluted to the consistency of single cream, otherwise it ‘clogs up’ the airgun spray.
I seem to remember that to e.g., 100 ml of acrylic spray aquatint liquid - we add about 20 ml water max.

NOTE

The first time I tried using this product was during the course workshops we did at FDPW, with Carol and Robert. It was fantastic !!!

I mean the effects you can get so don't be put off by my experience here.

I made a lovely copper plate with them - and its beautiful. I made a second smaller one to accompany it. These were to be a 'background' for a print project I was working on for an exhibition in China. I will post about this project (which will include these) later.

A Book About Death

2010-06-15T16:49:00.038+01:00

Because I am so behind with updating my blog I am hoping to evince a splurt of activity to rectify this situation. One of the projects I participated in of late was "A Book About Death".

A good few months back ( maybe about a year ago in fact) I noticed somewhere (?) that there was a call for artists to submit to a showing of the exhibition in Brazil.
Because I have two good friends there, Paula Torres a,d Rosana Paulino both of whom are artists - I always feel a sense of connection to Brasil. Rosanna has been busy with exhibitions making lots of new work - check her work out - I think it has wonderful significance.

And o I thought yes I will contribute some work to that project. Oh, How I wish we could all do that Star Trek "Beam me up, Scottie" mode of transport - attending private views all over the world / dropping in to see friends far and wide. It would be fantastic !!!

This was scheduled to take place during February 2010, at the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura. The museum was opened in 1995 and designed by architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Try as I could I just wasn't able to find a decent photo of this museum which reminded me of London's Barbican Centre and the South Bank Centre.

In the effort to locate some photos of this museum I had to look into Mendes da Rocha's portfolio of projects and still no photos of much merit. Given that my partner is an architect who has worked on some excellent projects mainly in London I was amazed. I have seen the kinds of photos the practice he previously worked for, had produced for their projects and these would be pretty impressive so I can't understand it?!..... Maybe Paulo finished the building and then thought oh my Gawd ....it's a mess and then just quickly moved on to the next thing.

The photo here (the last one I promise) perhaps explains why. This photo reminds me of places like Bilbao and East London.............. say somewhere like Mile End or was it Bow, where I had to go visit one time, on the London underground, to buy some microcrystalline wax. It was a pretty grim neighborhood.

The original exhibition of "A Book About Death" took place at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, in New York, was instigated by Matthew Rose who has an interesting website himself.

I remember spending far too long having a nosey around it. He's done lots of collaborative projects and seems quite an interesting artist.

This part of the project i.e., the show in Brazil - that I sent my watercolour works to, seems to have been initiated and overseen by Angela Ferrara., who participated in the original exhibition/project in New York.

I sent a suite of about 33 small watercolours to the Museo Escultera Brasil for this leg of the project.

I HAD BEEN AWARE of the call for works for the project at this point BUT the idea of getting an edition of 500 together was a tad off putting. Even ordering 500 postcards, I mean the cost etcetera - I must have been feeling a bit "strapped for cash" at the time. So that's why I did'nt participate in the original project although it kind of appealed to me. Ultimately though its not very much a project that has much to do with the book format - it's more to do with the theme "A book about Death" and has been very broadly interpreted. Although I suppose you could say its to do with an 'open book' in that all the pages are revealed which is in contrast to how the subject of death is usually looked at in Western culture? Don't know what anyone else thinks?.

I was pleased to hear earlier this year from Sonia Benskin Mesher, who participated in the New York exhibition. She told me she was co ordinating an exhibition of "A Book about Death" at her local gallery which just happened to be the Museum of Modern Art Wales. This was to be a 'selected' exhibition so all I could do was HOPE that my work would be selected and I am pleased to say that it was. The show was on display over April and May.

I made two piece and once I had the image with the horse in it finished I decided that, that would be the one I sent off. I have to say I really enjoyed making these pieces which in essence are printmaking based collage.

Printmaking Submissions

2010-05-26T16:39:00.001+01:00

I have not posted on here in ages which is an absolute disgrace but I HAVE as usual, been hard at work.

Right now I am working on a print made using wood as the matrix. It won't be a conventional woodcut although it may contain some positively cut areas. I will have to see how my tests with the cut out, of the wood goes. I have been practicing using the jigsaw to cut organicly shaped pieces ( pretty scary at first after not using it for a few years!!)
I have also been doing some tests using intaglio on wood. Although results initially were not very encouraging I think things are beginning to improve. I will post some pictures on here soon, of the test procedures and outcomes.

In relation to this current wood focus I took another look at how Karen Kunc uses wood in the making of her images. I watched the video that I had posted on here in an earlier post - very inspiring. Even before I looked at the video I had already made proofs using masks and stencils on thin paper as well as on Hahnemuhle. These I plan to work onto further, either using the positivly cut woodcuts , trace monotypes and / or small amounts of inkjet chine colle.

Anyway getting back to the heading of this post. I just found out that my portfolio submission of ten prints sent to Liege were received safely and not selected , which is what I thought initially .

The ironic thing though, is that printing photographic images of ones work, onto paper to send to Liege (and the few other biennials that require one to submit these) is disheartening - as the quality just isn't good even using my best Epson archival matte paper.

I wish they would change their set up, so that people could submit jpegs, as these give the best representation as to how the prints look. Providing of course you take them in daylight and use the best quality digital camera you can get your hands on.

Anyway..........so I though probably won't get anywhere - I'll send them in anyway. I don't think there was an entry fee which is always welcome when you consider how much some places ask.
Here are the pieces I sent them.

The fourth and 5th sheet ( of 2 images) features 4 of the prints I submitted to Lahti recently .

I hope I get selected for that but you just don't know until you hear back. I think my favorite work was that second last one you see on here. Its called "Rest in Peace" which I also made a miniature print of and sent in a submission to BIMPE. We shall see........ we shall see.

note : they used to have images from previous exhibition on their website but I could not locate them when I visited. Maybe they are in the process of updating this.

FOOTNOTE

MY WORKS FOR BIMPE WERE SELECTED .........

Peroxide to possibly use in making Cupric Chloride Mordant ?

2010-04-05T18:12:00.001+01:00

Cupric Chloride for etching copper

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE IF THE TEXT IS NOT LARGE ENOUGH TO READ

Not sure if this is the correct stuff so I am hoping that Alfons Bytautas Printmaker researcher extraordinaire will swing by this blog and confirm that this is the stuff I need to use to make the mordant in question ?
I read about it recently , in an article by Alfons, in "Printmaking Today". The article also referenced the NDI in printmaking website. which is also an excellent resource on matters of this nature.

I will be following the formula as iterated by Alfons.

Of course I will be posting on here about etching copper in this mordant and hopefully this will enable me to be able to etch a plate in my own studio as and when I need to.

NightLadder............... a collaboration

2010-03-16T18:15:00.002Z

Gwenn Tasker, Lisa Pullen and Angela Gardner have collaborated to create something called Nightladder.

I find these works to be very beautiful and inspiring. I came across this while looking at a printmaking opportunity on the Umbrella Studios (Australia) website.

These are artists who express themselves using language metaphor and symbolism referencing mythology.

Angela Gardner created two suites of poems which were the impetus for the project. The piece is a rewriting of fairy tales; Gwen's response is a suite of prints called The Twelve Labours, in which the Labours of Hercules are reviewed and heroism reconfigured.

Both sets of poems essentially explore issues of the human condition that cut across time and culture.

They strive to evoke associations and reflections around the issues of gender, authority, violence and the relationship between the human and the rest of the natural world to provoke both philosophical and ethical questions in the viewers.

see more images and details at:

Project Website

http://www.nightladder.net/

Project Portfolio

http://www.light-trap.net/nightladder.html

Lisa Pullen

http://www.visualartist.info/visualartist/artist/?artistId=1533

Gwenn Tasker

You can see four more of her images from the suite here

http://www.artistsbooksonline.com/gwen_tasker.shtm

Angela Gardner

Unfortunately I was not able to find the poems to look at, anywhere online although there are examples of Angela's other written works as well as her artworks at:
http://www.light-trap.net/angelagardner/index.html

Working with Lino

2010-02-23T16:55:00.001Z

5 am working with lino at the moment and these are a few prints made by an artist who I think is using the medium of lino really well - her name is Alison Pilkington. I believe she is an Irish artist. I have 2 lino prints on the go at the moment.

One is a three plate lino which is to be printed in stages. I dont think its going to be easy to print these as thery will probably need to be done on an etching press - although I will also try to print them, on a relief press. Just printing the blue backgrounds singly has been a job (although that was on an etching press.

Anyway heres the "plan".

I need to make the birds with the infants inside of them smaller as they look better that way. The thing is though, that it will be tricky to carve them out of the lino so small - I suppose I will just have to see first on a little test plate if I can manage them so small. The three squares of lino are 12 by 12 inches or 30 x 30 cm each. So to print them onto one piece of paper - it will need to be about 100 to 110 cm long. Not too sure what kind of paper to use either ??

- the truth is, I am not very experienced with lino print. So any suggestions are welcome.

I don't know that there's much scope for lino etch with my blue tree girl image other than where I have already done some on her top. I love how Alison has used it here in these three prints. Also the colour choices are excellent. These pieces by her are quite big too.

The other print that I am working on which I will need to have finished sooner is again large but with that one I will be using lino cuts that I already have as well as adding 2 new elements that I cut today. This one will be printed intaglio - which is also quite tricky. I am wondering if using the lino press runners will make things easier, as regards putting it through the press??

to see more of the excellent PRINTMAKING thats going on in Ireland http://www.originalprint.ie/

Miniprints for Columbia (3)

2010-02-19T14:50:00.001Z

Miniprints for Columbia (2)

2010-02-19T14:47:00.000Z

More of the stuff that came out of a few days working on this very small scale

Making Miniprint for exhibition in Columbia (1)

2010-02-19T14:38:00.001Z

"Attic" Zinc etching

2010-02-17T10:51:00.001Z

This print or should I say zinc plate started out in “life” ages and ages ago BUT there were things I liked about the plate and I had put a lot of work into it so , of course I did not throw it away. Wish I had a photo of the original proof but I don’t. This is because I suppose I also had no mass on it and it was made in the days before I documented the process of making my artworks. Having said that of late I haven’t been involving myself in too much documentation of late, either but that’s another story and its probably because I have so many prints on the go at present.

Anyway here’s a proof of the main part of the plate that I kept. I chopped the other section off and probably did throw that away. It’s a plate with the ready made backing on it you know the green colour. This particular proof my good friend Tatiana made for me one Saturday when she was round here and I was trying to get an edition of prints the green door stuff finished so that was really helpful.

I spoke to Bill at FDPW about how to eliminate the parts I did not want and he concurred with me that yes the best approach would be to sand it and then re aquatint it.

Where the ‘newly aquatinted sprayed areas” met the original plate surface would need to be soft so I did some tests and research into that. It seems to me a question that I have never had satisfactorily answered and yet it’s such a basic and essential piece of ammunition necessary for a printmaker.

I would appreciate any comments on this in particular. Heres’ a couple of jpgs of some little tests I did in an effort to arrive at something satisfactory.

At the same time I was starting to think that I needed a further amount of ‘picture space’. I located another section of the exact same kind of zinc plate to go on the left, as you view it on the press bed OR on the right once it is proofed. A fine aquatint spray was applied on that plate also.

Then it was proofed – I scanned it and desaturated it to black and white and considered some possibilities image wise. I had this image of a figure which I had drawn ages ago which was like a falling figure just in outline format, which I liked and decided that it worked well against the window like image on the plate.

I also had this dog like image which I had drawn and then used it to make some small miniprints using stencils, for a project in Columbia (which will be my next post) and it had become distorted in the process of my doing those – resulting in a slightly more menacing looking being. It seemed to go really well within this ‘tonal atmosphere’ - the crazy thing was that the image seemed to be resonating from that original plate that I had done over 10 years ago. Anyway I played around with the various elements.

I quite enjoyed playing around in Photoshop with these in tones going from white to black. At this point it seemed somehow that the ‘extra’ plate section, worked in terms of its location i.e., being positioned at the side of the main plate.

Because time was running out I applied the dog figure to the small plate with Lascaux acrylic hard ground.

I made an acetate in Photoshop of the dog figure which I then carefully cut out with a scalpel knife. I placed it over the area where I wanted it and painted on one thin layer of the liquid using one of my pro arte brushes.

I had purchased a set of them a while back ostensibly to use when applying lino etch solution but have found that they are very suited to applying the Lascaux range of Acrylic Resist etch liquids.

Just examining one of these brushes now and it says “Basics Art Brush D480A006” Nothing about Pro arte ?? I have thought all along that this is what these are.

They are dark blue (long) handled,, with a metallic effect painted tip. The ferrules are silver metal. The heads are white soft, cottony – ish, probably synthetic and although they are as I said soft – there’s a firmness to them all the same. So these are the kinds of brushes that I find work well with the Lascaux A.R.E. product range.

NOTE: In the book by Carol and Robert they say to use “to use a soft fine haired brush such as a sable, or watercolour brush or a Prolene brush made by ProArte”.

If painting large areas with acrylic etch resist , although the liquids are supposed to be self levelling it seems none the less a good idea to apply it with a soft-ish brush so as not to leave brush marks. I applied three thin coats and allowed them to dry in between I left them 30 mins at a time to make sure although I think the stuff dries especially if applied thinly in about 10 mins. When dry I scribed into it using the tip of a scalpel to engrave some ink holding lines.

Oh by now I had realised that I wanted the extra plate to go on the top of the other image , which for me made it all “knit together’ and although the final outcome wasn’t as perfect as I might have liked . I was reasonably happy with it.

Sylvia Taylor

2010-02-13T10:46:00.002Z

Here are some lovely prints by an artist I kind of know through the internet - I cant remember when I first came across her work but its .......well have a look. She doesn't have her own website so here's a few links I dug up.

I particularly like the one with the creatures in red and the picture of the huge herd.

Something to do with chocolates

Sylvia's work featured on "Art Trail"

Sylvia's profile on Inkteraction

Three Bears Print (Part 5)

2010-02-12T21:34:00.001Z

This is as far as things have got but I still wasn't happy with it. So I included a different print to the New Zealand print. It was a shame because I had worked on this quite steadily over a 3 to 4 week period. I don't know - I remember a lot of frustration and getting confused. But I will go back and work on it again sometime this year.

Oh you troublesome bears !!!

Three Bears Print (Part 4)

2010-02-12T21:23:00.000Z

I had to have two attempts to get this first transfer of image to plate with the Photrak emulsion on the UV box. It looked a bit faint so I was''t too well pleased with it at all. As you can see the second one wasn't that much better. Once I had it on the plate with enough polymer to protect it from the etching process I then added to it using my acid resist pen which I bought from Intaglio printmakers in London. Its the darker blue which you can see in the final image. You can also see that I have added more acrylic spray aquatint.

Three Bears Print (part 3)

2010-02-12T21:14:00.000Z

After looking at all of the tediousness of the aquatint plates and so on in the previous post, heres the actual mock up for how I, sort of, envisioned how the print would look.
This is a good thing and a bad thing. Great in that I felt all excited about this print I was going to make and then not such a good thing - in that I was maybe expecting too much!!. I had edited the image of the three bears in photoshop and then layered it on to in the case of this first image (green) the car spray aquatint.

I prefer this mock up as the bears in this case are layered over the more organic looking (I think) spray of the hand pump spray. At this point I wasn't too sure as to whether to have the bears "traveling" through a light or a dark strip. But I really liked it and wanted it to be grainy and dotty. The next step was to get the bear images photo etched onto the copper plate.

Three Bears (part 2)

2010-02-12T18:02:00.005Z

This print i.e., of the three bears is still in progress. I went as far as I could with it (which entailed a lot of trial and error) and then because the deadline for the project was coming up - I had to put it to one side. I have had some different ideas as to how I may finish it at a later date. First and foremost I thought that I would make some aquatint background plates and then another plate with the bears photo etched. However things turned out to be far from straight forward. I made an aquatint using my salad oil spray pump to disperse the lascaux acrylic aquatint spray resist and the other was using car spray.

I asked Bill, at FDPW, to go do the car spray paint job ( as I am horribly sensitive to all toxic fumes which can be generated from the various processes encountered in an open access print workshop.

These were of course applied to degreased plates / zinc for the car spray / copper for the pump spray. The zinc plate was etched in copper sulphate crystals mordant (with salt).

I most generally refer to that as"salt etch", and the copper in ferric chloride mordant. So these are photos of the actual copper plate and then the zinc plate. It's amazing how calmly and deftly Bill is able to get a lovely velvety spray onto the zinc!!! I seem to remember that I proofed both of these before putting them in the mordants I usually do this if it is possible so that I can get an idea of how much of the plate is open to the mordant.

I did the proofs at home and forgot with the proof of the zinc plate that I had not put my "good blankets", on my press so it gave an impression of lines going across the plate and white areas where there were holes in the blanket. These were from one of my so called 'experiments' with rosary beads ( I think). So then I had to re do the proof..........what a turkey!

The Three Bears (part 1)

2010-01-12T19:06:00.001Z

No not THOSE bears, my three bears, but in actual fact I don’t know where the bears are…maybe still walking over the ice, that is, if there's still sufficient ice for them to walk over...............??
Anyway I have a love of bears as I know, many many people do, I didn't have a teddy bear when I was a kid but my brother B. did and he was part of our family of toy beings. I had my two dolls "Miranda" and "Delores" and B. had "Teddy" yep that was his name. He was quite a thread worn bear and we were all fond of him.
Myself and B. were horrified one day, when we heard mother had given him to the neighbours younger children. It wasn’t that we still played with him or anything but that he was a kind of family heirloom.

Anyway enough of our childhood traumas………so with this love of bears - I have invariably been collecting photos as and when I encounter them over the years.

So I decided I would make a print with bears in it and had this particular favorite photo which showed three bears going across the snow; the two cubs following their mother.

Here's the original image, desaturated to black and white and with the essential elements of what I liked about the image - i.e., that they were kind of walking through a tunnel, which is representative of their long journey to the sea, yet it is one that goes on year after year.

I had to spend almost one week going backwards and forwards to the image trying to introduce more tone to this black and white image so that when I converted it into a “bitmap” image, the dots would have sufficient variation to translate to the resist on the plate before it went into the mordant.

Lately a few members of FDPW have asked me about

Converting an image for acetate print out , for photo etch on the light box.

So here’s what you do:

Before you do anything at all I would advise you make a copy of your image on your computer.

Prior to putting your image though the conversion process (to Bitmap) be sure and use the brightness/contrast option under IMAGE at the top options bars which you drop down to ADJUST and then across to brightness/contrast.

In addition to this, which does everything all at once, all over,
You can also use the DODGE tool…….the icon for this looks like a little black lollipop
And
the BURN tool …….the icon for this looks like a hand

These tools are located in the seventh box down in the toolbox on the right hand side..

First choose the type of mark making device you want to use. If you have never done this before and in a way for the most straightforward tool choose the number 2 pencil which is in the “dry media” list of tools.
Just along from the little icon which shows the tool you have chosen to use i.e., burn tool
Choose now the size of head you want i.e., for fine detail you may want 2 to 5 depending on your image size or pull the marker along the bar for a larger head eg 30.
Remember if you do any action in Photosop whilst editing your image to get the tones right then don’t worry because you can go up to the options menus at the top of the screen and choose “edit” and then the first option from the drop down menu, which with the emphasis on darkening areas of your image. is “undo “ so if you do something you are not happy with then you can go a step back.
Shadows :
if you rub your tool over a dark area with your burn tool it will completely lighten that dark area (that’s with the exposure set at 100 % I usually have it set quite low at eg under 20 % But of course it depends on the image.
Midtones If you put the dodge tool on this it will totally brighten such an area. But again that’s with the exposure set at 100%
Highlights
If you put the dodge tool on this it will totally brighten such an area. But again that’s with the exposure set at 100%

The Burn tool works in a similar way But with the emphasis on darkening the areas of your image.

“Preparation of positives for photoetch”

When your image is ready for printing out onto your acetate Here's what you do.

1
Have your image at a resolution of 200 dpi

2
Converted to black and white using the IMAGE bar at the top of the Photoshop drop down options go down to adjust and then across to DESATURATEwhich makes the image black and white.

3
Then go to IMAGE …………..MODE
Chose…………….GREYSCALE.

4
then chose Image …..MODE….BITMAP
as part of that process a dialog box will come up and inside of that
for METHOD choose dither ( which gives a more random dot / speckly quality to the image) for photo etching
for OUTPUT choose 200 dpi – this is what I have found works best for me.

That’s it

Essentially what you need to remember is that, the denser the dots the darker the tone.

You can buy OHP Transparencies inkjet film, from WH Smith. I got a pack (60 sheets) A4, which cost £19.99 and it has lasted me for absolutely ages –it still is about half full.

One more thing if your inkjet transparency that you print out doesn’t seem black enough – print another one and then line them up and tape them together which will help with blocking the UV light for your photo etch.

Polymer Collagraph on thin hardboard

2010-01-04T00:15:00.000Z

What a sight this is - it looks like an awful mess and I suppose it is really. It started out as an experiment that I wanted to do using a process I saw mentioned in a book I wrote about in a post on the Fife Dunfermline Printmakers blog on the pluses and minuses of printmaking hand books. Click HERE to see the relevant technique. Its the first box on the top left. It involves ovens and freezers. In the end I didnt dare put it into our oven as I was worried about the fumes it would create and I just chickened out.....maybe I will try it sometime soon though. What a wooss!! , as Beavis and Buthead would say.

That reminds me I saw the second half of the most recent Simpsons movie, today when I got back from a 'get together' at Steves place (FDPW) and I actually hardly remembered any of it - so I really enjoyed it. Getting back to this plate, which I played around with a bit, as a possibility of making one of the three prints to submit, to the Wharepuke International Print project - I used some polymer medium which I have had on my shelves for ages as it was mentioned in the book referred to above.

I proofed it and was somewhat disappointed in that the tones were all middle range and thinking on it again it may be that I should have done another proof and wiped it a bit more vigorously although it was actually very hard to wipe at all. None the less I just wanted to get some idea of how it looked.

I had this image of a young woman deep in thought that I really liked and thought of using it as a chine colle element with the possibility of it being under the layer of the polymer proof although in these mock ups its just sitting on top.

I made some notes as I was going along which I often do to myself. Thinking on other plates I have that I may incorporate into the composition. The "sorry" plate mentioned is a handwritten square (ish) organically edged/ etched zinc plate 10 cm x 10 cm. I still have to go back to this plate, and continue with it. Although I have added some lighter and darker tones to it - I have yet to take another proof. I had several possibilities on the go at the time and this was one that just got put to the side. I had to cut the plate down from its original size which was about 20 x 26 -- whatever it was originally it then became more rectangular and able to fit onto A4 size paper - which was one of the requirements for Wharepuke

Making Miniprints 6

2010-01-03T00:34:00.000Z

Just to conclude from the four previous posts on the subject - Once I had settled on the colour for the 'background" and printed a few of them up I thought I would try out another image before I got stuck into the "twins entwined" image. I had this image from an infant anatomy that I came across and its from the early 1800's I seem to remember I had distorted it and gave it a whirl but nah . Nothing doing. I even ytied it a second time on a stronger background but still it just didn't work for me.

With the small lower plate it certainly was troublesome keeping a sense of consistency as it was done using monotype as in, scrunched up 'Kit Kat' foil wrapper, dabbed onto a layer of rolled on green ink. You can see that from the two 'blank backgrounds on the left - also time was running out eek !!!
Also I had tried to ensure that I had mixed up enough of that particular colour green which was made from 3 colours - which I now can't remember. Just as well I don't have to make any more of those prints.!!!
I did far more 'backgrounds' than I needed at least about well say 18 altogether. Many just had a tiny unwanted mark or thge plate was ever so slightly crooked. Tia came round one of the Saturdays I was working on this with her daughter Michelle, who had previously done a bit of printmaking in the studio working on a few small drypoints on perspex and had made one lovely little print which I must get a jpg of to post on here.

I was really pleased when M said she wanted to help while her mum went off to town, to meet a colleage about a project. I got M. to help with inking up and rolling and I seem to remember she even did a few of the "scrunchings" of the small monotype plate element. I was also having to make up more colour by now so there was a small amount of variation in the colour but I tried as hard as possible to maintain the consistency.

Here's another fun one I tried out I made this little creature ages ago but am fond of it and will at some point include it in a piece for some reason or other though I decided against it at the time.

I fiddled about with the image of the twins in the dress which incidentally was a scan from a collagraph I made from an actual girls dress, that I have yet to possibly make into a print. I thought it didn't look right just being straight down and wanted it to somehow feel or be suggestive of a botanical plant.

Then there was the matter of getting the color hue correct so it either had to be reddish or more dark green. Some of the more astute observers may by now have noticed that the smaller plate was by now positioned in the lower half of the image as opposed to the other way round .

This had been my previous arrangement and I still wasn't happy with things.

I happened to ask C.'s opinion on this and he suggested turning it upside down and then it just seemed right. Mostly I don't take too much notice of stuff he says but on this occasion.... ....

Of course once I was OK with that I had to have a little effort at doing a different effect with the little plate area but then thought that that might too "fiddldee diddledee" to effect for the amount of proofs I'd need to do so best to stick with what I had already done. Then one final stab with the scissors to see what that would look like and I quite liked it. I managed to get the edition of 10 sent off just in time to meet the deadline and felt quite happy with what I had sent off. If you want to see the actual finished print then check out my print and the work of the numerous other printmakers internationally who contributed to this project which was very well managed and co-ordinated by Green Door printmakers in Derby. They seem like a really friendly and lively print studio.

Rabbit Saves the World

2010-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

A good few months ago maybe it was in the early Summer I noticed Anita Jung's work on Inkteraction, and really liked her piece which she had made using smoke and maybe stencils.

Anyway so that was that. I often see peoples artwork on Inkteraction that I like and well that's one of the reason I like it. I suppose it's the printmakers "Facebook" but without all the distractions. A little while later I noticed that Anita had put a notice up, inviting fellow printmakers to participate in an installation/collaboration which had the working title "Rabbit Saves the World". I read through the brief and thought it was something I could work with, because with my disability nowadays, it's extremely difficult for me to attend conferences such as Impact. I thought, it would be a way for me to feel part of the event. I had been disappointed that this years Impact ( like most of the other ones apart from Berlin in which I participated in a portfolio, called "Emission" co ordinated by Mary Robinson had no portfolios exchange projects announced for people to apply to be in and this would be a way to contribute.

I hasten to add that I also participated in a project called "Can- Can't / Do Don't" a site specific exhibition, at Michaelis School of fine art, Univ Cape Town co ordinated by Carinna Parriman from U. C. E., in South Africa when the Impact 3 conference, was held there.

I spent ages looking around at Rabbits and their mythological historical social significance in various cultures and so on, in the end I almost began to loathe rabbits - thats the way it gets sometimes !!!.

In the end, however, I went with the idea of one of the cliched things, that rabbits are renowned for i.e., reproduction. But in the sense of representing the idea of people who cared about the environment, kind of replicating the sentiment through themselves, their actions, their life styles and so on. Well at least, that was the idea behind what I went with in the end. I made a drypoint on polypropylene plate, just using line. I knew that the stuff I sent to Anita was going to be cut up and composed/arranged into an installation so I sent stuff to her, that suited this way of working. I had some rabbit imagery from the time I was doing R+D toward making a bookart piece for the artists book, exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania organized by Kestutis Vasiliunas (who was a fellow artist in the "Printmaking at the Edge book" and the Falun Graphic Triennial in Sweden and he had sent me notification of the submission date and so on.
Just found this excellent link to the Bookart exhibition in Vilnius "Rabbit and House" by one of the participants, Click on profile on the top of the page to find out more about her. Also a link to her blog which looks pretty interesting.
In the end I wasn't able to get something satisfactory together on time BUT as I was saying, I still had all this material that I had produced so I sent some of that along with these new "reproducing rabbit earth mother" figures to the RSW project. Anita and a bunch of other artists attending the conference and some students spent a couple of days at the venues in Bristol putting the installation together and I am planning to put a folder of images from that, onto my own art portfolio website in the near future.
I did take some photos though, of the materials I sent, just before I posted it off .

3d Art Exchange Project (Part 3)

2009-12-28T15:38:00.000Z

As I had already made these circular monoprint backgrounds I wondered about using them as a basis for the house forms?. I retrieved some high resolution jpegs and gave them a 'try out' on the computer screen using Photoshop. But ~ I thought nah..... doesn't really do anything much for me. I think I then left it for a few days A couple of nights later as I was lying in bed, going off to sleep, I had this idea of making an embossed house with shapes of animals and creatures and maybe objects associated with aspects of just `'being" in your own space; in a place where only you could go.

I was thinking along the lines of a 'house of the soul' or 'of dreams'. That idea appealed to me, in that, the figurative elements, so to speak, would only be suggested given the nature of embossed images. I had always liked the idea of making some artwork using this process and it struck me that given that it would be a 3d form then it would be easier to see the emboss. I thought that I might incorporate a botanical form alluding to the idea of growth and gardens I also liked the idea of the animal like spirits.

As with all of my house forms there would be no door in or out of this space as the idea is that it represents a place of rest or meditation and of privacy.

Maybe I would be a spider’s web, as a metaphor for one to spin a story or a dream and even a chair to rest one’s self on, as one contemplates…………………………..

But no it was going to be the emboss house forms I thought to myself. So using Hahnemuhle or what is sometimes called German etching paper I did some tests with various animal shapes cut from polypropylene. The first emboss house here is test trying out various shapes - thought to myself better not include a cross as it might not appeal to a non Christian. The rabbit didn't look so good either.

I also tried some shapes cut from other materials e.g., linoleum and card but I preferred the polypropylene. These last two images of single house forms show the final house form showing each side. It reminded me of ice cream and of Aran jumpers!! The final shot shows all of the houses together which of course I send flat packed to the Four Oceans address in USA. I have not yet received my ten items by return but they should turn up sometime within the next couple of months and I will then load them up to my main website in their own portfolio with a link here from the blog.

Recent finds, Printmaker from Finland

2009-12-28T15:06:00.000Z

Came across Cata's work in the past few months and I really like how she has combined drypoint and monotype.

http://www.cata-ahlback.fi/

related website of Finnish printmakers

http://www.vaasantaidegraafikot.fi/jasenet.htm

also

http://www.turun-taidegraafikot.fi/info_engl.html

3d Art Exchange Project (part 2)

2009-12-28T00:22:00.000Z

What you see here is a sheet which shows various image compositions for a 3d house template which I decided to try to make using the tetra cartons which I had been saving from my cranberry juice breakfast drink. I had tried these out for making single images to use as figurative elements previously. I cant remember whether I have posted any on this blog but will check later. I love the effect that one gets with these, it is unique to this material. They have a kind of softness to them and the great thing is that you can scribe straight into them you don't need to prepare them other than clean the fruit juice off and make sure they are dry.

I used a drypoint tool and an etching needle to scribe the lines into the tetra carton. I had previously made a blank of the house form to make sure the size and proportions were correct and fitted together OK. I seem to remember the first proof of the template came out horrible because the grey tone left by the black ink just didn't look good to me.

The one in the photo (second last from bottom) has been wiped with enormous pressure to get rid of the grey tone but I still wasn't happy. So Idid another proof using warm red.
I didn't worry too much about the tone on this proof as its appearance to me added another quality to the house that I cant explain - it just looked good to me.

Then I had this thought -- uh uh I don't think this 'plate' will hold up to ten printings through the press I don't think it has the stamina - it will surely fall apart. Drat and Blast !! I liked it though and still do. Oh well !! La dee dah !!