Balderdash !! for want of a worse word !!!......

Depite my previous entry about this Cobalt print thing, I don't feel that I AM getting anywhere after all. I had a 'rubbish' day at the studio and it was just frustrating and not very productive. I spent ages 'faffing' about. What with organising all of my stuff on the workshop surfaces and it has to be said, that there was a lot of conversation going on around the place, which of course doesn't help. Anyway lunchtime came and lunchtime went.

Then when I finally did get started printmaking about four and a half hours AFTER I got into the print workshop - every thing that tends to go wrong in the printmaking process seemed to start going wrong.

That blasted plate with the layers of Lascaux hard ground which in the end I drypointed into out of frustration with it not proofing effectively, well yet AGAIN it did not proof successfully onto a digital chine colle image, that I layered onto a pre printed ground. So that was that - cannot be further developed.

Then another ground pre printed on my previous session - well that decided to stick to the plate and inevitably got damaged as I endeavoured to remove it ever so slowly and carefully.
Another print where I put a digital chine colle, and a piece of foil inked up with a fairly translucent mustard colour - well even though I spent ages getting the right consistency - that did a little blob kind of thing --- god --- printmaking is such an exacting process !! People who don't have any knowledge of this process have no idea of how demanding it is. And when you have backbreaking lower back pain to boot --- well you could just scream. The deadline for posting this print off was really about five days ago so I just dont know what I am going to do.

I have done a few little things in Photoshop which I like, as "beginnings". I will print those out in the morning and see if I can do something positive/constructive that pleases me.

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Darren Sherwoods sumptuous Etchings

This is one of Darren Sherwood's etchings. I really like them. I have been aware of his work for a couple of years or so now. He lives in Brighton on the south coast of England. He is not that long out of college and I was delighted when he agreed last year, to participate in an international printmaking portfolio exchange, organized by PNP in Melbourne Australia.

Click on the heading above to see more of what Darren does with his printmaking.

Stem Cells, Nervous System and Layering

I have finally gotten on a bit further with this Cobalt print. For the Periodic Print Element Table project

I had researched some imagery, a few weeks back but there was not anything definite planned with those in particular. These are unavailable to me at present, in any event, as the laptop they are on, is in the PC hospital getting 'fixed'.

I did a bit more research yesterday focusing still on the benefit that vitamin B12 vis vis Cobalt, has, on the nervous system. Also it's use for the treatment of anaeamia in pregnancy. That was how I settled on those "cobalt babs" (as I refer to them) - proofs/plates are viewable in the back kitchen studio.

I very much like the image of stem cells which relate to the nervous system that I found – these are very beautiful. I am using these most probably as my initial ground.
I have played around with layering these images in Photoshop, bearing in mind what I can do on my press with the collagraph and using some of the elements printed out onto Japanese paper, which I have just done. Thank goodness the Epson R2400 printer, did not 'play up”!!

I think the next thing I will do is have a go, at printing an image, on the inkjet printer, ONTO printmaking paper to see how that goes.

In the end then I would hope to combine these three processes at the very least i.e.,

chine colle
an image on the printmaking paper) made with inkjet)
collagraph

I will print the stem cell imagery out onto printmaking paper, then chine colle onto that with imagery printed onto Japanese paper and finally some print plates of one kind or another.


I could additionally utilise monoprint and offset............we shall see, we shall see.
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Official opening of the back kitchen aka Aines printmaking space

Click on the HEADING above


Here's where you can see all of my appalling printmaking efforts, and my trials and errors and maybe even a bit of blasphemy now and again !!!!

Raping Darfur woodcut by Annie Bisset

I have been aware of 'Hanga Gir'l (her site name) in the Printmaking group on Flickr since I joined which was about 9 months ago . I had looked through her photds but had not seen this one. I think it is a really strong piece of work. I wish I could do woodcuts to that level of skill. Having said that though - I think whatever medium she might have used I still would have loved this image. It's the imagination , depth of feeling and experience, that gives it, it's strength,

New Kitten Alert !!!

Chiana 01
Originally uploaded by kirstyhall.

This is Kirsty Halls new kitten and I am so envious!! Oh I wish she was mine. At this stage kittens are just SOH much fun and quite a delight to behold. I remember my two yes I actually went to the local RSPCA cat unit and 'adopted' two little kits. I had explained to them on the phone that because of my health condition I was at home all day and also that previously I had only ever inherited adult cats. I said that I would like now to have two cats so that they would be company for one another.
I dont know where I got that idea because my two (who are about five now, fairly well completley ignore one another. They did share a womb before they came out into the world but thereafter they fairly well have done their own thing although they did play together moreso when they were at this terribly cute stage.

Oh I finally got restarted on my printmaking !!

It is peculiar how you can know, in yourself, that there is something that you need to/ought to, be getting on with and for some peculiar reason you just kind of do other things and "don't get on with it".
What is that all about?
Well one thing I suppose is that I do like to have a 'clear day' when I am going to be involving myself in studio activity. And all of this week I have had to shoot out either in the morning or in the afternoon for shopping or appointments and so... well that didn't help matters.

Prior to my visit to Sweden,I had made about 11 or 12 small print plates using card, sandpaper, aluminium, toray plate and then applied Lascaux hard ground, to some of them. These I had varyingly varnished on their back and front sides. I had had a bit of a trial trying to transfer an image I had drawn, onto a plate The plate in particular that I am referring to, was one of those ready made school drypoint plates.



Eventually the very thing that I was sure, most probably, wouldn't work, DID.
By which - I mean the process of outlining your design with a pastel pencil, 'Carb Othello' and then placing that, face down, onto your receiving plate and running it all through the etching press.
I was then able to 'sgrafitto' over this so that there was an impression onto the plate. I think I did one which was pressed in as just described and another where I carved into it with a surgical scalpel oh and another with an etching needle.

I transferred the image the same way on to a "Toray" plate which I have had, in my possession, since I did the residency at Lowick Print Workshop, in Cumbria in 1997.

That was a wonderful experience. I should dig the few relevant photos I have out some time and post about it on here.

Well getting back to todays activities. One of the things that was disappointing was that I had followed the instructions in the most recently purchased technical manual (Intaglio by Carol Adams and Robert Adamson) for applying Lascaux hard ground, to a collagraph surface - in this case- aluminium, and it just hasn't worked out.
Blast it !!

I degreased the plate and then applied 3 layers of Lascaux hard ground, with a smooth haired brush, in succession, onto its surface and when these were dry scribed a design into it. In this case it was like a mathematical formula which related to COBALT. I didn't scribe too deeply as I did not want to raise a burr in the aluminium - just enough I thought to break through the layers.



I inked it up and ran it through the press whereupon I realized that very little of the ink seemed to have got wedged into the grooves In fact not much of anything came out in the print on the paper.

I was pleased to see that the sandpaper plates where I had painted on the Lascaux hard ground in different strengths and dilutions DID come out successfully so thats a nice technique that I can develop further especially for what I refer to as 'backgrounds"

The Toray plate upon which I had used an etching needle, to scrape away my design was successful also.

YOU CAN SEE PHOTOS OF THE PLATES AND PROOFS HERE

Do you Fit Your Face

Ilona Niemi

Faces and places I am not so sure about the thinking behind the study in which I found this illustration - the blue one on the lower left, in a regional Scottish newspaper but it was the image that caught my eye. I think I was putting some newspaper on the floor after my washing machine had an embarrassing little accident (a leak) when I saw it. Anyway it reminded me of an artist friend who I met on the net through art process dot com.

Her name is Ilona Niemi and I think she is a very interesting artist ...... she has this longterm concern in her work with making numerous versions in oil paint on wood of the same face. I believe it is the face of a childhood friend of hers that went missing. See more about this on her blog where she has documented their progress.

She also makes some lovely idiosyncratic charcoal drawings which I think she sometimes cuts out and sort of forward mounts them over the picture surface so that they cast a shadow.

Blue fawn - with text...

Blue fawn - with text...
Originally uploaded by (restless::things).

Gosh I must be nuts the amount of time I spend wandering around the flickr photo library. I like this artists work. Her name is Olivia Jeffries and she is UK based. She also has items for sale on etsy dot com. Click on this image to the right and then on to her flickr-name "restless::things" on the upper right, then on her profile for further info.
I have got to find out what a gocco print is ? - which this is!!

Bjorg Bendiksen Roman from Falun Print Workshop

This image is by Bjorg Bendiksen Roman of the Falun Graffik Workshop, I found it in one of the catalogs I was given when I visited there on my trip to Falun, Sweden a couple of weeks ago. I was on a quick last minute print workshop tour given to me, the night before, by Anne Seppanen, curator at the Dallarnas museum and artist printmaker from the UK, Phillip Garret on my last day . The next morning we were on a train to Stockholm.
The print by Bjorg is a collagraph.

Petra Presence has resurfaced !!!

What a surprise I got last week when I received an email from Petra, who was a fellow student on the Masters Fine Art course at Winchester School of Art, in 1993 - 94.

I couldn't even remember her artwork from the time we were on the course together , which kind of appalled me but fortunately I had some catalogs from when we exhibited together (well actually about two thirds of those of us who were in the cohort) and found this image in there. The exhibition I refer to was held at the "Studio 9" gallery in Vauxhall, South east London. In actual fact it was Pedro Diablo' s painting studio, which he generously 'voided' for the occasion. I am still intrigued though. I mean about Petra's work as it is still a bit of a mystery to me.

It seems that Petra is now living 'la vie en rose' in France nowadays along with her partner and their two sons.

Rosana Paulino an interesting artist friend (Brasil)

A chap wrote a comment about one of my artworks on my Flickr album. I had no idea what he was on about - so I Flickr-mailed him. Then he responded and I was just about to look up his original comment when I came across another one regarding a different artwork of mine.

The poster of this comment had mentioned that one of my pieces (House Angel) reminded her of Christian Boltanski.
And as I responded to this, talking and thinking about how my 'state of mind' had been, back then (this was around 1996-97) I happened to mention my good friend Rosana Paulino, who I met through London Print Studio.
She is a lovely person and makes beautiful heartfelt artwork using a whole range of materials and techniques. Rosana who is based in Sao Paulo speaks English and I just wish my Portuguese was as good as hers English, so that I could understand more of what the website says HOWEVER the artworks her artworks and images speak for themselves.
Click on the heading for a link to see more of Rosana Paulino's works.

Images to my folio on Artelista

Have you come across a website called Artelista? I can not remember how I did but there is a lot of work on there from artists all over Europe - not sure if there are any Americans on there. If you click on the greenish box/icon located on the top of the right column, it will take you to their front page.
I have just updated my folio on there, well I included this image and a couple of other images from the Aran installation. Its a free website although it's written mainly in Spanish and although there is a button to click on for ENGLISH - it's not always clear to me just what is what?!

Crab Girl drawing by Ben Senior

crab-girl_large
Originally uploaded by DRN_SWG.

I have chosen this drawing from those that are currently in the DRN's photoset which is housed on Flickr. I have just spent the evening converting the jpgs sent to me by Steve Garner who manages the DRN website. DRN stands for the Drawing Research Network.
I have not finished converting all of the dats he has sent to 'saved for web' yet but - I think I have got enough done for this evening. I was beginning to go a bit 'ga ga' !! . So I had to stop.

I had been aware of this little gallery as such on Flickr, for some time.. The thing was though that there was never anything ever happening over there and given the nature of Flickr i.e. 'interactive', I thought it was just a shame.

I will soon be starting up a new gallery for DRN on Flickr and hope to have it duly announced to the current membership of DRN when it is already.

Network Series by Shannon Rankin

Network Series
Originally uploaded by selflesh.

I have come across selflesh's artwork previously but dont believe that I have posted her work onto this blog. Oh now I remember I invited her to join the Art of Anatomy group on Flickr. I am pleased to see that she also has a blog. A blog to me is like a little shack at the side of the road with a verandah with some chairs on and a little table and some cups and hot refreshments...........I really do wish I could somehow offer people a virtual cup of tea. Anyway I love the way this artist uses cut paper and the metaphoric dimension to the pieces.

Tagged Exercise completed -- Hooray !!

It's only become a bit of a project because of my own choice in terms of how I approached it. I have of course read what other people have said in there "Eight facts about me" and these have ranged from
"I have three silver plated clothes brushes which really is a bourgois extravagance" to "I once ate lilac blossoms from my mothers front garden when I was about eight years old"

That last example I am afraid is true, I was going through a phase of eating plants and grass. I think I was OK I didn't get ill. I ate it in a bowl with some sugar and milk as if it were breakfast cereal.

Anyway now comes the fun bit....... well I like this bit........... it's where I have to nominate some people to tag.

Tagged Part 8 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

Brussels
Originally uploaded by Peter Gutierrez.

Yes ......I used to live in Brussels for a while too. It was when I was 19 going on 20 and I was so glad to get away from Ireland. I remember how I felt, on the day I got to the metro exit, with Mary who had collected me from the airport. It was like being in Hollywood - like being on a movie set.

Wow .....it felt wonderful......I could finally be the person I wanted to be and not somebody else's idea of who I should be.
However I continued to be fairly reserved and felt a bit awkward with my Cork accent. Although I had always taken care with my diction, what I perhaps didn't appreciate at that time, was that many people really loved the way I spoke - to them it was different.
I had studied and loved the French language whilst at school and here I was in a place where I could speak the language. Trouble was those blasted Belgians just spoke it far too quickly and so it was a real struggle.
I was an "au-pair" to Chris and Mary and looked after their little 9 month old son, Shane. He was a very cute and fortunately for me, quite a placid baby. It was a shock when I saw him years later back in Ireland and he had grown up to be a fine good looking well mannered young man. He is probably married now with kids. I had a gay old time in Brussels but some awful experiences too but i got over them, as you have to in order that you can move on.

Eventually I realized that as I was not sufficiently motivated to get to grips with the French language and so it seemed best to try to get work in London (which I had visited for a weekend and just loved) and so I did .
I became house keeper to an architect in a lovely house in Teddington, Middlesex and I have to say not a very good one. That poor man. I mean I was only a few years older than his eldest daughter. I must say though that I got along with the children of the family very well.
We used to have a great time but eventually I had to go and I moved up to London "proper" where I was able to continue my hectic social life and just enjoy myself. A few years down the line after several mis adventures I started my full time academic studies and that was the beginning of the saving of Miss Aine Scannell !!!
picture provided through Peter Gutierrez on Flickr

Spike Eyed Beasties

Spike Eye Beasties
Originally uploaded by ainesse.

Well well well....I got a bit carried away yesterday because I wanted to look through some earlier documentation jpgs of my artwork on my computer and just kept digging out stuff to upload onto my Flickr album.
I am beginning to think that maybe that should be my main artwork website location because that is where I am mostly based. And of course the fact that there is a direct link between here ie this blog and my Flickr account has a lot to do with it as well.
I had gone into the database on my computer to try to dig out an image of a ceramic plate which I transferred a trace monotype onto.

Amanda Watson Will, recently emailed me asking me about Lazertran and its application to ceramics. I am going to do a separate post about that though and will show the stuff I have done with it, not that it is extensive or that I am any kind of expert - far from it.

Anyway I came across this....................the spike eyed beasties .................. and its an image I made for a French woman who was doing some kind of mail art project on the theme of beasts and animals. So this was my one.

Tagged Part 7 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

I just remembered that I used to live in Frankfurt Germany for a few months. It was around about 1979 - 1980. That seems like ages ago now. Which makes me feel really ancient. Not that I need a signal to remind me of my advancing years (more's the pity!!)

Oh never mind, never mind................. Yes little old me in Germany, it was daft really ...but then I was a bit daft then. I was based in London and hanging around with a friend of mine back then, who I have lost touch with now called Sonia Peak, (not too sure of the spelling ?)
Some American guy told me he could get me work in Germany selling stuff (books) on the USA army bases. Which I did ...but it was boring humiliating and I had no interest in it whatsoever. I made hardly any income at all from the venture but somehow managed to get by. The soldiers were pretty nice though and quite a few of them were nice looking too although they tended to be a bit full of themselves which I found "off putting".
I ended up living in an apartment with a couple of German guys (one of them was gay: which was a new experience for me) and an Egyptian guy I was going out with. They also had a lovely Alsation gog. The boyfriend wanted me to join his "underground" resistance movement and move back with him to the Middle East. He said I would have to give up all my posessions though and connections with my old life. He was a bit over religious disappearing frequently to the bathroom to read his Qoran. It wasn't difficult saying goodbye to him nor to Germany at that time. I have never been back.

I never even got to look around Frankfurt and to see anything like the picture I have included, which is from a website that runs a language school in Frankfurt.http://www.studylanguages.org

In My Fathers Shoes

In My Fathers Shoes
Originally uploaded by ainesse.

This is the image that "queens some moving" posted in a blog in the past two days reminded me of. Its a print I made a while back. 5 was thinking about what it must mean to find oneself in the shoes of Elizabeth Windsor. Obviously born into a royal family and raised accordingly. I suppose there 'monarchs' could resign' from the royal family if they wanted and just say to the world I dont want to be part of all this.

However with all the hassles of being 'public property' in the newspapers and tv etc - I suppose they would have to give up an enormous amount of privilidges too. I'd hate to be in her shoes. I think that at the age she is now she ought ot be allowed to retire and just do her own thing. She always seems terribly duty bound though - thats the impression I get though.

inuit art

inuit art
Originally uploaded by yakayakado.

I really love inuit works on paper. They are not so easy to find so if anybody passes by this blog sees this and knows of any good websites then please post me

I have connected up with Technorati at last !!

Technorati Profile

I have connected up with Technorati at last !!

Technorati Profile

Queen's Some Moving"

queen's some moving
Originally uploaded by adamstoves.

Just found this on Flickr. A peculiar title...........but I like the composition and the way the face is spliced horizontally. He currently has about five pages of images on his Flickr album. I probably like about 4 of these in particular.

Collage is a great creative process, though at times it can kind of drive you a bit crazy as you move 'cut out' images around and then try them on this and that background with this and that combination. I remember doing some in my attic studio in Hanwell west London , quite a few years back and ending up with stuff all over the surfaces and floor and actually losing my trail.
Of course with Photoshop you can keep your various 'try outs; and then choose which one works best also you can use the same motif twice if you want (thank goodness for PS !!).

Gone are the days when you had to nip up to the chemist to use their photocopy machine!! Having said that - I do love the uniqueness though of that medium too.

Speaking of art processes and equipment - I am just getting prepared to restart my printmaking activities. I think I have hopefully just about recovered from my Falun experience. The physical exertions (additional to usual) has almost made me go downhill health-wise although I have been trying, to take it easy and gradually get re connected with where I was with my own art practice.

Tagged Part 6 of 8 ; facts(snippets) about me

I am an adopted person I was brought to my parents when I was about 9 months old. I was brought over on a boat from England to Ireland. Apparently this priest in Cork (where I was grew up) called Father Good had an idea about all of the poor Catholic babies (innocents) that were being born in England of their unmarried mothers (sinners) should be brought back to Ireland instead of being farmed out to Protestant couples in England ( Heathens!!!)...I have always had this story inside of me asn so I
I made an artwork about this called Habeas Corpus 2001

click on here on Axisweb and select "HABAEUS CORPUS" if you want to find out more about that installation .

The photo is from an archive on the Cork city council website. The images there are provided by the Cork Camera Club.

The Art of Anatomy

I have been meaning to post this for awhile amongst my many other goodies that I collect into my blog upload folder on my laptop. This grid artwork was created by Feltbug aka Mandy Prowse.

Here is a link to the actual picture she created for the group which we both set up on Flickr. It has links to the artists who's images make up the visuals in this 30 sectioned grid. There are some lovely and even surprising takes on this theme to be found there. I would like eventually for us to develop this group further .......maybe a book.....or an exhibition.........who knows. please feel free to post any ideas you may have?

If you are interested in being part of this then why not sign up to flickr for a free account - though you have to have a Yahoo I.D., to do that. Click on the 'blued up" link to sign up.