A Bit of Light Relief

Sometimes after some concerted work in one area it is good to try something else.  A change is as good as a rest they say, so recently I have been doing a bit of relief printing.  A set of small lino cuts.  With these I was looking to explore some different colours, a more subtle palette than from the recent screen prints.  There was no set plan, I just started with some light tones and worked progressively darker.  

Some were in a sort of salmon pink, mixed from crimson, golden yellow and burnt sienna and varying levels of white.  Then a green range mixed from prussian blue, raw umber and white, and finally a steel blue tone, again using the prussian blue and white but with a touch of black and crimson.

In the screen prints I have been mixing the colour primarily through an optical approach by translucent layers.  This work involves mixing the colours directly so is quite a different challenge.  Each of the prints consists of a solid colour background, from a piece of uncut lino, and then a second colour on top from a cut plate.  I have been mixing the prints with pale and dark background, and prints with different tones of the same colour as well as different colours.

This has given me quite a bit to think about colour wise as well as the development of the images themselves.  A set of the prints are now on the wall at the studio.

Recent lino cuts on the studio wall

Happy New Year

A New Year and this week the studio has been fully active again, with new screenprinting and relief printing courses underway.  Preparations are also taking place for an exhibition next month at the Cranleigh Arts Centre. 

After a few weeks off it was good to get back in the studio and carry on working on the monoprints that I have been experimenting with.  In the week before Christmas I had started to print on some canvas.  The differences from paper are subtle but noticeable.  It takes more of the ink than paper but I have found that it is necessary to print a bit firmer because the texture of the canvas means that a light touch results in missed areas.  So it is a fine balance between pushing firm enough to transfer the image, and not too hard resulting in the ink running further than wanted.

The first canvas I tried was quite a coarse weave so I have also tried a finer weave as well which does hold the details better.  The primer on the canvas also seems brighter than the paper I was using so the quality of the colour changes as well.  All of these factors can make quite a difference to the overall print.

Having finished the first couple of prints on the canvas I have also stretched them on to canvas.  The end result is very satisfying as they create an interesting perceptive twist.  The monoprinting style shows that the ink is brushed on, but the actual printing creates a flat surface.  Being on canvas as well then makes it quite hard to see if the image is printed or painted.

I have been working simultaneously on paper and canvas with similar images, I know its hard with a photo but see if you can tell the difference.   Overall I feel the canvas prints are stronger and look forward to trying some on a larger scale.

A Few Circles

Following on from my initial experiments with the monoprinting with the screenprints, I decided to do a small series of prints to investigate further what happens with the colours.  I ended up doing around 30 prints of circles.  Using a number of background layers and then overprinting these with a set of second colours it resulted in a whole matrix of possibilities.

Below are a few of the results.   It has been a fascinating process because it has revealed some of the potential depths of colours that can be achieved with overprinting that do not come out in the same way with a single print.  It opens up a whole new range of possibilities for working with this approach which I’m looking forward to trying in the New Year.

                                                                           

Second Layer

First Layers                                                                                               Results

Party Time

Last week we had the studio Christmas party at Ochre, a chance for a print swap, a few talks, news of what is happening next year and a chance for a good natter between fellow members.  There was an excellent turn out of over 50 members and guests.  I had the opportunity to talk about the work that I have been doing during my residency and I include some of my photographs of things that catch my eye. 

I rarely work directly from these photographs but I showed them as they are of things that have caught my eye.  I have always been fascinated by patterns both natural and man-made and these observations are the sort of thing that filter through and then come out at unexpected times in my drawings.  So I personally feel that these observations have a direct influence on my work even if the connections are not directly apparent.  Looking, observing, analysing and interpretation are all part of what contributes to any artist’s work.

A handful of my photographs are below.

Layers of Colour

It may have been a while since I last posted but that is partly because so much has been happening in the work that I just want to keep working at it.  However it is time to take stock a little and review the recent activity.  So I’ll just start with one piece that reflects what has been happening and save some of the others for later.

Since the first attempts with the monoprinting with the screen I have been experimenting further and also building up layers of colour to see how they mix and deepen. So the picture below shows a first print.

This was then followed with a print similar to this.

The combined effect becomes as follows

The second coat of crimson in the lower half really enriches the turquoise in the first layer.  While the yellow mutes the purple it turns the turquoise into a glowing green.

I then finished with the same line imagery as ealier, but also using different colours within the print.

These early results have been encouraging and I am following them up and will show more later.

Howard Jeffs RE

Howard Jeffs is a painter and printmaker who lives in Bath and France and it is the landscape from these two areas that influence his work.   In a talk last week he showed us his studio in France where he works on his monotypes.  These mainly consist of two plates one with the background colour and a second with the drawn aspects usually in black.  These he creates in a free manner applying ink and then wiping away unwanted areas.

He explained how he appreciates the freedom of approach that the monotypes offer and the possibilities for experimentation.  That there is a lot of chance to it, but the key was to recognise when something was happening and then to build on it and exploit it.  He also described printmaking as being a bit like cooking, ensuring that you have all the right equipment and ingredients around you before start helps the process.  He also mentioned that he recently started mixing his on inks from pure pigment and felt that the colours were more alive than ready mixed inks.

Working with monotypes he felt had also influenced his painting in the way he applied his paints, at times sweeping or dragging the colour.  But it is also a two way process as painting influences his prints, particularly with the use of carborundum.  He felt that this offered a painterly way of creating line and form within a print.

In a similar way he also uses sugar lift with etchings.  The aspect of etching that he appreciates most is that each plate has a history in it that is then transferred to the print.  I felt that the etchings he showed us had a more intimate feel, close ups of trees bringing you in to the subject.  These contrasted with the monotypes and paintings which seemed to take in the grander sweeps of broad landscapes.

The talk gave us a fascinating insight into the working methods and ideas from an artist who was very generous in his discussion of technique and attitudes to printmaking.