Grasses monoprints

I thought I should show you some of the results of my monoprinting session from yesterday.....

One of the first prints,
simple design highlighting the
linear forms of the grasses

Later in the day,
note the change in colours
yet I hadn't cleaned my plate

A ghost print from the dirty plate,
a less-than-pure yellow and purple

Thumper's got a new toy

Today I gave Thumper (my etching press) a new toy.... a new 1 metre long bed.  The bed was made by my father-in-law Alan, who has also made me several other 'toys' for my art practice.

The bed will allow me to produce very long prints.  Its made the same as my original bed, plywood base with a steel top.

Today I was using my new bed to produce some monoprints using grass I 'sourced' during a bushland wander on the weekend.

During my printing today, I didn't clean off my plate at all, which meant that my prints got more interesting as I progressed.  I was also trying to use up some bits of ink left over from a previous session, so it forced me to be creative with my rolling technique and colour combinations.  Of course, this doesn't always work (= mud), but with a bit of thought great effects are achieved.

The new bed (and a print in progress)

My very dirty plate.
A bit of yellow, red, blue, and purple.
Unexpected but delicious colours!

A taste of monoprinting

This year I joined the Brisbane City Council Art Bites program, running 2 monoprinting workshops.  The idea of the program is to expose residents to creative experiences.

I had a lot of fun, even if things did get a bit frantic at times due to the large class sizes (15!).  Below is a few photos from the workshops.  Thanks to Access Arts, particularly Joelene and Anthea.  Its nice just to walk in and run a workshop without having to worry about bookings and all that admin and paperwork!

willing participants getting some instruction....

the workshops ran smoothly thanks to
my great assistants, Jan and Craig
(Craig is in this photo in the stripey apron)

Inking up

work-in-progress

Thumper, my press, got a good workout!

Exhibition Work-In-Progress

Its only 2 months now until my solo exhibition ..... and I'm suffering from a volatile mixture of excitement and panic!

In case you weren't aware but I'm having a huge art event at the Richard Randall Art Studio, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens from 19 -23 May.  Its called 'Conservation of the Species' and will have printmaking, handmade paper, artist books and plant fibre sculpture celebrating the natural world.  I plan to exhibit more than 30 prints and artist books, as well as lots of smaller items to buy for gifts including cards, handmade paper and artist journals.

I'll also be launching my self-published book, 'The Magic of Monoprinting' - full of photos and insights into my art practice.   I'm working on the final copy now.  The quality of the book will be very high and will capture the colour and layering in my monoprints beautifully.

Below are some photos of gelatin monoprinting that I've been having heaps of fun with lately.  I did a lot of gelatin printing before I bought my etching press 3 years ago.  Over the past month  I've been trialling a Gelli-Arts gel printing plate from America, an alternative to the DIY gelatin plate.  This product is a permanent gel plate which means I can avoid all the problems with our humid summers when the gelatin reacts with the atmosphere and is hard to work with.  I've enjoyed it so much I've imported another 10 of them to sell.  A few of them I will be making into kits to include the gel plate, a rubber roller, and perspex palette.  I will be demonstrating the gel plate at my exhibition for anyone who is curious and wants to give it a go.