To Cut and Paste a Monoprint

As part of my ongoing work with Sandi Conte (the 2016 Creative-In-Residence at Logan Art Gallery), I recently conducted a masterclass monoprinting workshop themed on native stingless bees, working with paper 12cm x 12cm.

Some of the works produced during the workshop are proposed to be included in an upcoming travelling exhibition, and as lead artist, I was also invited to submit some works.... what fun!

My approach was not my usual - proceed straight to my studio, drag out 'Thumper' my etching press and start printing.   Instead I looked through my folio and found some bee related works I completed late last year and started cutting them up.

I've used this approach before - cutting up old prints to create paper installations.  In this situation, I cut up the bee prints into hexagons to use in a collage.  The prints were originally done on grey coloured Stonehenge paper which provides a lovely background tone to the prints.

I also incorporated cuttings from a technical book relating to pollen.  I think the text and drawings from this book add a scientific feel to the prints.

The 3 resulting artworks are named "Under the Microscope", monotype and collage on paper.

One of the old works, 'Society' 4/4

'Under the Microscope I', monotype + collage, 12cm x 12cm

'Under the Microscope II', monotype + collage, 12cm x 12cm

'Under the Microscope III', monotype + collage, 12cm x 12cm

A new Artist Book is 'hatched'

After doing a series of bee monoprints a few months ago, I had a lot of pre-cut paper stencils of hexagons and native bees.  So I decided to use them to create a collagraph plate, which is a printing plate made of cardboard with things stuck to it.  After sealing with shellac, I used the plate to emboss some toned printmaking papers, and these have become the pages of my latest artist book, titled 'Brood'.

The book structure, once again in that typical honeycomb/hexagon shape, alludes to the structure of a bee's hive.  The embossed imagery is of the brood at work - worker bees tending to the eggs and larvae of the next generation.  The book needs to be fully opened to see the imagery, which mimics the action of the beekeeper opening and inspecting a hive.

The embossing was done using the collagraph plates on dampened paper, no ink, using my etching press 'Thumper'.

The Collagraph plates and resulting embossed 'print'.

The closed book - the covers are made of box board and some
beautiful gold and black paper I had in my stash.
I thought the paper colour was like the rich gold of honey.

'Brood' - you can see the honeycomb like structure.

Its hard to see the embossing in the photo.
Viewing the book will be an 'up close and personal'
experience, inviting the viewer in for a good look.