The Artist is in Residence - playing with drypoint

Week 4 of lockdown and I'm getting more comfortable with my new 'normal' routine.

I think I can admit at this stage that having more time at home doesn't equate to a productive art studio.  There's still plenty of distractions - beautiful weather, bike rides, kayaking adventures in local creeks, a large backyard habitat garden to maintain, art webinars, applying for funding, all those yummy recipes I've wanted to try, and neglected sewing projects that I was waiting for that spare time to tackle.

So for this week's artist in residence at home, I have only managed to play around with some drypoint printing of wrens and Willy Wag Tails.  I had taken some photos of these cute birds at home and on past camping trips, so it was time to use the photos to make some small drypoints.

I like these simple prints, just a bird, no background, to bring out the bird's character and appeal.

As usual, not all goes to plan.....

Drawing on the plate using source photograph

Applying textures using sandpaper, this
holds the tone on the plate

First print from that plate....URGH!
Not at all the result I wanted, after a couple more prints
I decided that it was the plate that was the problem.
Time to start again.

The new plate in progress, just a simple outline to start with.

A print from the new plate, with the simple outline.
Needs a lot of work, but I've been distracted
gardening, sewing, cycling, kayaking etc etc.
Work in Progress!

A cute wren photograph I took on a camping trip

Print from my drypoint plate.

Willy Wag Tail in my garden.

Willy Wag Tail print.

Testing out hand colouring using watercolours on a photocopy.
Red?  Green? Sepia? 

Handcoloured print.
The yellow ochre paint helps to give the
print a lift and highlight the bird.  So cute!

The Artist is in Residence - Playing with new Lithography Inks

Week one of my 'stay at home' Artist in Residence - I've been playing with lithography.

About a year or so ago I was introduced to Polyester Plate Lithography - this is lithographic printing using a special plastic plate.   Lithography is a printmaking technique based on the concept that oil repels water.

This week I have been printing a plate I've made using a drawing of a Stone Curlew - look them up HERE - one of my favourite local urban birds.  I did the drawing on cartridge paper using black marker pens (0.3 to 0.8), then photocopied the drawing onto the plate using a laser printer.  The heat of the printer fixes the toner to the plate, and its ready to print.  Easy!

I wet down the plate with a mix of water and Gum Arabic.  I then rolled the lithographic ink over the plate, taking turns of wetting and wiping with a sponge then rolling etc etc.  The plate must be wet so that only the image accepts the ink.

I then printed the plate using my Xcut machine on damp paper.

All good fun, I plan to do some more printing tomorrow.  Right now its time to get out into the garden and get some fresh air!  I just wish there was a real Stone Curlew out there.....

My printing area in my studio, you can see my Xcut printer
in the bottom right corner. 
My 'inspiration' pin board is behind my work bench,
looks kind of cluttered but totally OK in my mind!

My new inks, expensive at $40 tube but I'm
hoping will perform better than my etching inks.

My polyester plate on the left and print on the right.
Like two curlews checking each other out!

Wiping the plate with water between inking rolls.

Detail of the sponge in action.
Gloves are great for printmaking as well as for
virus protection....

Rolling the ink, back and forth, side to side.
Then wipe down with water again.
Repeat.

Disappointingly and not surprisingly,
the plate was a bit dirty and left marks on the print.
Perhaps an opportunity to monoprint onto
the background to disguise it? 

A finished print.
I did four, this was the best one.

Gum Arabic - the key to this lithographic technique.

Artist Book Exhibition - Compassion

Over the past few months I've been busy finalising a group of new artist book works for an upcoming exhibition called 'Compassion' (details as per image below).

For one of the new works, I wanted to use prints of feathers as a representation of bird species that are endangered or threatened (of which there are many!).  I did the prints a month or two ago with no idea of what I would create with them.  I've been doing some work over the past 18 months with migratory shorebirds so luckily I had a few leftover monoprints that I could use.

After digging around in my 'stash' (and avoiding the temptation to go the community second hand book shop!...again!), I found a lovely hardcover book entitled 'Birds of the Seychelles'.  I removed the inner pages, leaving the blue map endpapers intact.

Then I needed some time to think about how I wanted the book to look, pondering the options - concertina or not -  hunting through my library to explore possible techniques, scanning my saved images in Pinterest, thinking, thinking, thinking.....  I knew I didn't want to rush it, and it was tricky starting this process with the finished prints, and finding the right technique and format to suit my prints and to bring it together to communicate my idea about endangered shorebirds.

I finally settled on the idea of the prints coming out of the book, attached to the endpapers, with the prints loosely sewn together with waxed linen thread.  I'm happy with the finished book, of course it features a lot of blue and blue-greens (its funny how I keep drifting back to the blue colour schemes!).

The book is titled ' Everywhere and Nowhere', and this is my artist statement:

"Migratory Shorebirds such as the Eastern Curlew make a twice-yearly migration across the world, over oceans, hopping from one island continent to another. No country or island is their home, as they are both everywhere and nowhere. We're making their world smaller by destroying their feeding and breeding grounds and as a species, they seem to be disappearing into nowhere."

A dummy run, trying out the sewing and
structure options.
Its a good idea to make a dummy when
using one-off prints to prevent disappointment!

Sewing the pages together

The completed book.  The feather prints
are on smaller panels.

This photo shows the altered book and how
I have the new concertina coming out from within.
The concertina folds up neatly inside the book cover,
because I've removed the book contents.

A more detailed shot, I love the feather prints!

Exhibition details.

Artist in Residence @ Curtin Springs -Part 2

Here are a few photos from my first couple of days at my residency at Curtin Springs.  I spent most of the time out with the family and staff working the cattle.  They were rounding up the cattle to truck them to take them off to be 'processed' as meat.

Its something I've never experienced before, so lots of 'firsts' for me,  I even got a ride in a semi-trailer - another first!

Travelling in the 4WD checkiing yards.
Mt Conner is in the distance.
The colours of the sky, soil and plants is amazing.

I got my first ride in a semi-trailer, the  tation cattle truck (woo hoo!).
This is the view in the side mirror - tons of dust but
you can see a cattle tail hanging out!

View from the truck - we were driving on sandy tracks,
not bitumen.

The huge road train, ready for loading, to take
the cattle away. 

Here I am, working the gates to help load the cattle
onto the truck.  Dusty work!

White-plumed honeyeater in the gum trees around the homestead.

Brown Goshawk

Adding to my art toolkit - Part 2

In my last blog post, I talked about adding to my art techniques toolkit.  As well as the collagraph plates I discussed in my last post, I've recently been learning about Polyester Plate Lithography.

Lithography is a 19th-century printmaking technique traditionally used with stone and a lithograph press.  In recent years there has been an explosion of using different matrixes such as foil, metal, and now polyester plates.

Lithography is based on the idea that oil repels water.  Simple!

Polyester plates are relatively inexpensive and allow prints to be created using direct drawings onto the plate, drawings scanned and laser printed onto the plate, or digitally printed images onto the plate such as photographs.

Inking is via roller and oil-based inks, and printed with an etching press.

I was introduced to the method by artist Nicola Hooper last year in a short workshop and I was hooked by its simplicity and the direct connection between drawing and printing.  Since then I've undertaken workshops by artist Jenny Sanzaro-Nishimura and also Charles Cohan, Professor of Printmaking at the University of Hawaii.

This is another technique that I can combine with other printing techniques, including monoprint and cyanotype.  Nicola also tells me that she uses it to produce text for her artist books, something I must try.

The possibilities are endless with the potential for editioning - something that I miss in monotype printing!

Rolling up the ink onto the plate, with washes of Gum
Arabic and water

Heating the plate after drawing to set it

The three plates I created - left "Sparrow' is a drawing with
a litho crayon and black Sharpie pens, middle is a
plate created from a photo of Noisy Miner birds,
on the right is a plate printed from a scan of Kangaroo Grass.

The 'Sparrow' print.
I like the drawing prints the best, they
have a beautiful textural quality.

Adding to my art toolkit

In the past month, I've been adding to my art tool kit.  Not new brushes, inks or papers (I've got more than enough paper!), but adding to my printmaking skills.

Last weekend I hosted Jet James from Yeppoon for a workshop exploring creative approaches to collagraph plates.  He uses a PVC plate which gets around the problem of having to seal the plate with multiple coats of shellac as you would with book board etc.  It also allows the use of some ingenious materials and drypoint techniques.

I enjoyed the creative process of creating the plates using a combination of embossing, drypoint and collage, giving a variety of marks and textures.  The 'busy-ness' of imagery on my plate is what I really like when I'm doing my monoprinting.  I can see that I can combine my monoprinting techniques with these collagraph plates, and am looking forward to playing more with it in the coming months.

During the workshop, we also had a play with inking using more than one colour, which gave beautiful images but in a workshop situation of a group of 10 keen printmakers was very messy!

My bee print.  I've explored this bee image in drypoint and
lithograph, so its interesting to see it in a variety of
techniques.

Wren print, multicoloured inking.

The Wren plate and print in blue-black ink.

The chaos of multicolour printing.......

Show and tell at the end of the workshop.
Great prints, great group of people!

Monoprinting over the Christmas Holidays - Part 2

I've been busy printing over the Christmas break, exploring a few different monoprint directions.

I blogged last week about a series I created of Magpie prints, using minimal colours.

My second series of works was based around some leaves I picked up whilst mountain bike riding - they were beautiful fat, dome shaped leaves which I thought would make a great background on a circular plate.  I also cut a new stencil of a Willie Wagtail bird using my soldering iron on thin plastic - makes great edges.

Below are photos of my print sessions and the resulting prints, enjoy!

A plate in progress, showing the layering of objects
that will produce the wonderful textures that I'm addicted to.

The leaves....such character!
Luckily they fit into the pockets of my bike jersey.
And yes the ride was fun though of course I fell off (again).

The objects I used in my print series....I like to work over and over
with the same objects in one printing session.  The colours
get better the more I use an object, so it doesn't make sense
to keep changing unless its seriously not working or the object
breaks apart.

A print with two plates - one square and one round.
One leaf and one stencil.

Wattlebird print.

Willie Wag Tail print - too cute!
Note the aqua colour again - its my favourite....

Using Prussian Blue for the Willie Wag Tail,
instead of black.  I think it lifts the print a bit,
or maybe I just like more colour!

Print using the reverse side of the stencil,
with all the colours picked up from the plate and leaf
in previous print runs.  Delicious!