Making a Collage out of a Mountain of Papers

I have a lot of prints that I have made over the years - monoprint, drypoint, relief, cyanotype, eco-dyeing.  And a lot of collected and gathered papers in my drawers - ones that I have made myself from plants, as well as those from more exotic 'far-away' places like Japan.  And I can't ignore the growing stash of old books sourced from thrift shops - bird books, garden books, insect books, dictionaries and thesauruses.

I came to realise the extent of my stash during the COVID lockdown last year.  OMG.  I have a lot of paper.  And I need to use it.

So my new series of works have been focusing on creating collage works incorporating all those lovely papers.  Well probably not all, but some of them at least.  And I am going to try not to bring home any more paper......

So I've been busy creating a small series of works mounted on a board base (used for painting).  I spent many happy hours shuffling through my papers, finding just the right ones, then figuring out the right composition (like sweating over a jigsaw without a reference photo), before gluing them on the board and finishing off with a light coat of encaustic wax.

Hopefully some of them will be off to new homes soon, and my studio and I will feel a bit lighter for a while (until I come across more paper which I can't possibly resist!).

So how's your stash? 😁😁😁

Prints Unforgotten

I've got a huge stash of print 'seconds' in my studio, a large boxful. This is one of the issues of being a monoprinter - for me, there are many more unsuccessful prints than successful prints that I frame and sell.

Recently I came across a few prints of wrens that I did back in 2012.  Most of the series has been sold but the last few remaining prints I feel need 'something' to resolve them.  So I decided to dig out the paper stencils I used in that series -luckily I'm a bit of a stencil/paper hoarder so I still had them, and more importantly, knew where to find them!

So I recomposed the images using the original prints which I cut down to bleed prints (that is, no blank paper margin). I then used the stencils overtop of the prints to create a new scene, ensuring that the stencils extended beyond the background image. I feel that this gives a fresh dimensionality to the original image.

The prints are now rehomed in new raw wood frames with fresh mats, and ready to go back into the world and find new homes.

Moral of the story:  Never ignore your past work.....perhaps just rethink it in the context of your current art practice.

The original monoprint

The stencils used to create the 'Dance' series -
the monoprinting process transforms paper stencils
 into beautiful collage pieces

Recomposing the original print by adding stencils -
looking at colour, shape and balance.

The new work 'In the Shadows'.

Detail of 'In the Shadows'

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