Banksias are a favourite native plant amongst many Australian artists. Their amazing shapes, colours and textures inspires a lot of obsessional art making!
As well as discovering Banksias in the bushlands where I walk and ride, I grow them in my garden. I love how their sculptural forms rise majestically above the other plants. They command the attention of the various honeyeaters as well as the human-sort of visitors to my garden.
Banksia flowering on one of my walks.
The lines of yellow remind me of the segments of an orange.
And when the colourful show is over, the pods remain.
One of my interpretations. This is a snapshot from a concertina artist book on Parchment paper, the watercolours I used on the paper shine brightly like the banksias in flower.
Another Banksia artist book, this time on Kraft paper using muted colours in my favourite combination of blue and brown.
Another artist book, this time I played with more intense colours, and brought out some textures with waxy pencils. This one is also on kraft paper.
How's your lockdown/stay-at-home time going? I'm continuing with my self-residency @ home daydream.....
Since I 'returned' from my virtual lithographic residency in the mountain rainforest (see last week's POST), I've been lurking around tidal zones amongst the mangroves and mud. It's a favourite place of mine, with lots of childhood memories associated with it.
We've been out on our kayaks a couple of times in the past week, luckily kayaking for fitness is allowed under the lockdown laws!
So this week at my self-residency @ home I decided to finish off a project. It was intended for an exhibition in June, but that has of course been postponed, but its time I resolved the artwork.
To get you in the mood and so you can fully appreciate my headspace in this week's residency project, here's a short video of me out on the water in my kayak. It might give you a feel of the moment I'm blissfully just floating along listening to the birds. If the video doesn't play via your email feed, you can view it directly on my BLOG or Instagram feed.
The work I completed this week is some 3D sculptures of mangrove seeds. I wanted to have larger-than-life seeds to hang on the wall, featuring monoprints using leaves from the tidal zones. The scultpures will sit alongside some other works on paper that I started in this blog HERE.
So my first step was to print lots of monoprints on lightweight papers, such as tissue and japanese kozo. Its great fun and freeing to randomly print without worrying about composition. I used my oil-based inks and my Xcut press for maximum colour and detail. Here are a few samples:
The next step was to make the mangrove seeds. I created wire and paper frameworks then covered them in a product called Paper Magiclay. Its a lovely soft flexible product that air dries. It was a fun process recreating my large seed models based on the shapes of actual seed pods. I inserted small loops of wire on the back so the seeds can seamlessly hang on the wall, like they're floating.
I then tore my prints into small pieces and glued them onto the paper seeds, in a paper mache-like style. I used a mixture of Yamanto japanese glue and PVA. I painted the seed tips with acrylic paint and I also printed using my gelatine plate over the top in sections to add some more detail. More is better!
In progress
The final step this week was to apply encaustic wax, to seal the work and give it a rich dimensional look. This is a 2 step process - applying liquid wax then fixing it with a heat gun. Drippy, messy fun!
I melt my wax in tins in a skillet filled with water, on a low heat
setting. I use unrefined beeswax that I source from farmers markets.
Applying heat to the wax melts it into the paper
and makes it transparent.
The end result is some interesting representations of the mangrove seed. I like the layers of prints using leaves from the tidal zones on top of the seed structure, as a kind of representation of the connection of the different elements from the tidal zone.
I'm happy with the completed works, hopefully they will get selected and exhibited when the galleries are open again. In the meantime, they'll hang on my wall, assuming I manage to find a spot amongst all the other artworks!
The finished works.
The longest one measures 64cm.
I'm often revisiting old prints and cutting them up, to remake the prints into artist books etc. I find many forgotten treasures in my stash, each an opportunity to breathe new life into prints that sadly have been rejected as they're just not good enough for framing.
Last month, I was lucky enough to spend some time gallery sitting in Sydney. I needed to take something to work on, but I didn't want to take my kit for printing. I was thinking 'don't take too much stuff'....well, I still took too much stuff but I did achieve a goal of reworking prints into an artist book.
The prints were part of a series of monoprints that I did a couple of years ago for a hospital commission. There was nothing wrong with the unused prints, they just weren't the best ones.
I had seen an artist book on Pinterest and had been contemplating it for a while. I couldn't quite figure it out so I called on a fellow book artist to help me and she whipped up a sample pretty quickly (to my embarrassment!). Anyway..... that gave me the final motivation to make a book using the format.
Its a concertina book, displayed like a carousel book. It has a folded cutout in the valley folds, revealing an 'inner circle'. My prints were one-sided so I coloured the part that would show on the inside through the popout with loose gelatine prints, thus countering the hardness of the white paper and giving the viewer something interesting to look at as they peer through the cutouts.
After attaching covers and a tie using found string, the book is fully resolved. I'm pretty pleased with it. I'll probably use it as a sample to create another one using a different set of prints, next time I want the imagery of the prints to link to the format of the book.
Tick, cross that one off the list! Onto the next project....
The basic fold and cut to create the pop outs. The concertina structure is made up of multiple sections, each having this fold & cut in the valley fold.
The concertina book showing the pop outs on the prints
The reverse side after the gelatine printing
Clipping the book together before glueing to check it all works (generally a good idea!)
The completed book with covers tied together, so it becomes a carousel type structure.
The book closed, revealing the triangular structure. Nice!
A sexy viewpoint...i love those seductive folds!
A different view, with the book open lying on its covers. Playing around with display the finished book gives me more ideas how I could use this structure again.
At a recent meeting of Papermakers & Artists Qld, we learnt an interesting technique of woven concertina books. I've also completed Helen Hiebert's online weaving course this year, so I've had an interest in the idea of using my old folio monoprints to create new images in a woven form.
For the upcoming Compassion exhibition (details below), I decided to make a small series of woven concertina books, using old monoprints, collagraphs and rusted papers.
The technique I used was to fold a long concertina and cut long strips through the middle (reserving the ends for covers). Then weave pieces of another print for each of the concertina pages. The result gives maximum contrast and interest to a couple of ordinary prints. Most of the prints were double sided, but with those that weren't I added more strips of left over prints, some of them not even the same size. I applied some glue so that the book didn't work itself loose and they look better without too many gaps.
I'm happy with the completed books....and my folio and print drawers are a little bit less full now :-)
These books will be on sale at the Compassion exhibition at the gallery shop.
Step 1 -fold concertina then cut strips along middle
Step 2 - weave strips of contrasting prints.
The width of each strip is equal to the
width of the concertina pages/
Finished woven books, showing prints
glued to create covers.
The weave. This one is interesting - it looks like the
Magpie is walking past a Venetian blind :-)
The one weaves a feather monoprint with a brown collagraph.
Collagraph print as a cover, I love the scratchy texture
of this one.
This one has rusted paper with feather monoprints.
I've just finished reading a wonderful book, titled 'The Song of Trees' by David George Haskell. Each chapter is about an individual tree somewhere in the world. Haskell weaves poetic stories about the links those trees share with their surrounding environment and how that influences the humans and other animals that interact with them. This narrative of 'connectivity' of all things natural really resonates with my art practice, so I found the book a great source of ideas and inspiration.
One such idea that Haskell presents in his book is the physicality of sound, particularly the sound of rain and how it reveals the shape and structure of trees.
Here is a short quote from the book:
"The water that strikes the understory has already passed across many leaves above...rhythms of the understory are born in the diversity of leaf shapes. We hear rain not through silent falling water but in the many translations delivered by objects that the rain encounters."
A few weeks ago, I posted on my blog about Remembering Trees Lostwhere I had printed a series of monoprints inspired by the removal of trees for road widening near where I live.
Some of those monoprints have been assembled and framed for a small series of works titled 'Memory of Trees', but I held back 56 of the card-sized prints to create a hanging book, inspired by Haskell's idea of the sound of rain and my recent experiences at the BioBlitz sitting in the rain beneath the rainforest canopy.
The prints hang on linen thread from pieces of repurposed wood. The prints are graded from dark to light to reflect the intensity of the sound of the rainfall as if the leaves are speaking the rain's language.
The book is titled 'Listening to Rain', and will be exhibited next month at 'Compassion' an exhibition of artist books on the Sunshine Coast.
Together with my printmaking friends at Migaloo Press Collective, we've been playing with cyanotypes.
Cyanotypes are created using a photographic printing process where two chemicals painted onto paper (or fabric etc) and allowed to dry in a dark room. Objects are then arranged on the paper, and it is exposed to the sun to develop. The exposed paper around the objects develops a cyan-blue colour, leaving silhouettes and shapes of your objects.
Great fun!
Migaloo Press did a play-day, lead by Jen who has experience in cyanotypes. I had done some years ago but was keen to update my skills and to use cyanotype chemicals I had stored in my art room (on the 'must do' list).
I've captured some of my experiments in the photos below, but I plan to do some more exploring and developing alternative colours using tea and vinegar. I think this is my Christmas holidays project!
Exposing the paper, with leaves and stones. Its behind glass to ensure good contact and so that the leaves don't blow away.
The resulting print from the exposure in the previous photo. It was a cloudy day so this is a pale print even after 20minutes exposure time.
Another exposure, with a bee image (cut from paper), sedge, string, talc, and a hexagon stencil. I'm not a minimalist as you can see! This exposure only took 5 minutes as it was a bright sunny day.
Cyanotype print using Shepherds' Purse weed, talc, and a paper stencil.
The same cyanotype print with a lithograph printed on top afterwards.
Last weekend, I had the luxury of spending a few hours monoprinting at the Toowoomba Art Society with members of the Saturday Printmakers.
Using some wren stencils from a previous series, I created a small series of monoprints with a circle shaped plate and a few plant materials including some Shephards's Purse weed.
I titled the works 'In My Garden'. Its a bit of wishful thinking, as I unfortunately don't have wrens in my garden, but really wish I did!
Below are photos of a selection of the series of 9 prints.
I've been busy monoprinting this month, here is a selection of completed prints. The scrub turkey has made another appearance, this time I experimented with subdued colours of blues and greys. I also started on a bee series, inspired by a native bee workshop I recently attended.
'Society' - bee monoprint
'Kin' - bee monoprint with collage.
"Natural Selection' - I reused egg stencils from
one of my original scrub turkey series.
'Natural Selection' - I love the contrast between
the turkey imagery and the serrated banksia leaves.
