Advice from a Dung Beetle - a new Artist Book

I'm continuing on my pledge to reduce my stash of paper and reject prints (as seen in my previous posts).

My latest artist book was inspired by a 2019 BioBlitz that I was selected to participate at as a creative researcher. This is where I met Entomologists who were studying dung beetles.  Previously I only thought dung beetles existed in Africa (I saw it on TV once) but I soon learnt that Australia has its own native dung beetles, and they are so fascinating!

Dr Kathy Ebert (an Entomologist) working in the lab
analysing beetles collected in the field studies

Out in the rainforest with the Entomologists.
It was a bit wet, lots of leeches, but
I'm still smiling!

Here I am drawing insects collected, using
a magnifying lamp to see the detail.

The artist book I have made is titled "Advice from a Dung Beetle".  The idea started with a poem that I wrote and a lithographic drawing of a dung beetle based on some sketches I did at the BioBlitz.

The design for the book started with an online video tutorial by Helen Hiebert.  Its a simple design for a tunnel effect in a concertina format.   The idea of the book is that you have to look through the layers of foliage to see the dung beetle, with the poem narrating the activities and life cycle of the beetle.

Here is the poem:

This is the mockup design based on
Helen Hiebert's tutorial

The closed book - the cover is a piece of
thick handmade botanical paper, with a scrap print
on the front (featuring a gelatine print with lithograph beetle print).
The slip band is a piece of kraft card with a gelatine print
fragment and digital text.
The book is approx A6 size, so produces an
intimate viewing experience.

Looking through the book.  The imagery features leaves,
and has been created using gelatine prints, drawing and painting.
The cuts out give peep holes into the layers beyond,
like layers of leaves on the forest floor.

A view of the book in its entirety.  There is a dung beetle
print on the inside of the back cover that can't be
seen in this view.

Another view looking down the 'tunnel',
the view getting narrower as you look
through the book.
I love the layering of colours,
the greens and the blues.

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? 😁😁😁

Watercolour Leaf Printing

I knew there was a reason I'm a facebook user..... I ignore all of the depressing news stuff and follow some very interesting art related groups.  These groups bring together like-minded people who post all sorts of photos and information about what they doing in their art studios.  Sometimes I find some particularly tempting techniques, such as leaf printing using watercolours.

I give my acknowledgements and thanks to Karen Rush who posted in Craft Press Printmakers facebook group, where she introduced this technique that she learned from Rebecca Chamlee of Pie in the Sky Press.  

Its a straightforward process.  You paint dry leaves with watercolours, let dry, then print onto damp watercolour paper.  Its wonderful that something so simple can produce lovely results, without all the mess and fuss of the usual monoprinting processes.

I've shared this technique a couple of times with friends, and we've had a great time sitting around a table (social distanced of course!) painting, printing, chatting..... and then laughing over the ones that don't quite work.  

I'm grateful that at the moment we can gather together with friends to make art, but if you can't, please try it yourself.  Its a great dining table activity with children or if you have a spare hour or two.

To print the leaves, I used my Xcut diecut machine, but you could use any craft press or manual pasta maker.  You could try hand printing, but you may not get the detail of the veins or it might move around a bit.  Of course you can always 'tweak' the less successful ones with a fine marker pen and more watercolour when it drys.  Nothing is ever wasted!

Two colours on a grevillia leaf.
Leaves with interesting silhouettes and veins are best.

Two or more colours works best.
I put a layer of pink, let it dry a bit, then
added the paynes grey.

Yes this is a print, not the actual leaf!
I've found that the colour improves
after a few prints and re-inkings.
This one started with orange, then a mix of yellow ochre,
sepia then other colours I can't remember....
That's the magic of monoprinting,
it keeps it secrets well!

Beautiful colours and a bit of embossing too.

Applying watercolour, but
keeping water to a minimum because you
need the pigment to be strong.
Let dry before printing.

Another beautiful leaf! 
I think its the one I'm painting in the photo above.
These will make beautiful cards - I use double
sided tape to mount the print onto coloured card.

Sharing Nature Sketchbooks

Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings have eased in Queensland, for a while perhaps, so I'm finally able to offer face-to-face workshops again.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to get back into running workshops in this 'new normal' world of hand sanitiser and social distancing.

I'm currently facilitating a series of 'Mixed Media Nature Sketchbook' workshops, combining gelatine plate monoprinting with drawing and watercolours in a concertina format.  Its a technique I've developed to combine my love of printmaking with the intimacy of sketching.  My books are always centered on a personal experience of place, usually involved with travel to national parks or coastal areas.  

The following photos highlight the results of two of my recent workshops, I hope you enjoy the imagery as much as my workshop participants did!

My work, a workshop demonstration

My work, scribbly gum inspired, workshop demonstration

Student work, I love the watercolour work on this one.
Viridian green can be hard to work with, but it really makes the work pop

Student work, guess what her favourite colours are!
I love seeing colour combinations that are so different to my own.

Student work, in progress.
This book was inspired by wattle trees.

Student work, wonderful to see them all at the end of the workshop!

Beautiful work girls!  A lovely day out for a group of like-minded friends.

The Artist is in Residence - Exploring the Mangroves and Tidal Zones

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.

Crossing another one off the list

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.

Resonating with audiences

In previous blog posts over the past couple of months I have been posting photos and details of artworks for an artist book exhibition called 'Compassion' which was held during July and August.

One of the artworks 'Listening to Rain' sold during the exhibition.  I posted about the artwork here.

As it happened I was visiting the gallery when it sold, and it was lovely to speak to the purchasers.  I also received lots of positive feedback from many other people that passed through the gallery during the exhibition.  It seems that the concept behind the artwork and the quote from David Haskell's book 'The Song of Trees' really resonated with audiences.  I think everyone felt the connection of the author's words to the arrangement of the leaf monoprints.

And then I was approached to do a commission of 'Listening to Rain', as another viewer (on the same day) was interested in purchasing the work.  To repeat it or not.  I usually only like one-offs, which is why I love monoprinting.  I decided to take on the challenge to see if I could make another 'Listening to Rain', whilst retaining the essence and emotion of the original work.  I also had to remember how I put the first one together, a balancing act of hanging tape and waxed linen thread!

And after 5 weeks of work, 'Listening to Rain II' is complete.  It looks very similar to the original from a distance, but every detail is unique.  All of the leaves used for printing are different, the toned papers are different, and the repurposed wood used for the hanging is different. 

I hope that the new owners enjoy the work and are inspired like me by Haskell's words. And perhaps it might rain again one day as we are currently experiencing very dry and hot conditions (and its only early Spring!).

The printing of the leaves and feathers is the fun bit!

Laying out the  monoprints and getting
the spacing right - the tricky bit!

The completed work...SIGH.