Using a MicroFleur Microwave Press

I've owned a MicroFleur Microwave Press (www.microfleur.com) for some time, but hadn't really used it until recently.  I usually press my leaves using phone books and plenty of time, but thanks to Robyn (at my Kenilworth workshop) I've become aware of the advantages of pressing leaves when on site, rather than transporting phone books (heavy and bulky).  I prefer to monoprint with pressed leaves (not necessarily bone dry) as they are easier to handle and don't  leak plant juices.

To use the MicroFleur system you need a microwave, so that rules out camping and some hotel rooms, but is good for cabins and self-contained accommodation.

I took my MicroFleur press on a recent trip to Margaret River in Western Australia - a great opportunity as its currently wildflower season, so there were lots of plants in flower.

But my greatest find was the Bull Banksia - my new favourite banskia!  It has an unusual leave shape - very dramatic.  I used my MicroFleur press to remove the moisture from the leaf and flatten it, then stored it in a plastic folder to transport home.  I've now got a folder full of interesting leaves and plants for future printing sessions.

Out riding on the Munda Biddi Trail, with a Bull Banksia

A Native Wisteria, beautiful!

On a rail trail between Margaret River and Cowaramup

One of the locals wasn't happy about disturbing him
on the track!

Bull Banksia

Bull Banksia

MicroFleur Microwave Press

Inside the press, felts and cotton sheets.
Note the burn marks - I got a bit overzealous and left
it in the microwave too long a few times!

My folder with the pressed plants, to take home

Pressed Bull Banksia leaves

A gelli plate print, using the Bull Banksia,
more prints below.

Monoprinting at Kenilworth

This week I spent 4 days in rural Kenilworth on the Sunshine Coast hinterland running a monoprinting workshop, using both my etching press 'Thumper' and gelli plates to create images.

I had a small class of 4 students - Kylie, Robyn, Denise and Wendy, plus Morag for one day of gelli plate printing.

The resulting prints were spectacular and varied, showing off the individual art talents and styles.

Its always great to have several days in a workshop to help everyone to embrace the new techniques and different ways of creating images, and this really showed in the prints the girls created.  Well done!

Denise's Banksias.
She used a lot of objects in this print,
 but the repetition of the banksia shape
 and the horizontal and vertical lines make it all work together
in a vibrant and energetic image.

Denise at the press with her plate and a print

Kylie's Fern print - beautiful lines and colours.
The detail of the middle fern is 3-dimensional and
together with the rich colours,
it gives the print its WOW factor.

Kylie at the press working on her Magpie series,
lots of work to construct but worth it in the end

Robyn's delicate print,
Subtle colours and repetition of
line and shape, with the zing of the red
ginkgo leaf popping out from behind.

Robyn's fern print on music paper,
created via a gelli plate.  This one was created by
printing the fern onto the plate then onto the paper.
Also lots of washes and delicate background colours to
set the main image off without overpowering it.

Robyn at the press, with her print and plate

Wendy's gelli plate fern print - lots of
layers and interesting marks.  The white fern is a ghost print,
very carefully orchestrated to provide a focal point
 on a busy background.

Wendy's print - I call this 'Steam Punk',
a very industrial but earthy print.
It works well with a variety of shapes, textures and lines.

Wendy at the press with one of her final prints -
gorgeous colours and textures.
Her 'graduation' print I think!

"Legs up!" for the group shot after 4 days of printing,
showing off their favourite prints.
I managed to do a couple of prints as well just for fun.

Making Stencils for Monoprinting

I use paper stencils extensively when I do my monoprinting.  The stencils allow me to create representational imagery that creates focal points and brings the compositions to life.  I mostly use bird stencils and am constantly on the lookout for new imagery that I can use.  And when I make a stencil for a print, I usually cut at least 10 of the image in different sizes and papers to give me plenty of choices when printing.  I also use repetition of imagery to tie the composition together and make it more dynamic.

In the past I've cut stencils by hand, using scissors and a stanley knife.  Its hard work (though enjoyable) but I'm not very good at accuracy to get realistic details like feathers and toes on my bird stencils.

And so I've invested in a new art toy to help me with my stencils.  Its a 'Scan and Cut' machine, which does exactly that - scans in my image then cuts it out.  Absolutely brilliant!  I can create multiples in different sizes of birds, all cut with beautiful detail.

There's lots of possibilities with my new machine and it certainly makes fabulous stencils that will greatly enhance my monoprints.  I'll post some photos of the stencils in use soon!

The Scan and Cut machine in action.

One of my silhouettes of birds I used as a template.
This is what I scanned into the machine.

After the machine has cut the stencils, I lift
off the paper.  Some of the stencils remain
stuck on the low-tack surface, they
come off easily.

The resulting stencils, cut by the machine,
in different sizes and papers.

The added bonus is the negative shapes left after cutting,
I can use these too for my monoprints,
so nothing is wasted.

Finding Inspiration by Bike

During the past couple of years, I've developed an interest in Mountain Bike Orienteering.  Although I'm no athlete, I enjoy getting outdoors on my bike navigating my way along gravel roads and dirt tracks in the forest.

Most of the events are held in pine plantations, so the landscape can get pretty bland - pine trees with lantana and other 'weeds' and grasses.  But there are pockets of native bushland, usually retained near creeks and swamps.  These areas are my favourite, leading to some mid-race distraction!

Luckily I have a map, and I can navigate my way back to spots that interest me after I've finished my race.

Today we visited Beerburrum, north of Brisbane.  Its a very sandy, coastal landscape, very flat so its easy to ride.

I found a lovely spot with beautiful ferns, and of course my very handy plastic bag enabled me to collect some samples for future monoprinting projects.  Watch this space!

The pine forest at Beerburrum - its so quiet,
you can hear the wind whispering through the
needle-like branchlets on the trees.
It has a very artificial feel to it even
though its filled with bird song.

A 'selfie' - behind me are the formal rows of
the pine plantation

A pocket of remnant native bushland along a creek -
a beautiful natural forest of ferns

A close up of the ferns

One of my favourites - pouched coral fern

This is one of the controls for the orienteering event -
that's how I found this beautiful spot.
I had to navigate to it using a map.

Here's me with Craig's mountain bike after the event.
You can see the map board holder on the handle bars -
its flat surface is ideal for stashing plant material!

Monoprinting Workshop at Kenilworth

Kenilworth Celebrates!

Art workshops and other events

28 September to 11 October 2014

Kenilworth Celebrates! is a major festival held annually in Kenilworth, a small town in the Upper Mary Valley on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland about 2 hours drive from central Brisbane.
The Festival starts with an orchestral concert on 28 September (booking required), followed by painting workshops with professional tutors from 29 September to 3 October (bookings required). The Town celebrates with music, poets' breakfast and street entertainment on the weekend of 4/5 October and free art exhibitions run from 4th to the 11th October.

I'm running a 4 day workshop from Monday 29 September to Thursday 2 October. We will be exploring the printmaking technique of monoprinting using plants, stencils and other found materials to create one-of-a kind and often unexpected images. We'll be printing with my etching press 'Thumper', but also devoting time to printing using homemade gelatine plates. The workshop will cover ghost printing and how to develop layers and complex colour relationships in your prints. The four days of the workshop will allow you to extend yourself creatively and fully resolve prints using your own imagery.

For more information about the workshop, bookings and the festival:http://www.kenilworthcelebrates.org.au/ or email me sandy_p09@hotmail.com.

If you're interested in the workshop, please make your booking prior to the end of August, so they can assess whether the workshop has sufficient numbers to go ahead.

Mountain Getaway....and art opportunity!

This week Craig and I took advantage of a mid-week public holiday to escape to a cabin in the 'mountains', well, as much of a mountain that we could find close to Brisbane!  We stayed at Cabins at the View at Mt Mee, approx 40 minutes drive in a north-westerly direction.

The view was delightful, as were the bird and animal friends that we saw along the way.  We did some exploratory drives through the nearby D'Aguilar National Park as well as dropping into Woodford for some refreshments and to visit a couple of op shops..... but don't worry I only bought one book which I thought was very disciplined for me!

And of course, I had to take my art with me.  This time it was gelli plate printing, using some new leaves that I picked up during my stay.  I took some unresolved prints to work on.  The most successful gelli plate prints are those with at least two layers, using 2-3 colours, so its easy to start with a incomplete or pale print rather than a new sheet of paper. 

The view from our cabin,
Brisbane city is in the distance

The view from one of the lookouts, looking
west

I'm on a rock-hop along a creek bank, always on the
lookout for printing goodies

A Currawong at the picnic area.
I sometimes hear these birds near our house, and
I read recently that they are moving closer to urban areas
which is not good for local small bird populations.

A friendly Kookaburra, no doubt he was after
a handout or just to swoop and take what he wanted!
Unfortunately for him we were indulging in dips and crackers,
not on his diet.

I took over the dining table for my temporary art studio
at the cabin.  A very small table - good for romantic
candlelit dinners but not big enough for serious art making!
But yes I did clear it all away at dinner time......sigh

A printing frenzy.....heaps of fun!

Printing with leaves and a stencil.
 This one has a yummy colour, blue and a bit of black I think.

Blueprint

During the last few weeks I've been busy preparing to make prints for an upcoming show called 'Blueprint'.  I'm part of a small group of printmakers exhibiting in an architect's studio at West End, responding to the theme of Art and Architecture.

Even though my work is based on the spontenanity of the technique of monoprinting, there's actually a lot of preparatory work, mostly with the selection of imagery.  The other technicality with this project is that we've been given only 5 sheets of paper - so that immediately restricts me to take a less experimental approach.  Hence the extra time I've given myself to do test prints and work out exactly the sequence of print techniques I need to follow to get the result I'm after.

I'm using a combination of monoprinting and a solar etching plate.  I've used these two techniques together before but this time I've used the techniques slightly differently, maximising the effects of printing off the object rather than the plate. 

And because the paper supplied is so large, I wasn't able to print on my 'Thumper' travelling etching press, but had to use my new large studio press which is stored under my Mum's house in her garage.  A slightly less inspiring environment, with the challenge of poor light and wind blowing in the garage door, but it did the job.

I'm happy with the resulting prints, they'll all be exhibited at the Blueprint exhibition, Baber Studio, 9/173 Boundary Street, West End, Brisbane (upstairs and turn right).

After the opening at 6pm Friday 29 August, the exhibition will continue until Saturday 20th September.  Opening times are Monday to Friday 12-2 and Saturdays 9-3 (2 of the artists will be present on the Saturdays).

My temporary studio in Mum's garage,
slightly chaotic but I still managed to print OK

My HillDav Studio Press, ready to start work

Gorgeous Swamp Blood-Wood leaves,
covered in ink after printing

The solar etching plate I created from a map, with
images of the leaves 'printed' onto it (the aftermath of
my printing session)

One of the final prints, just to give you an idea of
the end result - a monoprint and etching
using a Cotton Tree leaf as a plate.

Details of the Exhibition, opening Friday 29 August 6pm @ West End.
Please join us for a drink, some nibblies and beautiful art!