Working into the images

I now have a studio full of prints of varying quality. If I have learnt anything it is to be more fussy about the colour that I mix before using it. I have decided to work into some of the images so as to extend the pictorial possibilities of each one. I am using oil paint and, inevitably, collage. This is my first attempt and as it is still too wet to be glued, the collage is pinned. However, I am rather pleased with this one and have started another.

A learning curve

I am still enjoying the relief printing project though it has not been plain sailing. There are so many small but important technical details to iron out still. I am hand embellishing in preference to using the press because the prints slipped forwards. I was told that I should rather be using a simple letter press which applies pressure downwards evenly over the whole surface. I have still to try this.Instead, I am rubbing with a spoon and it works well enough. Inking up with just the right amount of paint and block printing medium is still a bit hit and miss though there is an improvement on my first prints. I love the multiple image but simultaneously want to work into each one separately. The studio is full of prints.

Dante's Inferno

I am surprised to see that it is almost a month since I last added a post. I have been busy with an enormous amount of clearing. This involved throwing out and burning and was quite a harrowing experience. However, I also found things that had been temporarily "lost" and I am pleased to say I have resuscitated an old project that has been "on the back burner" for too many years. I am once again approaching Dante's "Inferno". This time I hope to complete the task and bring together a body of work  in the form of either a portfolio or even a book.

Ideas for the print

I find that I am quite anxious about the first print. I know I should simply "go for it" and have done but still I want to get the most out of this first attempt and so there is pressure. I have completed two preparatory sketches. I am aware that once I start working on the block, the image and the process will take over and I will be carried along. Nevertheless I need to do all this preparation. I think it is a subconscious means of creating courage and at the same time I am storing ideas that will be there when I need them. Probably I am just putting off the first cut.

Here is the finished piece. I call it "Stepping back".

Well, here it is. I added some acrylic paint to mask a few of the black lines because I felt that they were leading the viewer out of the picture. People always want to know the exact location of my landscapes. I have to explain that my pictures are the direct result of many drawings and that I absorb views and store them in my memory and in my sketch books. However, the final work is an abstraction in which I bring together my visual and emotional response to an area. It is never an exact copy of a scene. The marks that I make and the colours that I use are partly drawn from reality and partly from my experience of life and of the creative process.

A new collage from start to finish



This is about to be glued but the final image is not yet "fixed".



This is how it works. I start with collage papers scattered over my work surface. Sometimes I begin  the picture by placing a few pieces of cut or torn paper and sometimes I make marks before I try the papers. Either way, the papers are only pinned into place and can be taken off or moved as the design progresses. When I am happy with the image I glue every piece of paper carefully into position. It is a painstaking procedure and quite the opposite of the original creative process. When it is glued, I leave the design on my studio wall for a day or two and I look at it and I think about it. When necessary, further alterations are made. Finally it is "ready".

Sketch books

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I am making my own sketch books now. That way I get to choose the paper on which to work and by the time it is sewn and glued together, it is all so familiar and "used" that I have no fear of spoiling it. In a sense, I have already made each page my own and so I can't possibly feel intimidated.
I found on the market, some Irish linen thread intended for carpets. It is ideal for sewing the bundles together. I like to draw across the page, crossing over the join.

Has anyone seen an eraser like this?

I bought several of these erasers in the late 70's, on a yard sale in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. They were in a box of discarded art materials being sold on by a RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) student who had graduated and was about to pack up and leave. I have almost come to the end of my supply and would very much like to find some more. Perhaps they no longer exist. Is anybody reading this and does anybody know about these erasers?

Edging towards the first print

I thought I would start with a lino print. I am familiar with the genre having taught many young people to do it in the past. There is something new on the market called "flexicut" though this afternoon I bought "softcut vinyl". This appears to be the preferred material of the time. It is soft and very flexible and is described as " buttery". It is also a soft creamy colour. Obviously I have never used it and I am all anticipation.
I took out my old cutting tools and found them in a cloth pouch made by a past pupil. Many memories flooded through me. The design is almost fixed but I am not yet happy with the inks that I have. I want to use something translucent so that I can overlay shapes in the manner of a silkscreen. My art supplier is sourcing a suitable medium.

I have found a press!

This is very exciting. I have found a small printing press hidden away in a corner of one of the art rooms at the school. It was heavily disguised under a great pile of paper and bags of general "stuff" but I have been assured that it is fully functional and that I may use it. YES!! I have been thinking about print making for a few months now. Ideas have been moving in and out for a while but the absence of a press has been a great stumbling block. Now I am about to get moving on this new project.

Starting a new adventure

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I have been drawing and painting for many years and I am ever increasingly aware that it is a very lonely occupation. There are so few people with whom I can share what I am doing. I am striking out into uncharted country with a creative diary. It is probably a very self indulgent idea but I am hoping that there may be a few people out there who understand what I am doing.