I am drawing again. The English countryside is so beautiful and the changing seasons offer endless inspiration.

Drawing again

I was given some flowers. They are swathed in shimmery grey organza and the whole effect is not unlike a glass "basket". The organza simultaneously contains and frames the flowers in a random manner and they are 'presented' in a way that makes them rather special. I was immediately inspired to draw and paint the flowers so I took a number of photographs while they were still fresh. I hope to do several more drawings and a couple of paintings. I only hope I can "hold my vision" and my energy levels for long enough to follow through to  the completion of my project.

I have done several of these mixed media pieces and am feeling increasingly at home with the pictorial ideas. I love the crinkly collage and the shadows around the edges where the paper lifts off the surface of the picture. I have also started experimenting with pencil line and scraps of cloth.

Working into the prints

 Here are two more mixed media pieces that are the result of working into the landscape prints. The underlying image is the same in all of them. The structure is also the same. I am still playing with the idea that I culled from a photograph by Vuillard. In the photograph we see Madame Vuillard, drying her hands on an apron, standing in a bare room, possibly a kitchen or passage to such a domestic room. She is framed by a doorway and this is flanked on one side by a wall covered with floral wallpaper. The rectangle of wallpaper "reads" as a totally abstract and very flat surface but, simultaneous to this, Vuillard's mother is standing in a very believable interior space. The juxtaposition is intriguing.

I want to see what happens when I juxtapose a landscape with flanking strips of abstract painting that relate to the landscape insofar as they are derived from close-up observation of the land itself.

I have decided to use a glue gun to stick the collage into place when all is ready and sufficiently dry. This is because I think that the crumpled paper and the shadows that are evident when the pieces are pinned into place are lost when I glue more thoroughly. I don't know why I have not thought of this before because I have often noted how much less interesting the image seems when it has been carefully glued.

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.