a couple more of the intaglio collagraphs on canvas artworks, tastefully photographed (read more about the intaglio collagraphs)...
[bali, 2010]
[sumatra, 2010]have decided to have a bit of a special new year art sale of some of my small abstracts on paper... twelve for the preceding twelve days of christmas and the next twelve months of the year.. after twelfth night comes the feast of epiphany, another day of holy celebration in the giving of gifts (of the three wise men or magi offering gifts to the baby jesus).having an art sale is a little bit commercial i know, it's always a difficult one, exhibiting/selling/promoting artwork. i have undervalued my work in the past but i have begun to reflect more on my experience as an artist - the motivation, the recognition, how much i value what i do, and why i do it. there's the professional integrity of the artist and then there's the business of the artist - the philosophy and the product.i started young on this creative path, probably inspired by a how-to-make-art tv programme (thank you tony hart - but why did your researchers reject my russian constructivist sugar paper collage for the studio gallery? i was only eight; i drew sharks and dinosaurs after that).what a wonderfully democratic profession art is, in that it enables the self-taught (who often attend art classes) to achieve the same status as someone who has a recognised qualification. i went to art school, but you learn even more out of art school. the difference is that in art education there is (usually) a minimum entry requirement (such as being able to draw quite well), so there are required standards of work. the tutors will question and challenge your thinking along the way and not show-you-how-to-make-art-this-way (there's the rub), and if you impress the judges, there is that little recognition of your achievement at the end of the course.i keep getting spam emails offering me american degrees and doctorates by the dollar, so it's probably safer to say you're a naive, outsider or self-taught artist, even if you once went to an art class and got a certificate of attendance [sic].i digress; in art you mean it, you make it.. i really like these three small abstracts together - my wabi-sabi zen.. not framed alas, but are protected in cellophane sleeves with card backing..
[three small abstracts on paper - currently in my little winter art sale]
[xxiii - mixed media on paper, 15cm x15cm]
[xviii - mixed media on paper, 15cm x15cm]
[xxxiii - mixed media on paper, 15cm x15cm]all one hundred of the small abstracts on paper once fitted neatly into this little box... a series or collection stored or presented in this way is something to think about.. when i was at the royal college of art it was a tradition to create a boxed set of limited edition prints each graduating year.. they become quite valuable after a time...
footnote: according to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary twelfth night is either 1. 6 January, the feast of the Epiphany or 2. the evening of 5 January, formerly the twelfth and last day of Christmas festivities... it is supposed to be bad luck if you still have your christmas decorations up today, but it is tempting to take a bit of a pagan perspective here - the fir cones, the winter berries, the holly, the ivy, when fashioned into winter displays or christmas wreaths, also signify the universal cycle of life and the seasons - so maybe i'll continue the winter decor right up until the spring equinox...
intaglio, to go
i have been feeling somewhat under-the-weather (by the cold, with a cold) during my break from the day job ... so after christmas i have really pushed on with something that i have been meaning to do for some time.. to make something of all the prints from my collagraphs (i constructed them exactly one year ago; you can see the digital scans of the collagraph plates here, i played a little with photoshop)..my background is in fine art printmaking and it's always been there in my work, one way or another (papermaking, embossing, monoprinting), but i've no real desire to make pretty editions, it's just the processes that i like.. here are a couple of artist proofs or A/Ps together with the original scans of the corresponding plates, printed using oil-based etching inks on hahnemühle 300gsm paper..
the only problem being that you do get through a good lot of quality paper.. after fifteen or so pulls from the plates i ended up with about six clean, sharp prints, so the rest i have decided to handcolour...
here is one altered collagraph print close-up, showing the textures of the surface embossing..
they were first sealed with a varnish and then i carefully adhered them to some small canvas blocks... [no frame required]..
there is something about prints, surfaces that are so tactile and appealing (due i think, to the printmaker's close engagement with surface from the very beginning of construction) - it is no wonder i have a myopic vision with surfaces, i've been consumed by them for years (see some of my art college days work here..) - all this tactility is lost behind a box of glass and wood..
i had the idea that i wanted to reconstruct the malleable 2d print (the twin or ghost of another surface) into a three-dimensional form.. actually, this is an idea that i have been harbouring for years, wanting to make the printable surface the artwork, but when looking into etching on copper it was too costly for me..i have cubed six of the altered intaglio prints so far (very time-consuming).. not even sure if they are intaglio prints anymore, maybe this is the middle ground, part painting, part printmaking, part object.. here are a couple more of the collagraph printing plates with residues of ink; they will never be discarded..
collographs or collagraphs, sometimes called collotypes or collage prints: the printing matrix is constructed from a base of strong card into which you can incise, carve or texturise with fillers, powders, sand, tissue paper, glue, paint or collage (anything goes, just musn't be too deep or hilly).. they can be printed relief (as in woodblock) or intaglio (as with drypoint engraving or etching).. collagraphs are essentially very eco-friendly printmaking, and a little bit arte povera, with recycled or found materials..
post, christmas dues
or hues, muse, news, ruse, views [i couldn't decide].
am pleased to say i've had a few responses to my christmas little art giveaway, and have now decided to extend the deadline to new year's eve.
click the image above to read more about the little art giveaway and to view the digital scans of these small abstracts life size.i also found out i had a little mention recently on scoutie girl's blog and greenandpretty [am very new to all this...]i'm quietly chuffed that one of my paintings has been accepted for the forthcoming elements: man and the environment art exhibition at the forum norwich.artists residing in the six counties of norfolk, suffolk, bedfordshire, hertfordshire, essex and cambridgeshire were eligible to enter, whose work engages with habitat or the environment, the natural or man-made world in their creative process.. over 850 entries so the competition was quite high [more on this environmental art exhibition in a future journal post].