Today is is the spring equinox, and nearly all this week the sun has been shining, with some record temperatures - mild, balmy, brighter and lighter days - and my little eggbox seedlings are surely pushing their way into the verdant world. Brighter days has helped with the etchings too, as I have been wearing magnifying glasses to draw the plates under a desk lamp...
As I was sifting through the contents of a cupboard for some possible frames and mounts for my new etchings, I came across the last nine of the one hundred paintings that I began in November 2008... I hadn't scanned these until this week... and I noticed how, with a clean mount, the rustic, elemental nature of these little paintings became at once much more minimalist, dare I say smarter, cooler, that little bit more slick and stylish...
click to view larger version on etsy...However, I'm not a fan of mats or mounts, as I like to see the raw edges... I see these little paintings as small fragments...
[XCIV small abstract painting on paper]In reality they all look much like these six from behind... I tear the paper to the required size first, then begin the monoprinting (aka monotyping) and painting...
[rear view of small paintings, aka verso]if any evidence were needed that layer upon layer is added or blotted back, all made by paint-covered hands...I remember once looking at the Tate's collection of Rothkos and noticing the rough edges of the canvas, and I wondered what they might look like as abstract paintings from the back, on the verso - he painted in very thin layers onto unprimed canvas that soaked into the fibres (one for the conservators). What about all those notes and amendments to details that we add to our the back of our work? I sometimes add a label to larger works that describes the idea behind the work, title, name and address, web and email, the year, month started and/or completed, or revised... I know some artists who never date their work (or at least obscure it) - in that way their work never looks old to gallery eyes...Here are the last nine scans of the series: XCII, XCIII, XCIV, XCV, XCVI, XCVII, XCVIII, XCIX and C...
Here's the full one hundred paintings, I to C, aka chromatids, 2008-2009...
One hundred paintings, I to C, mixed media on paperYou can read the very beginning of the one hundred paintings here...And finally, back to the printmaking (I seem to have lots of ongoing projects) - I had quite forgotten how long it might take to draw the lichenscape plates, so no finished prints to show today, but here is a sneak preview for avid followers of this blog (three, not counting my good self)... I took a snapshot of one of the copper plates near the window...
[copper plate etching]If there is one thing that I have missed over the last couple of weeks, it is drawing in my sketchbook outdoors.. so I will endeavour to get some sketching hours in the next week or two...
etchings in progress
Here are the first working proofs from some small etchings that I have been pursuing since the lichen drawings... looking a little like lichen, or perhaps any micro-organisms, in colonies of moss, mould, algae...
Even after all the photographs of lichens (I must have taken two hundred or more) and then the pen drawings, I begun these etchings with no visual references in front of me (and no plan to illustrate a species), prefering to see what initial textures and tones I could create, working from memory... I like the discipline of a slow, considered, meticulous process - etching seems the perfect medium in which to combine delicate line with texture... here are two of the initial trial proofs... printed in a warm black... I need to rework them in more detail later in the week and experiment with colour...
...It's curious to think that many years ago I used to pore over books such as this one on earth as seen from space (published in 1981), as a source of inspiration... these satellite images of the Himalyas were taken in March 1977 and December 1978 by Landsat spacecraft...
and am inspired by these old textbooks too...
[pages showing section of the ileum or small intestine]
[page on lichens, showing a cross section]The only issue with printmaking is the evidential traces of concentrated work - that is, printmakers hands...
[self portrait with hands]
ever increasing circles
Some recent printmaking experiments - intaglio prints made from some worn and discarded sandpaper discs that I have been collecting for a while.
[prints, proofs and other experiments on the wall]Rather than retaining their perfectly circular shapes, I have instead been tearing and distressing the paper edges, as I print and reprint the proofs.
[eroded sandpaper used as a printing plate]I also wanted to pursue the idea of the imperfect or broken circle, or with parts missing or two halves that don't quite match - cracks , fissures, fused joints.
[detail of embossed surface textures]Most of these first experiments are printed on white drawing paper, some are on Hahnemuhle, some on Khadi. I also tried some viscosity printing - a process that enables you to print two, three or even four colours in one go. it requires more prep work but the results are immensely textured and tactile - and even the crumpled paper discards have some visual appeal. Most of these initial experiments will be heading for the collage drawer...but I have some heavyweight paper set aside for the next stage of printing...
[crumpled inked paper]Thinking back to the earlier intaglio collagraphs on paper (on canvas), yet again I didn't want to end up with a flat print, so I erased the evidence of the plate mark or edge by trimming some of the proofs, giving the print some potential as a sculptural form rather than a material mark on paper.
[more embossing textures]During this time, I have been pondering on (or should that be inspired by?) the earth's shifting tectonic plates and the so-called 'ring of fire' (according to scientists, Concepcion city has moved ten feet to the west since Chile's earthquake), to the micro-ecologies of lichens, my collections of striated beach pebbles and hag stones, the geometric pattern on a dinner plate, even an abandoned bird's nest that fits in the palm of my hand, and the strange fruit encountered in the hedgerow...
[lichens, found on churchyard gravestones in Suffolk]
[collection of striated beach pebbles]
[pebbles with holes; hag stones]
[Barbara Brown dinner plate]
[a tiny bird's nest]
[strange fruit in hedgerow]While printing some of these collagraphs (if printing from sandpaper comes under that category) I heard on Poetry Please (on Radio 4) the poem, Try to praise the mutilated world by Adam Zagajewski ... (but I am sure some of its depth is lost in translation)......Lastly, I have been accepted as a new member of Artworks. Established in 2000, Artworks is a dynamic group of thirty contemporary East Anglian professional artists working in a range of styles and media, some with national and international reputations. So, I am looking forward to the new connections and opportunities that being a member of Artworks will bring into my creative life.