February walks

I'm a bit late posting the altered book for February, time ran away with me... where do the days go?!

This is a lovely old book of pockets for photographic negatives. Artists have inserted a number of pieces of mini work into the pockets, sometimes removing or replacing the negatives.

My miniature contributions are sections from small experimental etchings with modest interventions - drawing, stitch and collage.

 

February Walks

a little breakthrough

A new bit of copper and a relaxed approach.

I scratched the plate a bit before I started, so it wasn't perfect, then looked at the scratches and used the plate the way they dictated. It felt fun putting the stop out down because I already had some marks. When I printed the plate I had a little bit of a eureka moment! The marks had freedom, movement and surface... all the stuff I constantly strive for, but usually overwork.

So the next stages were a mixture of trying to keep a light touch, not overworking things, but also maintaining the freedom in the mark making...

hard ground line



'Brisk'  20 x 10cm

A few people have seen this print and they all have their own interpretation of where the track is, the type of weather and how it feels to be there - I love that about these types of images, there's an ambiguity which allows the viewer to make it their own.
Now to maintain this approach, that's always the hard part.

Etching Progress - Water Pooled Path

Work has continued on the etching:

water pooled path - stage 1

I've created some distance with a spit bite horizon line, and a soft shading in the puddles.

This all looks great on the inked up plate, but now its printed I've reached an impasse. I'm just not sure I can stick with the unfinished areas down the sides. These looked great on the drawing, but maybe not on the print.

Here I've drawn shading over the white areas, and I think darkening the sides will serve to focus attention on the puddles, and draw the eye through the image. Just to be sure I've printed a few off at stage one, and then its back to the acid and a good strong bite for this plate.

Etching progress

Progress feels a little slow at the moment, time is in short supply as I'm trying to squeeze in some Impress festival stuff, but what I am getting done is fairly good progress.

Here's the starting point for a new print based on the 'Puddled Path' drawing from earlier this year:

the drawing

painting in the stop out

first proof - after the first open bite

I'm pleased with the tree branches, and some of the shaping around the puddles. There's a nice bit of standing grass shaping on the right, but the branches are a bit thin in places and the texture of the ground is still too open. The overall feel is close to the drawing - a solid framework to work into.

IMPRESS 13 Festival - Highlights, week one

The IMPRESS 13 Festival has launched in style at Stroud's Museum in The Park with an inspiring talk given by Painter/Printmaker Hughie O'Donoghue. The artist shared many anecdotes about his process and inspirations.
The large collograph shown below was made using 3 plates, printed onto a single sheet of paper, and shows the swimmer life size.



large scale Collagraph by Hughie O'Donoghue

The INC print show at Stroud College unveiled a massive installation of woodcut prints made by the students at the college under the tutelage of Printmaker Simon Packard. The installation, below, reaches approx 20 ft up the curved atrium wall of the main staircase.

At Ruskin Mill in Nailsworth is a joyful group show which celebrates print in some of its most diverse forms - fine etching, digital print, and print fused into glass. My favourite image however was a return to etching: Terence Millington's dog 'Prince', for its genuine character and clearly evident love of the subject matter.

 

This is a small glimpse of a very good collection of Prinmakers exhibitions in and around Stroud and Cheltenham for the month of March, I hope some of you can get to see some of them. Please check out the Gloucestershire Printmaking Co-operative website for all the details, and the diary.