Mark Making, Printing and Collage – Part II

Caroline had given us a couple of demonstrations showing mono printing and screen printing so my next test was to produce a screen printing.  This is something that I felt was a challenge as I consider my work to be “grunge art!”.  It is far apart from the neat and perfect finish that you think of when considering a screen print.  But I had a go …. I selected one of my found objects and made a stencil.  Next I considered how I might use the screen print and selected a gum arabic transfer of one of my photographs (Itchenor, Chichester Harbour – the source of the object) and a page of text I had written about drinks cans.  My idea was to make the screen print transparent so that the image and the text could be viewed through it.

I thought these effects were promising so went on to produce a series of screen prints:

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Screen prints over gum arabic prints
Whilst I liked these, they were not really “me.”  I parked these and moved on but, for the sake of continuity, this next image shows the next stage in the life of these prints.  I will continue to work on them at home.  This distressed effect is much more in keeping with my ethos.  
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Mark Making, Printing and Collage – Part One

I am just back from a four day course with Caroline Bartlett – who was a wonderfully giving and patient tutor who spent time with each of the six students all working in different ways and with very different outcomes.  Thank you Caroline! We had been asked to bring in a collection of about six small objects with which to work during the course.  Here are mine:

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All of these metal items have been collected from the shore around Chichester Harbour and are, from left to right, a baked bean can, an aluminium canister, a shell case from world war 1, a Fanta can, an old paint can, and an aerosol butane gas lighter fuel canister.

To warm up, we were asked to produce a series of continuous line drawings using a variety of media. I chose to overlap my drawings of just one object, the paint can, to start with.

The use of thin paper meant that by turning it over and working on both sides, you could see through from one side to the marks on the other.

Next, I made a template based on the paint can and made a series of cut out’s using some paintings I had already made and brought with me.  Here’s one:

Finally, I thought that the row of objects together made for interesting shapes so went back to the continuous line drawing, using the reverse of a piece of paper already drawn onto:

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I’ll return to this later when looking at screen printing.

Little Beauties

Earlier this year, my husband and I had a wonderful two weeks in beautiful Northumbria. It was our first visit and won’t be our last.  Three things summed it up for us – glorious unspoilt beaches, warm and friendly people, and excellent well priced food!  What more could you want?  The weather was fantastic and, apart from the day that Storm Ali came and blew my husband’s prescription glasses into the North Sea, but that’s another story!

Due to the kindness of a couple of folk on my favourite Facebook Page – “Beachcombing, British Coastline), I found my way to a great spot near Seahouses and also to Seaham in County Durham.  Here I found not the plentiful sea glass, pottery or limpets in plentiful supply elsewhere, but my sort of found objects:

When I got home, I had a lovely time putting together mini assemblages from these and other bits and pieces

Feeling Bookish II

My last post mentioned a beach find of a mobile phone:

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Found at Church Norton May 2018

When I took the phone apart, I found a lovely rusty circuit board which I found intriguing and knew that I would use it someday.  It  s time has come!

I made tiny pages using papers made on a course “Experimental Batik” with Hetty Van Boechout.  These were just the colours I was looking for to complement the rust and verdigris of the circuit board.  The reverse is formed from another part of the phone.  The finished piece is tiny but beautiful to me!

Holy Island

Whilst on holiday we made our second visit to the wonderful Holy Island otherwise known as Lindisfarne.

Lindisfarne Castle
September 2018

It’s a busy place, even out of season as we were, but a very special one.  Visits are determined by the tide and many people head straight for the castle and priory missing the incredible beach.

Nobody much on the beach
Love Lindisfarne

I knew from a brief visit last year that the old boathouses were very photogenic

The pink boat house Lindisfarne
Pretty in pink

But this trip I found some lovely close up shots which provide great inspiration for some textile or other work

 

And some others for work in paint or mixed media.  I usually work in earth colours so these will make a nice change.