Cook, Eat, Art...

Great title for a book!!! and that's all I seem to be doing lately!
Not so bad really...and we need those extra pounds to keep us warm in winter, don't we? Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it...talk about sticky...I'm cooking "sticky date pudding" tonight!

Having some fun with exploring the 'Nude" through monoprinting...all part of the course I'm doing.




and just a few more...


The monoprints above, show 4 types of monoprinting.

Additive (top left).....adding ink to the print plate, laying down your paper, then taking a print.

Relief (top right)...... I cut out a paper stencil, rolled ink over it, lay it on paper (ink side down),covered it with some newsprint and rubbed the back to take the print.

Subtractive (bottom left)..rolling ink onto a plate, wiping ink away to expose your image, then taking a print, by laying the paper on top and rubbing the back with a baren or a rag.

Transfer (bottom right).....laying paper over rolled ink and drawing image on the back to pick up print on the front.

Getting back to basic monoprinting has been a really nice thing to do.
Simple, yet effective, and you don't need a press to do this.
I used Caligo easy wash relief ink on white paper.

I think I chose the perfect time of year to take up a bit of study.
It's been nice staying indoors from the cold and reading about abstract expressionist artists such as Conrad Marca Relli.
My next assignment is a woodblock print based on a systematic art practice.
I have had to set myself a list of rules, of when to cut and print...for example every time the cat meows I cut...everytime the phone rings I print. Should be an interesting exercise.

I'm picking up Janette tomorrow, and we are going to an exhibition opening at the Firestation Print Studio for printmaker Bronwyn Rees. Looking forward to it.

gloves...

I love gloves...they are my weakness.
Now that we are in the midst of Winter, I am happy that I can wear and show them off.
Here a a few from my collection.


Soft, soft grey, found these beauties in an op shop.


Christian Lacroix found these beauties in Galeries Lafayette


Shabby Chic, another op shop find.


These stunners were a gift from Peter my cousin who lived in Paris.
Pete took me out to a little shop Gants Helion (glove heaven) one day, where I was asked to take a very comfy seat, my hand was put on a comfy pillow and measured for size.
Huge drawers were opened and the next thing I new, I was trying on all these amazing pairs of gloves!
The choices were out of this world and these are the ones I settled on.
When it's not Winter, they sit on a shelf next to art...where they belong!

No More Cigars...

A few posts back, I was talking about looking for more studio space.
My back veranda room was looking like the space most likely to be converted...how things change.
The idea now, is to convert our carport into a shed.
Warren, the brains behind this latest venture, has an interest in exploring the world of sculpture, his love for blacksmithing, has certainly driven this idea, and now he is looking into the world of bronze casting!
The fact that he needs a bigger workshop and storage area for work related reasons, has also prompted this latest plan.
Years ago, Warren built a stone blacksmith's forge in our garden, out of rocks collected from the yard.
We'd spend many hours, he, wielding hammer and tong, me, keeping the coke fire blazing, and the both of us drinking red wine, puffing on cigars, probably listening to some great old blues and creating things like candlesticks, fire pokers, oil and incense resin burners, even door handles...I would have my sketchbook out, drawing some pretty wild looking stuff, that would be impossible to make :) while Warren the more calm, methodical one, would do his best to create as close to my designs as humanly possible :)


That was such a long time ago now...Lot's of happy memories too.

Sad to see the old forge go when we renovated the house (with all the good intentions of building another, but never did), but not sad to see our cigar puffing days come to an end!!!

Looking forward to making some new memories and art in our new space!

Anyway, here are some blogs I have really loved following lately:

Sue Brown Printmaker

Jay Dee Dearness Artist

Have good days...

"red tree's"

Titled "red tree's" aluminium plate etching

I have been experimenting with safer etching techniques lately...
I think I have developed a bit of the "mad professor syndrome" and have become a bit obsessive with it all and the possibilities of etching aluminium plates!

~

Caught up with my art group "The Very Stuff" yesterday...a good day catching up.
Although, I think the drive into the city has caused my shoulder to play up a bit today!!!

~

The study unit that I'm doing through Open Universities has been "interesting".
I thought I could navigate around computers well, until now.

Thank goodness for my computer literate son. Matt's been a great help.


This is project number one.
Constructing a visual diary to journal in, for this unit.
It has A4 size drawing paper and watercolour paper pages in it.
I used some torn up mono prints to collage onto the front.


These are the inside covers. Here again I used my own monoprints.
The main cover for this journal, is a handmade Japanese paper called Kinwashi, it's heavily textured paper, that I bought from Neil Wallace.

That reminds me, the Neil Wallace paper sale is almost upon us.

spool's & scroll's

This is what the Japanese Obi style/etched prints from my last post turned into...a scroll.
The spool I used came from a pianola music roll, that had it's own beautifully worn box.
It's a very tactile piece to handle. I just loved assembling it this way...now that I have the word "spool" in my head, I will probably make a few more...well thats the plan.
Loving making prints, I am always looking for different ways to present them, other than just framing them.
Scrolls, books, who knows what next!



grrl+dog commented on my last post, and asked how would the glued seams cope with the rolling up of the paper scroll.
Well it rolled up without any problems and so far so good, those seams are holding strong.
The question got me thinking though, and I even contemplated stitching the seams which I still may do.
Maybe the fact that the paper is 100% cotton which makes it quite strong & flexible, has something to do with it also.


The following monoprints were close to being thrown out!!!
I know I have said, I never throw anything out!!!
But these monoprints on tracing paper were just about ready to get "chucked" (Aussie slang for binned), all 18 of them...yes I said 18! They just did not want to dry.

My main objective was to print onto a translucent surface, so I could layer the prints on top of one another to gain some depth of interest.
I should have used paper vellum, but I didn't have any and thought tracing paper could work.

NOTE TO SELF: Don't use tracing paper instead of vellum in printmaking, unless you like prints decorating the floors


These prints have been decorating my family room floor for 3 WEEKS!!!
They have been walked on by cats and when a friend visited with her toddler, yep, the toddler toddled right over them, and they stuck to her gorgeous little feet!


Today, I'd had enough, and as I went to throw these prints out, because they still looked wet & sticky, I couldn't believe it, they were finally dry.
The above images are the prints doubled up, meaning each spool print you see is really two.
They are 20cm x 15cm in size.


And here is a final idea I have for presenting them...