Day Of Reckoning! Yesterday was cyanotype exposure day, today was cyanotype developing day – and the day of reckoning! So much can go wrong. Cyanotype was the earliest form of photography, invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842 to copy his notes. Anna Atkins used it to record botanical specimens and produced the firstContinue reading “Teasels And Rubbish”
Category Archives: Printmaking
Boiling Hot And Blue Prints
I went on a field trip alongside the River Tawe today, from Sainsburys in Swansea to Tescos in Pontardawe, about 15 kilometres. It was BOILING hot. My colleague Steph and I did some experimental cyanotype (blue prints) exposures on the way, working with plants at the side of the path, rubbish we picked upContinue reading “Boiling Hot And Blue Prints”
Ethereal Sunshine Print
Walking The Tawe Path I’m going on a FIRE Lab field trip with a colleague tomorrow to walk the River Tawe Path, making cyanotypes along the way. It looks like the weather will be great for exposing these in the sunshine. I spent most of today preparing and I wanted to do a trialContinue reading “Ethereal Sunshine Print”
Heavy Metal
I spent a happy afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop, starting to prepare for a new series of printmaking for my artist residency at The FIRE Lab. I’m planning a mixed bag of techniques based on my drawings en plein air of Victorian culverts. I rummaged around in the drawers of my plans chest to findContinue reading “Heavy Metal”
The Rainbow Roll
Colour It’s been years since I did a rainbow roll to put colour into the background of a block print. I’ve been trying out proof prints for my “Streambed” vinyl block and that’s how I ended up doing a rainbow roll. I put out three lumps of Caligo Safewash litho/relief ink – Process BlueContinue reading “The Rainbow Roll”
Doubling Up
Carrying on experimenting with my vinyl block based on a drawing of a streambed, I printed it up twice in black litho/relief ink onto Hosho paper. I like the negative spaces between the two shapes. This merits some development, I think. I have been developing this work in response to field trips with colleagues fromContinue reading “Doubling Up”
A Tryout In Colour
After I had done the first proof of my vinyl block in black ink, I decided to try out some colour. My first experiment was with some simple chine collé using silk fabric papers, using colours I had seen in the stream bed and landscape. Unfortunately we’re in the middle of a heatwave and myContinue reading “A Tryout In Colour”
Proofing The Stream Bed
A few weeks ago I went on a field trip up into the Brecon Beacons with colleagues from Swansea University’s FIRE Lab and while they studied the environment in culverts, I sketched. I really liked the abstraction of this drawing of a stream bed so I cut it into a block of vinyl andContinue reading “Proofing The Stream Bed”
Looking Forward To It
I’m really looking forward to Swansea Print Workshop’s one-day course with Edinburgh-based artist Kelly Stewart at Swansea Museum tomorrow. Kelly’s expertise is helping artists to develop our drawings for screenprint , how to take original material into print using layers of colour, which can also be applied to a whole range of print processes. Swansea MuseumContinue reading “Looking Forward To It”
Printopia
Shameless! Another shameless plug for the Printopia exhibition of work by members of Swansea Print Workshop at The Seaside Gallery, Volcano, High Street, Swansea. It opens on Thursday 4th July, with cake and nibbles and a pay bar, and continues until 26th July. The Big ‘Un And my great big woodcut, “Here Be Dragons” hasContinue reading “Printopia”
scribblah 