Here’s the second of the monotypes I made during my recent open studio at Swansea Print Workshop, based on sketches I did during my residency in Pakistan last year. The colours of the landscape and sky are marvellous, so bright, atmospheric and changeable. I normally work with the human form, but this wonderful landscape inspired me. This monotype technique relies on expertise in drawing and mark-making. I used cotton buds (Q Tips), cotton rags, scrim (tarlatan) and rough hoghair brushes to get the marks and textures.
I carried on with stages 2 (red) and 3 (blue) of my new monotypes while I was doing the final day of my pop-up studio event at Swansea Print Workshop. Yesterday I posted stage 1 (yellow) for both the first pressing and the second – ghost – pressing. You can see the full set in the slideshow below.
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The monotype was inspired by a car journey through the Punjab during my residency in Pakistan last year. We started in Rawalpindi and drove to Lahore through a spectacular landscape with an ever-changing sky, from brilliant Spring sunshine, to heavy rain, to violent thunder and lightning to giant hailstones and back again. I sat in the car and frantically scribbled into my small square Khadi sketchbook with Daler Rowney Artist’s Soft Oil Pastels.
Completer ‘ghost# monotype
I did 50 drawings, no more than 2 minutes on each. These drawings are the basis of the monotypes I’m doing. You can see the original drawings, with a Pakistani soundtrack, on the video below.
It’s been a busy couple of days with the pop up studio at Swansea Print Workshop, a lot of visitors coming in the see our work and talk to Hannah and myself about our residency at the Zaira Zaka print studio in Pakistan last year. It’s been lovely to meet so many people interested in what we’ve done. Today I finally got on with some printmaking, doing the first stage in a three-colour monotype, the Process Yellow. The inked perspex plate is put through the press to take a full colour print and once again with a second piece of paper to make a lighter ‘ghost’ print. You can read more about this 3 colour separation monotype process here.
The ‘ghost’ monotype, stage 1, Process Yellow.
The image is based on a drawing I did during the residency, while I was travelling between Rawalpindi and Lahore. I did around 50 of them in quick succession, scanned and edited them in succession in this video.
Tomorrow, I’ll be going back to complete the monotypes with two more colour plates, Process Red and Process Blue. If anyone wants to see this in action, please pop in to our pop up, we’re there 10.30 to 5.00.
That’s the question, isn’t it? Some printmakers think it’s acceptable to hand-colour etchings and some don’t. I do. This is a little drypoint I did a few weeks ago at The Bagpuss Window based on a drawing I scribbled when I was in Pakistan last year. I’ve added colour with Winsor & Newton half pan artist watercolours applied with a small sable brush.
Swansea Printmakers Hannah Lawson and Rosy Ind at Swansea Print Workshop
I’ve just completed day 2 of a 4 day open studio at Swansea Print Workshop with Hannah Lawson. We travelled together to Rawalpindi in April 2014 to do a residency at the Zaira Zaka print studio and we’re bringing a flavour of that to Swansea. Pop in and see us tomorrow or Monday – 10.30 to 5.00. We’ll give you tea and Welsh Cakes.
These holes at the Taxila UNESCO World Heritage site in Pakistan had been puzzling me for some time. I found out this evening what they are ….. probably. Hannah Lawson and I opened our pop-up studio at Swansea Print Workshop this evening with a Welsh / Pakistani tea and we did an illustrated talk about our residency in Rawalpindi last year. One of the people who came recognised them as an ancient type of fridge. Pits like these were lined with clay or stone and kept food cool. You learn something new every day.
Hannah and I will be working at Swansea Print Workshop from 10.30 – 5 tomorrow (Saturday), Sunday and Monday and we’ll be happy to show visitors around the lovely antique machinery as well as our exhibition and what we’re working on.
Back in April 2014 I travelled to Pakistan with another Swansea Printmaker to do a residency at the Zaira Zaka Print Studio near Rawalpindi. It was an amazing, exhausting and inspiring experience!
My fellow printmaker, Hannah Lawson and I are bringing our experiences back home in a four-day pop-up studio at Swansea Print Workshop, from Friday October the 23rd to Monday October the 26th.
At Taxila, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We’re kicking off with a family-friendly Welsh – Pakistani tea from 4.30 – 7pm on Friday the 23rd, with Welsh Cakes and Bara Brith, Pink Chai and Builder’s Brew, Pakoras and Samosas and home made chutneys and jams. So if you’re in the area, please pop in.
‘Paisley Breakout’, a full-colour monotype inspired by a shopping mall in Islamabad
And we’re having an open-studio from Saturday 24th to Monday 26th, 10.30 – 5.00 each day where you can pop in and see our new work developing and have a look around our lovely print workshop.
I’ve been thinking about how to develop the drawings I did last weekend in North Pembrokeshire. I have seven drawings from four different Neolithic sites and I thought that one or two of them might look good as cyanotypes.
Cyanotype is an archaic form of photography invented in early Victorian times by Sir John Herschel which results in a blue image. The original charcoal and carbon drawing onto marbled paper was done in the field at the enigmatic ancient burial tomb of Pentre Ifan in the Presceli Mountains in Pembrokeshire, Wales. This striking Neolithic dolmen is almost 6 thousand years old. It is a lasting reminder of Celtic ancestors and the site is inspirational. I worked quickly in the late afternoon Autumn sunshine to catch it before the sun went down.
I turned the original drawing into a negative and coated a sheet of Bockingford paper with the cyanotype chemicals. I put the negative onto the paper and put a sheet of glass over it. I exposed it for three hours in the weak Autumn daylight, as the Victorians would have done. It was then washed in cold water to develop it.
Here’s a lovely video from Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, showing how Pentre Ifan might have looked when it was originally built.
Here are the last couple of drawings from my weekend sketching ancient burial chambers in North Pembrokeshire. This one at Pentre Ifan is drawn in charcoal, carbon and white conte crayon onto Fabriano Accademica that I had marbled with black oil paint mixed with turpentine.
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The Pentre Ifan dolmen, Nevern, Pembrokeshire
Pentre Ifan
Here’s the dolmen drawn over a previous drawing of Maltese catacombs in home-made walnut ink. What next? Well, I’m doing some experiments with cyanotype. Hopefully, if they’re successful, I’ll blog them tomorrow.
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