Up and out early today to finish the second colour on the last four vinyl blocks. Done and dusted. I’ve made a series of 8 small and 4 not so small block prints for the exhibition I’m a part of in a couple of weeks. The imagery has been inspired by a visit I made to Berlin a couple of winters ago and in particular seeing the Berlin Holocaust Memorial under a deep white muffled blanket of snow. I’ve used softcut vinyl and Intaglio Printmaker’s relief / litho ink mixed 50:50 with extender onto Japanese Hosho paper. I printed them on the antique Columbian press at Swansea Print Workshop, a beautiful example of Victorian machinery, still in use.
The vinyl is very good, especially with the smaller pieces, but rather floppy which made placing the larger pieces a bit difficult. In future, I’ll glue larger blocks onto some thin plywood. I used the shiny side of the Hosho paper and found that mixing the rather stiff ink with extender gave the best results I’ve had so far with blockprints.
Greetings hairless apes. Sparta Puss here. I have taken control of the bald monkeys’ pooter box while they are distracted. The she-ape was cutting some soft floppy stuff called vinyl just now because she has to print it in the morning and I thought I’d be helpful and lend her a paw. She was not happy about it, the ungrateful chimp. “Not a good idea with such sharp tools around”, she squealed. They all squeal you know, the monkeys. She locked me out of the room! So I got my paws on the ‘pooter box and now I can tell the world what an idiot she is.
And yes, that is a zombie garden gnome in the background. Stupid monkeys.
Today I finished printing my 8 small, 2-colour lino (well, vinyl) blocks ready for my group exhibition at Oriel Ceri Richards at Taliesin Arts Centre in a couple of weeks. I still have to do the second colour on my remaining 4 larger blocks but that’s for tomorrow.
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I used Intaglio Printmaker’s oil-based litho/relief black ink mixed 50:50 with their extender and printed onto Hosho paper using an antique Victorian Columbian printing press at Swansea Print Workshop. I started with drawings and photos of a visit I made to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin a couple of winters ago. The thick snow made the place even more surreal and inspired me to develop the imagery in drawing and printmaking. I like the way they’ve turned out, quite a departure for me but part of being an artist is to evolve and experiment.
If you want to find out more about the 15 Hundred Lives group show “People And Place”, please click here.
I’ve been working on a new series of linocut (well, vinyl) prints for an exhibition coming up at Oriel Ceri Richards later this month, a group exhibition with the 15 Hundred Lives art collective. Each print will be in 2 colours on white, using Japanese Hosho paper and Intaglio Printmakers relief inks.
I printed the last of the 12 blocks today with the first colour, a mid grey, down at Swansea Print Workshop.
Next, I’ll cut away the grey areas and print the second colour, black. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
I am using the antique Victorian Colombian Press and I’ll be printing each in editions of 15. I love working with such old machinery. The Victorians didn’t stint on the decoration, it’s beautiful as well as functional. It’s also idiosyncratic and a bit fickle to use, but so would I be if I were that old 🙂
Here is another of the series of ink and watercolour nudes I did a while ago. This is an older male model I’ve worked with for years, he’s a stalwart of the life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop. I did the line drawing with Faber Castell Pitt drawing pens. They’re my favourites and I’ve been using them for about a decade now. They’re waterproof, permanent and lightfast and they are very smooth to draw with. The watercolours are Winsor & Newton artist quality half pans and I have used a Cotman watercolour sketchbook, size A3.
It’s vital to use the best quality materials – acid free paper, permanent drawing pens and lightfast watercolours – otherwise the work will fade away to nothing over time. As a rule of thumb, materials marketed as ‘archival’ or ‘artist quality’ will not give you any problems but materials sold as ‘student quality’ or unmarked will not be good enough for a professional artist who intends to sell their work.
I ran a short course in using a pasta maker as a printing press at Swansea Print Workshop today. We used paper drypoint plates to make miniature prints. I very quickly re-sketched a drawing of a badger from my sketchbook and cut it into the plate with a drypoint tool. The nose is a bit too long, it’s almost an anteater – a badge-eater! 😀
Inking the drypoint plate
Printing through the press
A lovely image
The drypoint plate is easily cut and shaped
A beautiful crow
Here are some more photos, from inking the plate to the finished prints. Click here for a step-by-step record of the process and here to see it done on video.
Some of my blog readers have asked to see more of the series of line and watercolour drawings I did a while back. They were all drawn during life drawing sessions at Swansea Print Workshop into an A3 Cotman watercolour spiral-bound sketchbook. The linework was done with a F.aber Castell Pitt drawing pen and I used artist quality Winsor & Newton half pan watercolours for the colour washes. I used the watercolour quite thick, more like a gouache, in sharp choppy strokes with a stiff square brush.
Whew, what a day!!!! So busy, drove four hours up to Abergavenny and back and straight down to Swansea Print Workshop for the opening of the lovely Leftovers V international miniature print show. We went with a traditional Welsh tea opening with home-made bara brith, a classic Victoria Sandwich, scones with home-made loganberry jam (our own homegrown loganberries) and a first for me, a gluten-free vegan carrot cake. Lots of lovely people came to see the show, sip tea or juice and nibble cake. Leftovers V was initiated by Amy Nack at Wingtip Press in Boise, Idaho, USA as a print exchange to use up all the gorgeous leftover bits of paper that we printmakers always seem to have knocking around. This is its fifth year and includes artists from most States in the USA, Britain / Wales, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Germany and Canada.
Leftovers V exhibition dates
Baking for the opening of the show
Opening night visitors
The miniature pasta print training day
The exhibition runs at Swansea Print Workshop, 19a Clarence Street, Swansea for the week, 10.30 – 4.00 daily and on Wednesday the 5th August there is a training day about making miniature drypoint prints with a domestic pasta press. Pre-booking is essential on 01792 464418.
Vegan, gluten-free carrot cake
12 ounces of gluten-free self raising flour; one and a half teaspoons of Xanthan Gum; 4 ounces of dark brown sugar; 4 ounces of light brown sugar; a teaspoon of ground nutmeg; 8 ounces of vegan margarine; about 8 ounces of carrot pulp (left over from juicing); juice of half a lemon;a good handful of sultanas; some dairy free milk.
A 7 inch square baking tin, 3 inches deep; baking parchment for lining the tin; tin foil; a large mixing bowl.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3 and set a shelf towards the bottom. Line the bottom of the tin with baking parchment. In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, except the sultanas. Rub in the margarine until the mixture is like rough breadcrumbs. Mix in the carrot pulp and sultanas. Stir in the lemon juice and enough dairy-free milk (I used almond) to get a soft dropping consistency.
Turn it into the tin, smooth the top and bake for around one and a half hours until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Place a sheet of tin foil over the top of the cake after about 40 minutes to prevent burning. Run a knife around the sides of the cake and turn it onto a cake rack to cool.
Such a busy day. Putting up the new exhibition at Swansea Print Workshop this morning. It’s a gorgeous show of miniature prints from all over the world called Leftovers V. Then Husb and I went down for a much needed session on the allotment, loads of work to do but some harvesting too – potatoes, mint, chard, rhubarb, plums and cooking apples. Fresh food for some days to come. And on top of that, baking cakes for the exhibition tomorrow. We’re opening early evening with a traditional Welsh tea with bara brith, Victoria Sandwich, Welsh cakes and for the first time, I made a gluten-free vegan carrot cake. I’m caked out!
No time for sketching so I’m putting up one of the drawings I did at our life drawing group at Swansea Print Workshop on Thursday. This older male model has a very distinctive face that lends itself to bold mark-making with black and white conte crayon onto a rough brown parcel paper.
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