Distilled light

Circle aquatint 2008

We are extremely fortunate to live close to really good exhibiting venues. One of my favourite destinations which is but a twenty minute drive away is Farnham. There are at least three exhibition venues there, and this time the specific attraction was the James Hockey Gallery and its show Jaakko Mattila: Lowest Common Denominator. This is a stunning exhibition of paintings and prints by the Finnish artist Jaakko Mattila who studied in Farnham.

All the work is so calm and calming - and yet exciting too. The quality of light ranging from the white gloss of large paintings to the edges of translucent colour in the aquatints and watercolours is something which demands attention and scrutiny. I felt pulled in to examine the delicate edges of brush strokes, the textural quality of layers, the immovable yet liquid graininess, ....

This is not the kind of art which I am compelled to make; but it is very much the kind of art which I enjoy and which inspires me.Cube acquatint 2008

Cube (anti) aquatint 2009

Everything and nothing oil on linen, mixed media 2008

Progress with collagraphs

How I would love to spend much more time working with printmaking! Nevertheless I am also enjoying the measured progress of one day per week, with a wait of a week for my prints to dry. It is unusual for me to work on images which have no title; but there is a feeling about each one which helps me to develop it.
I love using chine colle to add to, embellish, expand, ... an image, and because the above figure is a warrior in my mind's eye - perhaps ancient - I struck on the idea of using some of my piles of Greek stamps in the process. I like the result, but I think it is not there yet.

The next collagraph plate with which I used stamps is one made up of ginkgo and eucalyptus leaves on a piece of khadi paper which I had machine stitched. In this case I'm really not sure about the bright stamps on the right which grab too much attention. I had taken too much ink off the plate before printing, but I quite like the cropped slither below which is more abstract as well as the stamps blending in.

I have long had an interest in printmaking, and in effect the way I go about producing my cloth for stitching is one form of printmaking. I started taking these classes last term (i.e. after Easter) for three purposes: 1. to get me physically away from the environs of my mother and her care one day per week, regularly. 2. to explore an image-making process about which I was already curious, and 3. to shake up my own design process because I was feeling that the new designs for textile work were becoming stuck.

The classes are succeeding in all three. My daily stress headaches have gone, and I wake up now with developing design thoughts in my mind pushing out inadequate-daughterly worries, and the proportion of time spent using my brain is beginning to increase once more. More important than anything I am beginning again to enjoy life and to look forward to the next day's work - and to finding more printmaking books to spend too much money on!

Revisit

In my spiral meanderings I revisit figures. I love to come back to figures which please me, or intrigue me - or even which niggle at me for some reason, even if it is to correct or adjust some aspect. I have been visiting my repeat designs recently, and suddenly I saw The birth of Athena - so I isolated the image and completed that design - as seen below.

Enjoying the journey

None of my printing work is ever regarded as being 'finished'. This is but the beginning of my second term of one day per week for 10 weeks - so I am barely at the start with the practice. Everything is of interest, and in many ways that is the main joy.
I was born on a Thursday: 'far to go', and it really has turned out that way. It is not that I have reached a specific distant point, but that it is such a fascinating journey. There has been - still is - a great deal which I do not enjoy about it; but that is far outweighed by the rest of the experience.
The above image shows my initial rubbings off of the ink from the collagraph plate shown in the last post. I scanned it through the other side of the tissue paper because the ink is still wet. I have no idea if I shall go on to do something with this, but nonetheless it excites me. And I get so excited that I have at my fingertips the technology to go on to make something more from this happy accident should a possibility leap into my mind.

Printmaking progress

We have had two sessions in this new term, and at present we are learning about collagraphs. I am really enjoying these, with the above image one I produced with a plate I made up on the spot, trying out various materials. The one below I'd prepared from home. A long time ago I was seduced by paper string, and at last I have found a use for a very small part of my stash! The line running down through the figure below's hand is it.