Organic Collagraphs

I finally finished the two 'organic' collagraphs today and matted them up ready to frame. With some advice from a good friend they have been cropped so the images don't seem to be floating around. It's amazing what you don't see when you are looking too closely at an image. Once she made the crop suggestions I instantly remembered a composition rule about having images touch or go off the edges. I just love the internet and e-mail!

Organic Collagraphs

I am calling these plates 'organic' collagraphs as they have been constructed using dried plant material. The first two, the hydrangeas and leaves, are also on organza glued to matcard. I found the organza very difficult to work with. The first time I tried rubbing the ink on with a piece of material and the second time I tried brushing it on. Neither method worked very well. The dried hydrangeas were quite flat until I tried to stick them to the plate with gel medium and matte medium at which time they decided to plump up, making them thick again. They went through the press just fine but the amount of glue needed to make them stay down then seeps out around the edges making for a sloppy looking print.

The gingko leaves were better but the stems needed a lot of glue to stay flat and the ink didn't stay on the glue resulting in the white edges which looks too messy for me. The corrugated cardboard also had the same effect.

Out of the four attempts I think I will re-work the two gingko ones with oil pastel and see what happens. The other two will get ripped up for collage material.

All being said, I won't try that method again but will attempt making a cast of the fresh flowers and leaves next time in modelling paste or plaster of paris and applying that to the plate, which will also be masonite instead of matcard as it is much sturdier.

Not a wasted effort - nothing ventured, nothing gained!

New Work

After a few weeks of putting my gardens to bed for the upcoming winter months and cutting mats and assembling frames I have started 4 new 13" square collagraph plates. I dried some leaves and flowers from the summer and am experimenting with fixing the dried materials to a matboard base along with corrugated cardboard bits, string, organza and texture using PVA glue. I have run into a few problems - my gingko leaves have some air bubbles underneath which I can't do anything about now but next time I will use PVA glue to fix them instead of heavy gel medium and cover them with wax paper and run it through my press to flatten them out. The other problem area is the hydrangea flowers which, even though dried, are too thick. I am waiting for a large amount of matte medium that I applied to dry and then I will cover them with wax paper and weight them down and then run them through the press to flatten some more.

While waiting for all this to dry I am now going to start 3 more plates in a 6" x 14" size using abstract shapes.

It is windy and raining outside today and somehow that is sparking my creativity! I will post again when all these plates are done and ready to ink up.

Monotype & Collage

I spent some time yesterday working on some monotype prints from a few weeks ago, adding colour and some collage elements. I'm not sure if I like the result so I am posting photos of 3 of them in hopes of getting some feedback.

My next project is trying to collage dried plant material onto a collagraph plate. Again, I'm not sure how this will turn out either. I dried some flowers and leaves this summer from the garden to try this with and now the test comes. I'm hoping that gel medium will stick them down and seal them and then I think if I weight the plate down for a day or so it should flatten enough. I will post again when I have something to show.

A Productive Stretch

Finally, after a long drought, some new work! The first print is the second run of Textures of Life#2 and the two leaf prints are monotypes. I also have four more leaf monotypes measuring in at 20" x 16" which will frame up nicely in a 27" x 24" frame.

Firstly, I had a lot of ink still on my glass-topped work surface left over from my last printing session which is at least 3 weeks ago! That's the beauty of the Hawthorn inks that I am using from York, U.K. - they are 'open' inks and don't dry up or skin over! Every day I intended to do some more printing but 'life' got in the way or, if I did get the time, I wasn't in the mood. Today, with a drop of linseed oil mixed in, my inks were perfect and I got my second run on plate #2 of a two-plate set done. I think I like it, but won't really know if it is a good one until it is dry and I look at it again matted up and in another room.

My foray into the monotype process took place at a friend's beautiful and spacious studio last week. We worked on gelatin plates with leaves and flowers from her garden using Speedball inks and rollers. It was a lot of fun and a fast process as well. After about 4 hours of fast-paced playing around I came away with quite a large pile of prints on Stonehenge printmaking paper as well as rice paper. As a result, I found two small ones that will frame up to 17" x 12" and four larger ones that will frame up to 27" x 24". I think they will all end up as mixed media with some additional colour added with liquid acrylic paint and some collage elements as well.

Tomorrow I am off to Pakenham and Perth to deliver new paintings to both the Three Yellow Tulips Art Shoppe and the Tay River Gallery. The weather promises to be sunny so I will bring my camera as well in hopes of catching a few interesting fall photos.

My inking table is all cleaned up and polished and ready for some more action. A few new plates have to be constructed first so that is the next project. I will try and be more productive and post again soon.

Another Day and a 'Definitely Maybe'

Well, the day was not entirely wasted. I managed to do a lot of organizing and paperwork, take care of phone calls and follow-ups, order frames, organize pick-ups and deliveries of old and new work to various locations, get some new plates cut and ready to start and touch up a print that was not quite 'there' - not quite sure if it is ready yet. Tomorrow looks clear to get some work done with no major interruptions. Now to comb the burrs out of the dog (for the third time today) and find something for dinner.

New Blog Name

I have decided that my blog needed a more relevant name - From Here to There (And Back Again) only has meaning to me personally. In attempting to sign up with Feedburner I took their advice on having a name that actually relates more to the content of the blog - it's a bit boring but all I could come up with today.

We have been inundated with skunks and racoons in the last few weeks digging up the lawn while searching for tasty grubs. My dog has been sprayed and I have been busy putting sod back in place almost every day. The installation of an underground sprinkler system, a new furnace, repairs to a deck, building of a BBQ shed has meant many extra people hovering around each day which does nothing to spark my creativity, hence, no new prints, which really ticks me off!

I am going to try, once again, today to run at least one, if I can get a few hours to myself. It's duct cleaning day - more workmen in the house. I'm getting very anxious! Please, please, please let me get in "the zone"! I should have called this entry "Crabby, Anxious Artist"!