Happy Holidays!

Hey Nonny Nonny! 2004, 217x285 mm, relief print (mdf block), oil ink on acid free heavy art print paper.
Not a good reproduction as I photographed the print through glass. This is always difficult to do without getting some reflections.






This holiday celebration print was based on a snapshot a friend of mine took at work on Christmas day.
I wasn't working that day but when I saw the fun expressed in this photo I asked for permission to use it. The nurses, one in a red velvet outfit and both with Santa hats, were dancing for the youngsters in a children's ward at the local hospital. I left the background blank and greatly simplified the Christmas tree.
I made enough prints to be able to give one each to the dancers and the photographer, and keep one for myself. I also used a reduced version for my Christmas cards that year. I added a gold star to the tree for my cards.

The tall and the short of it!! Or.. heads and feet!
The five giraffes at our little zoo are all males, one older, one younger and three adolescents. Great fun to watch.

Photography is not my strongest talent. It is one of the minor subjects in my Learning Connexion course and the one I am most behind in in my studies. I try to go to the zoo regularly to practice photography on the animals as well as to sketch them. Its less embarrassing than to try to take photos or sketch people unaware.

Each time I visit the zoo I spend the bulk of my time at one of the enclosures-- the giraffes or the white rhinos or the spider monkeys--
The monkeys use their tails like fifth hands. So clever. But they move very quickly so are hard to sketch or photograph.

http://www.hamiltonzoo.co.nz/ 

I love the shapes. Those two above could be letter 'Y' in an ABC book.
And to the left, the younger boy with his head poking up from behind the oldest giraffe's back like a backward question mark..

Good design-- Form follows Function

I was reading a chapter on the spirit and beauty and art in a book owned by a friend. I need to read it again more carefully but I did pick up on the author's comments that art started to go downhill so to speak with the idea early last century about form following function. And he used the example of ugly modern buildings. 

While a lot of buildings are not very interesting and many are ugly, I do not think that form following function is to blame. Poor design can't be blamed on form following function. Except perhaps a building filled with accountants or stockbrokers or insurance workers might be excused being dour looking.

Banks used to be designed like temples. Perhaps their function was worshipping money.

CBD Auckland has a lot of interesting and sometimes delightful buildings. These rather ordinary windows make wonderful patterns reflected in an art gallery window.

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Life Drawing

 This was a charcoal drawing on A2 grey sugar paper.  The blind drawing below was marker pen on white cartridge paper.

Yesterday was the last session for the year for the life drawing group that I belong to. Life drawing is a bit addictive. When I started attending several years ago I didn't even like drawing. I knew I could draw and I needed to draw regularly for my course at the Learning Connexion. But I didn't like to draw. Can't say it has become my favourite activity but, as I said, the life drawing part of it has become an important part of my art life.
These two drawings were done during the same session. The charcoal one is a considered drawing. I worked hard on the proportions and the modelling of the form. The other drawing, however, was a much quicker one -- a blind drawing where I looked closely at the model but did not look at the drawing I was making on the paper until I was finished. I do enjoy doing blind drawings. I must confess my ability to do them has never improved but some of them just look so interesting. I have used a number of these as the basis for relief or drypoint prints. 

Art printing is such a huge subject. Where do you start?

The book I have just been reading, Drawn to Stitch: Line, drawing and mark-making in textile art, by Gwen Hedley, a book for fabric artists, has a large section on printing. You find printing everywhere.

A very interesting area of printing is doing collagraphs. Big name! It just means collage print. Colla - collage, graph/graphic - print or mark.

I went to a wonderful workshop recently designed to encourage artists to make collagraph blocks (mainly on mdf) and then use them to print and overprint to make layered work.

We made several blocks all the same size, and cut the paper the same size as the blocks so it would be easy to register and overprint.

I made so many blocks that I didn't get around to printing all of them. I did experiment with overprinting, however, and will do more.

Our tutor, Charlie, was American and brought some very nice American intaglio inks with him (www.danielsmith.com).

The pictures are of some of the printing blocks and some of the prints.
The first one is a print from a carborundum block. PVA glue is painted on the mdf, then the carborundum grit sprinkled on, the grit that doesn't stick is poured off and saved. We varnished the blocks before printing. Extra layers of varnish make it easier to wipe off the ink and leave white paper in the print.

 This is the block made with two grades of sandpaper. Again the block was varnished before using and extra varnish painted on where I wanted to wipe off most of the ink. You can see the colour of the mdf where the extra varnish was painted on.

Yes, I printed using a turquoise coloured ink. Even varnished the heavy sandpaper picks up a lot of ink.

You can take several prints off (with damp paper) each time you ink the block. Succeeding prints are lighter. In this print I have overprinted the third print of the sandpaper block. It's quite light. With the third printing off the carborundum block of a hand.







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Welcome to my new blog

I was a printmaker for many years at a casual level but  have improved my work hugely through studying at the Learning Connexion. This is not an advert! Its a great school especially when you can attend part-time and work extramurally.
I wanted to learn how to paint. I wanted to do 3D work. I wanted to draw more. Well I have done that and it has improved my printmaking so much.
This drawing was done at the life drawing group I work with every week. I still don't like drawing so much but life drawing is tremendous. The human form in all its' varieties is never boring.