Mangroves, Magpies & Press Envy.

And the award for laziest blogger goes to......

Me!

Sorry everyone, I have been a little busy lately. Life has gotten in the way.

I've been house sitting for my printmaker friend Frances who has the neediest little cat ever.

Meet Tito...he doesn't think much of his likeness....

Rowing about in Mangroves at Mossy Point is my new favourite past time. 

Frances has a canoe so we took it out for a little paddle yesterday. 

I'm very sad I have no pictures of my own to show you (camera + water + dodgy rowing ability not so good....) but here are a couple from the net that are pretty close to what it was like.

Mossy Point, Tomaga River

It's like time stops in there, no one else is around, it's so, SO eerily quiet and you can see from the sand up. It's like being in another world....

I am VERY excited and inspired feeling so stay tuned for some etchings and drawings coming soon....

Here is a print by Jorg Schmeiser.....he used to lecture at the ANU before I started there and made very beautiful prints. He also went adventuring in Antarctica and made many more pretty things.

"Mangrove Tree", Jorg Schmeiser

And here is one of Frances' paintings of the mangroves. 

Most of her work is based on dreams that she's had. 

She has made some etchings of this image too, hand colouring the fish in orange. They're my favourite.

"Mangrove Dream" Frances Luke

A detail of one of Frances' etchings, "Via Calligheree"

Apart from the mangroving, I've also had the luxury of using Frances' press. 

I HAVE PRESS ENVY PEOPLE. Sigh. One day I'll have one of my very own.....one day.....

Her studio has great light and there are beautiful big gum trees and tree ferns outside. 

THE PRESS

I've been playing around with a couple of aluminium plates, finally getting back into some proper acid etching.

This is a quick picture of the Aluminium plate in copper sulphate solution which is used to etch the plate. It's bubbling crazily away.....

All the rust coloured feathery stuff is where the acid is eating the plate. I rolled on a thin layer of hardground (combination of bitumen and rosin) and then scratched lines into the surface using a fine needled etching tool. The copper sulphate etches all the areas where I have scratched the hardground away leaving the rest of the surface protected. 

Plate in acid

This is the first proof I printed off the plate. (sorry about the picture.....better shots coming soon...)

etching in progress, hard ground on Fabriano Rosapina

This is the second plate I've been working on.

This time I painted a 'white ground' (a mixture of titanium white pigment, linseed oil, detergent and water) onto the plate to get the tree shapes and then sprayed a layer of black enamel paint in an even layer on top to create a tone or 'aquatint'. The white ground protects the plate from the acid and creates a resist.

This is just the first stage for this plate. I'm going to do another layer of aquatint to build up the tones to get a rich black. It's going to be a night time forest.... :)

etching in progress II, white ground and aquatint on Fabriano Rosapina 

Forests are taking over! 

Here are a couple of artists I've been looking at for inspiration.

Ansel Adams

Sally Mann (My FAVOURITE!)

More Sally Mann....

Gustav Klimt

David Hockney in action

Apart from the needy cat at Frances' there is a magpie problem. 

There is a gang of about 8 magpies that hang out around the back yard and constantly come in the cat door to steal Tito's food. They're so game! I have to chase them round and round the house to finally get them to leave. You point at the door and tell them "Out" and they just tilt their little heads to the side. It's like dealing with a naughty toddler. 

Every morning when I open the kitchen blind they're all outside leering menacingly at me..."Where's our food bitch?" Frances was feeding them seed all the time......

This is a detail of the plastic plate I've been working on. No acid this time, just drypoint. I used a Dremel (small hand held drill) to make the marks and scratches on the plate.

detail, "Magpies"

Birds, Birds, Birds.....seems to be a Spring thing...

Here is Mr. Hitchcock to tell you a little bit about "The Birds"....

And some William Kentridge & Arthur Boyd too......

My hero, William Kentridge

Arthur Boyd

In other news....

I've started experimenting with fabric printing!

My lino cuts print quite well onto fabric with fabric block ink. Woohoo!

Next up some screen printing me thinks...

Bunting anyone?

I'll be busy getting ready for the South Coast Handmade Market at the Bowling Club in Batemans Bay in the next couple of weeks. (Now called Catalina Sports & Leisure Club or something...there are 2 Catalina Clubs now.....that's just silly!) 

Make sure you put Saturday November 10th in your diaries!!!!!

We're raising money for Ovarian Cancer and there will be a raffle to be won with one of my prints in the kitty!  

Phew!

This is a bit epic! Who said I was lazy......?

Do you like hearing more about my printing process?

Let me know! 

If you don't I'll stop boring you and just add more piccies. ;)

Better pictures and more work coming real soon. 

I'm on a roll Possums!

J

xoxo