While I am waiting for my delivery of goodies from a new supplier I found in Germany/Austria I decided to post a piece about some monoprints I was working on earlier this year. I love to try new ways with mediums (new to me that is!)
When I was small, less than 6 years old, I remember my grandfather showing me his dark room where he was processing black and white photography. Something about it stuck with me, no idea if it was the magic of the process, the strange smells, or just childish curiosity, but I remember. I like the idea of black on white where the imagined greys tell a story in the shadows. I have tried a few times to make lino cuts and not been really enamoured with my efforts so I thought monoprints might be more fun for me…not realising how addictive they might turn out to be. I love them. However, what I wasn’t prepared for were the resulting images. I have been slowly adding to a body of work on the theme of Conversations with Trees, these were supposed to be of trees and other plant life. Yet, what I saw in many of the images were figures, creatures and somethings other worldly. I was a bit freaked out initially I must admit, but have been told that perhaps I am channelling. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole today.
I used a sheet of glass, one out of an old fridge as the sides were nice and smooth and a brayer with Lefranc and Bourgeois black lino block printing ink. I also used acrylic paints for other ones. I had a few different types of paper, some turned out to be perfect and some took forever to dry as they were not absorbent enough. The humid Irish air contributed to the long drying time too. I used the sides of the brayer to make marks along with a three sided flexible comb and a few palette knives. The more I did, the more I wanted to keep going.
A few of the black inked ones were equally interesting when turned the opposite way up.
These two freaked me out as the figures were so strong, I took one print and then added to the same plate for the second print, which resulted in more pronounced and perhaps more fierce figures, hence the titles of Warriors and Sentinels.
sentinels 
These were strange, one I titled Travellers, I could clearly see a female form with a staff, leading a group of people and the other a male form who appears to be wearing a hood, hence the Henchman.
These both appear to have rather sinister figures in them, one a black ink and one an acrylic.
into the forest 
I had to sit with these for a while before they emerged out of the reeds.
Spot the grasshopper in the middle image.
riverside 2
These were waterside reeds, they have some weird and wonderful insects in them.
riverside
A small one with a figure looking out to sea and some strange figures in the forest
These four were all acrylics on glass and mono-printed. Different mark making and water droplets were used to create textural form.
This is just a selection from my pile of prints, some just too weird and some not worth showing, all were fun though. Why not give it a try!
Some of these are available in my Etsy shop as prints and more are available on request.
There are also a few of my soft pastels available as A4 prints on archival paper …you can browse them in my shop here…
This is the website I found, particularly useful for those of you looking to buy from Europe as an option to the UK places. It isn’t in English, but with Google translate open in another window, I found it easy enough. A huge range of well known brands as well as German ones. The shipping etc info is at the bottom of the webpage. You just make an account as usual and emails were replied to in English.
See you next time!
