Recently we enjoyed a family holiday in Boscastle, Cornwall; an absolutely beautiful place, with truly inspirational scenery, land & seascapes etc. Boscastle is the Cornish village which was pretty much destroyed by freak flooding about 5 years ago & much of the village has had to be re-built (indeed, I believe some renovation is on-going). The skills of the craftsmen employed & the use of local materials however is testament to Cornish traditions & resilience. Boscastle remains one of the most beautiful villages in the area (although naturally, it is not alone in that accolade).
I had signed up for the first day of a four day Master Class about a month after my visit to Cornwall, the Master Class being run by a truly inspirational printmaker, Alfons Bytautas of Edinburgh Printmakers. With this in mind, I was focussing my thoughts on natural images, seascapes etc, when an image presented itself in the form of Water (working title). I also have some rock face photographs which I would like to develop into a series, with the possibility of seascapes at a later date.
The time spent between the holiday & the course was spent working on the Water images in Photoshop, so that they were ready for the Photo Polymer Etching course, which has since been held.
It was a thoroughly informative day with background information on the innovative techniques, discourse on what is & isn’t ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘non-toxic’ printmaking (the answer by the way - there’s no such thing, just marginally less toxic materials) & of course, the opportunity to create a plate & print it. My plate threw up more questions than answers but it was all relative & in so doing has given me more ideas in which to try out ideas & manipulate the image. I can’t wait to get back into the studio & try it again, with hopefully, vastly improved results! You can see mine & other printmakers attempts at http://masterclass2009.greendoor-printmaking.co.uk/gallery-print.html
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
And another thing...
It’s been a while since I’ve managed to update this site as it’s been a very busy time for one reason or another…
Having completed the Red Circle exchange, I moved onto another exchange, this time held by Crown Point Press. I had a small mezzotint plate & I decided to have another go at creating something (the first time saw me create Flight w/Chine-Collé). This time it was a rather precise portrait affair in the form of my eye. It threw up several challenges, primarily how to get strong definition in the lines & creating shadows. All in all it was a practise piece that inked up easily enough, with technical improvements. Not my best piece of work visually but a good opportunity in understanding mezzotint nonetheless. I toyed with the idea of a ‘clever’ title; Perspective, Eye of the Beholder, Sense, Sight etc but bandied them about so many times that I finally settled on ‘Untitled’ (original, I know). In hindsight, Chine-Collé would work well in this piece too.
Having completed the Red Circle exchange, I moved onto another exchange, this time held by Crown Point Press. I had a small mezzotint plate & I decided to have another go at creating something (the first time saw me create Flight w/Chine-Collé). This time it was a rather precise portrait affair in the form of my eye. It threw up several challenges, primarily how to get strong definition in the lines & creating shadows. All in all it was a practise piece that inked up easily enough, with technical improvements. Not my best piece of work visually but a good opportunity in understanding mezzotint nonetheless. I toyed with the idea of a ‘clever’ title; Perspective, Eye of the Beholder, Sense, Sight etc but bandied them about so many times that I finally settled on ‘Untitled’ (original, I know). In hindsight, Chine-Collé would work well in this piece too.
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