Visual Artist - Calligrapher
Pink bikini screen print
Yesterday I was back at Ground Zero Printmakers Studio to try more of my bikini design as a screen print. I changed the colour of the bikini to a hot pink which I think works very well with the yellow polka dots! I hope to put this print in our upcoming show, Imperfect Memory which opens on May 23, 6 – 9 pm. See invitation below with a stencil print by Susan Underwood:
"Painting No. 1" 1964 by Ronald Bloore
Last weekend we made a dizzying trip to Vancouver and Whistler and back to Victoria in 36 hours! On Friday we waded past the “4:20″ folks setting up on the corner of Hornby and Howe and made our way into the VAG (Vancouver Art Gallery) to see the current show “Lights Out!”, Canadian paintings from the 1960s. Above is a photo of me beside one of Ronald Bloore’s white-on-white textured paintings that he was well known for. “Although Mr. Bloore never went to art school, he was one of the so-called Regina Five, a group of painters who outraged conservative Prairie sensibilities and stimulated public opinion.” (Alan Hustak, The Globe and Mail, September 12, 2009). We saw many other significant works from that period but had little time to linger as we were meeting my nephews for lunch then heading up to Whistler to make dinner for John’s parents!
Fred Herzog Exhibit at Equinox Gallery's Project Space
On our way back from Whistler stopped in Vancouver again and found our way to Equinox Project Space, set up by the Equinox Gallery to see Fred Herzog A Retrospective. This space is at the Great Northern Way Campus (four schools share this campus). We have seen Herzog’s photos before at the VAG and were excited to see more. He emigrated to Canada from Germany in 1952 and found his way to Vancouver in 1953 and began to take his photography more seriously. “His work focuses primarily on “ordinary” people, the working class, and their connections to the city around them. He worked primarily with slide film (mostly Kodachrome), which limited his ability to exhibit, and also marginalized him somewhat as an artist in the 1950s and 60s when most work was in black and white.” (Wikipedia) The cool thing about this exhibit is that with new technology his slides have been reproduced as high quality prints. And there were a lot of red dots; even at upwards of $4,000 per print! Way to go Fred!
Dream Boat 1
I started another set of new prints using an image of a red row boat. During my childhood summers at our cottage on the south shores of Lake Nipissing (Ontario), we whiled away the hours in our old red rowboat. We were too young for a “motor boat” so rowing around the bay was harmless and kept us out of my Mother’s hair so she could do the laundry with the old ringer washer and tend to the littlest ones. I used styrene for the background plate and stencils for the boat and the waves. I sprinkled corn starch on the inked plate to give the appearance of the lake sparkling in the sunshine. These prints will be in our show Imperfect Memory which opens on May 23 at Gallery 1580 in Victoria. I will be mentioning this date often so you will remember to attend this amazing show!
3D collage grid
Last Tuesday was my last class of Watermedia Drawing with Tracey Nelson. Our final assignment was to do a work using a grid format. I decided to create some 3D collages from my own painted papers and some fun polka dot papers I bought at Michael’s. I intuitively put together several collages then chose 9 collages which I had mounted on 5″ X5″ black Canson. I cut a variety of shapes, cut out windows, tore papers, punched holes, and used double-sided adhesive foam to raise some of the pieces off the surface. I arranged the collage squares along with a few solid black ones, then mounted them onto a full size sheet of foam core. See below for a close-up.
This piece along with several other works of mine will be on display this weekend at the Vancouver Island School of Art Open House on Saturday, April 14, 12 – 4 pm. The work will be up until April 30 if you can’t make the open house. There is some really great art being shown at the school these days so I suggest you grab a few friends and make a point of checking it out!
close-up 3d collage grid
Shore Birds #1 (final)
Last week at Cecelia Press I decided to try using a brayer and roll the ink onto a sheet of 8″ X 10″ styrene that I had scratched into. I rolled on two blues, Ultramarine and Prussian, and also used a piece of matt board to make marks into the ink. I lay three shore bird stencils on top and printed onto BFK Rives. The print you see above is one that I reworked with watercolour and Inktense sticks. I may still need to bump up some of the values a bit more. The print below is the way it came off the press and I wanted to show you how you can revive a print you may not be pleased with.
Shore birds # 1 off the press
You can see that the birds needed some help to come forward. I like the textures that show up in the background though. The next print is a ghost of another shore birds print. I like the feeling it evokes of the birds sitting on the shore on an early misty morning!
Ghost print creates misty morning feel!
Prints drying at Ground Zero Printmakers Studio
This past weekend I participated in an Introduction to Screen Printing Workshop with Alain Costos at Ground Zero Printmakers Studio http://www.groundzeroprint.comhere in Victoria.
Screen in foreground
I decided to chose what I thought was a simple graphic image – a yellow polka dot bikini. We began by drawing our image on paper then transfering to a stenicl material, in this case, mylar. We very carefully cut our stencils with an x-acto knife. Alain suggested we work with two colours, so we created two stencils, one for each colour. In my case, the first stencil was for the maroon bikini and the second for the yellow polka dots. (I wanted a purple for the bikini but the best colour mixture I could do with the colours on hand was maroon, so I settled for that).
First colour on opaque vellum paper
Here’s a print of the first colour, maroon, on opaque vellum paper. We started to print on newspaper, then on to newsprint, opaque vellum, Stonehenge, then BFK. It’s best to start with the newspaper until you get your ink flowing across the screen (using a squeegee). This took some practice!
Okay, that was fun, now to add the second colour. So now of course I had to deal with registration! Meaning my yellow polka dots had to land in the right spot on the maroon bikini. I think I cut some of the polka dots too large so they didn’t quite line up. Although not too bad for a first attempt!
Second colour on BFK Rives
I tried the reverse colours in another edition of prints (see below). Thanks to Alain for being so organized and patient with us throughout the workshop!
Two colours, second edition
At the beach with Sandy
Like the print in my last post, this print was also created with stencils, embossing and chine colle. This time though I decided to “let the pieces fall where they may”. The embossed areas were created using cut pieces of styrene. I just dropped them onto the plate then placed the photo on an angle and then decided where the inked stencils would fit. I decided not to use water or beach colours but colours that would be more youthful and fun. I must stress that the colours are not showing up very well on the screen – they look great in real life! I’m still using the “kraft” coloured Stonehenge which also is not showing up well in the photos. I like the effect of the ink colours against the brown.
At the beach (without chine colle photo)
After some comments made by my studio mates, I decided to try some prints without the photos. I also cut some new stencils in more organic shapes and cut more pieces of styrene. Again I dropped the styrene pieces then decided where the inked stencils should be placed. This was also printed on the “kraft” Stonehenge. I am hoping these will be part of Imperfect Memory, a show I am doing with Lorraine Douglas and Susan Underwood May 22 – June 2, at Gallery 1580 in Victoria BC.
At the beach #2
“At the beach #2″ was made with the same elements and I added more styrene pieces. I think maybe I’m getting somewhere with this idea!
Here is a print I did the other day using stencils, embossing, and chine colle. The seagull stencils were rolled up with Acqua Wash inks, the photo was printed onto a “Chinese rice paper “(it was given to me; apparently purchased at Opus) and the embossed images were cut from styrene. The support paper is a kraft coloured Stonehenge although the colour didn’t show up in the photo. I’d like to tie all these elements together somehow … and also add some words too. Back to the studio today to experiment some more!
Watercolour & ink on BFK
This weekend, Saturday and Sunday, February 25 and 26 from 1 – 5 pm both days I am hosting an Open Studio Show & Sale. The original of the above watercolour piece, which is 7″ X 5″ on BFK Rives paper, will be for sale and also available as a card - perfect for that special person you’d like to acknowledge! I will have 12 card images available as well as bundles of handmade thank you cards and hand-pulled monoprints, chine colle prints, digital prints, and paintings will also be on sale. My home will be transformed into an art gallery!
The multi-media printmaking project I worked on last year, Oh! What a Life! will also be on display again for those that missed the first showing in December at Ground Zero Printmakers (see their link on the sidebar).
I know there is a lot going on in Victoria this weekend so I would be so grateful if you could attend this weekend’s event (before you sit down to watch the Oscars!)
Stencil printing at Ceceila Press
In my last post I mentioned that I was on my way over to Cecelia Press printmaking studio. Above is one of the prints I created using stencils and Aqua Wash inks. I’m having fun moving the stencils around the page and adding more colours to other prints. These colours remind me of the popsicles I would buy at the corner store as a child. Lorraine said they look delicious!
Close-up of stencil print
Here’s a close-up of the print in the top photo. I cut the stencils from photographic paper and used a hole punch for the circles and cut the other shapes with an x-acto knife then rolled the ink on with a brayer. The Aqua Wash inks are new to me so it’s taking a bit of time to get used to them. I’d like to try them on my zinc and copper plates and see what kind of results I get as opposed to the oil-based inks I have used. Okay, gotta go … back over to Cecelia Press for more printmaking fun!
Visit me on Facebook or send me an email!