Saturday, March 22, 2014

Galets




A simple drawing inspired by the rocks on the Nice beaches. …the river rocks that are topped up each year from the River Var…..which the french call "galets". 

 The rust color is a strange choice for beach elements….I can't account for what was going on in my head that day.  

Lines and Splashes


Once in a while I surprise myself and do something a bit out of character.  This was a series I did to try some techniques with ink and other materials and see if I wanted to use the compositions for larger pieces.   (These are only about 15x20 cm. ) 

 I like the textural elements but the straight geometric compositions didn't speak loud enough to me to pursue the ideas. The techniques I discovered didn't transfer well to canvas anyway… which is what I prefer for large works.  










Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Chine Collé revisited









Another lino print I did last year from an original drawing I did inspired from a photo I found of looking up into the bare branches of a tree.  

This print seemed to need something more so in the top photo I have used a piece of printed japanese paper to do a "Chine collé  .  I did a post on Chine collé in my other blog: marympayne.blogspot.com     Here is a re-print for the art blog. 



  "Here in Nice,  I have been following a printmaking course for some years, where despite the few hours afforded us each week at the municipal art school, I have learned how to do basic printmaking.  From time to time I would like to report on what printmaking is all about.    I will start off with an interesting technique called:   
 "Chine-colle´". 

Chine-collé  means literally "China pasted" and  translates from the French as "pasted tissue paper". The original tissue papers came to Europe from the China, Japan and India . 

It is one of the techniques of printmaking which marries two processes together and can be impressive if done well.   Almost any zinc or copper plate (plaque) that has already been engraved with acid (eau forte) or dry point techniques can be used as well as carved linoleum or wood blocks. 


The way I have learned to use the technique is to provide a background color or pattern behind the image that is different from the original backing sheet ( Rives or Arches paper). 

To achieve the results you see in my photos below:


1. I first ink the plate in black, in this case both of these are zinc plates which were first etched with the "sugar lift" method and an acid bath. 


2.  Next, a finer piece of paper (be it newspaper, japanese paper, or specially colorfast tissue paper) is trimmed to size and then dampened with a spray bottle and placed between 2 pieces of newspaper to blot.  Some papers expand more than others when they are dampened so it means testing to get the trimming accurate. 


3. After 5 minutes of resting, a wheat (or rice) paste is brushed on the dampened backing sheet.  You must be sure that the design goes on the reverse side face up or your print will not succeed as you wished.  ( I have ruined several prints already by putting them on backwards... oy!). 

4.  The plate is then run through the printing press.  It is the pressure of the press that transfers the ink to the thin paper which will then adhere to the thicker printing paper. 

To make the special paste the gluten must be separated from the rest of the substance of wheat flour.   When heated, the gluten forms a ball in your hand which can be lifted away.   This leaves the starch which is heated with distilled water and then passed through a sieve to form the paste.  This ancient method of paste making is the most revered by artists and bookbinders although modern glues are now used by some printmakers.  


With printmaking each step must be executed accurately or the total is spoiled.  This isn't so in painting.  Sometimes it's the "mistakes" in a painting that make it interesting and possible for the artist to take a new turn. 

 That is much less the case in printmaking.  I can say with the discipline of printmaking,  I am slowly learning patience and focus.   It comes, however, at a price of time and money. 

 If you spoil a chine colle´ in the final stage,  at least 30 minutes of time are gone, not to mention the design sheet, which may have taken 30 minutes or more to create.   Or if you found a unique image in the newspaper you probably do not have another of the same.  The backing paper is quite pricey too, always a regret to throw away.  
(Rives 280 gr/m2 paper is usually about 6 euros a sheet, meaning 2 euros a print with the size I work with.)

Chine colle´may take years to perfect but it breathes new life into any of one's old plaques with the added satisfaction that each of these prints will be unique.  

Yves Klein inspired acid etched plate with newspaper used under the print

Found image from an ad in the newspaper again


In this case I took a photo of one of my canvases and printed it on Japanese paper .  Since the ink was not permanent I was able to achieve this cloudy affect with the chine colle´. 


Example of the original print homage to Klein print with red ink 
Second example of sugar lift print on Rives paper, without chine colle´ in black ink. 


Same print with japanese paper behind the print , color saturation reinforced with watercolors after printing.  I used less black ink to reveal the variation of the plate."


Linocut : Pear and Bottle





Here is a linocut I did last year in what I call the Matisse-ian style. Matisse did lots of line drawings with black and white.  

I have a few of this print in my kitchen .  They make a good graphic display when there is more than one.  

 I might try this image with a "reduction method" one day.  For example , leave the background , print it and then carve it away and continue with the other elements.  It is hard to "get my head around" reduction prints but I am experimenting with one now. 



In this colored one I printed a yellow background on a plain piece of linoleum, then I rolled up the print in red and printed over it. 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Linocut: "Redhead"

At one point I worked on some simple sketches to see what I could do with linocut and the nude.  The results seemed a bit boring in black and white so I did a series of "caches"… cardboard cut outs that I used to block off some areas while printing others. 

 As I recall, I made three stencils and rolled on one color at a time…. blocking off the rest of the print.       I did this in four separate printings on a book press which is not ideal.    First the colors , each one printed on the paper, then last,  I superimposed the print of the girl rolled out in black ink. 


  In those days before the use of the large press we have in the studio now, we did our alignment "au pif" which means.."by using guesswork".  Still we managed to do a lot of prints that way but now I am spoiled and wouldn't go through that again.    





                               I call this one "Redhead".  

Monday, March 17, 2014

Irises

Iris, my friend ( and cousin),  this one is dedicated to you. 



It is the moment for the native wild irises in the south of France to be blooming.  I saw them on my walk today…many people have a few in their gardens as they are so easy to pass around and cultivate.  

I painted this in ink and pastel gras (oil pastels) on the same day that I did The Golden Bird from my post a few days ago.    None of these shapes is really a flower but your brain wants them to be . 





Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Golden bird



It is March 9 ,  absolutely a Spring day ( and Emma's bd).  I was out in the garden the first time this year, rootling around just to be outdoors… and so this seemed the right piece for today.

I think that this painting started as a flower picture because I have two more similar paintings that I did on the same day and they are both of flowers .   

 It was at least ten years ago and I was using an old technique of crayon resist which has to do with ink not adhering to the paper where wax crayon has gone down before.   I also remember blocking off bits of the painting with cut-outs and using spatter painting with a toothbrush.  I should have taken down some notes as I don't really remember .

At some point, I started seeing images of birds on the page and that is when  I started pushing the design to be three birds in perhaps a bird bath ( a basin) and a tree. 

  It's the feeling of glorious spring, and color and exuberance that caught me…  a painting that got away from me…I just love when that happens.

This painting was exhibited in the Musee d'art Naif in Nice as part of a student exhibition. 



Friday, March 7, 2014

i grec

i grec is the letter "Y" and is called that in French.  

The name of this series is" i grec" because the shape you are looking at is the shape of a Y.  


These smallish mixed media pieces ( pastel, ink, acrylic, oil pastels) were shown in an exhibition at the Maison des Artistes in Cagnes sur Mer called "Liaisons Intimes".  The exhibition was organized by Laurence Calamand,  a friend from art school who lives in Cagnes. 


In the catalogue it reads:  "The "Y" as a form can be seen as the chalice of the grail…or can be interpreted as part of the female anatomy.  Historically the grail is tied to mystery, desire and mystical powers. "


"L'Y vu comme le calice ou le Graal, ou comme partie de l'anatomie féminine.  Image historiquement liée au mystère au désir, et aux pouvoirs mystiques. "



Technique mixte, 10 images, 10x15 cm.



























 It was at this exhibition that I met the world famous Czech artist: Franta who has made his home in France.  He spent about 15 minutes with me and I showed him around the exhibition.   I didn't realize that he was a famous artist and one of the founders of La Maison des Artistes in Cagnes.


Presentation of Y

Me with friends at Maison des Artistes

Me with Franta



With fellow exhibition artists being presented by the Mayor's office spokesperson




This is me with Pascale, the friend that I have known from the first year I lived in France