Blades on the path

Two modes of cutting will be demonstrated:

[this is the more formal approach]

 

 

More collage..... and more to come;    the last one here is the possible genesis for a later screenprint but before that I intend to remake it on the basis of a number of suggestions from Sercan eg. : reduce the size of the globe; make the mouth a little more mysterious; anyway I wasn't happy with the rot section.
I think I'll do what I do best  ie take the pictures myself

More blade work , but pen and pencil first - this is to show the development of an image for w/cut:

 

the first rough sketch

 

getting more direct

 

pencil

 

a bit more specific

 

 

 

more general

 

 

simplifying - but the word the wrong way round

 

a variety of different tones

 

the decision

 

the cut begins - oh joy!

 

half - cut (...you wish)

This is a theme which may well lend itself to a series - I'd still like the do 'Life of Wayne Rooney'

Come back Gary Larsen , all is forgiven

Any ramblers along this path will know my predilection fr ground art in all its forms.

However, I think this one surpassing good:

 

suggestions as to its deeper level of meaning would be welcome

 

Today we handed in essays for Kieran Cashell's seminar 'Mirrors of Enigma' and I believe -other than feedback on essays there may be no further lectures - that's a pity as I have found them extremely stimulating and I intend to continue to work through the book list that he gave us at the beginning. The most recent acquisition (library) has been The Painting of Modern Life by T.J. Clark which 'describes the painting of Manet, Degas, Seurat, and others as an attempt to give form to that modernity and seek out its typical representatives'. (1999).

 

I had only begun to read the section on 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergere' by Manet :

 

 

...and what an interesting piece of work this is with so many undercurrents flowing...

 

when I came across this contemporary sketch from the cartoonist Stop in Le Journal Amusant :

 

 

 

 

whose caption read:



UNE MARCHANDE DE  CONSOLATION AUX FOLIES-BERGERE : Trans ; Her back is reflected in a mirror; but, no doubt, because the painter was distracted, a gentleman with whom she is chatting and whose image one sees in the glass, does not exist in the picture itself. - We  thought we should repair this omission (Clark 1999, p. 241)

You just cannot get past the smart-alecks, can you?

 



A bend in the path

So etch is finished for now and we move back again to relief and screenprinting, and for your correspondent it will be relief so the old sharp tools will be on the move once more - I'll be honest (amn't I always?) I really am looking forward to this; the two briefs are 'Protest' and 'Humour' but the tutors are at pains to point out that one's project can certainly be a mix of these. I have an idea but I am not sure yet about how it will work; other tutors having seen it seem to think it has great possibilities; tomorrow I will do some drawings on paper the size of the block and we shall see what transpires.

The edition was liberated from the press the other day and certainly the prints benefited and they much flatter. When  Sercan asked for a print for the wall I wasn't sure and first I gave him the mouth with the Francis Bacon:

 

But afterwards he came back to me and said he preferred the big one even though it wasn't on really good paper:

 

I suppose I would have to admit that I was quite pleased with this and I think I will do it again with more suitable paper.

 

This morning we had a full crit ( class divided into halves and each person had to stand at the front with a selection of their work and speak to the class about it, and receive what was very constructive criticism from class and tutors. All were agreed that despite some initial nervousness it was a tremendously beneficial exercise.

On the train in I wrote a 'Review' which, even though I didn't use it directly was useful in formulating ideas and it made me think about where my project is going next. I am going to file this in my sketchbook and I will use what I thought of in future posts.

 

Had a bit of a Pauline flash of revelation today and not the most complimentary to self.

I have been working on an essay for Mirrors of Enigma ( Kieran Cashell's seminar) and my chosen topic has been a survey of a recent exhibition of self-portraits, in relation to identity and narcissism. In passing, I have to say that the word count was quite low and considering the complexity of the topics I found it difficult to keep the numbers down. It's finished and ready to go.

The Pauline revelation came this afternoon when I suddenly realised that my etched project had been largely about a self-portrait:

 

 

 

Guess who ..... in full flight

 

The thing that worries me however is how many people have already thought this and are too polite to say?

OK,  form an orderly queue on the left please.

 

Have done a good bit more research and have rooted out a number of artists who may be useful during next phase and quite a few images I will use in the making of more collages

 

All will be revealed.

Back along the path

I realised on doing the last post that I was missing a couple of steps in the etch process so just to put that right:

 

The Drawing

 

 

 

The key print

 

 

the aquatint

 

The finish

 

 

........and the edition

 

 

 

These are now in the press, hopefully being flattened

 

.....and the other:

 

 

 

the key print

 

the aquatint

 

the finish (only on card - for better paper)

 

 

Ok fairly up to date with he work but there is one other thing I may not have mentioned and that is I was lucky enough to win three lovely books in the Ormston House new members raffle:

 

 

the title of this is House : difficult to read in this image

 

More artists next

 

 

scratching the path

Very remiss ...... also very tired !

Time I showed why I am tired :

I can't remember if I already showed this but it was a drypoint on acetate drawn from another teeth grouping and was used as will be seen later

 

 

 

and some monoprinted variations

 

The first straight print from the first plate

 

 

A couple of monoprint variations

 

 This was where it started to get interesting:

 

 

:

 

then the aquatint was done and a second plate was introduced:

 

 

again with variations

 

 

 

Meanwhile the other image was in full swing going through a similar process:

 

 

 

monoprinted

 

 

a la poupee (ink painted on to the plate surface)

 

 

and this is with the aquatint plate in place  - I will do this again later with good paper

 

Here is the wall in one of its most recent incarnations:

 

Running in parallel with the printing has been an increasing investigation into the business of collage  which I would have to say am really enjoying  - particularly disemboweling my past life

 

 

 

 

What you have seen here are only some of the prints that have been done so we have been very busy in etch block

 

What I will do next is to start having a look at some of the artists who have been interesting me recently and who will have a bearing on where my work goes next - both in the studio and the workshop.