How Screenprint is done

Alan Crowley who I first met when DeleteEd' s 24- hour print event took place in Thurles, is doing a 2 month residency in the Print department ( or perhaps I should say PCP ) and today he produces his first finished work:

 

 This was the presentation, but it is worth seeing how this was arrived at:

 

 

First the linocut and the master image;

 

 

 

as the different components are added,

 

....to the final  black key image;

 

Here are the colours bottled and labelled for future use:

 

 

The edition:

 

 

 

And now for something completely different:

 

 

Somebody reckoned that this sculpture was a portrait of me!?!

 

 

 

We had a very interesting presentation today from Breda Lynch on Collage, Photomontage and Electrobricolage and I would have to admit that for once I was in an area of art with which I was deeply unfamiliar and I was unaware of the artists who were covered although I think I could say that I was unconsciously au fait with Hannah Hoch's work even though I wouldn't have known her name:

 

 

I look forward to this part of the course with great interest particularly to the collage element. Another thing that was mentioned as regards collecting ones own images was the necessity to look down, and followers of this publication will be familiar with my obsession with ground art.

 This could prove intriguing.

 

I have been poking around with different ideas for an image drawn from the concept of Space, Structures and Systems and I may have something. I will pursue this after our first workshop tomorrow.



 

 

Still wandering

In more ways than one - physically in that this weekend we were down in Cork (more anon) but also mentally in that  once given a brief there is a certain amount of difficulty in settling on what sort of image one wished to extract from it; I immediately leaped on some of the things I had been teasing out during the summer but suddenly they felt a bit pretentious but with a bit of mis -en-scene and macro photography at home I think I may have arrived at something interesting - I wont show any of the pictures until I have drawn the image and then we'll see.

Meantime here is some of the immediate reaction to the brief:

First mind map with interesting bits highlighted

 

 

First instinctive drawings of steel structures and tooth decay

 

 

 The real thing - doesn't in fact look all that bad  does it? - what I do may involve both those substances but in a different way.

I have been going on a fair bit recently about the Art World  but last week and particularly at the end of the week I  had direct experience of this. On Thursday I was in school listening to lectures and thinking about what I was at another opening in the Crawford Gallery in Cork. In each of these pieces I saw totally different manifestations of the Art World and how it operates but they all had one thing in common -a bunch of artists who want people to see their work and  as I have always maintained no art work is complete until it is looked at by someone other than the artist.

The two shows were intriguing in their different ways but both were intensely painterly :

 

 

 

 

In passing, I should say that Elizabeth Cope had some lithographs on show also.

 

I was stuck for a while in a traffic jam in Charleville and was amused by two contrasting towers I slowly passed by:

 

 

 

I also thought that the drip pattern here was quite attractive:

 

 

 

The traffic was going  very slowly!

 

Another thing that took my fancy was this:

 

 

Strange and difficult to use because the words were almost invisible

 

Can never resist the bit of ground art and the was chance  - I did not put the leaf there:

 

 

Could you say 'I heart Cork'

 

On going into the print workshop on Friday to make a few small pieces I discovered this:

 

 

Well done Eoin -gone but not forgotten  - another affionado of ground art!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Road Again...

If I had sound on this I would have Canned Heat playing at this point..... thought about Ytube  but the piece was too long.

Anyway, its great to be back;someone said to me last night  " you sound so energised"  -  "that's the LSAD Effect " was my reply.

Straight to business:

 

detail from just below and to left of eye

 

The first day back I was looking at a book in the library called The Printmaking Bible : The Complete Guide to Materials and Techniques by Ann D'Arcy Hughes and Hebe Vernon-Morris ( a terrific book by the way with trouble -shooting lists for every technique described) and I just went to a section that really fascinates me - wood-engraving : this is still a form of woodcut but carried out on end -grain blocks which are much denser and thus more susceptible to very fine cutting  - just look closely at those two pictures - nothing more to be said.

 

We have begun to receive our briefs for immediate work and I find the challenge of dealing with 'Spaces, Structures, and Systems: abstraction and figuration help build new worlds'  really invigorating. I have a few notions flitting around already but I won't enlarge on them here for a bit yet.

 

.....that Ground art has not been forgotten either. 

 

Last Post........

Bit dramatic -sounding, innit?

Anyway, it is the last before term recommences - great! - but when I show you these pics you might say this guy needs to be back at school because some of this stuff is not going v well.

A few days ago I thought I would take some selfies and do a w/c from a stamped version of same:

Then the block:

 

and then the print:

 

 

Now this is about the best?!!??   No matter how I tried - heavy inking, light inking, hand burnishing, putting it through the press (portrait and landscape!)  - I could not get a decent ink coverage.

The only thing I can think of is that I put french polish on the block to protect the drawing while I was cutting - v disappointing  - need a teacher!

 

However, the other thing  I completed was a reduction screenprint using screen block-out to act as a stencil ( ferocious job to clean the screen and I haven't quite finished yet)

Here's the story:

the blocked screen at one of the stages
 
Unfortunately, I  haven't an image of the first screen which was a blue rectangle.

 

 

 

In each case you see a proof of each sceen before addition .

 

For once, I think that the original actually looks better than the photo you see here.

 

How fast almost four months gos=es by , but I would have to say I really enjoyed the summer and am really looking forward to getting to grips with second year and seeing everyone again.

 

 

The Eighth Day in the Art World

After those comments on the Newspeak book in last post I started thinking again about Sarah Thorntons book 'Seven Days in the Art World'

 which I read  on Michael Cannings' recommendation last year  and which I would strongly suggest that anyone relatively new to the art world should also read.
The book was published in 2008 at the height of the consumption frenzy and I wondered several times  what she might have to say about the scene now. Dr Thornton is now chief art writer for the Economist but also contributes regularly to the Guardian.
About a year ago she won a libel case against the journalist Lyn Barber(who is interviewed in the book -she said Dr Thornton was lying and had not interviewed her) and the Daily Telegraph. The presiding judge  -Justice Tugendhat - excoriated the journalist and the newspaper, totally vindicating Dr Thornton . What is interesting here though is to read her account (Guardian archive ) of the mechanics of the legal process and how she had to insure against the possible loss of the case.
In the course of all this I came across a video interview with the good doctor which is worth viewing:

http://vimeo.com/20531745

Can't get Vimeo but just follow the link - one comment she makes is worth quoting though;
on being asked what constituted 'successful artist' she suggested  that 'a successful artist is one who does not feel bitter' -  think long about this and just listen to what else she says... it's not very long

Incidentally she said about a year ago that she felt there were only about ten major collectors still functioning and that if they decide to stop buying things would get very interesting.
The journals wouldn't lead you to believe that things have changed much.
Hopefully I will be able to report from Frieze directly in October

Back the Path a bit

I was looking back over some thing I had written about one of those books and I think I will have to somewhat revise my opinion.

However, first let us be absolutely clear about the art world that we are looking at, and this harks to  Sarah Thornton's  'Seven days in the Art World'; this is on the printing history page of 'Newspeak':

 

How about that for a list of sponsors - that's worse than premiership soccer!

 

Anyway the reason I had to reassess the book came from a very thorough perusal of its contents and while some of it is predictable there were some very surprising pieces :

 

 

Jonathan Wateridge -Group Series Number 1 -Sandanistas  -2007

Oil on canvas - 272 x 400 cm

Ged Quinn  - Dreams of Peace and Love Gradually Giving Way - 2006

Oil on Linen  - 183 x 235 cm

 

I have given these two a very big presence but as you can see they are big paintings but they are extraordinary in their detail and finish. Now I am not saying that I would ever wish to be able to do this sort of work but it is amazing that this features along with much more expressionistic work.

 

The other thing I should say in praise of this book is that the production values are very high  and when opened the leaves sit down beautifully - this might seem pernickety but it is a great plus when looking at art books

I am working on my last screen print before returning to the fold on Monday and I think I should have it finished - it has proved to be an interesting process but more about that later.

Here are some more drawings:

 

I still really love working with ink

 

 

a further development of the rusting steel theme with a little w/c highlighting.

 

-picking up some decayed teeth from the dental hospital on Friday  - wait for the macro photos of these!!

 

Finally some more ground art but of a more random natural variety: