My Blog

New Ground Exhibition: painting with intaglio plates

Tue, 6 Nov 2007 14:23:33 -0800

My friend, Agnes, has been sitting in the window of North Bank Gallery for the last month. (She is back at home in my studio presently.) The poor soul has just printed herself to sleep – she has drifted off in the midst of wiping an intaglio plate. She is is surrounded here by woodblocks, intaglio plates, and books & more books. Her job was to welcome visitors to the exhibition: New Ground – painting with intaglio plates, which I hope you will visit on my website. You can also visit the photos of the exhibition venue at North Bank Gallery . I hope you will take a few minutes to look at both. Agnes was my first and only stab at soft sculpture, and I’m here to tell you that it is much more difficult than it appears and takes much more time than you think it will! Several pairs of panty hose, old pillows, clothes, slippers and accessories from Goodwill, and a little fabric from the local Hancocks and a wig from the Halloween costume dept. of the local one stop shop for all, Fred Meyer and she was assembled. She is the ideal studio companion; doesn’t talk much, listens more or less attentively, and is always there when you need her.

The Fateful Determinator

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:09:31 -0700

The Queen of Hearts has made many appearances over the years and here she is again. This time she is determining the fate of some poor unsuspecting mortal by waving a plumb-bob over a chart to tell her whatever his fate will be. This, too, is a recurring theme - as in, who is deciding all this stuff, anyway? The plate for a silk aquatint is made by adhering silk-screen fabric to a plastic or metal plate with black acrylic pigment. When dry the image is painted onto the plate with white acrylic pigment. The more white you paint the whiter the plate will wipe and the whiter your whites will be. It is printed intaglio, the same as a traditional mezzotint. You are working dark to light, but the good news is: what is black prints black and what is white prints white or shades of gray.

More of the Week with Richard

Sat, 1 Sep 2007 17:51:56 -0700

I was a little apprehensive about printing over this heavily textured background, but my fears were quickly thrown out the window. As you can see from plate # 2, it printed very smoothly. So far so good! But, would the blue produce a green I could live with? I do believe this is going to be just fine. So, here comes the next one! As you may have noted - this is now on the good paper. It is Echizen Kozo from McClain’s. And, now for the final block - the sumi. This is where I will screw up if I haven’t managed to do so already - Sunrise in the Garden of Mischief. Whew - There are still a few places needing trimming when I print the edition, But I’m pleased with the proofs. Richard asked what we wanted to get out of the class the first day we met. I said I wanted to improve my cutting and I believe I did that. This is all shina plywood, again from McClain’s. Richard had us coat the line plates with Elmer’s, or any white, glue and I believe that helped any chipping off, though I had a few of those, they were mainly my fault and not that of the wood. I hope you enjoyed seeing this print evolve.

Wonderful Week with Richard

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:47:43 -0700

Last week eight of gathered at Marylhurst University near Lake Oswego, OR, for a five day workshop in woodblock printmaking with Richard Steiner from Japan. Above is a sample of the polyfilm I ordered last year from Richard. It made the first block, or background, for the print I made last week. To adhere the polyfilm to the block we used double sided carpet tape, available at Home Depot or similar outlet. The tape must fully cover the image area, i.e. strips are placed next to one another and trimmed to fit. Then it is just inked and printed as usual. The block, ink, brushes, spray bottle, cover sheets and paper ready to print! A little tip from Richard that I found invaluable: a mark in the kento corner on the wrong side of the paper. It makes it so simple - why didn’t I think of this? Layer one complete. (click for close-up) Tomorrow we’ll do a couple more layers - The coments thing doesn’t work very well - maybe email is more reliable. Barebonesart@comcast.net

The Perilous Journey of the Wrecked Angle

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:14:26 -0700

The “Perilous Journey” was my first foray into the world of printing found wood. It was at a weekend workshop by Walt Padgett of Grants Pass, OR and we each had a partner to work with. The object was to come up with a composition using the scraps of wood or wood by-products that Walt had brought with him. My partner and I got a pretty good start, but nothing worth keeping, so he sent me home with the print. Hating to see good paper go to waste I started printing more wood from our scrap heap (we were remodeling at the time and had an ongoing supply source,) I started with a background of pale blue and worked my way North finishing with the opaque white: the only pigment which was not pure transparent watercolor mixed with methylcellulose, is the white gouache. All of the pigments were applied with brushes and printed by hand with a Baren. (Except for the background - it was printed on the press.) There were 5 colors, but twice that many drops to get the darker colors. When all was said and done I thought it looked like a rough sea and the break-up of a sailing vessel - and since there is a rectangle in it..... Well, that is the background of the title. I make no excuses!