March Prints - Scratching In Etchings

Most recent prints.
I used the plates in a slightly different way.  Instead of suga-lift, I varnished the plate and then scratched into it.  I brushed the ink on the plate with the following results of mono-print type effects.

Sean Scully compared painting and printmaking with the following:

There is something very elemental about taking a plate, covering it with black material, hard ground, and then just scratching out a drawing: it's the equivalent of a line drawing.  And when the acid bites into the metal and the ink sits in the metal and then it is transferred to the paper, it stands up on the paper and there is an indentation.  And then what you have is the result of something that is quite mysterious as a process.  Whereas with the painting, it is a direct result of putting down a brushstroke. Sean Scully (David Carrier, 2004)

I manipulated the surface ink on the following plate with varying results.

March Prints - Suga-lift Etching

These prints have come out the way I wanted in that they are quite dark structures with contrasting light areas.  This  was acheived by manipulating the surface ink.

‘I have always been deeply attracted to a sense of structure.’

Sean Scully (Carrier, D. 2004) 

 http://www.sean-scully.com/en/art/photography/

March Prints - Linocut

Peter Lanyon

Peter Lanyons work may not share many visual similarities with my work apart from perhaps use of colour and print.  His affiliation with the landscape is where I propose the parallels.  Partly because he wanted a visual language to describe the landscape as he perceived it or enjoyed it.  It is in the enjoyment of the subject.  To be in, surrounded by and part of the landscape.  Having said that I am not a native to this part of England and in a way an interloper.  Peter Lanyon was from his landscape.  Like Graham Sutherland another of my favourite artists he sought to paraphrase what he saw until it was almost ambiguous. (Alley, R. 1982)

With my prints I want to simplify the language rather than have it shout and scream seemingly above the noise.  It seeks to be more subtle.  The other parallel with my work and Peter Lanyons is the meeting point of lines where one line cuts off another or another line begins.  Landscape is just a large space for lines to meet.  (Grieves A. 1992) As in his work at this link:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lanyon-the-returned-seaman-p07741. 

Postcard Prints - Colour

 

'Made a line print…started it up again…….when I was a kid of 15 I was an apprentice printmaker…..it gives me an insight into printmaking…its very natural for me to think about prints…..I don’t think about a certain type of print……..they are conceived to look like prints not to look like paintings.' Sean Scully

( Sean Scully Lecture - YouTube . 2012. Sean Scully Lecture - YouTube . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpTo7LgsU5g. [Accessed 06 May 2012].)

Postcard Prints

For the postcard I planned to do some etching and perhaps some monoprinting.

Etching plates, various sizes.  Sugalift and varnished applied.

After a dip in the etching bath.

Postcards soaking.

Voila!

The next step is to add some colour!

February Prints - Mono printing using Acetate Plates

 The following abstarcts were the starting point for the prints.  These were from the 1x1 m painting called 1m no1.

For these mono prints I used acetates normally used for OHP's as the plates.  I brushed the oil paint on quite thin and was careful to leave strong brush like impressions.  The plates in themselves are quite colourful compared to the actual prints which retain more of the white of the paper.

Influences at this point are Peter Lanyon and Sean Scully.  Peter Lanyon painted landscapes that he felt he was a part of.  He was interested in the intersections between edges like the sea and the sky etc.  His paintings of aerial views particularly resonate with this work.  Capturing something of a perspective, meeting points and solitude.

Check out his prints:

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lanyon-the-returned-seaman-p07741

 The idea was to create layers using two plates on the same paper.  Here I was experimenting with combinations. The glossy surface of the acetate creates other imagery caused by reflections.

Prints including close ups

Print 1

Print 2

Print 3

 Print 4

Print 5

 

Print 6