To understand the prints you need to refer somewhat to the painting journal, which can be found at (http://zarinasartjournal.blogspot.co.uk) The prints began as an extension of the paintings. Print suited ideas of 2d surface and painterly
marks. Not that the prints were meant to look like paintings, their
purpose was to abstract something from the painting’s, that could then inform
the paintings. The starting point was 'Riverside 2'
2011, acrylic on canvas. Painting is quite a controlled activity and
although printmaking can be too, there is an element of randomness in print which
is quite attractive and allows for all sorts of anomalies.
Notions of landscape contained in a grid
were the starting point for the paintings which began as landscape and lines
but slowly became grid like and full of colour and compartments. There
was a need to de clutter and make less with more rather than just filling a
canvas. Prints allowed space into the picture and this was then taken across
to the paintings, the most recent one being 'The Lakes' 2012,
oil on canvas.
There was a tendency to fill the space
but with this recent painting there is white space allowing the picture to
breathe. This white space can be seen in the mono prints.
The use of brush strokes was quite deliberate, in that they signify the lines
of the land which run parallel but often cross one another. Mono printing
was a particularly good may of achieving these lines. Another interesting
aspect of mono printing is that you can use normal oil paints rather than
specialist printing paints and achieve quite remarkable results.
The first print done for this module was
using the etching technique, ‘untitled 1’
2012. The idea was to replicate the bands of line and wash detailed on ‘Cannon Hill’
2011, acrylic on canvas. The plate was etched twice to achieve the grid
and the meeting points where the lines or bands crossed confirmed the history
of the mark made first, rather than losing it to the second mark. This
history of marks was already evident in the paintings and was successfully
carried on in the prints.
There was a heavy use of the vertical
and the horizontal. In some of the prints there is a less rigid line,
often curving. The prints sought to move away from an overly evident grid
however the grid remains in some form, be it thin line or thick. It has
been reduced though to two lines. This can be seen in the watercolours but also in 'untitled 6'
2012, which was essentially a couple of scratched in lines together with some
brush work lines. This is an etching and a mono print and also has small
random interest.
This combination of etching and mono
printing is evident in the postcard size prints. Some colours worked
better than others. Mono tones always seems to resonate, are useful
vessels of tone and further simplify the abstract, however the colour prints
worked really well and are in no way discounted.
By Zarina Keyani
8th May 2012
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