Let's Talk Art Blog

I am a collector of interesting packaging - not just for printmaking, but sometimes I just can't go past the structure offered by an unusual box! Everything gets vetted before it goes in the recycle bin....

This is a process I've been wanting to try for a while, but I never seemed to find the right moment - until now! Many years ago (I won't tell you how many) I made some prints using the drypoint etching technique where a sharp tool is used to incise marks into a surface which then hold the ink for printing. I loved the results but back then I was using a metal plate and looking back the process felt a little laborious, permanent and costly.

I've been having a tidy up in the studio in preparation for Noosa Open Studios (6th - 15th October) and came across a couple of 10 cm x 10 cm little canvases. I can't think now when or why I started them, but they obviously got left behind and subsequently buried in the general creative chaos. And since tidying up is my least favourite activity I stopped to have a play around with them and see if I could take them on a new miniature journey......

I had a session playing around with the gelli plate, with no set intentions to create anything other than interesting experimental prints I could use for collage. You might recognise some of these as pieces as I used some of them in my 'Dusty Summer' Sketch. I used wet strength tissue, cartridge paper and copy paper, in no particular order!

As part of my latest body of work, I wanted to revisit art making processes that I haven't used for a while. And no, I haven’t fallen out of love with colour, I’m just having a little wander! Years ago a printmaker friend sold me little old table top press. And it’s gathered dust and got a bit rusty but whilst I was cleaning up for open studios it seemed to be the one thing that I just kept moving from place to place, with no real idea where to put it.

Celebrating and preserving the surface history that's created by building a painting in layers, is very much part of my process and an exciting way to work. I love that the myriad of decisions made along the way are evident in when the painting is finished. It might just be that the edge of a piece of collage is showing through the paint, or the remnants of a charcoal line remain in an unexpected place. Or that I've dry brushed paint in an area which allows the under paint