Blog

With my recent printing experiments now brooding quietly on the studio bench and as I wonder where to go next with them, I've been tuning into the importance of experimentation. Stepping beyond tried and proven processes or techniques and embracing working with new materials is always a step into the unknown. And one to be relished rather than feared!

I'm thrilled to have been selected as a featured artist in Create! Magazine's latest issue. My interview for the magazine is below or if you'd like to know more about what's in the rest of the issue - read on!

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 had another go at starting with a black background with this little 30 x 30 cm canvas board along with pieces of bright collage paper, some of which had found their way into the early layers of my bigger paintings. Most of the little cutout circles and semi-circles were ones I had lying around, leftover from previous snippings, so I was really just using up what I had to hand.

Check out a few of the ways I create surface and visual texture in my paintings. They're a couple of my go-to options when I'm treating larger areas of space, especially when I'm working with just paint - no collage. This is one of the studies I did for my 'Wall of Curiosities' where I was keen to explore bold and simple compositions - and that meant keeping the shapes interesting in some way!

The short answer is that a monotype is always completely unique and a monoprint can be one of a series of prints taken from the same plate. Let's take a closer look...... The terms 'monoprint' and 'monotype', are often used interchangeably. But the difference is in the processes used to create them.....