'Are We There Yet' - Work in Progress

Charlotte Wensley
Aug 28, 2021
2 min read

Updated: May 21

Every painting has it's own special journey. This piece started as an experiment with Gelli plate printing on a poly canvas piece, which I'd picked up at my local art supply store - its was just an off cut from a bigger stretching job they'd done. I'd been printing on papers for a while, but wondered how I could move beyond the restrictions of the A4 size dictated by the Gelli plate (my attempts at making my own bigger gelatin plates using various recipes had all been dismal failures.....)

Collage was one way I could do this, but I wanted to begin with a printed background rather than a crisp white surface. I gessoed the poly canvas piece a couple of times and then set about inking the plate. I printed a section, as big as the plate would allow, and then re inked the plate and turned the canvas piece around to print a different section and so on until I was happy with the overall background effect. This way I was able to cover the whole piece, at the same time capturing all those lovely random and unplanned effects that happen with Gelli printing.

Once the base layer of printed paint was dry I moved on with the collage work, building up layers and responding to lines and shapes as they emerged. Once the collage came to a natural pause point, I went back to my trusty acrylic paints!

And so the piece evolved, with paint, charcoals, graphite sticks and finally touches of glaze to create some harmony and bring the piece together. I loved how this piece came together, it's quite unique because the process of creating it was experimental and so different from my usual way of working.

It's definitely a process I'll revisit at some stage!