sand drawings .....

A really busy couple of weeks in the studio while Steve has been away ... planning my next work with Fiona and also making the plates for these etchings of sand drawings and doing a number of prints towards an edition.  

Technically these are not as complex as some of the works I have done but trying to find the essence of these marks, the lightness and ephemeral quality of them, has been my hope and my struggle.  I first printed them too heavily and preferred the 'second pull' of the prints which though they looked washed out, certainly looked more like the work I was trying to achieve.  It took me ages to realise that if I were painting these marks I would just add white and soften down my palette ..... duh!  So, out came the white printing ink, just a small tube, that I bought about five years ago and have never used and I was able to mix the colours I wanted.

I have printed on both Fabriano Tiepolo paper (from which I think I have the better result) and also a gorgeous Japanese paper which will change the character of the print if hung over a darker background.  I had plates cut out as surrounds for two of the etching plates on which I loosely engraved and these were printed simultaneously.  Because I want the prints to keep their lightness, I will 'float' them in perspex frames.

All this work is for the 'Journeys" Exhibition to be held this Easter by the Maleny Printmakers and my work is titled Journey Along the Shore.  If you can, save the date and come and visit me there or in October I will be having a two day Open Studio so perhaps you can come then.  More details about all that closer to the time.