14/52 'elanda point' .....

'the peephole'

'most of the pages - always so hard to photograph the whole'

This book was made in response to the few days we were camping at Elanda Point recently - the fringe of swamp gum and root twist on the water's edge.

I actually started with more realistic drawings around the insets but it didn't work and so I resorted to my 'mark making' which gives more a sense of things than the reality of what was in view.  I do love to draw but my years of using mark making in my printmaking work has definitely had an impact on the way I like to work.

This book is made with Fabriano Tiepolo - a firm favourite of mine.  The cover is greyboard with a cutout to reveal part of the front page.  Five pages in all.  The book was sewn before I stuck down the folios so the stitching is hidden inside the folds.   A simple coptic binding completed the book.

Although I am pleased with the pages as a whole, I really love some of the printed details contrasted with the hand drawn marks.  And the over printing in white ink is something I have not explored very much though will certainly try some more.  It brings a wonderful subtlety to the work.

I do realise that my preferred palette must seem repetitive and boring but I can't seem to move away from this 'love' zone whether I work with dark shades or the lights.

Where I am trying to head with my work is starting to take shape with this return to the studio which the book a week project has precipitated.  There is rarely time to give each book much thought or time but now and then I have glimpses of return points ..... points for further investigation.  These details show me that I would would love to take such a snippet and make it much larger without getting too detailed and overworking.  

As I am needing to reinvent myself in the studio and work with less toxic medium,  I am thinking more and more of drawings and maybe combinations of the realistic with the mark making.  All quite exciting I think but I have not arrived there yet ..... and I do keep wondering if I will ever be able to let go of printmaking.  Certainly it is something I would only be able to do here outside and not inside the studio.  Still it is possible when the weather is gracious.  Glad I didn't dispose of all my printmaking material.