Palm Trees

When looking at ways of telling my story through art after gaining some inspiration from watching some high school art classes I decided to represent different stages of my life with prints of plants that remind me of those periods. The first one I chose as it is the most readily available is palm tress, representing my current life stage, living in Saudi Arabia. I drew some pictures of trees to start with:

In this drawing I brought a large leaf inside and drew it. This leaf was a bit damaged and had some interesting bent leaves and overlapping lines.

In this drawing I was interested in the shadows created by the trees, and was thinking this could make an interesting exploration of tonal counterpoint.

Here I tried laying the outline of the broken leaf over some patterns. I made a background of half arabic shapes and similar traditional patchwork shapes which would represent my background in sewing. The bent leaf is interesting as all my other drawings, including some others not included here I discovered how uniform palm trees are. They all have very neat leaves with little variation in shapes. I think this almost unnatural uniformity reflects the landscape here which is largely artificial and man made. This design, in particular the bent leaf, shows my occasionally scatty and unpredictable personality in combination with this rigidly ordered place, however, it became too complicated to print in a single block, and I may revisit this later as a multiple block print. I also felt I needed to do a more detailed drawing for the foundation of this design.

I decided to simplify this and make a print of just a tree, as a practice of cutting and printing a more intricate design, I may develop this later. I wanted the design to be an energetic composition so I used diagonal lines to create energy. I tried out some compositions with my camera

I decided including the trunk of the tree made the image stronger and the leaves coming out upwards had lots of energy. I drew this directly on the block from life and then traced it onto a second block so I could cut this in positive and negative.

I cut the negative block first. I was able to get a clear print of this by using thin Japanese paper or banana tissue paper and caligo inks. I also tried printing it in a light colour on dark paper but this was less successful. There were places where the leaves overlap where I was cutting lots of overlapping lines. Unfortunately the lino crumbled when I did this leaving some white spots. I like how the trunk came out with its variety of lines it is clearer and more interesting.

The positive print took forever to cut, and I realise now I have missed a couple of lines in between the bottom of the branches. I really like the energy of the small lines in the large cut away areas. I wanted to make a lively composition to reflect the busyness and energy of this period in my life and I think this really reinforces this.

I found some cotton rag paper with inlaid flower petals which I tried for printing and it soaked up so much ink giving a much darker image. The top pint is the back of the paper without the petals showing, the bottom has the petals on this side. The petal moved when I removed the paper but this gave me an idea to try using this deliberately with petals as masks on a later print.

What was successful?

These prints were very useful cutting exercises. I learnt how much detail is possible, and how well this detail transfers to different papers.

The texture of the trunk of the tree was successful due to its diverse lines and textures.

What was not successful?

In the negative print I lost some detail when the lino crumbled through try to cut detailed textures of overlapping leaves.

The image was quite 2D, creating an image of overlapping leaves was very hard in one block.

Ideas to be developed:

I would like to take these shapes into a more adventurous  composition which expresses a bit more about what the trees represent to me. I may explore:

• A new compoisiton also based on these trees using multiple blocks to show overlapping leaves
• A piece created with a combination of these blocks 
• Dab printing with them. 
• Printing them over a different block or monoprinted background

Exploring Black and White shells

Following on from my earlier post about artist's who use inversions of black on white and white on black I did some drawings of shells on white and back paper:

This one has unfortunately been drawn on by my daughter

I wanted to cut this out of lino, the top half black on white the bottom half white on black. However this didn't really work. The black was supposed to be the table but it didn't look right.

It looked like it was floating, not sitting on the table. Also, I cut too much away from the shadowed side of the shells and needed to add more light on the light side.

I cut off the background and added a bit of white which improved this. The shell on the left still did not have clear shadows and light.

I needed to add a lot of white to get this to make sense visually. I realise now that trying to make the bottom half of the shells darker didn't make visual sense and I should have been more true to the shadows and contours of the object.  This finished print I used caligo safe dry inks on thai banana tissue paper. Reducing the contrast from black and white to dark red and cream also softened the image. 

What was successful?

I am pleased with this finished print, particularly the textures. I found it a very interesting learning experience. I did learn some important points on this, most notably being true to the image and its form and shadows or it wont make visual sense, an important lesson to take into my next project.What was not successful?I didn't achieve an image that shows much in the way of experimenting with black on white / white on black,
Ideas to be developed:
Next time I attempt to recreate an object like this I will be much more selective about the lighting. I would like to try using lamps to create strong shadows giving me more contrast to develop in my print.

Storytelling

Looking for inspiration I went to see some art classes in the secondary school I teach in. The art teacher there is very strong conceptually and guides the older kids to make really complex artwork. I thought this would be a good source of inspiration for the linocut assignment.

I went in at the beginning of a new unit and they were starting on the new idea of storytelling and creating artworks that tell a story.

They were looking at some traditional art forms that do this such as shrines and retablos. I found some interesting ex voto retablo, including some by Frida Kahlo. They tell the story of a tragic event, with a picture of the saint that they feel saved them from this.

Sample Ex-Voto, artist: unknown, about 1960

My Nurse and I, 1937

I also found some old woodcut retablo images

Guadelupe Retablo

Inspired by this I began designing a similar image. I was going to use an image of my Dad in the hospital bed and Nina Simone as the saint.  I am not religous and her music has helped me through hard times. In the end I decided just to focus on Nina in the style of the wood block retablo.

I decided not to go any further with this as my source image was not very good. I may come back to the idea.

After this I brainstormed lots of ideas about my story and decided I wanted to represent my life as different identities I've had living in different places. Although I have not been completely different, each place I've lived have been very different to one another, and to some extent, I've been a different person in each place. 

This idea of multiple identities I later realised is very much a post-modern one. In traditional society and later in modernist times, roles were more or less defined by class, place of birth occupation or gender.  The beginning of the mind shift that changed these roles was Deconstruction from the late 1960's, developed by Jacques Derrida, based on the concept that ideas are unfixed, unstable, inter-reliant and inherently contradictory, and can therefore subvert themselves (Phillips, 2013). When this idea is applied to identity, and it is our own ideas that are unfixed, the multiple identities many of us experience can become in sharp contrast to one another.

I am aware that I am a person with a true post-modern, shifting and uncertain identity. The place where I grew up is in great contrast to this. There are many people there (the Isle of Wight) who live their lives on much more certain terms. They identify themselves as being from that place, some quite strongly. I have never felt this certainty in my identity as I never felt from there, being born in London and not having the same network of extended family around me as other people there had. 

The Isle of Wight is not a place with a lot of social mobility, there are not many professional opportunities there. For many they find a role that enables them to stay there, and they stay in that role. However, even as a teenager I was not happy with that and was taught to want and aim for more. While this, of course, I am grateful for now, it often set me apart from the community I grew up in, making me uncertain about my identity. 

My family were middle class, the Isle of Wight is not, it was not cool to be middle class in the 90's! This was another aspect of my identity which I would not accept and moved onto travellers sites, which defied social classes and lived outside of society for 6 years. This was a big shift in identity, perhaps could be interpreted as my search for an identity, after feeling uncertain about myself as a teenager.

I moved again after this, into different roles, different places in society and later different countries. I am now an expat, and feeling uncomfortable with this identity at times. 

I have explored this in more detail in other places and don't want to put too much of this personal exploration here.

However, it has put me onto a path of exploring this theme through my artwork.

An artist I have looked at who has created works juxtaposing a wide array of images and styles is David Salle. He rejected the coherent styles of the past. In this example he uses print, lithograph and woodcut:

Fast and Slow 1994

Postmodernism is a broad term encasing a wide range of art movements, including blurring the boundaries between high culture and mass or popular culture. Salle regularly explores many of these styles and mediums of art within one work, this piece, Fast and Slow, combines print techniques, and textures when juxtaposing images together, creating a truly post-modern image (Tate.org.uk, 2016).

As a starting point I decided to explore five relatively simple subjects that represent each place. I brainstormed a lot of different ideas and found a recurring theme of plants.  I also want to capture a bit of the character of each place as well through colours and style of composition.

This collage shows the subjects I chose which are all plants: a swiss cheese plant, pine trees, sunflowers, pink roses and palm trees. I've also included a few fabrics from the corresponding times of my life, giving a snapshot to my taste at the time and colours I may look at and pictures of my children.

References

Phillips, Sam, 2013. Isms, Understanding Modern Art. Bloomsbury: London

Tate.org.uk. (2016). Postmodernism. [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/postmodernism [Accessed 31 May 2016].

Mark Hearld

In my research I have come across the artist Mark Hearld and am completely in love with his work.

I notice that in this print Geese and Fish he uses a second colour which controls the strong black and white contrast and softens the image. It is still not a colour print, but somewhere in between the two. This is a multiple block print, the lines are quite independant of each other.

St Jude's Prints have a page on Mark Hearld which contains this video about his process:

He doesn't talk about linocut at all but does talk about collage and says:

'It gave me the capacity to compose in a really strong way' and

'Collage taught me how to print because its about layering'

His collage work is absolutely stunning, a good selection of them can be seen here including these two examples:

 Autumn Partridges. Collage. image size 77 x 56cm.

Frutti Di Mare. Collage. image size 101 x 81cm

I am inspired to try some collage for my next design.

He also says in the video that the lithographic process unifies a design, I wonder if the same could be said for lino through the flat colour and relatively simple marks.

Linocut First Inspiration

I have been looking at prints by many artists for ideas. A recurring idea which I find fascinating is how so many printmakers effortlessly move from black subject on a white background to inverted white subject on black background.

The first print I found that does this is by Picasso:

Toros en Vallauris, 1954

I think this composition is strong and striking for many reasons. The viewers around the outside looking in, the lines leading in or radiating out from the centre, the balance of black and white with the largest areas of solid white bordering the main subject. 

Looking at this I am aware how the strong contrast of a one colour print requires careful planning. To be able to distribute the areas of black and white evenly it will be useful to move the subject from black to white.

In this print by contemporary artist Mark Hearld he effortlessly moves between black and white subjects, including within the same plant or animal.

Rooster

This is a really exciting print, lots of lines giving lots of energy. Like in the Picasso print, the white areas stand out, in this print it is the ducks, looking up and leading the eye to the rooster. It uses two blocks, one blue one black. the blue block appears to have independant lines, suggesting this is a multi block print.

In contrast to this, I have also been looking at prints by Matisse:

Dors, dormeuse aux longs cils

He has taken a completely different approach, drawing in white lines in a very free expressive style. The immediacy of this really appeals to me. The Picasso and Hearld prints would have involved careful planning and development, unlike this which could have been drawn from life straight into the lino. In this print the face stands out because it has the biggest solid areas of black, quite the opposite to the first two prints. However, although the eye is drawn to the face it doesn't jump out, creating a calmer composition.

Reflection on Feedback from Assignment 1

There were some aspects of my feedback which I expected. Primarily this was my use (or lack of use) of a sketchbook. I submitted a range of drawings taken from different books. Some of these were detailed some were quick sketches and I knew they were not organised enough and did not give opportunity to show how my designs developed. However, at first I was surprised that my most detailed drawings such as the drawings below were described as preliminary and that more investigative drawing was required. I spent much time on these drawings but now when I look at them I realise they are only the beginning, I have not really investigated, just drawn and transferred to print.

Regarding the prints, my tutor described this first print (which was not in my final 4) as being more successful than this one which I did put in the final 4.

The first print was on thin Japanese paper and I was pleased with the smooth even colour and interesting interaction between the shapes. The second print is on stiff cartridge paper which means the mask has left a white edge around each shape which my tutor says makes it an unsuccessful print. I liked those white edges and the emphasis they made and was a bit disheartened that unexpected results like this are deemed unsuccessful. I chose the second print because it had more depth with the texture variations and was a bit more experimental, maybe next time I should choose work to submit that is more conventionally 'correct'?

Regarding my other final prints I very much agreed with the comments made including many positive points. This print could have been refined if I had practiced more, I did it 3 times but did feel the drawing could have been improved, I just ran out of patience.

She also said the colour choice was not very exciting, which I also agree with.

My tutor liked this print of the plant, I was worried this was not successful from a technical point of view because it had multiple layers of monoprint which took forever to dry. Thankfully it did dry eventually. I was much more confident by the time I did this which I think shows.

She did not comment on everything, but was overall very positive about my experimental approach.

From this I will take on the following for my next assignment:

• Use a sketch book with detailed drawings of all my subjects
• Record different layout ideas for my prints
• Keep a clearer log on my inspiration and research
• Think carefully about colour choices
• Be meticulous about printing technique
• Explore different papers

Assignment 1 Final 4

These are the four prints I chose for my final task of assignment 1.

This print was a combination of masks and texture. I used fabric and bubble wrap for the texture. I drew several studies of coral to generate the shapes for the masks. This meant I had lots of shapes to choose from and was able to get a good balance of complexity. The paper was medium weight cartridge paper and computer paper for the masks. The masks left a white edge around the shapes, which I think adds definition. I was particularly pleased with the strong flat colour in contrast to the paler textured background. I think this is strong technically, with good control over the surfaces. I also think this is a good quality outcome as the print is clean and clear. This print is my most developed idea and I think shows the best supporting work and developed creativity.

This print is a contrast to the first print as it was much more improvisatory. It started as a painted print. I added 3 layers of prints over the top of each other then a mask, I did two layers of the mask to create some depth and then another layer for the bottom half as it looked like it was floating in the air. That was a lot of ink and it was slow to dry. The mask and the painting did not line up well, I like the unpredictable and uncontrolled aspect of this. I have created some good texture through the painted layers, some of which contained some texturing by removing ink with the brush handle. This is framed by the mask effectively. I did a brief supporting sketch of this to get some shapes for the mask. I think this is a less strong example of my skills, and the print is less neat. If I had been less impulsive and let the ink dry between layers I may have got a better finish. I think this is a strong example of showing my creativity through experimentation.

This print is a combination of a painted print with texturing. I used a cotton bud and paintbrush handle to remove ink. It was taken in one layer. I was really pleased with this from a technical point of view as the areas where I removed the ink to create the lightest values were very effective. I wanted to show the light reflections and I think I did this well. I did a preparatory sketch on black paper with a white pencil which I have sent in but unfortunately did not photograph. This was my third attempt at this print. This does not show very much creative flair or personal voice.

This last print was taken on my gelli plate with acrylic paints. I made practice background textures and practiced painting the plant first, these are below. I like that this shows a very different approach to a painted print. It shows a much freer style because of the different medium which I think shows my technical abilities in a new way. The background is textured using leaves to reflect the textures of the plant and the colours allow the yellow highlights in the plant to stand out which I think is effective. This print is more expressive in its loose relaxed marks.

Overall I think I've demonstrated good technical skills and shown a good range in this area. I don't feel I have achieved so highly in the other areas. I wasn't sure if there should be a connection between the works but I do not feel I have developed a personal style or voice yet. While I feel I have developed creatively and been imaginative in my use of processes I have not got to a stage where I am communicating or expressing anything significant. I also feel that although I did some research this did not make much impact on my work. 

For the next assignment I need to be more consistent in keeping a sketch book. The supporting works I sent in were taken from many different sketch books. I will use this to develop my ideas further and show connection between research and artwork created.