Angry Bird!

This fine fellow, or Lady-Bird, was most unhappy that I appeared in the doorway to take his/her photo. Screeching loudly he/she told me in no uncertain terms to go away!!

 

More Experiments

Using just weeds and plants in my garden, I created the above print with the tops of carrots from the vegetable garden, the leaves of thistles and the yellow flowers of the Oxalis plant. The final touches were made with tiny daisy flowers from the nature strips, more weeds. I usually press and dry vegetation before printing with it, but this time I used fresh foliage and flowers. The Oxalis flowers are very fragile, so I could only print with them once before the flowers fell off, but that was enough. The daisies too started to fall apart after 1 or 2 dabs onto the paper.

Here I went back to an earlier print of the light on water and added several different prints from fresh blades of grass. I then made a small screen of a drawing of a pier and printed that. I called this 'Lake's Edge'.
 

Experiments.

In the picture above I was experimenting with a more painterly approach to using the gelatine plate. Applying multiple thin layers, I think that I achieved the look I was hoping for.

Another experiment, this time laying down a base colour of grey and then covering that layer with masks and printing another colour over the top. I cut the rocks out of a sticky film and then printed the green layer over the top. The vegetation prints were then applied over it everything.

Here I printed part of a perforated plastic place mat, with hand carved stamps. All in all I was very happy with my various experiments.
 

Mixed Media.

Usually I start a gelatine print from scratch, but with piles of prints that haven't quite made the grade, I'm having a bit of fun layering more colours and shapes over old prints.

This one was made by twisting 'art combs' into the already painted plate and then hand colouring parts of it. Too busy to add anything more I think!

This one has been sitting around for ages, originally mauve and grey with shapes of bits and pieces that I picked up in the street, I over printed it in a transparent orange and I'm much happier with it now. I may still add more, but so far so good.

New Stencils.

I really don't like to use commercial stencils, so whenever I can, I cut my own from lightweight card.

These 2 above are the latest efforts hot of the craft knife! I can't wait to try them out on the Gelatine plate!
 

A Different Direction.

 With a deadline looming for artworks that feature the human form, I made a small thermofax screen featuring a female image. I printed the screen onto already existing gelatine plate prints and added a few extra marks in the case of the darker work.

It's always pleasing to find just the right background for added printmaking, especially if the prints have been put aside for quite some time, as in the case of these two. Above is 'Can't See the Wood for the Trees' and below is 'The Writing on the Wall'

 

More Water Patterns.

                         Yet more of my efforts to reproduce the patterns of light through water.

                                 This one above suggests shallow water over a sand bank I think.

                  All the prints were made on my home made gelatine plate and hand cut stencils.
 

Light on the Water.

I've been experimenting recently with the idea of light reflected through water, perhaps looking down from a pier into the water. I cut a stencil from card and tried it out, shown in the image above. It's O.K but not really what I was looking for. It does however have potential.

The picture above show me trying to get the rays of light shining through the water, but these are too thick and regular.

This one was just a bit of fun with the strange colour scheme, but again with the idea of rays of light.

Another colour scheme just for the fun of it! I think that I need to work on the beams of light, obvious but more subtle in size and shape.