Etching

When I did my Fine Art degree in the 90's I specialised in the printmaking technique of Etching.

One of my first etchings of the stairs in Harlech Castle, Wales.

• Heres a basic guide to etching: Etching involves a metal plate being covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The image is then scraped though the ground with a pointed etching needle so the bare metal is exposed. The metal plate is then put into a bath of acid which bites into the exposed metal leaving grooves. The ground is then cleaned off the plate ready for printing. The plate is inked all over and then the ink wiped off the surface, leaving only the ink in the etched lines which is then put through an etching press which forces the ink into the paper.

Printing a Penguin Cat!

My new collagraph print Penguin Cat is hot off the press today!

Penguin Cat Collagraph Print

I couldn't resist putting my black and white cat Morpheus with a group of black and white penguins, he looks so happy but I don't think they are so sure of him!

Heres my collagraph printing plate before it is printed. Notice I always have to work backwards and dark to light!

Collagraph Print: Print created from a card plate made by adding glue, paint, enamel etc. This holds the ink in varying degrees and is then printed through the intaglio process.

Heres where it starts to get messy! Etching ink with a touch of extender medium is applied to the printing plate all over getting into every crevice of the plate.

The ink is then gradually wiped off and the image is starting to appear.

Final wipe with some tissue paper. The ink is retained in any areas that are textured and the smoother the area the ink is wiped off.

The collagraph printing plate ready to be printed on my little table top etching press. Slightly dampned paper is placed over the plate and then the blanket over this and then the whole lot is rolled through the press. The weight of the roller will force the ink onto the paper slightly embossing the paper.

Always the exciting bit as you never know if the print will have worked or not until you lift the paper!

The final print hot off the press!

Lots of prints waiting to dry.

Clare xx

Tiger, Tiger

As it was Global Tiger Day yesterday I thought I'd share some of the tiger artworks I have produced over the years, I didn't quite realise there would be so many!

I will start with my favourite - Sleepy Tiger. I couldn't resist painting this little cutey fast asleep, I just want to tickle her under the chin!

Sleepy Tiger Acrylic Painting

 I think this was my first tiger painting and it has proved to be the most popular greeting card I have ever sold!

Tiger Acrylic Painting

 A really challenging painting - Tiger Roar. Trying to get that mouth and teeth to look right!

Tiger Roar Acrylic Painting

 

 

I loved painting this one as it has such a lovely face!

Tiger Smile Acrylic Painting

Tiger Stand

 A watercolour and ink painting.

Regal Tiger Watercolour Painting

  Lots of tiger ACEOs all sold out almost as soon as I had painted them! Art Card Edition and Originals - mini pieces of art 3.5 x 2.5"

Watercolour ACEOs

 Couldn't resist a purple tiger collagraph print to go with my purple animal print collection!

Purple Tiger Collagraph Print

 A Steampunk Tiger looking rather dapper in his bowler hat and goggles!

Steampunk Tiger Acrylic Painting

 Had to try him in a top hat too!

Topper Tiger Acrylic Painting

Of course I just had to make some of the paintings into greeting cards too!

Tiger Greeting Cards

I'm sure there will be lots more tiger artworks soon as they are such beautiful creatures!

Clare xx

Captain Jack Oil Painting

I love seeing behind the scenes of how an artwork is produced so thought I would take a few photographs of the different steps of my new oil painting!

This is Captain Jack Kitty. Its one of my most popular acrylic paintings and I really wanted to do a slightly different bigger version in oils.

Captain Jack Kitty - Acrylic - 20 x 20cm

Of course it had to feature the top pirate cat Morpheus in his most swashbuckling pose!

•  I always do an acrylic underpainting first to get rid of the white canvas and to make sure everything looks right but I forgot to take a photo of this! 

• Below is about half an hour of throwing some oil paint on the canvas just to get some shapes.
  
  
  

 

•  A bit more definition all over and I decided to make his eyes a bit bigger and less squinty.
  

 

• Again more definition especially on the eyes as I always think if the eyes don't look right the whole painting won't work.

 

• The finished painting just waiting to dry!

I love painting my cat Morpheus as he always has a cute little smile which his black chin accentuates!
I wanted him to be a bit of a scruffy looking pirate and I think it works!

Clare xx

More Exhibitions!

Thought I'd better do a quick blog as its been a while!

Been really busy with exhibitions the last few months and at one point you couldn't get in the spare room there were frames everywhere!

Red House Glass Cone Exhibition 24th May - 3rd August 2014

My latest exhibition of 15 of my collagraph prints is now on at the Red House Glass Cone, High Street, Stourbridge, West Midlands until the 3rd August. Heres me in the local paper and my Dudley Castle collagraph print too!

The Private View is on Saturday 28th June 12-2 so I'm busy trying to decide what cakes to make for the day, must be something involving chocolate though!

I've also just had one of my acrylic paintings in the Junction Festival Exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. This exhibition finished last Saturday but all the artwork will be on show again during the Junction Festival in the Clarendon pub, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton 11th - 13th July. The theme of the exhibition is Music, Art, Beer. My entry is called Old Tom New Tom
and I decided to feature my new tom cat alongside a bottle of Old Tom beer. I wanted to contrast my New Tom with a bottle of beer that was first created in 1899 and features a sketch of the old brewery cat.

Old Tom New Tom Acrylic Painting

 Finished framing and labelling yesterday for my next exhibition which is the Staffordshire Enjoy Art Summer exhibtion at the Brewhouse Arts Centre, Burton on Trent. This starts next Thursday 3rd July and runs until 9th August. My theme for this exhibition seems to have become cats and bears! My cat Morpheus seems to be sneaking into most of my artwork at the moment!

Collagraph prints and oil paintings ready for the Staffordshire Enjoy Art Summer Exhibition!

Also just been asked to exhibit a few artworks in a new exhibition at Dudley Museum and Art gallery in September, just waiting for a few more details and then even more framing!

Clare xx

Witley Court - Exhibition May 2014

Over the years I must have visited Witley Court in Worcestershire almost 20 times! Witley Court is a spectacular mansion house and gardens which had a disastrous fire in 1937 leaving the site abandoned to become a ruin. 

I visited for the first time on a university day trip probably around 1994. This was well before the new visitor centre and the site had just closed for the day as we got there so of course we climbed the fence and had a wander like students do! We came back properly a few weeks later and had a great day there sketching and exploring. 

 The ruined mansion itself has inspired my artwork ever since and I still love wandering the site with its archways, ornate windows, balconies and grand sweeping staircases!

Over the years I have built up a large body of artwork based on the site and really wanted to bring it all together into an exhibition. I decided to talk to Gill from the Garden Tearooms which is a tradition English Tearoom right next to the site. She offered me the use of the tearooms for May to exhibit my work and I got framing!

I put the exhibition up yesterday and am really pleased with how it looks all my artwork together so close to Witley Court itself!

East Wing Collagraph Print

Ruined Forecourt Collagraph Print

One of my favourite watercolours of the Orangery steps, it wasn't until I framed this one I realised I had painted it in 2002!

The exhibition is on until the end of May so plently of time to have a look and there is a lovely selection of homemade cakes to treat yourself to while there!

Clare xx

Collagraph Prints

I often get asked what a Collagraph Print is, so I thought I'd try and explain!

 Its a collage printmaking technique which involves using a card plate to start off with and then adding various items to make textures and levels which will eventually make the final image.  Paper, fabric, string, leaves, magazine pages, tissue paper etc can be stuck to the plate as long as the surface is fairly even, has no sharp bits and will go through the printing press then the list is endless! Acrylic paint, enamel paint, acrylic texture mediums etc can also be used and these can give a very painterly effect often showing the brushstrokes when printed. Also carborundum can be used to print a very strong black. Carborundum is a fine silica grit that needs to be stuck down very strongly and creates a lot of texture that will hold lots of ink. Some people also seal their plates especially if they have a lot of things stuck to the plate that could come loose while printing, personally I don't seal my plates as I like to use the surface of the card as one of my printed textures.

With a collagraph printing plate the more texture it has on the plate the more ink it will hold and the darker the image will print, the smoother the surface of the plate the less ink it will hold and the lighter it will print. It takes a while to get your head round how to design a printing plate and what to use to get the textures you desire, it also doesn't help that you have to work backwards too!

Some Examples of My Collagraph Printing Plates

Collagraph printing is great because it is a really safe way of printing and I do it on my dining room table! There are no dangerous fumes like with etching and I tend to use the offcuts of mountboard for my printing plates so it is fairly inexpensive. Also I love the fact that I can cut my printing plates into shapes like on some of my animal prints below. See how the printing plate takes on the colour of the inks that I have used to print them with!

These are the printing plates below that I am currently working on. As well as working backwards I also work white on white which takes some getting used to!

This is my elephant collagraph printing plate on the left and the pink print that was produced from it on the right. You just have to be careful when cutting the plates into shapes that you don't leave any thin parts which could bend/snap when printing.

Pink Elephant

Heres my Black Cat collagraph print hot off the press!

Black Cat

I often think the printing plates in themselves make great works of art and one day I will have to put on an exhibition of just the collagraph printing plates!

Clare xx