Printing Collagraph Ponies!

After Christmas we decided to go for a wintery walk to work off all that food and in our local nature reserve there is a herd of Exmoor ponies running wild. Sometimes you can spot them but as it is such a big place you can very often miss them. This time we were so lucky to just walk into them grazing and I managed to get quite a few photos which of course I had to use in my artwork!

I decided to work on a new pony collagraph print: Collagraph Print - created from a card plate made by adding glue, paint, enamel, collaged elements etc. This creates textures which hold the ink in varying degrees and is then printed through the intaglio process. 

This is the very start of  the process a piece of spare mount board which I have drawn the rough image onto and am starting to work into with paint.

 A few days later and the printing plate is ready to print! I love working with card as it is so easy to cut out and shape especially for my animal prints.

Heres where it starts to get messy! This is my dining room table with all my inks and my etching printing press layed out. I decided to use a sepia coloured etching ink and I am starting ro rub the ink into the printing plate to cover every part of it.

I then have to take the ink back off the printing plate usually with newspaper and tissue paper. You can see I do get very inky!

The inked up printing plate ready to be printed. The ink has been retained in the rougher areas of the printing plate and where you can see white the plate is a lot smoother so won't hold the ink.

On my etching press ready for some dampened paper to go on top and then the blanket and then the whole lot put through the press. The weight of the roller will force the ink into the paper, leaving it slightly embossed.

Hot off the press-the moment when all is revieled!

The printing plate on the right and the finished print comparison. Note the print is reversed so you always have to remember to work backwards!

A few pony prints drying on my spare room bed!

Heres the finished pony collagraph print. I should be printing it in a few different colours soon too!

Sepia Pony Collagraph Print

Clare xx

Cat in a Hat Painting

How to turn a photo of my cat Morpheus into a finished painting! 

Its been a while since I've done a cat in hat acrylic painting so heres a little step by step behind the scenes on how I create my paintings.

After a bit of photo manipulating in Photoshop I was ready to start! I hate working on a white canvas so always paint over the white first, for my cats in hats paintings red is usually my favourite colour to use for the background as it is a good contrast for the black cat. You can just see a very rough sketch on the canvas.

 The first layer of paint. I usually start with the white and then work my way over the rest of the painting blocking in all the basic colours and covering the canvas.

A few more layers and some details are starting to emerge,

A bit more white added to the fur and to give it a bit of texture. I never worry about brush marks as I like to see them in the finished painting. Also a bit more detail in the goggles and top hat. The top hat is painted prussian blue to stand out from the black of the cat and also as I love using prussian blue!

Again more details.

Almost finished. A few highlights picked out and of course the whiskers!

My very gunky takeaway paint tray palette which keeps my paint wet and my lovely new paintbrushes which I got for Christmas!

Topper Kitty

The finished acrylic painting!

A Few Other Cats in Hats Paintings!

Clare xx

My Studio Space!

 
I've decided to try and write a few more Blogs this year so this will be the first of many (hopefully!)

I thought I would introduce you all to my "studio" space or spare bedroom/dining room table! This is where all the magic happens!

This is or was my dining room table! My etching press lives on here most of the time and I always have the company of a Dalek or two while I am printing! Normally the cat tries to help too so he often has inky feet!

This my desk in the spare room. Its actually an ingenious design from Ikea and when all the drawers are away it just looks like a normal piece of bedroom furniture but when the big fake top drawer is opened it makes a desk, perfect for painting cats on!

One of my recent oil paintings just waiting for him to dry.

Lots and lots of pencils and paintbrushes ready for action. Totoro and Morph often help out too! The boxes in the background are where all my greeting cards live ready to be posted out.

 A few of my cat (and a sneaky parrot) paintings waiting for new homes. The easiest place to store them is on the walls so they don't get damaged and friends that come and stay always say that sleeping in the spare room is like sleeping in an art gallery!

Clare xx

Printing Pink Hippos!

Normally this time of year I have a sudden rush on one of my prints and then have to hurriedly reprint them to meet demand! This year it has been pink and plum hippo collagraph prints!

I thought I would take a few photos while I was printing as I always like to see behind the scenes of artwork being produced. Its quite difficult taking photos when you are a bit inky but my camera is used to being covered in ink and paint!

Printing a Pink Hippo Collagraph Print

  A Collagraph print is a print produced from a cardboard printing plate which has various textures applied to it. The more texture it has the more ink it retains so it will print darker, the smoother the surface the ink will be wiped off so it will print lighter.

I use bits of spare mountboard to make my collagraph printing plates. Heres one of my most popular ones a Hippo being inked up with pink etching ink. The whole of the printing plate is covered in a layer of ink. The reason the printing plate has a slight blue colour to it is because it was last printed with blue ink and as it is only card it retains the colour slightly.

 Here the Hippo is being wiped gently with a piece of newspaper to take the ink back off again. (My tutor at University always told me to "caress the plate"!)

Here is the printing plate wiped and ready to print on my etching press.

My lovely etching press in action. It lives on my dining room table and is quite heavy to move so we generally eat around it! I really do need a new blanket for it as I accidently printed a meerkat onto it while printing one of my bags!

The dampened paper is placed over the printing plate and then the blanket of the printing press on top and the whole thing is rolled through the press which forces the ink onto the paper and also the weight of it slightly embosses the paper.

The moment of truth when the paper is lifted off the printing plate and the image is revealed! Always a surprise as even thought you plan everything you never quite know what you will get!

The collagraph print hot of the press. You can see the image has reversed, it can be quite strange working backwards all the time but you get used to it!

A whole Pod of Hippos drying on my spare room bed!

The finished prints ready for sale!

Pink Hippo Collagraph Print

Plum Hippo Collagraph Print

Clare xx

Exhibition Time!

My aim this year was to get my artwork out into as many exhibitions as I could. It took quite a bit of organising as some exhibitions overlapped and I had to make sure I had enough work framed and ready for each one and also remember where everything was!

My first exhibition of the year was at Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire in April and May. I had three of my favourite new Cats in Hats series of collagraph prints on display. Sherlock Kitty, Happy Kitty and Captain Jack Kitty.

 Next up was an exhibition at the Garden Tearooms at Witley Court in Worcestershire for the month of May. Since University I have been visiting this amazing ruined mansion and producing lots of artwork themed around Witley Court so it was great to be able to exhibit them all together only a few minutes away from the ruin.

East Wing Collagraph Print

Ruined Forecourt Collagraph Print

Next was the Seacourt Mini Print Exhibition in Northern Ireland in May where three of my Happy Kitty collagraph prints went on an adventure touring around Northern Ireland!

Happy Kitty Collagraph Print

Also starting in May through to August I exhibited with two other artists at the Red House Glass Cone in Stourbridge.

Trio of Artists Exhibition of 15 Collagraph Prints

We even got to be in two local newspapers!

The end of May until June I exhibited an acrylic painting at Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of the Junction Arts Festival. The theme was Music, Art and Beer. I chose to paint my new tom cat with a bottle of Old Tom beer!

Old Tom New Tom

In July I exhibited with Staffordshire Enjoy Art at the Brewhouse Arts Centre in Burton.
Here I exhibited two oil paintings - Black Bear and Tickle Time!

 Also three collagraph prints - Play With Me! Dreamy and Sherlock Bear

In August through to October I had two collagraph prints accepted for the Cannock Chase Open Exhibition. 

Castle Panorama Collagraph Print

In October I had two pieces exhibited as part of the Art in The City week around Wolverhampton where shops, cafes, pubs etc had artwork in their windows as part of an art trail.

Dreamy Collagraph Print in the window of the Framers Gallery.

In October and November I had four pieces exhibited at the Nicholson Museum and Art Gallery in Leek Staffordshire.
I exhibited two acrylic paintings - Happy Elephant and Sleepy Tiger. Also two collagraph prints Pengiun Cat and Dreamy.

My final exhibition for the year is currently running at the Dudley Museum and Art Gallery where I am exhibiting with the Dudley Society of Artists. Its well worth a look if you are in the area and is on until January 10th 2015.

Cloister Collagraph Print

Dreamy Collagraph Print

As you can see I 've had a very busy of exhibiting, now to start planning everything for 2015!

Clare xx