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Zemni Prints
Printmaking Portfolios, Techniques and Inspiration by Linda Mayoux
  • Zemni Prints
    • About Zemni
    • Artist’s Statement
  • Portfolios and exhibitions
    • From the Edge of Nightmare: degree portfolio 2018
  • Themes and projects
    • Landscape
      • Landscape Visions
      • Natural Landscape
      • Urban landscapes
      • Landscape composition
      • Willows
    • Abstraction
      • Abstraction Processes
      • Formal Abstracts
      • Random Abstract Prints
      • Human Condition
    • Portraits
      • Portrait Approaches
      • Portrait of a Friend
      • Chiaroscuro: Leo
      • Self Portrait: Reflections
      • Life in Red White Black
    • Chiaroscuro
      • Chiaroscuro: Leo
      • Mushrooms
    • Memory
      • One Mouth Kissing
      • Arcadia Recycled
      • The Dreaming
      • Grand Arcade: Memories Revisited
  • Technical Notes and experiments
    • Inks
      • Akua Inks
      • Japanese ink experiments
      • Schminke water-based inks
    • Paper
    • Carborundum
    • Collagraph techniques
      • Carborundum
      • Gum printing
    • Cyanotype
    • Drypoint techniques
    • Etching techniques
      • Etching: solarplate
    • Linocut techniques
    • Lithography techniques
      • Photolithography
    • Monoprint techniques
      • Gelliplate
      • Foamboard
      • Softfoam
    • Screenprinting techniques
      • Photoscreen
    • Woodcut techniques
  • Inspiration
    • Abstraction Processes
    • Collagraph inspiration
    • Drypoint inspiration
    • Etching inspiration
    • Linocut Inspiration
    • Monoprint inspiration
      • Maggi Hambling: Parallel Project
  • Design Approaches and Principles
    • Approaches to Design and Composition
      • Colour
      • Gestalt laws and principles
      • Notan
    • Abstract Expressionism: Research Point
    • Landscape Visions
      • Dutch landscapes
      • Japanese landscape prints: Hiroshige and Hokusai
    • Portrait Approaches
      • Fauvism and Expressionism
    • Zen Aesthetics and Art
  • Resources and references
    • Sources
    • Journals and Websites
    • References and Bibliography
    • Exhibitions and galleries
    • Copyright and creative commons
  • Zemni Prints
    • About Zemni
    • Artist’s Statement
  • Portfolios and exhibitions
    • From the Edge of Nightmare: degree portfolio 2018
  • Themes and projects
    • Landscape
      • Landscape Visions
      • Natural Landscape
      • Urban landscapes
      • Landscape composition
      • Willows
    • Abstraction
      • Abstraction Processes
      • Formal Abstracts
      • Random Abstract Prints
      • Human Condition
    • Portraits
      • Portrait Approaches
      • Portrait of a Friend
      • Chiaroscuro: Leo
      • Self Portrait: Reflections
      • Life in Red White Black
    • Chiaroscuro
      • Chiaroscuro: Leo
      • Mushrooms
    • Memory
      • One Mouth Kissing
      • Arcadia Recycled
      • The Dreaming
      • Grand Arcade: Memories Revisited
  • Technical Notes and experiments
    • Inks
      • Akua Inks
      • Japanese ink experiments
      • Schminke water-based inks
    • Paper
    • Carborundum
    • Collagraph techniques
      • Carborundum
      • Gum printing
    • Cyanotype
    • Drypoint techniques
    • Etching techniques
      • Etching: solarplate
    • Linocut techniques
    • Lithography techniques
      • Photolithography
    • Monoprint techniques
      • Gelliplate
      • Foamboard
      • Softfoam
    • Screenprinting techniques
      • Photoscreen
    • Woodcut techniques
  • Inspiration
    • Abstraction Processes
    • Collagraph inspiration
    • Drypoint inspiration
    • Etching inspiration
    • Linocut Inspiration
    • Monoprint inspiration
      • Maggi Hambling: Parallel Project
  • Design Approaches and Principles
    • Approaches to Design and Composition
      • Colour
      • Gestalt laws and principles
      • Notan
    • Abstract Expressionism: Research Point
    • Landscape Visions
      • Dutch landscapes
      • Japanese landscape prints: Hiroshige and Hokusai
    • Portrait Approaches
      • Fauvism and Expressionism
    • Zen Aesthetics and Art
  • Resources and references
    • Sources
    • Journals and Websites
    • References and Bibliography
    • Exhibitions and galleries
    • Copyright and creative commons

Category: Printmakers

Categories
Abstract Collagraph Inspiration Landscape Media Memory Printmakers

Charles Shearer

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date August 15, 2018

Charles Shearer is an artist printmaker and teacher from Orkney, currently based in London. He also creates paintings and drawings of scenes inspired from his extensive travels both in the UK and overseas.

Google links to his images 

Many of his prints are single or multiplate collagraphs made from cutting, drawing and sculpting into display board. The plates are then printed using stencils and roller techniques to produce complex and multicoloured prints. This is the technique I started to explore in Assignment 5 The Dreaming.

His subjects are often ‘creative interpretations’ from his own travel sketchbooks, mostly from Wales, Ireland and his travels between London and Orkney. A key underlying theme is ‘man’s [sic] order within nature’. ‘Of particular interest are deserted buildings and the landscapes surrounding them as he describes “in a landscape stands a grand Irish ruin all in glorious decay, to contrast with a desolate and rutted land beyond the industrial estate”.

There are often fun images in his work too such as his large monoprints of King Flamingo or Night Prowl. He experiments too with texture and materials such as in Bubblewrap Joe.

In addition to making his own work he teaches printmaking at numerous art schools and runs creative print workshops. For experimental prints I produced from a workshop on ‘Cardboard Cuts’ see Collagraph techniques

For more about Charles Shearer see:

Emma Mason Arts

Exhibition at St Judes Prints

Exhibition at Southampton Solent University’s Andrews Concourse Gallery 2014- 2015.


Categories
Artists Etching Inspiration Media Monoprint Printmakers

Maggi Hambling: Parallel Project

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date August 3, 2018

Maggi Hambling was the artist and printmaker chosen for my Parallel Project.

Life Unleashed: Movement in the Art of Maggi Hambling

considers the different techniques she uses to communicate movement in her drawing, painting and printmaking and some of the learnings for my own printmaking practice.

Other notes and video links

Overview of her work

for British Museum ‘Touch’ exhibition 2016

“The border-line between what is tragic and what is comic interests me…They are a pathetic human way of trying to come to terms with the fact of our own death, the fact of other peoples’ deaths, the fact of the horror we see on the news everyday, the terrible things that happen. Some moments you cry, other moments you laugh” (Conversation with Judith Collins Hambling 1993 p13)

Drawing and portraits

My first introduction to Maggi Hambling was through the ‘George always’ exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2009.

Then her wave and Walls of Water paintings shown at the National Gallery. These include a series of monotypes first shown at Malborough Fine Art (see the exhibition), then the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the National Gallery.

More recently her work has been more political with the exhibitions, dealing with topics like global warming, migration and war:

  • The Edge (See my Maggi Hambling  post on illustration blog)
  • War and Requiem

How important is being ‘lesbionic’?

Book References

Hambling, M. (1993). Towards Laughter. Sunderland, UK, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art.
Hambling, M. (1998). maggi & henrietta.
Hambling, M. (2006). Maggi Hambling the Works and Conversations with Andrew Lambirth. London, Unicorn Press Ltd.
Hambling, M. (2009). The Sea. Salford Quays, The Lowry Press.
Hambling, M. (2009). You Are the Sea. Great Britain, Lux Books.
Hambling, M. (2015). War, Requiem and Aftermath. London, Unicorn Press Ltd.
Ramkalawon, J. (2016). Maggi Hambling Touch: works on paper. London, Lund Humphries and British Museum.

Maggi Hambling website

Exhibitions

Attitude towards death and relationship with Henrietta Moraes Evening Standard 1999

  • Tags etching, monoprint, political

Categories
Artists Inspiration Printmakers

Portrait Approaches

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date May 12, 2018

What is a portrait?

Portraits as a ‘likeness’ of an individual captured through painting, drawing and/or photography have been a part of human culture since prehistoric times. However portraits can have many different purposes that affect the way in which the concept of ‘likeness’ is interpreted,  the form of ‘capturing’.  Portraits vary widely in for example:

  • what is portrayed? is this a portrait of the face only (eg frontal, side or three quarters view)? is it just head and shoulders (what attitude?) is it the full body (what posture)? or part of the body only (eg hands? eyes? feet?) ? or is the main focus on context (some portraits contain objects and environment of the sitter without the sitter themselves)
  • external or internal ‘reality’? is the aim mainly a figurative likeness of external appearance? or more a ‘capturing of inner soul’ that permits abstraction and exaggeration of shapes, colours etc? or does it try to do both?

This is often affected by:

  • the relationship between the person portrayed and the person doing the portrayal: who commissioned it? who is paying? who is in control of the decisions? 
    • was the portrait commissioned by the subject? why and for whom? how do they wish themselves to be represented?
    • was the portrait instigated by the artist? using a paid model? or a friend/lover etc? why and for whom? do they have a specific artistic style?
  •  the context in which the portrait is to be viewed:
    • is it a private, personal painting to be seen by a few close friends and family members who know the person well? 
    • does the intended audience have particular views about what is a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ portrait? or are they more interested in innovative approaches?

These factors have varied significantly over time.

Evolution of approaches

‘Ideal beauties’ : ancient and medieval world

Portraits in the ancient world were very stylised – like the Photoshop social media images of today. These idealised images often said more about the social norms of beauty in different cultures than the sitter themselves – the sitter as they wish to be remembered.

Prehistoric cave paintings, pottery and statuettes depicted people in abstracted form. Some of these may have represented particular people eg chiefs, or deities where particular characteristics have been exaggerated eg fertility or facial features/hairstyles/clothing showing ethnic identity.

Egypt: portraits of rulers and gods were highly stylised, and most in profile, usually on stone, metal, clay, plaster, or crystal. Egyptian portraiture placed relatively little emphasis on likeness, at least until the period of Akhenaten in the 14th century BC.portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti sculpted in c.1360 bc

China: Portrait painting of notables in China probably goes back to over 1000 BC, though none survive from that age. Existing Chinese portraits go back to about 1000 AD

Bust of Socrates
Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a woman

Ancient Greek and Roman portraiture was often very idealised. But some  sculpted heads of rulers and famous personalities like Socrates (see discussion on Gumberg library) were depicted with relatively little flattery.

Middle Ages Most early medieval portraits were commissioned by , initially mostly of popes in Roman mosaics, and illuminated manuscripts.

Move to ‘Realism’: Renaissance to 18th Century

Economic and social changes in the role of the artist, and technological innovations eg use of oil paints that enabled finer brush strokes started a move towards more ‘realistic’ figurative depictions.

In Italy the Florentine and Milanese nobility wanted more recognisable representations of themselves. This stimulated experimentation and innovation particularly in creating convincing full and three-quarter views. Some drawings that were used as studies for religious art by artists like Leonardo da Vinci started to depict grotesque faces. However patrons were still concerned to project a certain image of themselves in their portraits – men with power or women portraits continued to depict an ideal of female beauty in both religious art and portraits like the Mona Lisa. It was at this time also that  artists like Leonardo and Pisanello started to add allegorical ‘contextual’ symbols to their secular portraits as in Lady with an ermine – the ermine is said to represent purity and moderation.

Grotesque heads. Leonardo da Vinci drawing.
Grotesque heads. Leonardo da Vinci drawing.
Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci

It was only however in Northern Europe that a real move to ‘warts and all’ depictions of real life occurred.  Portrait paintings by Durer, Jan van Eyck and  Holbein continued to be largely idealised – as for example Durer’s self-portraits.  Holbein’s portraits of Henry VIII are commissioned to create an image of supreme power, enhanced by costume and background trappings.

Albrecht Durer painted like Christ
Holbein the Younger: Henry the Eighth
Holbein the Younger: Henry the Eighth

But other artists like Bosch, Lucas van Leyden and Quinten Massys and later masters such as Pieter Aertsen en Pieter Bruegel started to produce  ‘politically incorrect’ paintings and prints of people and everyday life.

In the 16th Century artists increasingly experimented with printmaking techniques to produce figurative portraits as for example:

Rembrandt van Rijn  who painted powerful portraits of himself ‘warts and all’ as he grew older. In addition to paintings he also made etchings.

 Benedetto Castiglione who, influenced by Rembrandt, experimented with monoprint from 1640 to produce very detailed portraits.

18th and 19th Centuries: caricature and inner turmoil

This emphasis on idealism changed during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The economic and social upheavals of the eighteenth century in countries like Britain and France led to the rise of political satire and caricature in which an irreverant approach to portraits of the rich and famous spread not only through painting but also prints.

While some Impressionists in France continued an idealised focus on fleeting impressions and light, other painters were experimenting with semi-abstraction and colour to portray inner lives.

Self-portraits began to be autobiographical, done at intervals tracking the evolution of an artist’s life and art. Gauguin used colour and semi-caricature to create a self-image. Courbet and Van Gogh painted numerous self-portraits with graphic portrayal of their internal mental turmoil.

‘Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ’, 1889
Gustave Courbet, “Self-Portrait as the Desperate Man,” 1845, oil

See also: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/selfportrait.html

20th century: abstraction and internal lives

In the 20th century many  artists took the focus on abstraction and internal mental states  even further, including:

  • Egon Schiele’s very explicit portrayal of sexual angst in his distinctive ‘blind contour style’
  • Fauvists and expressionists whose woodcut portraits and paintings used exaggerated forms of distortion and use of colour to express emotion and tried to capture ‘inner essence’ and/or the feelings of the artist towards the subject.
  • Picasso
  • Francis Bacon

Other artists like Andy Warhol started to look at the commercialisation of portrait images.

Contemporary:  the politics of portraiture: feminism and identity

Contemporary portraits now cover a broad spectrum of approaches and styles, drawing on approaches from photography as well as painting.

Some artists have taken a detailed and sensitive figurative approach, with  an emphasis on intensity and changing inner states in both portraits and self-portraits:

  • Lucien Freud
  • Jenny Saville
  • Andrew Salgado
  • David Hockney
  • Maggi Hambling

Other artists focus more on symbolic objects and autobiographical narrative than figurative representation of the subject themselves:

  • Tracey Emin
  • Rose Wylie
  • Louise Bourgeois

Sources

Angier, R., (2007) Train Your Gaze: A Practical and Theoretical Introduction to Portrait Photography, Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA.

Bikker, J., Webber, G. J. M., Wiesman, M. W. & Hinterding, E., (2014) Rembrandt: the late works, London: National Gallery.

Borchardt-Hume, A. & Ireson, N. (eds.) (2018) Picasso 1932: The EY Exhibition, London: Tate Publishing.

Brighton, A., (1966) Francis Bacon, London: Tate Gallery Publishing.

Brown, N., Tracey Emin, London: Tate Publishing.

Coppel, S., (1998) Picasso and Printmaking in Paris, London: South BGank Publishing.

Crippa, E. (ed.) (2018) All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, London: Tate Publishing.

Cumming, L., (2009) A Face to the World: on self-portraits, London: Harper Press.

Dumas, M., (2014) The Image as Burden, London: Tate Publishing.

Elderfield, J., (2017) Cezanne Portraits, London: National Portrait Gallery Publications.

Ewing, W. A., (2006) Face: The New Photographic Portrait, London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Freud, L., (2008) On Paper, London: Jonathan Cape.

Freud, L., (2012) Painting People, London: National Portrait Gallery.

Gale, M. & Stephens, C.(2008) Francis Bacon. London: Tate Publishing.

Gray, J., Nochlin, L., Sylvester, D. & Schama, S., (2005?) Jenny Saville, New York: Rizzoli.

Hambling, M., (1998) maggi & henrietta, London: Bloomsbury.

Hambling, M., (2006) Maggi Hambling the Works and Conversations with Andrew Lambirth, London: Unicorn Press Ltd.

Humphreys, R., (2004) Wyndham Lewis, London: Tate Publishing.

Kallir, J., (2003) Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolours, London: Thames & Hudson.

Lloyd, R., (2014) Hockney Printmaker, London: Acala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd.

Luckhardt, U. & Melia, P., (1995) Hockney: A Drawing Retrospective, London: Royal Academy of Arts and Thames & Hudson.

Marquis, A., (2018) Marcellin Desboutin, Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum.

Merck, M. & Townsend, C. (eds.) (2002) The Art of Tracey Emin, London: Thames & Hudson.

Moorhouse, P., (2013) A Guide to Twentieth Century Portraits, London: National Portrait Gallery.

Muller-Westermann, I. (ed.) (2015) Louise Bourgeois: I Have Been to Hell and Back, Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag.

Royalton-Kisch, M., (2006) Rembrandt as Printmaker, London: Hayward Gallery Touring.

Russell, J., (1971) Francis Bacon, London: Thames & Hudson.

Sanchez, L. G., (2004) Frida Kahlo, Mexico: Banco de Mexico.

Serres, K. & Wright, B., (2017) Soutine’s Portraits: Cooks, Waiters & Bellboys, London: The Courtauld Gallery.

Smee, S., (2007) Lucian Freud, Koln: Taschen.

Stevens, C. & Wilson, A. (eds.) (2017) David Hockney, London: Tate Publishing.

Vann, P., (2004) Face to Face: British self-portraits in the twentieth century, Bristol: Samson & Company Ltd.

Wye, D., (2017) Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait, New York: MoMA.

Zigrosser, C., (1951) Prints and Drawings of Kathhe Kollwitz, New York: Dover Publications.

Galleries and exhibitions

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

From Bosch to Bruegel – Uncovering Everyday Life (November 2015 – January 2016)

Rembrandt Etchings permanent collection

British Museum

Picasso post-war prints: lithographs and aquatints (27 January – 3 March 2017)

Maggi Hambling – Touch: works on paper  (8 September 2016 –29 January 2017)

Defining beauty the body in ancient Greek art (26 March – 5 July 2015)

Drawing in silver and gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns (10 September – 6 December 2015)

Recent acquisitions two sets of Picasso linocuts (10 January – 6 May 2014)

Germany divided: Baselitz and his generation From the Duerckheim Collection (6 February – 31 August 2014)

Courtauld Gallery, London

Soutine’s Portraits: Waiters, Cooks and Bellhops (October 19 2017 – January 21 2018)

Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude  (23 October 2014 to 18 January 2015)

The Spanish Line: Drawings from Ribera to Picasso (13 October 2011 to 15 January 2012)

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Degas’ Drinker: Portraits by Marcellin Desboutin (19th September 2017 – 25th February 2018) Drypoint portraits

Degas, Desboutin and Rembrandt: parallels in prints (27 October 2017 – 25 February 2018)

Degas: A Passion for Perfection  (3 October 2017 – 14 January 2018) prints in various media

Degas: Caricature and Modernity ( 12 September 2017 – 21 January 2018) lithographs and drypoints

National Gallery

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell (20 September 2017 – 7 May 2018)

Beyond Caravaggio  (12 October 2016 – 15 January 2017)

Rembrandt: The Late Works: (15 October 2014 to 18 January 2015)
Inventing Impressionism (4 March – 31 May 2015)

National Portrait Gallery

The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (13 July – 22 October 2017)

Cézanne Portraits (October 26 2017 – February 11 2018)

Royal Academy

James Ensor Intrigue (29 October 2016 — 29 January 2017)

Tate Britain

All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life (28 Feb – 27 Aug 2018)

David Hockney 9 February– 29 May 2017

Frank Auerbach  (9 Oct 2015 – 13 Mar 2016)


Categories
Abstraction Formal abstract Inspiration Printmakers Woodcut

Japanese landscape prints: Hiroshige and Hokusai

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date April 13, 2018

The woodblock prints of Hiroshige and Hokusai were the source for my work in Project 2.1: Formal Abstracts: Japanese landscape.

 

History of Japanese Woodblock Print

Ukiyo-e

In-depth video on history and development of techniques of Japanese woodcut from monochrome through painted monochrome prints to multiblock printing. It looks at its influence on Western artists like Van Gogh and Monet following the exhibition of Japanese art for the first time at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. It also looks at the modern day revival of ukiyo-e prints as paintings on shops in Tokyo regeneration.

Japanese woodblock prints with Paul Binnie

Lecture on background and underlying ideas in Japanese printing techniques.

Japanese woodblock printing History Ukiyo-e Jose Ortega

History of Japanese printing and way it spread and related to earlier Chinese and Buddhist prints.

Technique

The technique for printing texts and images was generally similar. The obvious differences were the volume produced when working with texts (many pages for a single work), and the complexity of multiple colours in some images. Images in books were almost always in monochrome (black ink only), and for a time art prints were likewise monochrome or done in only two or three colours.

The text or image was first drawn onto washi (Japanese paper), then glued face-down onto a plank of wood, usually cherry. Wood was then cut away, based on the drawing outlines. A small wooden hard object called a baren was used to press or burnish the paper against the inked woodblock to apply the ink to the paper. Although this may have been done purely by hand at first, complex wooden mechanisms were soon invented and adopted to help hold the woodblock perfectly still and apply proper pressure in the printing process. This was especially helpful with the introduction of multiple colours that had to be applied with precision over previous ink layers.

While, again, text was nearly always monochrome, as were images in books, the growth of the popularity of ukiyo-e brought with it demand for ever increasing numbers of colors and complexity of techniques. The stages of this development follow:

  • Sumizuri-e (墨摺り絵?, “ink printed pictures”)—monochrome printing using only black ink
  • Benizuri-e (紅摺り絵?, “crimson printed pictures”)—red ink details or highlights added by hand after the printing process;green was sometimes used as well
  • Tan-e (丹絵?)—orange highlights using a red pigment called tan
  • Aizuri-e (藍摺り絵?, “indigo printed pictures”), Murasaki-e (紫絵?, “purple pictures”), and other styles in which a single color was used in addition to, or instead of, black ink
  • Urushi-e (漆絵?)—a method that thickened the ink with glue, emboldening the image. Printers often used gold, mica, and other substances to enhance the image further. Urushi-e can also refer to paintings using lacquer instead of paint. Lacquer was rarely, if ever, used on prints.
  • Nishiki-e (錦絵?, “brocade pictures”)—a method of using multiple blocks for separate portions of the image, using a number of colors to achieve complex and detailed images. A separate block was carved to apply only the part of the image designated for a single color. Registration marks called kentō (見当) were used to ensure correspondence between the application of each block.

Contemporary Japanese woodblock

Katsutoshi Yuasa

Keizaburo Matsuzaki

Bibliography

Clark, T. (ed.) (2017) Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave, London: Thames & Hudson and British Museum.

Pollard, C. & Watanabe, M. I., (2014) Hiroshige: Landscape, cityscape, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.

Schroer, A. (ed.) (2005) Hiroshige, Berlin, Munich, London, New York: Prestel.

Schroer, A., (ed.) (2005) Hokusai, Berlin, Munich, London, New York: Prestel.

Exhibitions

Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave  (25 May – 13 August 2017)

Picasso post-war prints: lithographs and aquatints (27 January – 3 March 2017)

Japanese woodblock printing: a craft of precision  (25 May – 16 July 2017)


Categories
Abstract Drypoint Inspiration Landscape Printmakers

Ross Loveday

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date February 15, 2018
  • No Comments on Ross Loveday

website: http://www.rossloveday.com/prints.html

‘The fine line which separates figuration and abstraction interests me; time, place , weather and light alongside gesture, glimpse and memory.

The subjects are only the starting points- sometimes small insignificant details or texture triggers a complete piece.’

Drpoint and Carborundum
Lifelines. Monoprint and Drypoint
North Bank Monoprint and drypoint

Working process

He uses drypoint with monoprint and/or carborundum on a metal plate.

 


Categories
Drypoint InProcess Inspiration Landscape Monoprint Natural Printmakers

Iona Howard

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date August 21, 2017
  • No Comments on Iona Howard

http://www.ionahoward.com/

She has a studio in Cottenham in the Cambridgeshire Fens.

My prints explore the notion of time and landscape through a contemplative exploration of surface. The sources of my prints can come from working in the open air or expressing landscape filtered through memory…I am captivated by the ancient semi-natural landscapes typical of my native west Cornwall where a blurred line exists between nature and human activity. Recent works of the Fens focus on the meeting point of land, horizon and sky, their flatness altering the perception of distance. ‘

From interview with Iona in Cambridge 4th Feb 2017:

Her landscapes have a strong geometric structure of contrasting colours and textures. She mainly uses a combination of carborundum, drypoint and monoprint techniques. A mix of a binder (polyurethane varnish) and carborundum grit is applied onto the surface of a plate and sealed with the same varnish. The binder has to withstand a lot of working but should not be so thick as to hide the grit texture of the carborundum. To contrast the carborundum, drypoint is added to produce an incised line. The plate is then inked up using etching ink and copperplate oil with a brush or roller.

Originally she worked in black and white. Now she also works in colour from memory and notes. Colour is built up by layering carborundum plates or more often overlaid though monoprint. Dry ink can be added as a third pass. Ink can be laid on thickly for more embossing. She can use the same base plate but with different seasons. Editions of 40. Or 10-15. She gets commissions where people ask for specific colours.

The technique allows working directly in the landscape to paint on the carborundum and the drypoint plates, and large images can be produced. She prints  on thick Somerset paper, printing to the edge of the paper to “leave the composition as unconstrained as the landscapes from which I seek inspiration”. She mounts with  nonreflective glass.

 


Categories
Inspiration Printmakers

June Wayne

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date August 18, 2017
  • No Comments on June Wayne



See parts 2and3

  • Tags lithography

Categories
Inspiration Linocut Media Printmakers

Linocut Inspiration

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date April 5, 2017
  • No Comments on Linocut Inspiration

See also post: Linocut Technique

Linocut uses a cheap, versatile material that gives possibilities for dynamic mark-making and bold shapes with simplified colour. It has been used by for many different types of prints including portraits, political works, landscapes and typography. It has been particularly popular as a medium for political protest, including the Russian Revolution and US Civil Rights movements.

Earlier artists applied many of the techniques earlier developed for woodcut – both markmaking and use of tone and structure. Some were influenced by Japanese woodcut traditions as well as Western wood engraving and African and Oceanic art.  Linocut artists from the Grosvenor School and Russian Revolution (see below) were influenced by major art movements of the twentieth century, particularly cubism, futurism and constructivism. Others developed new directions with Picasso’s use of the reduction linocut (that can also be done with any other surface like wood). Contemporary linocut artists used a wide variety of experimental techniques, using abrasive solutions as well as power tools to create a range of marks and tones.

Nineteenth century

Linoleum was invented in the early 1860s and first used for printing in 1890 in Germany for the manufacture of wallpaper.

Franz Ciceck, an Austrian artist and teacher was one of the first to popularise lino for artists’ prints. He recognised the medium’s potential to instruct children in colour and design: it was cheap, easily worked with simple tools, adaptable to water-based inks, and versatile. He toured Europe and North America with examples by his pupils and influenced art education worldwide.

Twentieth century

In the early 20th century linocut became very popular as an artistic medium.

German Expressionists  1905-1920s : The first major artist to adopt linocut as a medium was Erich Heckel, and his earliest linocut is dated 1903. Artists from Die Brucke regularly used linocut instead of woodcut from 1905 to 1920s. These focused on bold shapes and expressive distortion in monochrome prints. The use of lino was ideal for this, although the fine lines and use of woodgrain etxture in some of the woodcuts was not possible.

  • Google images for Expressionist linocuts
  • Google images for Erich Heckel linocuts

This German Expressionist tradition has been continued by modern artists like Georg Baselitz who produces very large linocuts and combination prints often on subjects of political protest.

  • Google images of Georg Baselitz linocuts

Russian Revolution

In revolutionary Russia important linocuts were produced from about 1918.

Lyubov’ Popova  was a Russian avant-garde and ‘new woman’ artist (Cubist, Suprematist and Constructivist) painter and designer. She produced a number of linocuts in constructivist style.

  • Click here for Google images of Popova’s linocuts

Grosvenor School

The printmakers of the Grosvenor School (see C.S. Ackley, 2008) produced very dynamic linocuts with strong curvature distortion influenced by the Vorticist and Futurist movements. Key artists were:

  • Claude Flight  Click here for Google images of Flight’s linocuts
  • Sybil Andrews  Click here for overview of Andrews’ work
  • Cyril Power  Click here for Google images of Power’s linocuts

The work of the Grosvenor School has also influenced some contemporary linocut artists like the Canadian Gary Ratushniak who was trained by Sybil Andrews draws also on native America traditions.

  • Click here for overview of work of Gary Ratushniak
  • Click here for Google images of Ratushniak’s linocuts

Edward Bawden

Edward Bawden is another English artist and illustrator who often worked in watercolour, but also produced many linocuts. His work is more figurative and many of his paintings are from his experience as war artist in the Second World War.

  • Click here for Google images of Bawden’s linocuts
  • https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2018/may/edward-bawden/
  • For an overview of Bawden’s multi-block texhnique from the VandA see: https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/caring-for-our-collections/edward-bawden-master-linocut

Matisse

Matisse produced 70 linocuts between 1938 and 1952. These are similar in both style and subject matter to his black and white monoprints of figures. They use a fluid expressive white-line technique that takes advantage of the variation in  line that can be achieved as linocut tools glide through the  the soft material..

  • Click here for Google images of Matisse linocuts

Picasso

See S. Coppel, S. (1998)

Picasso used linoleum for popular posters in the early 1950s. In 1959 he began a series of innovative colour linocuts, developing the reduction print technique. He developed a method of printing in different colours progressive states cut on a single block, so that the finished print comprises layered impressions of all the states.

  • Click here for overview of Picasso’s work as printmaker and artist
  • Click here for Google images of Picasso linocuts

US Civil Rights Movement

Linocuts were very popular as effective and cheap media for mass communication by African American artists involved in the American Civil Rights movement. Influenced by both African and Mexican art they depicted images of racial and sexual issues. Key proponents were:

  • Margaret Borroughs
  • Elizabeth Catlett

Contemporary linocut

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in linocut as an art form. It is a key part of the many printmaking courses as an easier introduction to relief printing than woodcut. It has therefore become widely used for things like greetings cards. But there are also contemporary linocut artists doing innovative work – including very large pieces that exploit its potential for being cut into smaller blocks and because of its relatively light weight. There has been development of a wide range surface etching and texturing techniques using different tools.

Some of the sources I have looked at (in alphabetical order – unfortunately  websites for other artists I looked at were fleeting and disappeared  since I started the course).

  • Richard Bosman creates linocuts that are often very experimental in their use of different types of paper.
  • Helen Brown creates landscape linocuts from plates produced outdoors on site.
  • Lynda Burke creates dramatic monochrome landscapes with a variety of mark-making.
  • Angela Cavaglieri produces very large linocuts on rolls.
  • Katarzyna Cyganic manages to create very detailed and complex monochrome images using using reflections and reversals.
  • Rika Deryckere produces striking overlaid images on contemporary themes.
  • Geraldine Theurot creates imaginary narratives See Saatchi Art

Bibliography:

  • Ackley, C. S., (2008) British Prints from the Machine Age: Rhythms of Modern Life, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
  • Coppel, S., (1998) Picasso and Printmaking in Paris, London: South BGank Publishing.
  • D’arcy Hughes, A. & Vernon-Morris, H., (2008) The Printmaking Bible: the complete guide to materials and techniques, San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
  • Griffiths, A., (1980) Prints and Printmaking: An introduction to the history and techniques, London: British Museum Press.
  • Martin, J., (1993) The Encyclopedia of Printmaking Techniques, London: Quarto Publishing.
  • Stobart, J., (2001) Printmaking for Beginners, London: A&C Black.
  • Woods, L., (2011) The Printmaking Handbook: Simple techniques and step-by-step projects, London: Search Press.
  • Yeates, S., (2011) Learning Linocut: A comprehensive guide to the art of relief printing through linocut, Gamlingay, UK: Bright Pen.

Exhibition

British Museum

Recent acquisitions two sets of Picasso linocuts (10 January – 6 May 2014)

  • Tags linocut

Categories
Inspiration Landscape Natural Printmakers Screenprint Urban

Chris Keegan

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date January 30, 2017

Website: http://www.chriskeegan.co.uk/home

Does very colourful multicolour screenprints.
Natural landscapes

Chris Keegan Silver Sunset
Chris Keegan When Lightening Strikes
Urban landscapes
Chris Keegan Blue City comp
Chris Keegan Sky Street
Chris Keegan Dirty Old London Town
  • Tags colour, screenprint

Categories
Abstract Inspiration Landscape Linocut Media Natural Printmakers Urban

Geraldine Theurot

  • Post author By lindamayoux
  • Post date January 30, 2017
  • No Comments on Geraldine Theurot

Webpage and links: http://www.artsetter.com/member/gtheurot

Geraldine Theurot Street of San Francisco
Geraldine Theurot San Francisco, Sutter St
Geraldine Theurot San Francisco, Sutter St
Geraldine Theurot The Man
Geraldine Theurot The Man
Geraldine Theurot New York
Geraldine Theurot Brooklyn Birdge
  • Tags linocut

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