More Printmaking at Bluseed

I'm in a bit of a printmaking frenzy, which I'll illustrate and explain over the next couple of weeks. My previous post was about deconstructed screen printing. Now I'm learning a whole new process.

Yesterday and today I am taking a workshop with my friend Katherine Levin-Lau in the printmaking studio at Bluseed in Saranac Lake. She is showing us how to make multicolor prints using the viscosity of inks progessively thinned with oil, so that a thinner layer of ink can be rolled over the thicker layers, one by one. Above is my first attempt, showing my drawing on the first layer of ink over my zinc plate. The ink is removed with q-tips mostly, along with a paint brush end and  rags.

Here is my second plate, with its second layer of ink, easily rolled over the first. I'm removing the excess yellow ink with a rag and then more q-tips.

Results posted here later, along with more of this process.

My Process

Today I was viewing the blog of a quilter and saw that she had taken the "Process Pledge." I'm all about the process and love to see the processes of other artists of all kinds, so I took the pledge too. I hope you'll enjoy hearing about what I do to get me going, keep me going, and what happens as a result.

And I am continuing in my current process of making a daily art practice a real habit. I missed a day - last Sunday - when we went out in the morning, took a long walk, and had guests while whirling around getting the house in order after a crazy week. I didn't feel too awful about it, as the previous several days were filled with art projects, plans, and commitments.

Wild grape drawing

April 6

I attended a print making class, using Silk Cut Lino sheets at Bluseed Studios in Saranac Lake taught by Robynn Smith. This material was lovely to work with, although still hard to find in  the U.S. (made in Australia). Several of my arty friends attended too and it was great fun. I carved two plates, both from drawings I did awhile ago of wild grape. I need more practice, but here is the result.

Our instructor, Robynn, is a wonderful teacher and an impressive artist. Brave too, coming from California to the slush-embedded Far North of her own free will!

Two finished prints

I plan to use these plates to print on fabric soon.

April 8

Red-eyed Owl

April 9

Detail of small quilt "Ice Moons"

I have been playing with this photo printed on cotton for awhile. It was taken in early winter when the pools of water at a marsh edge were beginning to freeze, trapping lots of air bubbles near the ice surface. This little piece is finished now.






April 10

This morning, I pulled out this tiny watercolor. It was a student's practice sheet from a few semesters ago, and it looks like a landscape with an arc or rainbow moving across it. It is a lovely little "accident" that gave me another way of working toward a piece I am planning. I used it on a journal spread that I played on to make a similar landscape (not as graceful as the original, I think) and to do some other "designed accidents" - all tiny - that apply to the project.

Landscape with arc and rocks

Watercolor print with a photo fragment