“Cliff Top Trees, Glen Maye”
Monotype 1/1. Image size 400x400mm.
Descending into the atmosphere of Glen Maye and looking up at the light blissfully burning away the solidity of the trees, then filtering through the filigree of foliage, finishing with the cliff face all shaggy ferns and ivy.
Status – SOLD
“Cliff Edge, Seascape”
Monotype 1/1. Image size 400x400mm
The flattened almost aerial perspective gives a banded abstract feel to the composition. The top “stripe” of dark unbroken sea, let into the white water by a tail of submerged rocks in their turn lead to the unseen cliff base below. A patch of light picks out the stunted heather trim of the slabbed cliff edge.
Status – Available
Status – SOLD
“Burnt Gorse, Seascape’
Monotype 1/1. Image size 400x400mm.
Vertiginously overlooking a rocky bay awash with white water, a tangle of blackened gorse stumps emerge from the weather bleached grass of the cliff top. The distant point of black rocks veiled in a dazzle of sunlit spray.
Status – SOLD
“Bridge After Heavy Rain, Ballaglass Glen”
Monotype 1/1. Image size 400x400mm.
The bridge at the top of Ballaglass Glen over which the Manx Electric Railway trams traverse. Ivy tendrils hanging to one side of the velvet black of the tunnel entrance, whilst white water pours fourth amidst moss clad boulders.Those gallons of water barely contained by the imprinted bevelled edge of the plate.
Status – Available
Status – SOLD
“Festooned Tree, Bishops Court Glen”
Monotype 1/1. Image size 400x400mm.
A dramatic, uncompromising composition. A bold contrast is set up by the ivy festooned fan shape of the deciduous tree peeking out from behind the trunk of the evergreen dominating the foreground. Strength and shimmer.
Status – SOLD
A stack of four views in the main exhibition space of my show at the Sayle gallery. This is the last week to see the work, so be sure to visit before closing time on Sunday
Exhibition details:-
ORIGINALS Print Exhibition 1st – 24th May 2009.
Open: Tue-Sat 10am-5pm Sun 1:30pm-4:30pm
Sayle Gallery, Villa Marina Colonnade, Douglas. IM1 2HN
Tel- 01624 674557 Email- [email protected]
‘Cliff Top Trees, Glen Maye’ Monotype 400 x 400 mm (image size)
One of my personal favourites. The light blissfully burning away the solidity of the trees at the top, then filtering through the filigree of foliage, finishing with the cliff face all shaggy ferns and ivy. Has a lot to do with the feel of descending into the atmosphere of Glen Maye.
‘Waterfall Caught Branch, Glen Maye’ Monotype 400 x 400 mm
The close in view gives this print a more abstract feel. The blistering white of the turbulence caused by the central rock and it’s subsequently caught branch contrast well with the dark surrounding rock and the pool beyond. This framing focuses the composition on the energy of the water coruscating with vitality.
‘Sea-spray, Seascape’ Monotype 400 x 400 mm (image size)
The silvery lightness of the sea works well with the crashing foam as one wave subsides into the path of another. The strata of the black rocks look like pages of the island carved in stone, lichen punctuating the velvety black.
‘Rock Pool 2’ Monotype 400 x 400 mm (image size)
I like the contrast of the black heavy rock and dark pooling of the centre wrapped around with silvery grey stone. All of this interlaced with the sparkle of light on water. A micro cosmos at play in a rock pool.
These are just four of the 30 monotypes in the exhibition. To see them ‘in the flesh’ and more visit the Sayle gallery, details:-
ORIGINALS Print Exhibition 1st – 24th May 2009.
Sayle Gallery, Villa Marina Colonnade, Douglas. IM1 2HN
Tel- 01624 674557 Email- [email protected]
Open: Tue-Sat 10am-5pm Sun 1:30pm-4:30pm
“Digital Watercolour” is a term I am using to describe a method of making original prints using paintbox software.
The starting point for me is a watercolour sketch. This is scanned into the digital environment of a painting program. This sketch gives a great ground which I then paint into with gusto, adding, softening, blotting, strengthening, highlighting.. the list is endless. All my usual artistic skills come to bare in this medium.
The print is then printed with archival paper and inks using a professional inkjet printer. The prints fulfill their “original” status by the fact that they are not facsimilie reproductions of other works. I have been asked many times if the “original painting” is for sale. Sorry folks, these prints only exist as original prints, 1/10.
The programs I use are ‘Painter’ and ‘Photoshop’, essentials in any contemporary artists tool box. I have an interesting use for ‘Illustrator’ looming. I’ll have to get a handle on vector graphics for that though!
The digital watercolours I have in the show are well documented on the site in the posts:-
Autumnal Magic (November 6th, 2007)
A Little Gathering of Sunlit Buildings (November 6th, 2007)
The following images are the latest digital watercolours to be added.
‘Rusty Roof, Cregneash’
‘Tree Tumbled Wall, East baldwin’
‘Tree, East Baldwin Valley’ (Also referred to as “Tree and Sky, East Baldwin Valley” )
My Digital Watercolour Prints are:-
* Limited edition of 1/10. Numbered and signed in pencil by artist.
* Artist emboss/chop stamped on border.
* Pigment ink on archival, acid free German etching paper.
* A3+ paper size.
Screenprints are made using stencils applied to stretched mesh screens, through which ink is squeegeed onto the paper. Colours are built up layer upon layer to produce a print of bold graphic effect.
Stencils can be made very simply using paper. Elaborate photographic images can also be used to create stencils. In this case a photo emulsion coating is applied to the mesh and left to dry. The screen is then exposed to UV. Where the black lines of the art work block the UV the areas are uncured and can then be washed away leaving a stencil to print through.
The techniques I use can be found in the book ‘Screenprinting, The complete water-based system’ by Robert Adam and Carol Robertson.
The book ‘Waterbased Screenprinting’ by Steve Hoskins is also very useful.
‘Sea Shore Cell Phone’ Limited edition 1/14.
This very battered Nokia has lost its number cover revealing the rubber pads beneath. The circular microphone area at the top has a very retro walkie-talkie feel. A good find on a trip to the beach.
The colours were printed using paper stencils, whilst the phone was a photographic image transferred to the screen using photo emulsion techniques and a UV lightbox.
The same image printed onto glass can be found in the Contemporary Glass section via the ‘Gallery’ area.
This image was printed in reverse on the back of the glass so when viewed through the glass it would read the right way around. The ink used was a vitreous pigment mixed with a screen printing medium. Using a glass kiln the ink was fired into the glass. In the way the image is sunk just below the surface, making it indelible, it is similar to a tattoo.
Etching is a more widely known printing technique. I use acrylic resist etching (ARE) techniques. This replaces the old wax/varnish resists with modern user friendly acrylic versions. The principle is the same though. A metal plate, in my case copper is coated with a resist which I then draw into using a variety of tools, exposing the metal to be etched.
The acid creates recessed lines which when inked up will produce a print range from stridently bold to ephemerally delicate. Tones are created by the density of lines and cross hatching techniques.
Aquatint gives me tonal effects and is used hand in hand with etching. An aquatint using ARE is achieved by spraying a fine acrylic mist onto the plate using an airbrush. A ‘peak linen style’ folding magnifier is used to examine the fine dot coating on the surface of the plate. The dots want to leave a satin finish 50/50 glint of metal/resist.
The acid bites through the fine mesh of dots in timed stages, stop-out resist is applied to areas as they reach the desired tone, this protects them from further bite. The tones are predicted by referencing a previously printed guide made from a timed stage bitten aquatinted plate.
The longer the metal is exposed to the acid the darker the tone.These elaborate techniques become in time second nature and help create the special atmosphere associated with the medium.
The photo-resists I use are applied as a UV light sensitive film adhered to the copper plate. This is then exposed to UV light. Half the exposure time is given to the aquatint screen (to achieve tonal variation) and half to the image positive acetate.
The positive image can be created by drawing and painting directly onto plastic sheet or a photographic image printed onto acetate. Combining these two techniques produces strong results.
I create an image on acetate/plastic sheet that blocks the UV light from hardening the photopolymer film beneath. The exposed areas are cured by the UV creating a tough acrylic resist . When developed in a bath of dilute caustic soda the unhardened coating lifts away exposing the metal.The exposed metal can then be bitten by the acid to create the printing plate.
The ARE techniques outlined above are explained in depth, step by step in the excellent Thames and Hudson book ‘Intaglio’ by Robert Adam and Carol Robertson.
Fisherman’s Friend
1 x Battered Pkt
Limited Edition of 1/10