Studio Sunday

Twombly background on canvas with yellow monoprint

Oil paint added to canvas to accentuate contours of faces

Monoprint on canvas disaster before I bought other colours

Monoprint with watered down acrylic

Original monoprinted drawing

Detail to show print lines and loose paint

Mirror image progress

Current studio wall October 2011

Reflection

I am quite enjoying playing with different materials and exploring the fluid and double sided properties of print. Mono print, in its unique nature needs to work with the paint. I don't really like how the mono print looks when its on top of the paint - partly because it looks like a childish graffiti. This of course may be because I used black ink (being impatient). The marks didn't add to the surface in the way that I had anticipated - in fact my eye was drawn to the black rather than the image as a whole. I plan to experiment further with mono printing into backgrounds and working on top with paint. I love the way the prints can be worked on on two sides, a sort of mirror image. It raises questions for me about the possibilities of display, rather than having the back of the paper to a wall perhaps suspending them so they can be viewed from both sides. This might make the piece become slightly more sculptural, or perhaps suitable for installation (I'm imagining multiple frames suspended). Working on top of an oil surface was quite strange because I am used to preserving the white of the canvas to show light. However, I do feel that this worked better than printing on top of a painting because I didn't find that I was guiding the lines of the running paint in any way so could then add the mono print freely. I am definitely going to play further with combining materials on paper as this seems to be a fruitful way of exploring my ideas.

Doubles in Printing

I have been looking at the work of Claude Heath (mainly linked to my breaking the boundaries project). His lines are very gestural and scratchy reminding me of Cy Twombley's work. This loose and deliberately 'bad' quality is an element which I have tentatively been exploring. 

It occurred to me post presentation seminar that I could explore and combine print with other materials as the very nature of the medium means that it allows you to recreate an image more than once. I am yet to explore lino repetition - James said my doubles reminded him of Andy Warhol's Marilyns - but again referencing Heath/Twombley, I have started to play with mono print. I mono printed over the top of a canvas which didn't work very well as the only colour I had was black and it was too strong. I have prepared a washed canvas background with dribbling paint which I intend to print on and then paint over so that the marks become part of the background. The marks are created from drawing through touch - in this instance my own face. Earlier this week I created some mono printed drawings in this style and plan to paint into them this weekend (these are on paper). As part of my 'sketchbook project' I have mono printed some pages - of course in a book you turn the page so the drawing exists on both sides creating a double, whereas with the flat sheets and canvas you would generally view the front, unless the piece was suspended so one could move around it. I quite like the idea of print as it has a gestural element and the prints are a reverse of the original drawing which is kind of like looking in a mirror. 

Some mono surfaces ready to work into...

 

I am also very excited about the prospect of working with twins or siblings close in age as well as constructing my own multiples by repeating a portrait more than once. This will need a bit more research and some time as work is hectic at the moment and I am struggling to maintain my work/life balance. There are 3 sets of twins in my year group at school and another two sets in year 8 so this is a possible area for my enquiry if their parents agree.