I owe a debt of gratitude to fellow printmakers , Peter Wray, a fellow of the Royal Society of Master Printmakers and his partner, Judith Collins. A couple of years ago I enrolled on one of Peter's collagraph courses at The Hand Print Studio and it revolutionised the way I work especially in the way of inking up the plates.
I have a stash of collagraph plates that I made a long time ago when I was first starting out in printmaking with Rebecca Vincent and I have begun revisiting them. The resulting prints are 100 times better than the prints I made from these plates originally. Some of these plates I had discarded as right offs. They were not worth any effort because I was so disappointed with them but never got round to chucking them out.
It is so satisfying to be able to see the potential in them and get a good result this time round. This has fed into my fascination with colour and how it influences one's perception of an image. So unlike most printmakers who create limited editions of their work, I rarely edition mine. Instead each time I print from the same plate I choose a new colour palette or play around with an existing colour palette so that each print from the plate is an original. It is the same image but the colour changes the mood, the time of day, the season of the year. Far more interesting for someone with the attention of a gnat. See the two examples above.
1 comment:
Hello Carol
I was particularly interested in this post of yours about the way that you printed up a number of different inkings of the same plate. I hope you talk about this some more in future postings - although as a blogger myself, I do appreciate that it all takes time.
That is especially pertinent where one is e.g., documenting stages in inking up a plate and photographing it as you go along.
One thing that would have helped a lot with this plate that you referred to in this post would be if you had LARGER jpgs when one clicked to show them bigger. I found that they were not big enough for me to get a sense of what you were discussing in your post.
By the way I am glad to hear that you and your colleague are doing well in your print studio and hope it continues for you. Oh and your blog is looking really good and lively too
oh and I know Spiderink's blog too!!. I also love how she talks about her actual process its really great when people share the nitty gritty.
best wishes
Aine
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