Watercolour observational studies

Watercolour studies shell, sand dollar & urchin ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Time is racing towards exhibitions now and there is a lot of framing to be done and sorting out of what is going where. In between waiting for frames to dry (I white wash wooden frames to suit the picture) I painted these small watercolour studies. It was lovely to sit under the shade of the apple tree listening to the birds and to have a bit of time out of the studio.

Watercolour studies grey feathers ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

I really enjoy making these small observational studies. It's nice to slow down looking at details and really getting to know the subject. The patterns and textures of the urchins and sand dollar are just beautiful. I'm hoping to fit in some more in between the big framing day that awaits me tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Sand dunes and shadows

Sand Dunes & Shadows acrylic on paper19x28cm  ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

I love the changing colours of sand in shadow. The cool blues, warm lilacs and the unexpected light tones of some shadows are exciting to paint. Here and there grass, sea holly and other vegetation poke their way through the sand. Plants always find a way to grow somehow and the green/yellow/purple is a favourite combination.


Something strange has happened when I add a caption to the pictures in a post. I used to be able to write the caption as three lines but now can only do it as one. Does anyone know how I can change back? (I post in compose mode rather than HTML) I'm wondering if this is a blogger glitch or just me.

Sunday sailing

After a gloriously sunny Sunday it's back to being chilly and grey today making photographing this painting hard work. (The sky is slightly bluer in the painting than this picture shows.) A sleepy evening sail on a silent sea.

After my trip home I am having trouble settling down to work as there are so many ideas running through my mind. It's the opposite to painter's block and just as tricky to overcome when there just aren't enough hours in the day. I've been making lots of thumbnails and notes to get things jotted down on paper so as not to forget. Any tips for silencing my inner butterfly would be greatly appreciated.

Sunday Sailing acrylic on canvas board 20x20cm ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

 

 

In the soft moonlight

In the Soft Moonlight

Water media 12.5x24cm

©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Did anyone see the 'big' moon last week? I was hoping for a good view in Jersey but the sky was full of cloud.

This painting began it's life as a piece of paper used to blot excess acrylic ink from another painting. The paper is a rough watercolour paper so the 'print' only took in some areas of the texture. At the time I put the paper aside thinking I would get back to it later and use it for collage. I pulled the piece from a drawer yesterday and began to build more washes of watercolour and acrylic ink into it.

Working more intuitively than I normally would and letting the paint dictate the direction that it wanted to go in, a landscape started to appear. In the sky area I used some pearlescent ink which has added a subtle shimmer. Keeping the paper very wet and tilting the drawing board in different directions to help the flow kept everything very loose which I think helped the ambiguous feeling of a moonlit landscape. I'm left wondering what is just over the rise.

Sketches from a quick trip

Well now, has it really been three weeks since I last posted? It doesn't feel like it. I've had a busy time with a lot of non arty things and a ten day break to Jersey in the middle having a good catch up with my family. On the trip out on the ferry we were just heading around Old Harry Rocks when a dolphin arced out of the water, had I been looking out of the window a split second later I would have missed him. It felt like a good omen to start the trip. I haven't seen them very often, maybe a dozen times, and when I have it's mostly been in Cornwall but the thrill of seeing a dolphin in the wild is just magic.

My good omen to start the trip didn't extend to lucky weather unfortunately with only a couple of good days of sunshine so not much sketching was done. I did manage a couple though... and I always feel inspired after a trip home. -I still call it home even though I haven't lived there for half my life :o)

From the ferry  Gouache  ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Beach finds  Gouache  ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Now to knuckle back down to work, exhibitions are looming and there's lots to do.

Ssshhhhhh....

Ssshhhhhhh.... acrylic on canvas 40x50cm ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

 

 

There have been a lot of non arty things happening over the last week but inbetween I have been managing to snatch back some time to work on this canvas.  My aim in this piece was to try and capture the sound of lazy waves as that roll on up the sand shushing like a lullaby. Walking along the waters edge, listening to the sea always puts me in a mellow, medative mood, I find the sound very comforting. This is an unusual format for me, it's been interesting to deviate from my usual squares.

Contrails collograph experimenting without a press

Sketchbook pages for contrails
mixed media ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Continuing experiments with the contrails and sunsets in my sketchbook toning down colour and trying a small watercolour version led me to thinking about collograph printing. I've only ever done it a few times at college many years ago and assumed that without a press I wouldn't be able to do it again. However some time back on Jeanette Jobson's blog - Illustrated Life she wrote about collograph printing without a press. She inspired me to give it a go.


For those that don't know collograph printing is a form of relief printing where the plate is made of collaged textures. All sorts of different things can be used. I've seen bits of fabric, string, spaghetti, cardboard, corrugated paper, and grit all used with great success. Not having a press at my disposal, I
thought I'd better not use anything with too much texture as I wouldn't be able to apply enough pressure for a successful print by hand.

The plate all ready to be printed

To begin with I cut a square of ordinary mount board. I used the back as it was a smoother surface. Then I drew out the design. Mount board is made of thin layers and by scoring into it I could peel back some of the layers to reveal a fluffier paper fibre surface. I did this all around the outside of the plate to make a border and also to the lowest contrail shape. Very carefully I cut a circle for the sun with a scalpel going right through the board. I envisioned the prints needing some hand finishing and so would paint in this colour later. For a couple of the contrails I used an acrylic medium made by Liquitex called Blended Fibres. I painted this on not letting the relief area stick out more than about 3mm. The linear element of the design was embossed using ball point pen. The final stage in preparing the plate was to give the whole thing a coat of acrylic medium to seal it.

collograph plate

To give myself a fighting chance of getting a good print I thought I would use watercolour and watersoluble crayons to 'ink' the plate. I thought by using them and printing onto damp paper I wouldn't need half as much pressure than if I used printing ink which is much stiffer. The crayons I used were a mixture of Caran d'Ache Neocolor II and Derwent Aquatone and they adhered to the plate really well. The watercolour balled up on the surface which I expected but I was hoping when I printed that the pigment would bloom onto the damp paper. Here's the plate all ready to print.

collograph print

After soaking some watercolour paper (Arches 90lbs Hot Press) for a couple of minutes I was ready to go. (The paper was wet all the way through but dry enough to not have a sheen on the surface.) Laying the plate on one drawing board and covering it with the wet paper I put another drawing board on top. Then I stood on top of this sandwich moving around to try and get even pressure all over and kept my fingers crossed. Carefully taking off the top board and holding down one side of the paper so that it wouldn't move out of position I took a peek. It has mostly worked except for one small area so I put the paper back down and pressed by hand in this little spot until all the paint had adhered. To 'fake' a plate mark, which it would have had if it had gone through a press, I ran the back of my nail along the edge of the plate until it had embossed the paper. It's heavy work on the hands but looks better for it. The print didn't photograph well at this stage, the colours were more intense than they show here. I printed 3 more from the plate, two I did with NOT watercolour paper (the surface interferes with the texture a little too much when pressing by hand.).


Once the prints were dry I worked back into them with coloured pencil and acrylic ink. I even used some gold acrylic to wash over and pick out some areas. Below is the finished piece. I'm not sure what to call this so if any print makers could let me know I'd be grateful. Is it fair to call it a hand finished collograph or would it be better to call it a mixed media with collograph. I'd like to make a series of these and it would be handy to know.

Heat Have I - print I/IV
Hand finished collograph 17x17cm
©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noted that the image is 'back to front' from the original drawing. I thought it would be good to add this to the experiment and see how the change would affect the composition. I think the composition does still work and I also like that not all the contrails have come out. The composition feels much more circular now and much less cluttered. I enjoy the surprises thrown up by changing mediums and processes, I wouldn't have ever gotten a result like this if I had stuck to painting.

It was a fun day experimenting in this way as I was totally unsure of the outcome or even if there would be an outcome. The whole process is magical and full of discovery for me and I will definitely be doing some more.

Contrails and sunset mixed media experiments

Fist stage - collage experiment
©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Taking six of the mini compositions that I showed yesterday I thought I would develop them further into collage. Using watercolour paper that had been pre-painted with I ripped strips to give a fluffy soft edge. The layers of the paper exposed more dimensions and a 3D relief to the edges. In contrast the circles were cut with scissors for a harder edge. They were glued down with acrylic medium and a coat of the medium was brushed over the whole surface to seal it. My intention at this stage was to glaze acrylics over the top and I wanted to reduce the 'thirstyness' and absorbency of the paper.



Second stage - additions of colour pencil and acrylic ink
© Lisa Le Quelenec

For reasons of speed I rejected the idea of glazing acrylic and instead reached for colour pencils and acrylic ink. As I started working back into the collages my mind was darting down tangents thinking not only of contrails but also of the thermals that birds use to glide along on and the breezes that give relief to the hot summer days. Although difficult to see in this photograph I have also carved/embossed into the watercolour paper. As it was a heavy weight paper this was very easy to do. Some of the linear marks representing the thermals are picked out in acrylic ink.

I love working in this experimental manner as it's so different to the way I normally paint it gives me the freedom to try new things and play for a while. These little mixed media pieces (they only measure 10x10cm) could be a new series of paintings or prints, I might never use them for anything else or they could be a whole series of work waiting to happen. I can't help but wonder because of the textures they might make good collograph plates, if only I had a press.......






mixed media experiment
©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

I think  Bruce  summed it up perfectly in his comment on yesterdays post;

It is the placement of such thoughts in sketchbooks... which guarantees that they are seeds... not lost... but reserved for planting and germination on another another fertile day!

that day maybe tomorrow or in years time, who knows.... it will be a good starting point for new work when the time comes.

Contrails and sunset sketchbook experiments




sketchbook page ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Inspired from the trip and mulling over the ideas of contrails and the setting sun I had a days experimenting yesterday. Thinking about the division of space, centre of interest and the fine line between representation and abstraction I made some tiny gouache thumbnails. These experiments may lead somewhere or they may not but it's nice sometimes just to do with know pressure of an end result or things looking neat or finished.




sketchbook page ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec



sketchbook page ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec



detail

detail

The two images on the left are details, hopefully showing the surface texture, of the study on the right that I did in acrylic. I wanted to play with the idea of combining the contrails with the gulls. I picked a not so good placement for the vertical contrail, it has rather flattened the image. This is one very good reason for doing little studies like this in a sketchbook and not waiting to realise a mistake in a painting that has had more time invested in it. To see the order of layers and their colours click on the image to enlarge. I remembered to make the list this time - something I've been meaning to do before.

A trip to Margate



Looking towards Kingsgate Bay

Botany Bay

A little trip to Dartford in Kent for a very special party - Nan and Granddad's 70th wedding anniversary. I can only hope that His Nibbs and I have that many years together.

On Friday we had a stop off in Margate to go to the  Turner Contemporary Gallery  to see a show called 'Turner and the Elements'. The emphasis is on 76 watercolours with just 12 of the oil paintings on display. To be honest this was one of the big draws for me as it's his watercolours that I most enjoy. They feel more intimate and more of a direct response. I also feel that they are closer to what Turner saw when he painted them as a lot of the colours of his oils haven't weathered colourwise as well. Saying that one of my favourite Turner's Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth was on display in the last room. If you are in the area I would recommend a visit as it is a very interesting exhibition.


I had hoped to be able to show a photo or two of Margate but unfortunately whilst we were there a heavy mist cloaked the town and all you could see was dense white. In the afternoon we drove on to Botany Bay for a walk on the beach where the mist had mostly burnt away. It's not a beach I had been to before but is one I will have to return to sketch.


Driving to Dartford I sketched the sky from the car. With my sunglasses on the colours were beautiful warm neutrals, my head was full of Turner's watercolours and thoughts of what he would have made of contrails and how he would have used them in paintings.



sketchbook page