Thursday 19 May 2022

Lines in the water - doodles and linoprinting

 


Telephone doodles   ©2022LisaLeQuelenec


I've had reason to be waiting on hold with telephone music to keep me company lately. Totally mind numbing. However with my mind numbed and without thinking my hand set to work doodling, it had quite a bit of time fortunately/unfortunately. Once said call had ended and my brain slowly worked its way out of the fog I looked at what my hand had done. I'm not sure if it is something or nothing but thought I would spend a little bit of time exploring the drawings, redrawing, pondering - I like the flow and movement of the lines and the variations of weight and depth. 


The lines are making me think of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham's drawings and some Victor Pasmore paintings. What do you think?


Linoprinting has always been a challenge and was something I actively avoided in my college days (many, many years ago). However these line doodles feel like they might work best in this medium so I am having myself an experiment. Now lino has come along since I last had a go and there are much easier materials to carve these days. No more the tough as nails brown, heavy stuff that I used to lay over a hot water bottle in the vain attempt to help soften it, no now there is this marvellous blue Japanese vinyl. With a reasonably sharp tool it cuts like butter, which is a good job as my hands would definitely not be up to carving the old style lino.


So after refining one of my Phone doodles I traced the drawing onto the vinyl and carved away. Time was not on my side so instead of getting out the printing ink and because I was far to impatient to wait for another day I tried out an ink stamp pad to try making a quick proof print from.



Playing with lino ©2022LisaLeQuelenec


There is quite a bit of 'noise' - bits of lino that I haven't quite carved enough away and have printed where they shouldn't. I'm not sure whether to leave some or not as I think it will help the image not look quite so graphic and maybe a bit more like water. Also in my impatient proofing I did crumple the paper which left a couple of creases oops! I will ponder some more before getting the printing ink out another day and playing with different combinations of inking. It feels rather exciting to be trying something completely different again and I am wondering how this will feed into my other work it normally does at some stage without me realising it at the time.


3 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

Oh, I really like the print so am anxious to see what you do next with the whole set-up and maybe cleaning up that one line that is a bit distracting! I never think to doodle while waiting on the phone but had a dear friend who always did this and came up with some interesting prints, using some of them (I still have a paper wastebasket she made staming the images on it and then weaving the paper - a prized possession because it is from her. Maybe printmakers think this way - doodles become art where my doodles just go in the round bin!! ha ha

Debbie Nolan said...

Lisa I think your doodles are superb. I know doodling at work when I am waiting on the phone really lends itself to some interesting marks - not sure they are as artistic as yours but it is a great way to let the right side of the brain do its thing.

I know what you mean about carving - because I made stamps out of erasers and that was certainly hard cutting. Hope you have a delightful weekend. Hugs!

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Hi Rhonda, it's developing along at a pace...or my monkey brain is at least :o) Your basket sounds interesting. I like the idea of weaving the paper. You have given me something to think about there as I had been pondering fishing nets/line and the shapes and patterns they make in water....more doodling methinks...best wishes.


Hi Debbie, thank you so much. I hope you are having a lovely time at your family wedding, best wishes.