Lisa Le Quelenec Seaside studios paintings, prints and mixed media: Jurassic coast

Showing posts with label Jurassic coast. Show all posts

Wednesday, 4 February 2026

New Coastal Monoprints

More monoprints from recent printing sessions....

A collection are available in my Folksy store.

Thursday, 30 October 2025

Dusk Deepened - collagraph and mixed media

Using the same printing plate I have made four images, each different, by working further with acrylic and printing ink. Much like a view changing with progressing light, in each image I have tried to capture a progressing moment - like a burst shot by a camera. I am fascinated by the way the same view from the same position is never the same because of the changing light through weather and season, a kind of homage to Monet's Rouen Cathedral, haystacks and lily ponds in a way. I have been looking and appreciating their multiple variations lately. The first in the set of four is available in my Folksy Store.

Wednesday, 15 October 2025

Smuggler's Moon - print and mixed media

One of the prints made and rejected from the previous post was too dark and over inked so I used the print as the plate and ran it through the press with paper over (like tonking an oil painting in a way). This resulted in a reversed image with some pleasing subtleties of texture. I worked into it whilst still wet which gave a much softer and hazier finish. Once dried I could add a moon for a feeling of the winter nights to come.

Available in my Folksy Store.

Thursday, 2 October 2025

Gathering I - III collagraph and mixed media

Small changes in the inking of one collagraph plate, a progression of light in one view with mixed media. I am enjoying working without colour for a while....I feel that I don't need the distraction but I wonder if that will change....

These are available at Folksy

Thursday, 23 March 2023

And the Gulls Cry - acrylic on canvas board

A companion piece to Where the Wild things are....

These paintings will be available in my Folksy store in a couple of weeks or so. I am going to live with them a short while to make sure there are no adjustments to be made and so that I can enjoy them a while ;o)

Thursday, 10 November 2022

Stormy seas in mixed media

Inspired by the recent weather.....one minute the sky is ominously black, the wind is howling and the downpours begin, wellies are a must to negotiate the puddles.....next minute blinding bright sunshine.

All pictures are available in my Folksy Store.

Thursday, 8 September 2022

Studio sale on Folksy

Some of the prints available in the sale over on Folksy.

Thursday, 11 August 2022

Collections of pebbles and hag stones in monoprint

I have been experimenting and exploring again this time the shapes and textures in pebbles gathered locally. They are a geological history of this part of the coast whose history fascinates me. I often wonder at how different it must have looked with the Isle of Wight's Needles still joined to Old Harry Rocks and where was it exactly that the sea breached and eroded to form the two iconic landmarks that gives us the beach we enjoy today. Was it where Poole harbour is? Being the second largest natural harbour in the world could make it a possibility...or did that come later as the water found the lowest point to pool in and wash away the softer land? These are things that I ponder as I walk along the beach picking up pebbles and looking through the hag stones that have been pushed around by the tide. How much of this history has this pebble seen? Or this one?

My experiments have taken the form of collagraph making individual plates of each stone, choosing textures to describe each pebble individually and then intuitively placing them to print in different combinations. It has the element of chance and surprise for me that echoes the way that I gather the pebbles they have been inspired by. The process is long as each pebble plate is inked separately again echoing the process that formed the rock.

Hagstones ©LisaLeQuelenec

Colours are taken directly from the source material but are also reflected back at me on my walks as the lack of rain and very hot, dry weather are parching the land. I haven't known the river to be so low, even at high tide it doesn't look the same. We have warnings along the coast to be mindful that the heat may produce cliff falls - the process continues to shape the land just as it did to shape the pebbles in my hand.

Tradition says that the fairy folk can be seen through a hag stone but I have only spied a 'polar bear' ;o) Have you seen the Wight bear?

All of the above prints are available in my Folksy Store.

Friday, 13 May 2022

Scintillating seas - acrylic on linen board

Always a challenge to paint and one I return to again and again over the years. This is definitely the kind of sparkle that I value the most, who needs diamonds?

This little gen is available in my Folksy Store.

- see what I did there ;o) Wishing you a creative and successful week.

Thursday, 10 March 2022

Shining seas - Old Harry Rocks acrylic on linen board

Something a little different from the prints I have been making of late....a return to acrylic. The inspiration for this painting came from an evening walk a long while back when the world felt much different. I have been thinking about how life felt back then...it feels like a lifetime ago. Covid-19 didn't exist and Russia was staying within its own borders. I do hope the people of Ukraine can feel safe in their homes once more in the not too distant future and the trauma of recent days comes to an end.

Thursday, 3 February 2022

A week of sketching - sea and skyscapes in ink

I have been sketching lots this week, an A5 sketchbook in a few days! Simple, immediate, preconceived, responsive, sloshy (technical term) and fun. I have found variation in repetition, something that seems bound in and an important part of my process. Lots of ideas are flowing finally after what has been a very unusually slow start to the year for me. Rather than jumping straight in I am cogitating, percolating and pondering and will start some experiments this week. Meanwhile here are some of the highlights (to me anyway) maybe not the most technical but the ones I see having the most potential....

After making the image above I squished (again another technical term - I am full of them) it to make the sketches squares which Is how I usually work. This has changed them so much it feels like I have double the references to work from. Some work better, some less so....more pondering I think.

Friday, 19 November 2021

Blue on blue - Moonlit sea watercolour

A full moon from back in the summer twinkling on the sea in answer to the twinkling lights of the town in the distance. I am missing warm mellow evenings it feels distinctly chillier now.

Available in my Etsy store.

After having a huge studio sort and refurbish, I feel like I have now properly moved in. It took a bit longer than I had anticipated and weirdly even longer for the space to feel like it was mine. It was too pristine and intimidating with all the new work surfaces and furniture - I didn't feel like I could make a mess. I had to give myself a talking to and just crack on. Now I have so many new drawers to store things I am still hunting around to find what I am looking for but it does feel so much more organised. What a lovely 'problem' to have.

Sunday, 1 August 2021

More ammonites in drypoint and collagraph

Back to a favourite subject here...ammonites - well I do live on the Dorset coast. This time in collagraph and again in drypoint. Prints from both editions are available in my Folksy Store.

I'm chasing my tail again this week with looming deadlines and I'm hoping to catch up with everyones blogs with a nice strong cuppa soon. Wish me luck.

Thursday, 17 May 2018

Time and Tide - a mini art book

I continue to think about the effects of time and errosion and the part they have played in shaping the coast where I live. How the pebbles that I pick up along the shore were once part of the land and how much the coastline has changed over thousands of years and how it could change in years to come. Old Harry Rocks was once joined to The Needles on the Isle of Wight....Harry has already lost his 'wife' a chalk stack that fell into the sea circa 1896 and at some point Old Harry will probably join her though I shouldn't think that will be in my lifetime especially as UNESCO has teams working to try and protect him. I wonder just how they can stop the tide... or even if they should? What treasures lie waiting for the tide to reveal?

I started to play with ideas on small pieces of card only 8x14cm using collage and drawing. I ended up with quite a collection and wanted a way to order and present them. Whittling it down to just five I have mounted them into a concertina book that I have made. A book as a finished piece is not a format that I have worked in before but it feels 'right' for this mini project. In my mind I am not thinking of it as a book as such but maybe more of a small chapter in a much longer narrative that I will never see completed.

On the final page is a small explanation about the inspiration behind the work which you can read below.

Like many coastal areas Dorset has a wealth of tales of myth and legend, some of which centre around Old Harry Rocks. These are chalk stacks formed by coastal erosion that lie at the gateway to the Jurassic Coast – a World Heritage site. The erosion that formed the chalk stacks also threatens their destruction and teams from UNESCO are working to save them.

One legend states that the rocks are named after a man called Harry Paye (d. 1419) a privateer and smuggler from Poole who intercepted hundreds of French and Spanish ships bringing his spoils back to the busy port of Poole.

Another naturally occurring phenomenon are hag stones which are pebbles with holes also made by erosion. Folklore states that they provide protection from witchcraft, disease and by looking through the hole you can see the fairy folk. Dorset fishermen used to tie them onto their boats for luck. I wonder if Harry Paye and his crew kept a hag stone or two on their ship…

Thursday, 10 May 2018

Well weathered - a series in mixed media and collage

I can get up to all sorts of mischief whilst waiting for ink to dry ;o) I have been working into some drypoint and etching prints with pencils, paint and collage - looking at them afresh and thinking about time and errosion.

The original six are available here.

They are also available as prints, cards and notebooks on RedBubble here.

Well Weathered VI by LisaLeQuelenec as prints, cards and notebooks on RedBubble

Thursday, 7 September 2017

The coast is clear! Etching of Old Harry Rocks

Quite some years ago His Nibbs and I went for a walk along the beach at Shell Bay down the way in Studland. We have been many times before and since but there was something about this particular day that sticks out. The sun was out but it was a little hazy, it was neither hot nor cold and there was just a gentle breeze. The water looked glass-like - but with strong contrasts in tone on the surface ripples. Colour was bleached out everything reduced to tones of blue grey. What I remember the most was the stillness and quiet. The quiet sounded loud but gentle if you know what I mean.

I took this photograph and along with the memory of that day it has been the inspiration for many drawings, paintings and now an etching. So far I have made two proof prints and have used paper masks to add some sail boat shapes. I think I could make variations of work on this one memory for many years to come.

Above an older painting from 2011, long since sold but one of my favourites.

I wonder do you have a memory or lasting impression of a time and place that you revisit in your work again and again?

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