Lokta - media experiments on new to me paper and gathering resources

 

Top right - experiments with different media on handmade Lokta paper
Top left - initial ideas for a range of colours for the project
Bottom - experiments with lino ink and carved stamps
©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Gathering thoughts and experiments to continue with the pebble project.....

Experiments with different media on handmade Lokta paper  ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

I bought some Lokta paper, it is A4 and a beautiful creamy colour, some with speckles. It is  thin, strong and fibrous and one side is slightly smoother than the other. I did the same experiments on both surfaces but the difference in results was negligible. Wetting the paper and tearing gives a lovely 'fluffy' edge (like most thin handmade papers) and it cuts well with knife and scissors - these are characteristics that I want to utilise in the coming works.

My next experiments were using lino printing ink in both bold colours, neutrals and off whites.

lino print experiment on Lokta paper ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

lino print experiment on Lokta paper ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

lino print experiment on Lokta paper ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

The results are subtle, I had to photograph these with a dark paper behind to show the contrast as the camera struggles to pick up the pale tones. I rather like the effect though and will definitely be exploring very pale compositions at some point - maybe more as drawings....

 

Print, collage, acrylic ink and pencil on Lokta paper...about A6ish   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Exploring shape, line and rhythm. There is something very calming about drawing flowing lines. I'm making connections in my mind with Japanese gravel gardens, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham drawings and ripples on still water. I feel like I am edging towards something...maybe I am flowing too?

Sand ripples left by the tide   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Aren't these ripples divine? The tide was fast and strong to leave these behind, they are quite large and deep.

A Falling Tide   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

The shot below was taken through the lens of my sunglasses - I like the dramatic tonal contrast.

Sand ripples through my sunglasses   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

All these sources will no doubt filter into this next body of work, I'm enjoying the process of collating and curating.

Revisiting some older work - ebb & flow

 

Ebb & Flow   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

I have been looking back at some older work (around 2018 although it feels like much longer ago). Inspired by the pebbles and small rivulets of water that amble down to the sea. I'm gathering ideas, looking at references old and new. I need a project to get me through February a month that I always find difficult for it's cold snaps and dreary greyness. With the mist and darkness it feels like it has come early today.

Ebb & Flow II   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Ebb & Flow I&II are both available at RedBubble framed and unframed as reproduction prints in various options.

Time & Tide   a mix media and collage concertina book   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

If you have been reading here a while (I thank you) you might remember this little concertina book that I made. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago whilst looking for something else in the plan chest. I like the simplicity of this series of work and want to revisit the themes in some way. I think I would like a warmer palette this time.....

Time & Tide   a mix media and collage concertina book   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

 

Time & Tide   a mix media and collage concertina book   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

Time & Tide   a mix media and collage concertina book   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

Time & Tide   a mix media and collage concertina book   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

Stripes from the Shoreline - every day in February 2019

The latest treasures collected from the shore ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

The inspiration for a project has come from a tiny page in a sketchbook that I shared in August 2017 (Time really does fly, I couldn't believe how long it had been when I checked back.) 

Stripes from the shore sketchbook page ©2017LisaLeQuelenec

The notes and small sketches on the A6 pages keep coming to mind as I walk along the beach and notice more and more ‘stripes’ not only in the little treasures that I pick up along the way but also in the actual beachscape itself. From bands of cloud, the bands of waves as they travel to shore and also in the groynes that protect the space from erosion. The more I notice, the more I feel that I need to make some work exploring these patterns. Not only the horizontals but also importantly the verticals that I find in the landscape. 

Stripes from the shoreline   ©2019LisaLeQuelenec

When I look back at my work over the last couple of years, I feel that I can see this motif emerging subconsciously more and more. Now I feel that it is time to recognise it more fully – to name it so to speak. I also have a hankering for making some work in a more abstract kind of manner. I have no sense of how these ideas could develop and feel open to possibilities so I have decided to make a mini project for the month of February a small collage a day to try out and maybe consolidate some ideas.

 

The 'palette'  ©2019LisaLeQuelenec

 
I work better when I have limitations so I have set some boundaries for myself to hopefully achieve a considered approach;
  
Each piece will have a base layer measuring 6.5x6.5cm (2.5x2.5 inch) square.

         Each piece may or may not have elements that break this boundary.   

      The palette will be a range of aqua, grey, white and cream opaque and semi-transparent papers that have been pre-painted or printed.

 Attention will be paid to the weight, balance, tension, edges, tone and texture. 

I may spend no more or less than 30 mins on each piece.   

In the interests of a cohesive body of work each piece will be mounted      onto a white textured backing paper measuring 15x20.5cm (6x8 inch).

I feel quite excited by the project idea. There are so many rabbit holes that I could wander down and the difficulty will be focussing on only one aspect a day. I am hoping to see a progression of ideas that evolve over the four-week period. Intentionally I am going to make an abstract piece as a starting point in the hope that I can brush aside any preconceived ideas – I wonder what will develop…. Tomorrow I will begin.

Just walking the dog

Wet sand, reflections and silhouettes fill my mind and sketchbooks at the moment. They are inspiring a new mini project. I watched an interview on Youtube with Fred Cuming one of my all time favourite artists which is where the quote in my sketchbook has come from. He said;

'I might be the only person in miles of open space.

It provides me with endlessly fascinating problems

of conveying something which is about nothing

more than emptiness.'

Fred Cuming

You can see more of his work here.

Sketchbook page   watercolour and pencil   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

He sums up so eloquently what I am trying to achieve. Light, space, solitude and quiet. I often think of my sea and sky paintings as 'the big empties' and this feels an extension of that work. Maybe the addition of a figure exaggerates that notion. Time to explore...

Sketchbook page   pencil on monoprint    ©LisaLeQuelenec

Pebble collagraph experiments

After last weeks experiments with monoprint and mixed media exploring shape and tone I decided I wanted to look at tonal qualities in the pebbles a little more. Collagraph printing is perfect for this. I keep a box of textured materials to use for making collagraph plates some manmade, some organic and had fun speading out all the odds and ends and adhering them with acrylic medium to pebble shaped mountboard to make plates and using the same medium as a top layer to varnish.


Below are the plates with a key to what I used and a couple of the first test sheets that I printed up.

Collagraph plates and experiments with a key to materials used   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

My favourites from this collection are the rough sandpaper and the dried outer leaves of the sweetcorn husk - I really can't remember how I aquired that but will have to source some more the texture printed beautifully the more it was inked up.

Collagraph experiment samples with added mixed media   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

Once dry I worked into some of the samples with watercolour, inks and pencils. More ideas started to flow as I began photographing with actual pebbles and background papers (these form part of my digital sketchbook).

In the bottom of my textured materials box I found an old plate that I had made but had never printed. I had been thinking about edges and rockpools and the flotsom and jetsom left behind by the tide. It seemed to be resurfacing just at the right time - perfect for this project - so I inked it up and took a few prints just to see what it was like. It had been made with various handmade papers, string, tin foil, the netting from a bag of fruit and a bit of sand for good measure.

Collagraph plate (detail)  ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

The plate on the left and the first proof print on the right   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

The tinfoil pebble shapes left no impression or variation in ink tone but the textures from the netting and string worked beautifully as did the texture from some of the handmade paper. You can see the cardboard from the base plate had, in a previous life, been the cover of an old sketchbook and I had left the holes from the ring binding in. I quite like the contrast of the regular pattern with the organic shapes made by the other materials. The netting I think worked the best, the holes undulating as sections were stretched and contracted when the plate was made. They look like very delicate dip pen and ink marks.


Once these were dry I worked back into one with watercolour and added collage pebble shapes cut from some of the samples made earlier. (You can see the lovely texture made by that sweetcorn leaf second pebble down.)  I seem to be obsessing with spilling out of the frame at the moment and layering.... This test piece is something I think I will be developing further - time to ponder.....

The Pebble Project    collagraph, collage and mixed media test piece   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

Ideas and experiments

Snippets a montage of ideas and notes   mixed media   ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Where to start? I have so many ideas half baked, scraps of paper with little experiments, workings out, notes in sketchbooks....all jostling for attention. I've decided to take a little break from blogging for a few weeks whilst I get my 'house' in order. It's also time for a good literal studio Spring clean as well as the mental one. Believe it or not this is a tidied desk - I can't show you the horror that lies in the other direction!

Studio desk   ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Ammonite spiral solar etching

Ammonite   solar etching   14.5x20.5cm   ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

This what I had been intending to print when I stumbled across the seahorse plate from the previous post...These prints are from a second solar etching plate that I made on the Printmaking Course at Arts University Bournemouth. (For an explanation of the process visit this post Sea urchin - solar etching.) I had decided to do another ammonite plate to be able to compare and contrast the technique and outcome with a small zinc ammonite plate I had etched in the traditional way. (Variations are shown here.)

After experimenting with the inking up and printing of both types of plate I think the outcomes are hard to distinguish between. Maybe the difference would become apparent when printing large editions with one plate wearing down quicker than another. My research hasn't come up with an answer to that, only that both types of plate are very hard wearing. I have enjoyed both processes and can see the advantage of solar etching for my circumstances in not having to use the acid bath to make plates. Whether I can make it work for me using sunlight and not having to have a light box to expose the drawing onto the plate remains to be seen, more experiments to come over summer methinks.

Ammonite   solar etching   14.5x20.5cm   ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Both of the above prints are available in my Etsy store Seasidestudiosuk.

Experiments with Daniel Smith's Lunar Black watercolour

Lunar black mixes in my colour notebook   ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Lunar black sketchbook page ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

 

Sketch I - lunar black ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

Sketch II  - lunar black ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec

I treated myself to a new (to me) watercolour tube of paint on my last order ; Daniel Smith's Lunar Black. What a beauty! I am rather partial to colourful black watercolour as you know and have written about some experiments on the dark side before here and here. Whilst not what I would call a colourful black it does have the most beautiful granulating quality. These images show the first few sketches and tests that I have done using it. I'm still very much at the 'getting to know you' stage of the pigment, experiments so far show how difficult I found it to control the granulating properties but it is definitely a colour that I can see great potential in.......very, very, exciting. I think it will show it's true potential in large scale work and onsite sketching will be another place I use it as I make tonal studies. Time to play I think....

Sketch III lunar black mixes ©2016Lisa Le Quelenec