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

Showing posts with label hagstones. Show all posts

Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Shorelines - mixed media and collages

Sometimes it feels like you are working away and not getting anywhere fast and then all of a sudden things click into place and pieces are all finished at once. That is what has happened this week for me, it has been like waiting for the tide. Four small mixed media and collage pieces inspired by the colours and textures of the shoreline. I am feeling drawn to the very edge or meeting point of sea and sand.

All four are available in my Etsy Store.

Wednesday, 5 June 2024

A little blue book of blue

Sketchbook pages from my little blue book. I'm about halfway through this little square sketchbook (14x14cm) it has a blue cover as apposed to the usual black ones and so I am using only blue inside....a bit easier for me I know. Maybe next time I will brave a red cover and only use red...only joking! I don't think I could manage that.

Thursday, 8 February 2024

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.....

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.

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....

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?

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

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

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

Wednesday, 31 January 2024

Revisiting some older work - ebb & flow

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

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.....

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.

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.

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