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

Showing posts with label ink. Show all posts

Friday, 29 August 2025

August's Spiral drawing

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Ran, nets and print experiements...

I have been having much fun experimenting with different types of netting and getting very inky whilst printing them....

First up, example no.1 fruit netting from the supermarket - very fine nylon, easy to rip and manipulate although does sometimes spring back unless very stretched out first. In some examples the ink collects at the join and prints spots of ink within the diamond shapes. This type of net gives very uniform shapes.

Example no.2 is the type of netting that I think would be used to make the big petticoats in some dance costumes - we have a big dance school in the area so I think this is a safe guess. The sparkle glitter bit did break off whilst ripping and manipulating the material but didn't really effect the result in the ink. As you can see it has a much bolder line to the main body and I really like the edges where I have ripped and stretched it. With a bit more experimenting I think more subtle effects could be have by controlling the amount of ink added.

Example no.3 Hessian made even bolder marks and the bonus of this material is where you can pull threads out completely from the weave. I like the effect where it starts to completely fall apart and is literally holding itself together by a thread or two. This one was the 'thirstiest' material and held a lot of ink. More subtle marks were made by not re-inking between prints which is something for me to remember.

Example no.4 Scrim is another fabric that can be manipulated easily, have thread ripped out from the weave and generally stands up to a lot of abuse. The weave is much tighter and the resulting print can be much more subtle and dense. I think it needs a lot of threads pulling for a net like structure but I like the resulting print.

Whilst running example through the press on top of misprints and practise prints I used copier paper to protect the press blankets. This has given me lots of sheets with reverse prints that I can use as sketch paper for drawing into. I might make a sketchbook from them at a later date.

Lots more experimenting to do, ideas are starting to form about where these experiments can take me in my Ran project.

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

June's Spiral drawing - unidentified shell

This shell had lots of lumps and bumps to navigate and textures too. The spines were satisfying to draw - some had received a bit of damage to their tips but I think it adds to its character.

This year is running away fast. Can you believe that it is June already? It doesn't feel like I have done six spiral drawings already this year and yet here they are...

Friday, 2 May 2025

Spiral drawing for May - 3 for 1 shells

I started but I couldn't stop! Three spirals for May as they are getting quite addictive. I'm chasing my tail still trying to catch up on projects that I feel should have been finished already. Sometimes things take longer than you think. I was hoping to be able to have the Ran's Daughters project finished and ready to share buy the end on April but it hasn't quite worked out that way. I am getting close though... even with distracting spiral drawings in the mix.

Friday, 25 April 2025

April's Spiral Drawing - Queen conch

Sliding in at the end on the month with April's spiral drawing. This one was especially difficult to capture the spiral and descending order of size in the protrusions a couple of which were also bendy and different to the others. Isn't nature wonderful in all her perfect imperfections? She kept me on my toes anyway.

Thursday, 13 February 2025

Spirals for January and February

My drawing challenge for 2025....spirals! I did do the drawing below in January but failed to blog about it as I was so caught up with Ran and ginkgo patterns! I am using a mid-toned sketchbook that I have had for a long time but keep forgetting that I have. I think it will be nice to keep all of these drawings together.

A new to me shell, found at Christmas though not by me. This is a common wentletrap - I think - found in Jersey. It has been on my bucket list to find one of these for years. You can see how small it is next to the drawing maybe about 2.5cm... A tricky subject with it's prominent verticals climbing up the spiral. Fun to try to draw though.

February's spiral was even trickier...I attempted this one a few times as I kept losing my place in the spiral markings as well as the spiral form.

Thursday, 19 September 2024

Headland and a Sudden Shower - etching and drypoint prints

It certainly is starting to feel autumnal now with noticeably darker mornings and evenings. Occasionally more dramatic skies and rain showers and a mellowness in the air. I have been reprinting and restocking some of my older plates which are now available in my Etsy Store with prints from these edition at Folksy too.

I have been inspired to work on some new larger prints. I am still in the platemaking and testing stage but hope to have something to show soon. Below are the initial sketchbook thumbnails - these are tiny inch square sketches/ideas - I am working out how to translate them into larger images, how far I can push the boundaries of the plate size before the image is lost.

Friday, 2 August 2024

Folksy Summer Exhibition

So happy to share that I have had this piece selected for the Folksy Summer Exhibition.

I am in very good company - so many talented artists and makers. There is so much to see.

The show is on for the whole of the month of August and you can view it here;

Folksy Summer Exhibition

The sister painting - Where the Wild Things Are - is available in my Folksy Store.

Thursday, 16 May 2024

Broken but still beautiful V

Broken But Still Beautiful V

A little bit of a change this month - after starting out in pencil I thought this one was a dramatic enough shape to explore in ink with more extreme tonal contrasts. I quite like the stronger background.

This month's model was acquired in Longniddry, Scotland. I was astonished at the size of the shells I found there. The majority of the whelks (and scallops) that I found there were at least twice/three times the size of the largest ones that I find along the South Coast (size comparison in the photo below). I collected a few beautifully broken ones and one with the most stunning 'pashmina' of barnacles. I will save this one for later in the year, maybe an extra large version when I can work outside...

Friday, 10 May 2024

Submerge / Descend monoprint and mixed media

I was itching to play with my usual inky blues so indulged myself for a day with some monoprinting...

I enjoyed experimenting with layers of thick and thin ink and how they interacted. I used lots of ink extender for very thin and transparent layers (it works much like glaze medium in oil and acrylic painting). Once the prints were dry some pebbles were collaged in and extra white ink drawn in to enhance the light/current/flow. I wanted the feeling of being pulled gently under water.

The same prints just playing with layouts - seeing how they speak to each other/if they speak to each other.

Sometimes erosion seems to happen quickly and violently as in a storm but sometimes it is the persistent, gradual and slow process of wearing surfaces over many years that leads up to the big event. I think this is true of painting/printing too. Some days you feel like you have made leaps in your work but it is all the days where tiny little steps have been made that are important to get to your goal. Slow and persistent - the message that I take from the sea.

The two prints at the top in the above photograph are available in my Etsy store and the lower two are available in my Folksy store.

Thursday, 11 January 2024

Broken But Still Beautiful I - mixed media drawing

The end of 2023 passed - I'm not sure where or how - and here we are already the 11th! Armed with new plans for work and hopefully more self discipline blog-wise than I have shown last year I will be here more regularly.

To begin the year a resolution to myself to make more time for drawing. Drawing is another area that I have neglected recently and should be one of the first signs to myself that things are going askew. Life is much better with drawing in it. The act of slowing down and looking is undervalued I think. I am a little rusty but have made a start.

I plan to make one drawing each month this year on the theme of 'Broken But Still Beautiful'. (There may be more than 12 but I want at least 12 by the end of the year.) To start off the project this beautiful whelk shell that I picked up in Norfolk last summer. I have a lovely collection of broken whelks and the project may well be a series from these resources. I obsess over the beautiful internal twisting wave-like spiral of the columella. Even the sound of the word 'columella' I find beautiful. When I look at broken whelks I see a Barbara Hepworth or Henry Moore sculpture - a reclining figure - large scale and monumental. I have no end in mind for these drawings except to enjoy the process and get lost in the shapes, contours and textures. Lets see how I get on....

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.

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, 23 February 2017

Deeper through the forest

Thinking about hard and soft, lost and found edges using pencil, oil pastel resist, watersoluble pencils, inks, and new to me pigments from Daniel Smith - sodalite genuine and lunar black. These two are fast becoming favourite colours. I love, love, love the soft inky denim of the sodalite.

I might leave this as it is or work into it again at a later date....it may even be the starting point for something else. The half term week has thrown me off kilter a bit. It's funny how just a few days off work can make you lose your thread. For now back to sketchbooks to find myself again I think.

Thursday, 14 January 2016

Sketchbook pages...

Inbetween printing and working on a commission I have been working away in my sketchbooks squirreling away ideas and inspiration for later projects. Sometimes pages are just recordings of little things that have caught my attention - like the daffodils flowering during the first week of January! I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened before but we have had a very mild winter so far. A walk on the beach at Southbourne was very fruitful for ideas. The light was very dramatic as heavy showers started to roll in and the energetic tides were throwing up all sorts of treasures like these mermaid purses (a much more romantic name than fish egg case) some were smooth as silk others furry like animal skin in colours ranging from black to pale olive. Anyway here are a couple of pages...

Monday, 4 August 2014

Seas of Red

It has been a very good year for poppies in my garden, there has been a lovely display. They are particularly beautiful when they are back lit from the sun. I have found it particularly poignant that the blooms were so many and lasted so long during this time of the 100 year anniversary of the start of World War I. Of all the things that I have seen and heard in the media about the commemorations this installation by ceramic artist Paul Cummins has been the most moving and beautiful to me so far. It is something I would love to see.

To buy a poppy and support six service charities register your interest here.

Friday, 30 May 2014

A quick sketch - Daisies

'On tiptoe walked she in the sun

Until, our eyes to greet,

A fallen constellation we

Discovered at our feet.

Before us white and wonderful

The daisies gleamed so bright...'

Anon

Every year I enjoy watching the daisies spring up before the first mowing. His Nibbs leaves it a couple of weeks longer for me to enjoy before starting the daisy massacre. He has been known to leave me a couple of patches which get cut at the second mowing. I'll let you into a secret.... last year I planted a couple of bits that I had dug up from the grass into the flower bed. This year they are very well established and have spread. They look so cheerful and the leaves have given what was a bare patch a lovely green covering. The official line is, 'I wonder how they got there...'. ;o)

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