Ran's net - a new project for 2025

 

I am slowly easing my way back into work trying to find my thread from before the holidays. I had been picking up from a project half started a long time ago back in the days of home school during the lockdowns... A project inspired by a Norse mythology book shared with my son.

One character captured my imagination, a Goddess named Ran (a personification of the ocean) who possessed a net which gathered sailors drowned at sea. She is both the cause and the consequence. I can't find many mentions of her in the texts that I have read and it is that most likely that elusiveness  which has intrigued me....

I have so many notes and post-its and scribbles and thumbnails that I think it is time to start collating my thoughts together.

Sketchbook Snippet - Ran's Net  watercolour and watersoluble pencils ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Sketchbook Snippet - Ran's Net  watercolour and watersoluble pencils ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Sketchbook Snippet - Ran's Net  watercolour and watersoluble pencils ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

I have been going back through my notes and experiments - firstly a very textured detail from a collagraph plate using tile adhesive and aluminium foil tape. This was just a small part that I kept as I loved the texture and colours so much. It's not much more than a snippet but I couldn't part with it.

Collagraph printing plate section   ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Second, a section of a ghost print ( a second printing of a plate without adding extra ink) that I worked into with collage, watercolour and coloured pencil. I regularly make a ghost print as fodder for experimenting with new ideas. I like the idea of work continuing, evolving and a continuous thread connecting pieces and projects - many tides, one ocean.

Another connection for these details is the strong 'V' composition that I seem to regularly circle back to.

Detail from a print worked into with mixed media ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Piddock shell fragments ©2024LisaLeQuelenec

Broken but oh so beautiful fragments of piddock shells, inspiring textures and compositions.

Colour inspiration from beach finds ©2025LisaLeQuelenec

Lines in the water - linoprint

 

Lines in the Water I   linoprint 10x15cm  ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

So the last few days I have begun printing the lino plate from my previous post. I tried out a couple of colour ways and also over printing on to a pre-printed background. 

Lines in the Water I   linoprint 10x15cm  ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

Lines in the Water I   variations linoprints 10x15cm   ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

It was whilst I was inking up the plate in the top image colourway that I thought....hold on I have been here before....March 2018 (handy that I have been blogging for so long as it meant I could go back to check when)....a predecessor methinks..... How did I not make that connection? I am coming to realise that my working practise is circular or maybe that should be tidal? Themes wax and wane like the moon's pull on the ocean. I don't feel like I am reworking old ground though...rather eroding away at ideas until I reach (maybe one day if I am lucky) the essence of the thing. Back to mulling over ideas as to where this is going...time for a walk.

Elemental I, II & III   each image 11x18cm   ©2018LisaLeQuelenec

Lines in the Tide I & II - drypoint prints

 

Getting inky...  ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

Two new drypoint prints available in my Folksy store today, .................  These are a continuation of my heavy weather series that I began some years back. The lines seem calmer and more serene in a lot of ways. I seem to gravitate back to working in line and exploring how a mood can be expressed in just a few simple strokes, be that pencil, paint or drypoint needle.

The above photo is the plate inked up and partially wiped ready to go through the press. I am very forgetful of taking photos of the process but am trying to remember. Below are two of the prints from the editions.  Both are available in my Folksy store.

Lines in the Tide    drypoint 8x15cm   ©2022LisaLeQuelenec

Lines in the Tide II    drypoint 8x15cm   ©2022LisaLeQuelenec