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

Showing posts with label process. Show all posts

Thursday, 16 June 2022

Lines in the Water II & III - linoprints

Two more in the series, once again varied, open editions. I will have fun exploring and experimenting with different inking techniques and colourways.

Prints available in my Folksy Store.

A big thank you to the lovely anonymous buyer of journals, RedBubble doesn't tell me who you are but I think I know....thank you Kentucky I hope you love them ;o)

Thursday, 26 May 2022

Lines in the water - linoprint

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.

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.

Thursday, 5 May 2022

Lines in the Tide I & II - drypoint prints

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.

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, 9 December 2021

Sentries I & II - collagraph prints

You cannot come to Bournemouth beach and fail to miss the groynes that march down the sand into the sea from Poole to Hengistbury Head there are 50-odd of them all protecting the beach from being washed away from the tide. They are part of the beach furniture here as much as sand and gulls. They are in sketchbook upon sketchbook of beach doodles I have filled since I moved here more than twenty years ago - so familiar are they that after a while they become easy to overlook.

It is a constant job for the Council to replace them which they do in sections working year on year. As a tot my son spent many a happy afternoon, from a safe distance, watching the diggers, dump trucks and cranes as they got to work removing and replacing. Once work is finished for the day and the light has become a little more exciting there were opportunities for some interesting sketching and photographing for me. I found the shadows fascinating.


Groynes at Bournemouth ©22021LisaLeQuelenec

They have inspired a few series of work being rather convienent ways of introducing verticals in otherwise horizontal seascapes. A large series that kind of morphs every now and then to pop it's head up is one that I think of as 'Stripes on the Shoreline' - fairly recently in monoprints which you can read about here before that in a set of 28 small mixed media collages. It has surfaced again briefly in a collagraph with some rather unexpected results...

I made two collagraph plates using some cardboard as a base and added acrylic mediums and carborundum powder. I incised lines first using a biro then overworking with a blade being careful not to cut all the way through - I wanted an element of drypoint to the prints. Finally they were finished with a dilute layer of acrylic medium to seal them.

Below on the left is one of the prints taken by inking up the plate in the usual fashion. The carborundum holds copious amounts of ink and is difficult to wipe making holes very quickly in the scrim I use to wipe the plate. As there was so much ink on the print and on a whim remembering Henry Tonks* I ran the print through the press again but this time with a piece of clean damp paper covering it. The result, on the right, is a second print in reverse which whilst very different in mood to the original I also thought was a pleasing image.

The process didn't work consistantly each time and I have some interesting misprints that I will use for further explorations and sketchbook work but there are three prints and three 'tonks' are available as an edition of Sentries and Sentries II and are available both on Folksy and Etsy.

*Henry Tonks - 1862 - 1937 a teacher at the Slade School of Art who used to press newsprint on to sections of paintings to remove excessive oil paint from the surface so as to be able to continue to work without having to wait so long for it to dry. The method is known as 'tonking'

Sunday, 5 September 2021

Sea Breeze - collagraph print triptych

I'm not sure what is happening with Blogger at the moment. I thought I had posted this last week but it seems it just saved into drafts. Also I can't seem to post comments!?! Maybe it's me, I'm finding the newish format a bit difficult. Has anyone else had any problems?

A new set of collagraphs inspires by watching kite surfers one evening. I started to think about how I could represent the sea breeze that so many people were having fun playing in. I could have watched them for hours whizzing along jumping and twisting as the sun was going down. It was both exhilarating and peaceful at the same time.

I started with some grey board and used acrylic medium, carborundum grit and aluminium tape to make shapes before inscribing into the board to make some intaglio marks. Just for an experiment I cut away some pieces of the base board to make gaps within the picture frame too. I haven't done this before but may again in the future. Below are the plates ready to be inked after they had been sealed in acrylic medium.

I inked them up in a mixture of intaglio (getting ink within the indentations) and relief ( a different colour rolled over the raised surfaces) techniques. I printed a set of five from each plate and all of them are quite different in variations.

Below are the plates with their patina of inks - a history of colour and process.

I will have some prints from each edition in my Folksy and Etsy stores.

Best wishes for a creative week.

Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Cloud monoprints and mixed media - an experiment with technique

Finally the ink was dry enough to take some photos and move onto the next stage..... Above are some results of a fun mornings experiment. I was short on time and needed to be inventive as I had run out of acrylic medium. I had had an idea and was desperate to get something down on paper but without the medium to seal a plate I needed a work around in my approach.

I had read a while back about a technique called foliography where by you lay down leaves, grasses and organic matter onto a plate and cover in tin foil before inking up and running through the press. I think the idea is that the foil adds strength to the delicacies of the plate and by not varnishing it you aren't adding any accidental brush marks that could detract from subtle veining etc in the plant matter. I wondered if this idea would work for me and thought I would give it a go.

Using a 12x12cm piece of greyboard I 'drew' a quick design with a hot glue gun. The glue dries very quickly and so I could quickly move to the next stage of covering the whole plate with some tin foil. (The one I had was quite a thick one, I think the thin stuff would tear a bit too easily.) Carefully as I wrapped the foil onto the design I was burnishing it into the recesses of the plate and smoothing out any little wrinkles that could hold ink where I didn't want them.

On the left is a close up detail of another plate I have waiting in the wings to be experimented with. This one is on a scrap of mountboard so you can compare, I hope, the difference in depth between the board and the glue. The plate I used for this experiment had some areas that were very thick like this one.

Then I inked up the plate with a brush and wiped with a rag, taking out highlights and sometimes adding a bit more ink here and there. Now to run it through the press (using dampened paper) .... It worked pretty well and I managed to get 5 prints before the glue started to move around and tin foil began to wrinkle under the pressure of the press.

So not a great technique if you wanted to make an edition but for very small sets or for monoprinting and generating ideas I think it has its merits. Speed of plate making being the most useful - I can see with a bit more playing how this could be useful to do in a workshop situation when you are always working against the clock.

One of the things I particularly liked about using the glue gun to make the image was the variety of mark that could be made manipulating the glue and the very deep emboss that could be achieved. This is definitely something that I will utilise again. I wish I had had the forethought to make an impression without any ink at the start - I have made a mental note for next time.

The ink on the prints took the usual ten days to dry so I impatiently waited to work back into them with colour pencil. After seeing the depth of the emboss I knew this was something I wouldn't be able to resist. It also meant that I could carry on experimenting and exaggerating the tonal and colour differences that began in the inking process. I now have more ideas to develop at a later date maybe in print or paint - I will let them percolate a while before deciding.

We have had some spectacular rainstorms the last couple of days and are forecast the same for the rest of the week. I was caught out yesterday walking the dog in rain so heavy that I couldn't see for a few minutes. It was really quite extreme. Watching the build up of cloud and the changing light before hand was quite dramatic as were the flooded roads on the way home. The rest of the day was pretty much blue skies and sunshine. more clouds to ponder....

Thursday, 18 July 2019

A little monoprinting... Turning Tide

I wish I could share the smell and sound of sticky ink as I roll a blend of colour. It is a very satisfying part of the process for the senses. The plate is a sheet of perspex (acrylic) the edges filed down and the corners rounded off. With the ink blend rollered on I begin to draw and paint with brushes, making marks and feeling the drag on the darker ink over the colour blend. Using a rubber tipped tool I make further marks lifting off areas of ink which will show as the white of the paper. The moon is a paper mask placed on top. Now it's ready to run through the press.

I place the plate face up on the metal bed of the press, line up a piece of dampened paper on top and cover over with a thick felt blanket. I turn the crank feeling the resistance as the plate and paper pass through the roller of the press then the give as it passes through the other side. Lifting the blanket and carefully peeling back the paper is always a moment of anticipation... you can never be 100% certain what will appear.

This time I am pleased, the blend has covered well and there is a nice variety of marks. So after removing the paper moon mask and without adding or removing any more ink I run the plate through the press again with another piece of dampened paper to get what is called a ghost print.

There is much less ink to transfer onto the new piece of paper and a much more faded image results. I love these ghost prints for drawing on and playing with ideas for new work. They have become a part of my process now.

After cleaning off the plate of the remaining residual ink I am ready to start again. Once more a blended roll of colour the drawing/painting on top with a brush, removing ink, adding paper masks. Placing the print with its paper and blanket in the press and running it through. I almost always take a ghost print before cleaning the plate and starting the process again.

I find it a very meditative process but after a half dozen or so prints I start feel a little tired and my concentration starts to lag. Then I stop - look over the prints that I have made, take some quick photographs, evaluate and them place them within sheets of tissue paper that are then sandwiched between heavy boards and wait for them to dry. This can take a couple of weeks depending on how thick the ink is on the paper. Every few days I will change the tissue over for dry sheets and pop them back to bed between the boards.

The original prints are available at Seaside Studios UK on Folksy and reproduction prints and cards at RedBubble.

Sunday, 12 August 2018

Beach treasures etchings and process

I had begun to plan my most ambitious etching project to date some time ago. As always it started in my sketchbook and was a kind of continuation of the watercolour beach treasures collections to begin with I wasn't sure if the compositions were going to be in watercolour or print. I had even gotten as far as thinking about colour when I decided to go the etching route.

Refining the shapes and drawing for each plate took some time as I wanted to get the spacing and balance perfect for each individual plate and for it to work just as well as a triptych. Once that was done I was ready to make the plates and could easily transfer each outline onto the prepared zinc. Carefully I added in the hatching to render the form of the objects. There is a lovely parallel between the hardness of the shells and pebbles and the delicate marks they have and recreating it on a hard metal plate.

Once completed the plates are bathed in acid for the drawing to be eaten away giving a 'tooth' for the ink to settle in and imprint on the paper. After carefully cleaning away the rest of the ground (the substance used as a barrier to keep the acid from eating away at the metal where you don't want a mark) the plate is ready for inking.

I have proofed the plates individually (made test prints) in both black and blue/black ink and am happy with the results. It really does pay for me to spend time in the preparation before starting the plate making.

The proof prints are both available mounted as you can see here at Seaside Studios UK on Etsy. Prints of individual plates are available on both Etsy and in my Folksy store.

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