The best of friends

The Best of Friends   acrylic on board 10x16cm   ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

Thinking of the beaches where I grew up....

detail

Walking the shore

Sparkling shore photograph ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

The sun was too bright and the water too full of glare for taking photographs on Saturday so I tried holding my sunglasses up to the lense and took this one. It felt quite warm with our back to the wind and it was only when we turned to walk back that we noticed how cold a wind there was.

Stormy weather has been forecast from tomorrow so I headed back down for another walk this morning to make the most of it before the weather turns again. What a lovely way to start the week.

I must go down to the sea again..

I must go down to the sea again,
    to the lonely sea and the sky;
I left my shoes and socks there -
    I wonder if they're dry?

                                                Spike Milligan

Coastal calm acrylic on paper 9.5x15.5cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

A case of cabin fever.... :o)  Have a great weekend.

Through the woods

Through the Woods   acrylic on paper   37x15cm   ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

It feels strange to be posting a snowy painting today when outside the sun is shining. It's so beautiful and I feel like I'd nearly forgotten what it looked like.

I've been Bubbled!

Poppy cards available at Red Bubble ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

This weekend an exciting package arrived. I'd uploaded a selection of my images onto a site called Red Bubble  and the cards that I ordered arrived. I am very impressed with the quality and speed with which they came, they are better than I could have imagined. Cards and prints, both unframed and framed, are available. I will be adding to the collection over the coming months.


This also opens up new possibilities for my work as well and is giving me new food for thought. For a long time I have sketched with water-soluble pens, used collage and other materials whose longevity and stability I have considered dubious. This is fine when doing sketchbook work and experimenting but would, to me, be unethical to use if making work for sale. I want my collectors to have a product that isn't going to disappear off the page or canvas. However if the artwork is a reproduction print made with quality inks on archival paper and is guaranteed a lifespan then there is huge scope for indulging use of these materials and pushing new boundaries. Not to mention purely digitally created imagery. What an exciting world this has opened up!

cards available at Red Bubble ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

The silence of snow

The Silence of Snow   acrylic on paper 16x15cm   ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

The sky always seems to look dark against the whiteness of the snow. The silence - it's deafening...

Winter Woods adventures in linoprinting part 2

Winter Woods II   linoprint and coloured pencil 14x15cm   ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

Two further experiments with the lino prints from the weekend adding in some colour with coloured pencil. Two different moods I think but still quite wintery. 

Winter Woods III   linoprint and coloured pencil 14x15cm   ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

For some really IMPRESSIVE blog posts about linoprinting please visit Sherrie York's blog and read these posts;

link 1     link 2    link 3

This series is a real nailbiter of suspense. I can picture this fearless printmaker with nerves of steel zipping around her studio with a superhero cape flowing behind her.

Winter woods - adventures in linoprinting part 1

Sketchbook page ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

This weekend I thought I would try my hand at a linoprint, something I haven't done for a long time. I thought I would start small and simple and the birch trees seemed to me to be an ideal subject to give it a go. After doing a couple of quick pencil sketches to decide on the main shapes I got started.

I had a piece of lino but it was so old I wasn't sure if it would be too hard and crumbly to carve. Luckily it didn't seem to bad and I spent an hour or so happily cutting away. I was very excited when it came to proofing the block and mixed up a rich dark sepia colour from my prussian blue and burnt sienna. I printed a couple of copies and sat back to look.

1st proof

As giraffes

The image looked quite busy for it's small scale, I had over done it with the trees and needed to reduce the number. In passing His Nibbs commented that the trunks looked rather like giraffe necks. As you can see, whilst it was so busy, he had a point ;o)

Out came the cutting tools and I removed a few of the trunks to make a bit more space. The second proof was much more my intention. I think the extra space gives the eye a bit more room to find a path through the forest.

2nd proof

I started playing around with the ink colours mixing them and making graduated colours. I loved this soft smokey colour and settled on that printing up a small batch to experiment with further. The image feels wintery and rather topical whilst we shiver here in the UK. We have had a little snow in Dorset and it feels like we may be in with a chance for some more.

Winter woods linoprint 14x15cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

Just a quick mention, this is the last week to see the exhibition 'Light Space Time' at the Red House Museum in Christchurch. The last day is Saturday. Due to the snowy weather, please do check with the museum for any changes to their opening times and please stay safe whilst traveling. To see the Red House Museum website and opening hours please click here .

An experimental recipe for 'failed' work

 Take one failed ghost print (a second pressing of a monoprint with no re-inking) and add some coloured pencil.

 

Add a little more coloured pencil and a little more each time it will burnish the colours underneath building a nice patina of marks.

Add a few extra marks to suggest the patterns on the tree bark.

Crop.

Adjust contrasts a little by digital means.

Result: either a good starting point for a new painting or something that could be digitally printed as a finished piece. Of course it is very likely that this piece will be filed into a sketchbook where it will either mature resulting in a mellowed, full bodied and well thought out concept or it will be chucked out never to be seen again like yesterday's moldy bread. The jury is out.

Winter II monoprint & coloured pencil 16x19cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

The proof of the pudding: Whilst I don't think this will end up as a digital print, I think the original is far to rough to scan well, I am intrigued by certain aspects. I really like the way in which the trunks run off the bottom of the page - they seem to disappear into a snowy foreground which is somewhat topical at the moment. (I saw at least two flakes fall this morning which is a bit of an event in my part of the world.)


For anyone interested below is the first print that came from the plate. I'm still trying to get to grips with getting the consistency of the new inks right for successful prints but I am having a lot of fun trying. I will have to put in another order for paper soon as I am really getting through it. Keeping things simple and thinking in very basic shapes and marks is the way forward I think for the moment.

Winter monoprint 24x17cm ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

Birch tree monoprints

Three birch monoprints ©2013Lisa Le Quelenec

I'm still exploring this technique, I think it lends itself well to this linear subject and I like the way certain elements run outside the borders of the traditional rectangular frame. I think I will be exploring this more. The lovely thing about these kinds of experiments is that it is a very fast method of exploring ideas and generating new paths to tread. This will be a month well spent.