Watching the rain come in - watercolour paintings

 

Watching the rain come in   watercolour 20x16cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

I love the magical light over the sea when a rain storm comes rushing in...

A Keen Breeze   watercolour 16x20cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

Both paintings are available in my Etsy Store.

In for a soaking - showers over the sea in watercolour

 
 

In for a Soaking   Watercolour 25x25cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

It's funny how the rain can creep up on you ...

 

Available in my Etsy store.

Just a card - Indie Week

 

This week is Just a Card's campaign week to celebrate and support artists, craftspeople and all small independent businesses. A wonderful idea, now in it's fifth year, sponsored by The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) and endorsed by many amazing supporters from the arts and business to celebs in the UK and around the world. 

 

Venus comb shell card   pen and wash   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

Whilst I post images of paintings and printmaking, like a lot of artists, I also make small images for handmade cards which are available in my Folksy. Selected paintings and prints are available as cards, prints, stationery and accessories at RedBubble . All the 'just a card' sales help keep us going especially in recent times.

It is never just a card, just a print, just a painting... it always means so much more. Just imagine, every time you hit the checkout somewhere an artist, craftsperson and independant business owner is doing a happy dance. If they are like me there will be a huge smile on their face and a daft butt wiggle too. I don't think you would get that so often with big business would you?  Just a Card  explain it so much more eloquently than I can, follow the link to the website. Support the campaign and support independents everywhere...go on you know you want to 😉

 

 

image by @cheerful.geek  find them on Instagram

 

Sailing where the sea met the sky - watercolour

Sailing where the sea met the sky   watercolour   ©2020 LisaLeQuelenec

 

We have been treated to some beautiful sunsets this Autumn, absolute stunners full of firey reds and oranges with rich cerise and purples. Breath taking as they are, my favourite kind to paint are these more mellow late summer ones. 

This painting is available in my Etsy store.

Blue on blue - Moonlit sea watercolour

 
 

Blue on Blue    watercolour 28x28cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

A full moon from back in the summer twinkling on the sea in answer to the twinkling lights of the town in the distance. I am missing warm mellow evenings it feels distinctly chillier now.

Available in my Etsy store.

After having a huge studio sort and refurbish, I feel like I have now properly moved in. It took a bit longer than I had anticipated and weirdly even longer for the space to feel like it was mine. It was too pristine and intimidating with all the new work surfaces and furniture - I didn't feel like I could make a mess. I had to give myself a talking to and just crack on. Now I have so many new drawers to store things I am still hunting around to find what I am looking for but it does feel so much more organised. What a lovely 'problem' to have.

 

Transitions collagraphs

 

Transitions I - V  collagraphs xcm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

I love this time of year when the light mellows from summer to autumn. Mornings of mist and earlier evenings, colours change subtley at first and all the summer green retreats to gold and bronze. This is the time of the harvest moon, still time to pick the last berries from the hedgerows before the late autumn storms that will arrive. We have had so little rain here now for weeks, the fields where I walk have looked parched for a while and the ground is so hard. For now I will enjoy the autumn sun and look forward to the storms that will eventually come. The wild weather that churns the sea and throws pockets full of treasure to the shore for a different kind of hunting and gathering.

 

All five prints are available in my Folksy store here.

Transition I collagraph 16x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Transition II collagraph 16x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Transition III collagraph 16x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Transition IV collagraph 16x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Transition V collagraph 16x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Details Transitions I - V collagraphs 16x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

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? 

Sea Breeze II   collagraph 14.5cmx14.5cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

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.

 

Cardboard collagraph plates for Sea Breeze I, II and III ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

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.

Sea Breeze I, II & III collagraph varied edition ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Sea Breeze I, II & III collagraph varied edition ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

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

Collagraph plates for Sea Breeze I, II & III  ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Sea Breeze   collagraph 10.5x14.5cm varied edition   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

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

Best wishes for a creative week. 

Interview - Meet the maker on the Folksy blog

 

 

 

Oooohhhh get me!  My exciting news! I have been interviewed on the Folksy Blog  in their Meet the maker series. To read the interview click here.

A really big thank you to Abi Jackson from  The Sage Apothecary for such great questions (her skincare looks amazing!) and to Camilla Westergaard from Folksy for the opportunity. It has been fun.

It looks like I will be taking over Folksy's instagram  @folksyhq  over the weekend for a few posts in a maker takeover....think of the mischief I could get up to 😉

Limpets in varied edition collagraph prints

 

Limpets   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

 

At home in Jersey, I still call it home despite not having lived there for more than 25 years, limpet shells are very common due to the rocky coastline that is their habitat. In Bournemouth a lack of rockpools means that I don't see them washed up on the beaches. When I go back to visit I usually find a few have worked their way into my pockets. I'm not sure if it is because I am missing home (I'm wondering when it will feel safe to travel - I am cautious by nature) or because the broken shells that fascinate me remind me so much of the hag stones that I do find here in Bournemouth but I have been drawn to draw them. (See what I did there.)

 

Limpet shells and the collagraph plate that they inspired   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

 

After sketching out a few plans in my sketchbook I decided to make a collagraph plate, I had just had an order delivered that had some fine carborundum grit in it amongst other things and was eager to test it out. Using mountboard as a plate, acrylic medium as an adhesive, the grit and some grout/tile adhesive I set to work. I'm not sure if in shows very well in the photo but once the plate was dry I scratched into it with a drypoint needle to add more linear elements.

Below are four of the prints in the small edition all inked up differently to each other.

Ensemble  (4 of the prints in a varied edition of 6)  collagraph   9.5x9.5cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

I couldn't resist making some more plates below is another of them with the resulting prints. I have put some of the prints for sale in my Folksy  store.

Limpets shells and collagraph plate   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Stacked   varied edition collagraph   8x13cm    ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

At the end of all of this printing, I looked again at the plates. I kind of think they could be framed in their own right. I like looking at the worn down textures (worn by the press rather than by the sea) and the history of ink colour that has sunk into the grooves and the plate.

Collagraph plates and limpet shells   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

More ammonites in drypoint and collagraph

 

Fossil Three   drypoint 7.8x15cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

 

 

Fossil Three   drypoint 7.8x15cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

Back to a favourite subject here...ammonites - well I do live on the Dorset coast. This time in collagraph and again in drypoint. Prints from both editions are available in my Folksy Store.

Just a Trace   collagraph 16x22.5cm   ©2021LisaLeQuelenec

I'm chasing my tail again this week with looming deadlines and I'm hoping to catch up with everyones blogs with a nice strong cuppa soon. Wish me luck.