Last print for the year....I think...before the big unwind for the holidays. I am looking forward to it. A chance to process the last years work and make plans for the next year.
Best wishes to all for a happy holidays and a happy, healthy and creative new year.
Available in my Folksy store.
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| Surge II Collagraph 14x14cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
Another big wave collagraph in a varied edition of 6. I am experimenting between high and low key prints... more ink...less ink... strong colour more muted. So many variables to try, I guess it's the printmaking equivelent of taking a line for a walk. Whatever it is I am enjoying it immensely.
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| Surge II Collagraph 14x14cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
and then using one over inked print I re ran it through the press with another sheet of paper on top and made a monoprint - the same but reversed.
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| Big wave monoprint 14x14cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
I also like the plate at the end of the printing session and may frame that as an image in its own right....
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| Surge II printing plate cardboard and mixed media 14x14cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
Prints available in my Folksy store.
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| Can't stop the Tide collagraph 14x14cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
As well as lots of reference material of the groynes at Bournemouth beach being replaced I have hundreds of photos of waves crashing and splashing into them. I can obsessively stand clicking away trying to get the perfect shot of spray as it flies back from collision, the perfect light as it catches the water in shimmering flashes of colour.
Where previous images I have made about the groynes along the beach have been calmer in atmosphere I wanted to make something that in a small way captures that exciting, elemental energy, the sea battling against the solidity of the
wood. So another collagraph, with obscured shapes of the groynes as the sea pounds against it's side, raging at the obstruction that shields the shore. I think whilst I obsess at taking photographs to try to capture the moment I could soon obsess about capturing the perfect moment in print too. This may well turn into a series of it's own.......
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| Sketchbook pages ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
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.
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| 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.
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| Sentries collagraph 14x20.5cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
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.
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| Sentries II collagraph 14x20.5cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
*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'
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| Softly, softly watercolour 14x24cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
Summer seems so far away now....the pandemic and the various lock downs have skewed my sense of time so much..autumn felt springlike. I think even the seasons have been mixed up themselves as I see plants popping up through the soil that shouldn't be here for a few months yet and leaves only just coming off the trees that should have happened weeks ago. I'm no longer sure when things happened.. was it this year or was it the year before? Am I the only one to feel like this? It's chilly here so I think I will keep thinking of summer..
Both paintings available in my Folksy Store.
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| Quiet evening watercolour 22x22cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
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| Watching the rain come in watercolour 20x16cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
I love the magical light over the sea when a rain storm comes rushing in...
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| A Keen Breeze watercolour 16x20cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
Both paintings are available in my Etsy Store.
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| In for a Soaking Watercolour 25x25cm ©2021LisaLeQuelenec |
It's funny how the rain can creep up on you ...
Available in my Etsy store.
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
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| 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.
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| 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.
