This ISLAND Exhibition
This ISLAND is a printmaking exhibition featuring 13 members from Moving Creature Studio
Here is a photo dump of the prints. With Artist name and title of works following (Works may not be in correct order)
Lynne Worrall
Tracks from the dragon tree I
Tracks from the dragon tree II
Tracks from the dragon tree III
Tracks from the dragon tree IV
Tracks from the dragon tree V
Tracks from the dragon tree VI
Tracks from the dragon tree VII
Kaye Green
Goat Island
Goat Island – another view
Goat Island Treasures
Goat Island seaweed
Goat Island Driftwood
Goat Island shell
Shells II - Goat Island
Goat Island Sponge
Judy Jackson
Artist Camp I
Artist Camp II
Artist Camp III
Powerful, Magestic, Light, Silent, Strength
Christine Adams
Awakening
Layers of the land
Kimika Oddie
Held
The Leap
Cathryn McCarthy-Ross
Shell memories
Mutton bird
King Island limpet
King Island carpet shell
Ileigh Hellier
The beast gesturing to the moon
Lenny in the window
John Robinson
Lil Spec
Penny Ruthberg
Sundays
Steph Houstein
Ephemerarti 51, 52, 53
Jo Shugg
Battery Point
Remembering the North West 11
Remembering the North West 111
Christine Owen
Waterbodies I
Waterbodies II
Luisa Romeo
The trees have eyes
Reflective sanity
Pandani Grove
Duck Hole Lake meanderings
Pipeline track jaunt
Welcome to Sophie Hall
Sophie Hall is the recipient of the 2021 Moving Creature Studio Graduate residency. Sophie finished her honours this year and during the Graduate show at the Hunter St campus in November, Sophie exhibited a fine display of screen printing onto paper and T-Shirts. Using her football career with the Uni team as her inspiration. There was also a near life sized video of players breaking through a woven banner, also made by Sophie. Use of her own photos and large halftone dots in the printing process along with text made her an obvious choice for the Moving Creature Studio. Since finishing uni, Sophie has been coming along to the studio and printing some more t-shirts. We welcome Sophie and look forward to seeing her work develop in 2022.
Sophies “Real Footy” exhibition in Entrépot Gallery.
Drop Punt
Printing in Okines Community Garden
Lately I have been working with groups in the beautiful Okines Community Garden
First we had Screen printing a t-shirt day with 8 super keen kids making some great t-shirt designs with direct to screen painting and blocking out methods. It was a bit of a dream of mine to have an outside workshop when the sun is shining and being partly under cover, whilst drying things in the sun and washing out on the lawn.
Showing the screen with the blockout over the painted image
Washing out the stencil - the painted image dissolves.
A keen mountain biker with a great shirt
On another day we did some stamp making with both an after school kids group and then in the evening the same with some adults.
Cutting out the stamp
The finished stamp printed with fabric ink onto a t-shirt
There were Ducks laying huge eggs
Smiling Tomotoes under the sun
Scary Skulls
And boats and whales.
Screen printing onto Chiffon
I was printing onto some Chiffon material this week for Helen Jessup a local painter. It was an image that needed to be converted to halftone dots and then exposed to a screen. To help the ink sit on the chiffon I made an underlay of cotton which had nearly as much of the image printed on it as the chiffon. Extra care was needed when lifting the screen as the material lifted with it and the a big risk of smudging. All went well and I finished with two copies ready for Helen to use in her next project.
The Screen with image ready for printing
Two complete images on the chiffon with an underlay image on the printing board.
Halftone dots, screen mesh and weave of the fabric all add a different texture to the image.
Drypoint workshop at Beaumaris Beach Guest House
I recently travelled up the East Coast to the Beaumaris Beach Guest House where I had a very restful sleep. The next morning after a great breakfast Judy Muir and I prepared the dining room and verandah for a Drypoint printing workshop.
Judy has recently purchased an Enjay RP12 and I took up my demo model. So we had no problems of lining up waiting to printing, both fitted perfectly on a sideboard.
Twin Enjay RP12’s fitted in perfectly.
We had to move our inking up table back indoors after a gust of wind blew much of the materials across the yard and sent the ink spilling over the table. It was all quickly recovered and cleaned up and room found inside out of the wind.
All the participants were given a small milk bottle plastic plate to learn how to make their first marks with the etching needle. They also received a pack of papers, bigger plastic plate and a flower from the garden to draw onto the milk bottle plate.
Drypoint kit including a flower from the garden for inspiration
After everyone had experimented with their bookmark sized milk bottle plate and printed, we moved on to working on the larger A5 sized plates. The mark making was diverse with subjects ranging from flowers, Owls and Kombi vans. Everyone printed at least a couple of prints and we looked at adding a second colour, chine collé with a glued japanese paper and a japanese printed paper.
Everyone went away with a handful of prints and had a great time.
Thanks to Judy for the invite and hospitality .
Some final prints including “Milk bottle’” prints
A selection of the Kombi Prints by Heather
Welcome to George Kennedy
George Kennedy is the winner of the 2020 Moving Creature Studio Graduate residency. George has only taken up printmaking in the final months of his undergraduate at UTAS. He like many is wondering where printmaking has been all his life… Well he will get plenty of it over the next 12 months with a years membership, two workshops to attend and six months of regular time working in the studio. George has been working with aluminium plates and cutting into them with angle grinders, dremels and other cutting tools. It will be great to see what work he produces in the coming months.
George standing in front of his graduate submission
Making do with what exists
When using a printmaking process that requires more than just a room, it means you start searching for possible alternatives spaces. The Studio space here at Currie has a great press and a couple of tables …. but I need a semi dark space to work with the light sensitive solar plates. I need to cut them down to the size and prepare the exposure material and wash them out. There is three bathroom/toilets in the two buildings. I originally set up in a small one in the studio to prep the plates for exposing but there wasn’t room for washing out so had to take the plates across to the other building where I can wash them out.
Using a bathroom/storeroom as a makeshift darkroom
The darkroom doesn’t have to be completely dark the plates can be handled in a room without any direct sunlight, so paper over the windows is enough to work with for a few minutes at a time.
Removing the plates from a box made to keep out all light leaking in.
Solar plates need to be kept in a dark box away from the light but need to be easy to get to, I have made a portable light proof box. This means I can work in different locations if need be.
First exposure with dot screen
My first exposure using a random dot screen… to establish a tonal base on the plate.
Positioning the seaweed
Second exposure with the seaweed in place
The second exposure is using some of the seaweed placed directly onto the plate.
Carrying the exposed plate across to the main building
After the exposure I need to take the plates to the second darkroom to be washed out with warmish water and a brush.
Washing the plate out in other bathroom
Curing the exposed plates in the sun outside the studio
After finishing the plates need to be cured to harden the surface before they can be printed.
Artist Residency on King Island
Arriving on King Island after a week of cruising up the West Coast, it was great to be here. I have a cottage in the heart of Currie and it is a ten minute walk to the Art and Cultural centre down at the wharf. The day after I arrived a local coffee van was set up and the Gallery was open. It was a busy morning of meeting the locals and drinking coffee. Andrew and Dianne Blake were introducing me to everyone and showing me around. They showed me a boathouse which is across the bay that is set up as a restaurant where you can bring your own food. A local artist Caroline Kininmonth has set it up for everyone to use. I spent the rest of the day exploring the coastline nearby, following a road known as the Kelp Track, the name is obvious and there is plenty to explore.
Retro Coffee van at the King Island Arts and Cultural Centre
Interior of the “Boathouse” looking across to wharf
Rusty things on coast… not a shipwreck as I first thought.
Patrick the Print Van
Patrick the Print Van went on a little tour of Blackmans Bay, AdArt in Hobart and Lewisham with the isolation Exquisite Corpse. With a small brightly coloured pin board and easel the prints were set up in Steph’s garden for her to add her addition to.
Then the prints were in the AdArt carpark for a while in the afternoon.
Finally they went back to Dodges Ferry with a stop off at Lewisham.
Steph Houstein, Christine Owen, Tricia Swanton, Pat Martin, Jenny Dean, Gaby Falcolner and John Robinson participated in making prints.
In Steph’s Garden
In the AdArt car park
Looking in the back door
Print Day in May - Dodges Ferry
It was Saturday morning 2nd May - Print Day in May. The call went out to friends and family living around Dodges Ferry to cut up a milk container. Scratch an image into it. Then drop it in at arms length to the Print Caravan. Within a couple of hours the first little plates started to roll in. Some were on plastic milk bottles, others were on UHT milk cartons, cream cartons and lots of other materials.
John started printing around midday and kept going until the light got too low to see (not the best lighting in the caravan). Sunday saw another lot of prints done. - Thanks to everyone who dropped in a milk container.
Printing a Drypoint from a plastic milk bottle
Whilst we are stuck at home without easy access to art materials it may be time to take a lesson from how some artists have worked in the past ... by using all sorts of materials and re-used containers. The 9 x 5 Impression Exhibition of 1889 featured used cigar box lids that artists painted on. I am often drawn to these paintings when I come across them in galleries across Australia.
www.ngv.vic.gov.au/australianimpressionism
More recently and locally is print maker and teacher Anna Berger who had an exhibition of collagraph prints in Hobart. Anna uses recycled milk cartons, scratches and cuts into the opened out carton and prints from them.
www.instagram.com/wildislandtasmania
So I decided to try working with something that I had at home. We get our milk in a 2 litre plastic bottle that usually goes into the recycling bin. I found I can get 3 ussable panels from one bottle, two at 19cm long x 6cm deep and one at 9cm long and 6cm deep. The amount of usable panels varies with the brand of milk. The inside of the bottle has less texture and so I am using that for scratching into with a drypoint needle.
Two litre milk bottle with cut out panels
I took a plate down to Blue Lagoon in Dodges Ferry and drew onto the back of the plate with a crayon, (by drawing on the back I will ensure the print comes out at the correct orientation). After scratching into the plate with a needle I prepared my paper by soaking in a small tray for a minute and then drying off with an old towel.
Patting the paper dry between a towel
Cranfield- Caligo safe wash etching ink and plastic scraper
I then inked up the plate with a water wash up ink. I used Caligo ink, applied with a plastic scraper, pushed the ink further into the lines with some tarlatan, wiped off the excess ink with the same tarlatan and finished wiping with a piece of clean newsprint.
Wiping the plate back with tarlatan
I found that the plates were very flexible and a little hard to control the wiping without bending them, so I had to hold them at the ends, wiping the opposite end then turn them around. After wiping the edges with a rag and placed them on a registration sheet showing the plate position and paper position, I was only allowing a small margin of 1cm all around the plate, which made it difficult to place the paper in place without error. I am using an Enjay RP12 press with a 1.5mm woven blanket closest to the plate and a 3mm felt on top.
Printing with an Enjay RP12
I had deliberately only put some scant details into the first state and was happy with how it printed. I then added some more details to the plate and repeated the printing process to print the second state. I noticed that if I left my paper in the water for longer than one minute it was obviously much wetter and I was picking up more plate tone but also the ink bled a bit more from the incised lines, I decided I preferred the sharper prints so, kept with the shorter time in the water. This would vary depending on the ink used.
First State and plate
Second and Third States
After printing the second state I returned to the Lagoon and added some more detail to the plate, with an ink pen, scratched in the lines and repeated the printing process to achieve the third and final state.
As an experiment I tried printing using a table spoon, I used a thin sheet of acetate between the spoon and paper. It was hard to keep everything in position whilst burnishing the print and eventually I realised the paper had slipped, the image had still printed reasonably well. Good enough for a proof. It can always be printed again later on a press.
Final State printed with spoon
Enjay RP12 Portable Press Demonstration
During the current Corona Virus troubles I have set up a temporary studio in our old caravan. Here is a short video of me setting up the Enjay RP12 portable press. You will see more of it in coming posts.
April Reading Group
For this month’s Reading Group we cannot get together and discuss … but we can still have a look at some art online.
Use the button below to go to an interactive padlet site. Where you can add comments.
If that doesn’t work (still learning folks) then use the bottom button to go to a page that you can read and follow links to other websites. But for comments see below.
Comments can be sent to movingcreature@gmail.com and I will post them all up by Friday 17th April.
Comments from Gaby Falconer :
“I am interested in the layers in this work and am looking forward to seeing some of Robyn's work in person.”
“Thanks for sharing such beautiful works by 3 Tasmanian artists. It is inspiring to see how differently these artists approach the Tasmanian coastline and the variety of atmospheres and emotions that they are able to express. I might even get my watercolours out and do a little painting at Lewisham over the next few days.
Thanks John”
Comments from John Robinson
“I also have enjoyed looking at 3 artists working with our local coastlines. I enjoyed looking at the different styles and approaches from each of the artists. As a printmaker I am drawn to Robyn’s approach of using a repetitive element within the work and varying up the colours used. I found that both Zoe and Jock were being repeitive in a different way, whilst some of the subject matter is the same or similar Zoe’s wide coarse brush strokes served to abstract the images, I enjoyed trying to recognise some of the coastline that she has painted. After watching the video of Jock speaking about his work and who and what has influenced him I returned to the images of his work and noticed that some of the images were identical in subject matter but painted in different colours reflecting the different times of day. I also noticed the paring down of the image where at first glance I thought that they were much more detailed. I am looking forward to seeing some of the work of all three artist in the flesh sometime in the future.”
Transfers the Rauschnberg method
Here is a little video of how to transfer images from newspapers to other paper… then you can start building up the image with some other printmaking or drawing.
Monotype under a sun umbrella
A Monotype is unique image printed from a surface which has been painted with a design in ink. The image is transferred from the surface to paper by pressing the two together.
The surface can be a plate, glass or other matrix, the pressing together can be either done by pressing with a hand or baren, spoon or other item. Or the matrix can be pressed together in a printing press.
The image can be created by inking an area and removing ink by wiping away with rags, brushes etc. An alternative is to add ink to the blank surface using a range of tools from rollers, rags, brushes. Another alternative is to lay paper onto an inked surface and draw with a pencil or push items onto the paper.
Outside under an Umbrella, note the green bottle top used as a baren.
Materials needed:
Ink (either oil or water based).
Ink Knife (paint scraper is good).
A flat surface to roll out the ink onto.
Ink roller (brayer).
Paper (thin papers take the ink more readily) but try all sorts.
Something to apply pressure onto the paper: baren, spoon, bottle top lid. (something with a smooth surface)
Materials for applying/removing ink... anything - this is where you experiment.
Cleaning up materials: Veg oil for oil based ink, your favourite cleaning product for water based.
Here is how I did it in my back yard in the sun under a big umbrella. (Gotta love an outdoor print session!)
First I tore up some paper with a piece of wood from the shed, I forgot to bring steel ruler home, so used a carpenters square to measure with. (substitute folks... best way to learn).
I rolled out my ink (using Caligo relief water wash up) with a small roller (medium hardness). I was rolling onto a piece of Acrylic sheet (got it from the tip shop years ago)
I kept the ink to a minimum (lean) because I laid the paper down and pressed some objects onto the back of the paper: the objects were some things that I found on the beach earlier that morning.
The result was minimal with the lines and splodges looking quite abstract. (1st Print)
Objects pressed down onto paper that is lying on ink slab
Print 1
Next I rolled up again and removed ink with a stick using the same objects as my image.
I then placed some paper down and used a plastic milk bottle lid as a baren... it worked well. (Print 2)
Print 2
I rolled out some more ink and then created another image trying out some other drawing materials, such as sand paper and a block of wood. I wouldn’t recommend the sandpaper on the acrylic sheeting as it scratched it a bit, the wood made some great textural marks without scratching. (Print 3)
Print 3
Scratched slab…
I then cleaned off the ink and made an image using sticks and a rags to lay the ink down. I found that I had to be careful not put down thick blobs and with the rag I was being too lean. I ended up printing the image lifting the paper away carefully and anchoring it on one side so that I could re-apply some ink in areas that were really light and then lay the paper down again to print. (Print 4)
Print 4
I then cleaned the slab and tried another image this time trying with ink and water colour paint, then rolling ink onto a beer carton and thong (flip flop that you wear on your feet...) and pressed them onto the slab. When printing the ink worked well but the watercolour was a bit dry. So I applied some water colour to the paper direct, rolled up a different part of the beer carton and pressed it directly onto the paper over the previous print.. I thought it was the most interesting of all. (Print 5)
Print 5
As the sun was moving around and my ink was starting to dry out, I tried a final couple of images.
I washed off the slab and whilst it was wet applied ink with a rag hoping to get a washy image... The result was a bit indistinct. (Print 6).
Print 6
So I rolled up a slab and wiped back with a wet rag and stick to create a self portrait of me working under the umbrella. (Print 7)
Print 7
We went on a Bird Hunt
Last Saturday, 22nd February we met at Cremorne and walked around the edges of Pipe Clay Lagoon looking for some shore birds. The tide was on its way out and the sand flats were starting to become exposed. We saw quite a lot of Oyster Catchers and Crested Terns. We saw a single Bar Tailed Godwit and wondered if all the others have headed north already.
It was a beautiful sunny day and we took lots of photos and did some drawings and had many conversations about what birds we were looking at. It will be great to see what prints come from this field trip. Some of us are meeting at the Studio on Wednesday at the open session to maybe start working on the prints.
Screen printing with Hand painted stencils
Recently we had a workshop where we used some of the Speedball drawing fluid (it should really be called painting fluid), then some block out. We got some great designs for T-Shirts. We pushed the images a little further by using some paper stencils to block out some areas to get two different designs from the one screen.
Have a look at John and Jane’s great prints.
Artist in Residence - Robyn Thompson
Robyn cutting one of the lino blocks.
Read MorePrinting up some Merch
I have been busy printing Merch for some other people this week and it got me inspired to print up some for the studio. First off was to test out the can of Drive By Black ink for fabric that I have had for ages.
Here is a bit of the process in pictures
Click on the pictures to advance to the next frame.