Get your gelli on

I love gelli printing, and have taught it in the past. I’m going to be teaching it again this winter, in Greymouth, and am really looking forward to it. I may do some more classes here in South Taranaki too.

In the meantime, I have a joint exhibition booked for the Lysaght Watt Gallery in October with Dimmie Danielwski – I’ll be using some existing works but also making a new body of work based on my visit to the Hokitika Gorge last year.

With those two things in mind, I’ve been doing some gelli printing. I’ll use the captions to explain what these are.

Multiple layers using stencils.

Multiple layers using stencils.

Using a final layer of paint to pull all the leftover texture off the plate.

A more painterly approach, using a brayer and the end of a paint brush.

A more painterly approach, using a brayer and the end of a paint brush.

Single layer print using a gel texture plate. 

Single layer print using a gel texture plate. 

Done using a brayer, and lifting small amounts of paint off at a time. This probably isn’t complete; I’m likely to do more mark-making into it yet. This is very much Hokitika Gorge inspired.

Done using a brayer, and lifting small amounts of paint off at a time. This probably isn’t complete; I’m likely to do more mark-making into it yet. This is very much Hokitika Gorge inspired.

Done using a brayer, and lifting small amounts of paint off at a time. This probably isn’t complete; I’m likely to do more mark-making into it yet. This is very much Hokitika Gorge inspired.

Done using a brayer, and lifting small amounts of paint off at a time. This probably isn’t complete; I’m likely to do more mark-making into it yet. This is very much Hokitika Gorge inspired.

Catching up – Hokitika & art

Last weekend I was in Hokitika visiting my friend Penny, seeing Hokitika Gorge and making art. If you want to know more about it, check out my FB page.

I’ve been catching up on my usual art stuff, getting a little more prepared for Christmas, and ‘clearing’ the decks ready for a day of print making inspired by the trip. I want to make some print to sell, not just throw in the drawer like I normally do!

Here’s some of my recent catch-up journalling. A pen I was using bled, I tried to fix it, it got worse – then I got wet paint on the scanner glass and didn’t notice! Oh well…in the end it’s only paper, paint & glue…

Gelli plate landscapes

I needed to get some art time in, so I shouted myself an online course with Carla Sonheim. I own one of her books and love it, and when I saw that she had a course on landscapes using a Gelli Plate I couldn’t resist. I’m loving the course and will be doing it all over again with a friend in a couple of week’s time. Here’s what I have done today; each piece has been back to the Gelli Plate probably 7 or 8 times. I love the process she teaches, and her calm approach. I may yet work into these a bit more, but need to really look at them first.

More Gelli Plate prints

I have been playing with Gelli Plate prints again, using a combination of ready-made stencils and masks I have cut from heavy laminating pouches. Some may get used as they are, others I’ll work back into then cut up and use in my art journals. It’s late spring here and already I am finding the Golden Fluid acrylics are drying quite quickly, I think I might need to start using a little medium to slow down the drying time.

Pulling prints

Reading Martha’s recent posts about her experiments with Gelli Plates did two things; it rekindled my interest in print making, and it encouraged me to buy a Gelli Plate. Tony is working in Wanganui today on the ambulance, and left at 5.45 so I have had all day on my own. My sister Ailsa and nephew Rowan arrived on Friday to visit Mum, but left at 11am this morning. Incidentally, Mum was delighted to see Rowan and knew who he was almost straight away. On the other hand she thought the wool scarf I was carrying was our dog, Faith. Go figure!

Anyway…I did a bit of work that needed seeing to, did the washing and the dishes and so on, then out with the Gelli Plate and some Golden Fluid Acrylics, plus some stencils I had cut a while back, and some scraps of corrugated cardboard. I do seem to have a thing for hearts, stars and the stripes corrugated cardboard make at the moment.  I love combinations of teal, bright yellow, deep blue and bright green so thought I’d start with those. I got mixed results, partly because initially I didn’t think to mark where the Gelli Plate sat, so my registration was way off. These are not finished – I’ll probably work over the top of these by hand, adding text and more marks, but I think I’m going to love my new way of making prints. Thanks Martha!

Back to mapping the land

Over the last few months I have been looking at Aboriginal Art, especially works which map the land using an aerial perspective. It fascinates me, but it turns out I find it quite hard to do; the traditional Western viewpoint is so strongly ingrained. You can see my original post about this here, and some unsuccessful attempts here.  

Yesterday I was having a ‘play’ day – just spending time with paint, stamps, glue etc. I did some mono-prints, some mixed-media collage, a little scrapbooking. A bit of this and a bit of that. I sifted through a few books on my shelf, including some that show the land from above.

After I had relaxed a bit I pulled out some heavier weight watercolour paper and did some monoprints using a bonded plastic bag I had saved from something-or-other. I started just casually working on top of the monoprint. And there it was – the first attempt at aerial mapping that starts to approach what I had in mind. It feels like I have broken through an unseen barrier.

29_365 : upload problems last night

So trying again this morning. Very frustrating…

More monoprinting – love it 🙂

This time I used a leaf in the mix, then hand coloured with water soluble crayons. But the water to dissolved the crayon made the ink run a bit. Ah well, all a good learning experience!!

28_365 – make mine a monoprint thanks

Monoprinting is such fun. All you need is some paper, ink, roller, a piece of glass and a tool of some sort – a pen, brush handle, finger, whatever!

Roll out the paint, draw the design into it, spray the paper till it’s damp then lay on top of the glass. Burnish with your hand or the back of a spoon and then carefully peel off.

This particular image is almost identical to one I have done before – I’m not totally sure why, but there is something about it that satisfies me visually.

Trial and error

For the last week or more I’ve been working on linotypes and monoprints – lots of disasters, ink up the wall, and a few okay prints as well. All good fun 🙂

The blue-bordered one was printed then coloured with water soluble pencils. They both suffer from a sloping horizon – I didn’t notice until I’d cut the lino and pulled the first print off.