Woodblock prints: Construction Lines series 1

 A project in Spring term 2022, based on the compass and ruler lines that are used to start geometrical construction of patterns.

Working out the grids (and deciding which to use) -

Rubbings and printing -

At some point before cutting I randomly jettisoned some of the curved grid lines and felt much happier about how things were going - more open, more interesting, more accidental and surprising. A bit of experimentation with layout of cut star shapes and another block was ready to cut and print with sumi ink onto the watercolour backgrounds.

In fact the stars originated from a cutout grid; I debated whether to print the "net" or the stars and had to make a mockup to decide. On the print, you can see the altered grid of circles; on one side, almost all the lines are left, forming a sort of border, over which I sometimes printed diagonal lines -

"Warming up the board" on newsprint, and adding some leftover stars; just playing...

Three of the finished prints, the coloured stars cut out and glued on -

More finished prints ...

... and my favourites -

Drawing Tuesday - collage

Today's topic is that old favourite, "collage" -- "Art that results from an assemblage of different forms" - to which I would add "from a variety of sources" (eg prints, painted papers, that sort of thing).  Drawing with scissors, you might call it! Or, using scraps!

Here's a 2019 Scottish exhibition website with videos as well as blog resources - https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/cut-and-paste-400-years-collage. The "collage before modernism" video is a good use of 4 minutes of your time! And the "Coldwar Steve" video is only a little longer, and quite touching I thought.

If art history and theory float your boat, or if you've ever wondered, What does collage DO?, https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/events/what-collages-do/ is an hour-long zoom lecture from the Courtauld. Might be nice to listen to while you're working on your own piece. "While collage initially emerged as a way to break the rules of traditional painting and monolithic sculpture, the term itself soon became the subject of debate and controversy, raising questions about its role as mediator between popular visual culture and high art". It starts with this charming bit of collage done by Picasso in 1908, drawing on a bit of cardboard that included a pasted label -

From Ann -  two collages created whilst on an online abstract course St Ives recently.The underlying subject is the view of London from Allypally.

From Gill - Decided to pimp up one of my prints with collaged flowers.

From Sue K -  my collage began with an empty coffee bean bag - l liked the colours - sliced it up & assembled new shapes after juggling around with the pieces. 

From Judith - Not sure what this is called, certainly not collage but involves building up in paper layers. An 18th and 70th birthday card from earlier this year.

From Najlaa - My collage with randomly Arabic letters. 

From Joyce -  I’ve been looking at Matisse’s “drawing with scissors” and have created these from drawings of leaves in my garden. The paper was painted with gouache first, then the shapes cut directly without drawing first. Sometimes I had to work back to front,taxing the brain!

From Mags - Collages  using materials from City Lit  Collage course purchases "Dinghy Ownership ( for the non-sailing man ) " meets "Greek Mythology"

From me - Using images from the previous week's Weekend magazine, I cobbled together these two monstrosities. 

Drawing Tuesday - collage

I got bogged down in the research for this topic - instagram is full of collage images! Also I started looking analytically at the collages I'd made in the past, distant and recent - what would I do differently now, why does this particular one and not that other one get my attention, what's the problem with the composition in this one or the colour in that one, etc etc. 

And then "something came up" on the Tuesday, so I'll post a few of the old items I examined, just for the record.

Page from a book that hasn't been sewn, 2015

Typography (and tracings)

My favourites from a daily-postcard project during a time of long hours at work, in the 2000s; doing a little art every morning kept me sane

Some of the other fabric collages - not brilliant, but it's all about process

Instant photocollage, moving scraps around on my work surface

A favourite, cut through the pages of a magazine, 2012 maybe

From Carol -  these I did on a camping holiday using things around from the heathland – it was always a pleasure to slow down and appreciate the nature around.

From Najlaa -  here is my yellow collage.

From Janet K - a collage from some time ago. Happy memories of the cottage we rent every few years on Lake Mississippi in Ontario

From Joyce - Collage reminds me of Lee Krasner’s exhibition last year at the Barbican. I looked at the photos I had taken and some reminded me of the forest of Sunflowers we have in the garden that my husband planted from seed, they’re taking over! So I made a few sketches and then created this from various papers and card I have collected over the years

From Sue M -   works in progress

From Sylvia - three little collages from today

From Mags -   I had constructed textured backgrounds for painting from torn pages of 'Metro' with white acrylic over the top ( https://magsramsay.blogspot.com/2017/11/contemporary-painting-studio-week-7.html).
I still have some of the prepared surfaces so when I was invited to submit a map for LivingMaps project ' Dreaming a Post-Covid World' (https://www.livingmaps.org/mapping-the-pandemic) I used one of these with with collaged and deconstructed photos of my bike , altered in Photoshop

From Hazel - my collage is made from photocopies of my drawings - old and new. I enjoyed using torn edges against cut edges to make my image.

From Sue S - here’s my collage of colourful trimmings after a rustle in my coloured papers. Might work it into a formal piece . . .

From Judith - Some figures from life drawings and then a portrait. I have in the past wondered about trying a portrait using newspaper. Never again! I wanted someone very recognisable so apologies for that!

From Janet B - What’s with the teapot? No don’t even try to answer. 

Distressed plywood

The fence around the construction site (on the way to the RAF Museum) has been painted several times, but the prevailing winds and the rest of the weather have had their wicked way with it.

A visual delight as the layers peel apart. Reverse collage.