New work - ‘Grey Dead Concrete’
I spent most of May working hard to complete this 42x42cm stippled artwork entitled ‘Grey Dead Concrete’.
‘Grey Dead Concrete’, 2022, 42x42cm ink, acrylic and watercolour pencil on paper.
It hurt like hell, especially the final 18 hours of stippling over two days, but I think it was all worth it. The subject is a Red Deadnettle in flower, poking through a cracked concrete track. It reminds me of the Ben E. King track Spanish Harlem and I suppose it is loosely complimentary to the idea that you can find beauty in unpromising places. Apart from depicting the evident power that many plants and fungi have over human structures (Pavement Mushrooms are well-known to push their fruits up through solid concrete and asphalt) this drawing was actually about my personal journey into foraging. This is a plant that most people will have seen if they spent time walking outside city centres but it was only in the past year that I became aware of it being edible and actually quite a nice thing to nibble on. Not a showstopper but if you pluck the top few leaves and the flowers early on a sunny morning then you have a slightly sweet simple garnish with the added bonus of beautiful little flowers.
Detail from ‘Grey Dead Concrete’, 2022.
The artwork took roughly 80 hours in total. I stippled the entire scene before adding a base of watercolour pencil to the plant, and then clarified its shape and tones with acrylics to get the desired contrasts.
Intaglio Experiments (Xcut Xpress)
After much umming and ahing I finally managed to snap up an Xcut Xpress die-cutting machine on eBay. I don’t really have any spare money at the moment but I couldn’t resist dipping into savings for this £90 purchase. You see, they have become cult objects because they also excel as portable printing presses. It looks like a sandwich press but folds out into a decent solid bed. The metal roller wheel is adjustable so you can apply the perfect amount of pressure as you crank the hefty plastic print bed through.
After purchasing some compressed printing felt and some newsprint I returned to Tetrapak printing. I have been etching the foil cartons and inking with Akua Intaglio inks. Wetted Fabriano paper seems to do the trick so far. My first subjects were charismatic Romney Marsh churches; St Thomas a Beckett at Fairfield, and St Augustine’s at Brookland.
‘Church of St Augustine, Brookland’, 2022, intaglio from Tetrapak (orange juice carton).
Small pieces at around 10x17cm but I was more than happy with the results of this cheap and fairly ethical method of printing. After all - Tetrapak cartons are almost un-recyclable in the UK so anything that provides them with a valuable second life is a huge plus. That said, I have also bought some new lino to play with so as ever my eco-credentials aren’t entirely squeaky clean.
‘Thomas a Beckett, Fairfield’ [top], ‘Church of St Augustine, Brookland’ [bottom], intaglio on orange juice Tetrapak carton.
Looks to me like they have a lot of promise. I will learn a lot from this new toy!
There are three prints of each of these so far. Available (cheaply) for sale.
That’s all for now. I have plenty of potential projects on the go but all are in my mind at the moment. Hopefully June will yield some interesting new results.