Relief Printing with Linocuts

Spotted Pardelote Lino Design

I have started my relief printing course and have done the first two sessions.  So much fun!  It combines a whole stack of processes that I love and my style of art really lends itself to this medium.  You get to draw, carve, print and colour in, plus you have prints to keep, sell and give away.  Happy sigh.

We started out with a single colour linocut on a very rubbery lino, which was easy to carve.  especially as I have memories of trying to carve old, tough lino at school.  I used an image from a earlier drawing of the sturt desert peas, love recycling and trying images out in another way.

Sturt Desert Pea

We did another lino print using proper lino and it will be a two colour reduction print.  For this one a drew this lovely little pardelote, a tiny spotted bird that used to visit our property when I lived in Castlemaine.

Variations on Pardelote Design

As my prints are still drying at school I have my drawing to share with you, next week I will have images of the actual print to share.

Talk soon Karen

A Question of Style

Hydrangea 2

I have been pondering on what my style is and what is style and how important is it.

It has been a very busy few weeks, but so interesting.  I have been joining in the fun of my class with the Journalling Girls at Mermaid Circus which has been a lot of fun.  There have been loads of inspirational videos to download for this on-line course and a Facebook group where the members of the group have been posting examples of their work.  The Melbourne members of the group even got together to have a catch up in person and some art supply shopping.

While journalling is not something that I  usually do, (though I did have my journal for my trip to France last year.  Big sigh, to think I was in Sancerre this time last year) I have found this course really fascinating and insightful in other ways.

Sancerre

One of the best things from the course is when Jane Davenport and Teesha Moore, both spoke about style, and how you create your own style.  When I was doing art in high school and uni in the early eighties my lecturers where always on us to create meaningful art and develop a style.  While many of my fellow students had robust political ideas which influenced their art, I did not and began to feel that my art was not serious or worthy because of it and it really stifled me in what I did.  I also wanted to try lots of different kinds of art work and medium and felt because I varied it so much that I could not develop a style of work.  Although I worked my way through these issues they were still in the back of mind.

Both Jane and Teesha tell their students don’t worry about style, you naturally have a style and it will always come out, especially when you let go and just create.  How you make marks, the colour that you choose and the mediums that you use are all part of your style and you cannot but have a style when making these decisions.  Such a simple insight was so liberating for me, I knew that I had developed a style, but still the old ghosts hang around from the past to haunt you, but this one I have now let go and I feel freer in my art practice which can only be good.

So you never know what you are going to learn about when you do a course, but you always learn something and it just may not be what you thought.  Of course when I go back through my different art work that I have posted to this blog, maybe it is more than one style, and that is also ok.

Karen

My Relief Printing course has started and I will share some of the work I am doing in that next week.