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Thursday 31 March 2011

Tate Britain, Up and Coming Exhibitions and Opportunities and Bigger and Bigger Prints!

On 9/3/11 our class had another trip to London, this time we visited the Tate Britain. I had never been to this gallery before and very much enjoyed our visit. In the morning we all gathered in the Print Room and were given a talk about a wide selection of prints from Christine Kurpiel. We saw works from a wide range of artists including Gertrude Hermes, Klaus Meyer, who had constructed an very interesting folio/book illustrating the sounds of music through different layers printed on a range of materials such as acetate and very thin paper; Stanley William Hayter, who had created a multicoloured print by using different layers and viscosities of colours; Peter Doig, who had a folio in the collection specifically gifted to the Tate Modern called Ten etchings from the late 90s, using chine-colle for coloured backgrounds on a range of forest scenes. 

We also were shown the work of Chris Ofili. This was very exciting for me as I had already admired the work of this artist in a book in the library, so seeing it for real was brilliant! He works in quite a similar way to myself, using hard ground for his etchings and repeated shapes, as I do. Although he tries to represent places he has visited through his images, where as mine are more focused on layers and the process used to actually create the pieces. He also uses a small rectangle in the corner of the plate to note where the print represents and the date, whoch he has turned in to a feature in his work.

After our meeting in the Print Room we went for lunch at London School of Arts just across the road, and there was a shop there where I bought a large roll of 200gsm Fabriano paper.
I then continued to explore the Tate Britain for the rest of the day, and still didnt mange to see everything I would have wanted! I visited the Artist's Room of Damient Hirst and saw his famous piece "Away From The Flock" featuring a lamb, mid-leap, in a tank of turquoise liquid. When I herd about this piece and saw pictures I didnt think I liked it, but now I have seen it for real I'm not entirely sure whether I do or don't. I kind of like it how the lamb has been captured mid-leap, although slightly morbid, it seems as though a second in time has been frozen. 

Away From The Flock, Damien Hirst


I saw various works by JMW Turner which was brilliant for me as I could remember studying "Norham Castle, Sunrise" at school in past-paper for my standard grades! I love how his works depict very little but manage to convey a great atmosphere so the viewer feels as though they could be simply looking through a window instead of a frame on to this scene. During my time at college I took great inspiration from this artist and tried to recreate the look of his paintings in some of my own paintings and drawings.

Norham Castle, Sunrise, Circa 1845

Sun Setting Over a Lake Circa 1840

Sun Rise With Sea Monsters Circa 1845


I was absoloutly astounded by the painting of John Singer Sargent: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. I was really taken back by the warm glow of light used in this piece with the two little girls who seem to be exploring with paper lanterns on a summer's evening. These were just a few of my highlights from our latest London trip!



As for everything else that was going on, the Interim exhibition is now over and done with. The event went really well with a select few selling their work and interest in others, contact information being swapped and over all, although a learning experience for all involved, a great success! So thanks to everyone who took part and took the time to come along for a nosey.

I have also recently received a very welcome email from the organizers of The Assembly House Arts Show 2011, Flying Colours: Fascinating Forms, inviting me to exhibit one of my pieces! I was over the moon as the location looks brilliant and the prizes up for grabs look very tempting indeed! I'm in with a chance of winning £1000 for Critics Choice, there are also 2 runners up prizes of £500 and wittiest in show also wins £500. The show is in Norwich from August 1st-31st. You can find out more information about the show by following this link.

I have been experimenting with my test plate again with some coloured wrapping paper I got from Paperchase.



I have been trying to sort of fit the shapes from the pre made pattern in to the shapes in the print, along with the use of water colours for a hybrid print. I think it has a kind of retro feel about it, but I am really enjoying the use of colours as it breathes a new life and take on the piece.
On 30/3/11 I managed to pull off my biggest print to date! The piece is around 150cm tall by 60cm wide. I used my large, shaped plates for this one and the paper I bought in London. I used Japanese origami paper for the areas of chine-colle. I am really pleased with this print. The moment of transfer is such an adrenalin rush to me when, at that moment, rolling the print through the press, I know my entire day's work will either be a complete waste of time or a success! During the last stages of making the print my hands started shaking a lot and I could feel my stress levels rising considerably, until the moment of truth when I could look at the print and breathe a sigh of relief as it had been successful! Here are a few snaps of it below.






Friday 4 March 2011

INKED final flyer and poster, more printing and more etching!

We now have the final flyer and poster made up for our Interim Show, INKED.

Mus's Poster
Above is the poster that Mus designed. In my last post I wrote that I needed to change the colours of my flyer to match in with it. Below is the invite for the Private View and the general flyer that I designed for the show.

Private View Invite

General Flyer

So if you are reading this and in or around Cambridge between the 16th and 24th please do come along for a look at our exhibition! We would be very happy to see you! 

Yesterday I finished drawing my new funny shaped plates. I took them in to college to paint stop out varnish on to the edges so they wouldn't be effected by the acid. While I was waiting for them to dry I pulled off the print bellow for a quick experiment with different colour ways. I used a lot of extender with the blue ink to give it a translucent effect and so the violet red underneath would show through creating a different tone.

Experiment with etching and lino cut - Different colour ways

I think the colours used in this print work much better than the strong bright green I was using for the lino layer and think I will probably try some more in the future using lots of extender in the ink.

The large etching plates were now dried and ready to be etched today. I wanted to get them done so they could be printed on Monday but the biggest one was a tiny bit too big to fit in the acid bath! Just my luck! We couldn't set up the bigger bath as other people were using the baths already set up. I was disappointed but John (The studio technician) says we can set the bigger one up on Monday and I can get them etched then. A bit frustrating but as much as I enjoy working in a shared learning environment it also has its draw backs! The shots below show some of the detail from the plates waiting to be etched.




Last Wednesday (23/3/11) our class had a field trip to London. We went to see the 'Surface Noise' exhibition at The Jerwood Space. We had a talk from Gill Saunders who is the curator of prints at the V&A. The talk was really interesting and we had a chance to ask questions at the end. The exhibition showed off the talents of contemporary artists all at different stages of their career. Some were graduates, while others were practicing artists. I was particularly impressed by the work of Dorothy Cross, who is originally a sculptor, as are most of the artists in the show. She uses one main image in her collection of prints on display at the gallery. The image seems biblcal and Cross uses zoomed in sections of detail from this image, twinned with the sea and waves to create a group of unique images.

You can see her material by clicking here.

Another artist who's work I enjoyed was that of Janne Malmros. She uses pattern printed through a wide range of different techniques in her prints. The prints shown at the gallery were patterns with a selected area of them cut out and folded up to create small cubes and a 3D element. The areas that had been left revealed an element of how the artist reached the final print which I thought was a really nice touch. For example, the print she had made from a wood cut showed wood from underneath where the cube area had been cut out and folded up.

You can see this by following this link.

And to find out more information on this exhibition and the Jerwood Space please click this link! Well worth a look if you are in the area!

We also visited the Tate Modern where Gabriel Orozco has a show from 19-25th April. 

Scan of Gabriel Orozco flyer
I really enjoyed the exhibition as there was a wide range of works, from sculptue to drawing to photography and painting. The artist tries to provoke the viewer in to wondering 'Why?' with the works he presents. 'Atomist Series 1996' is a collection of enlarged images from the sports pages in British newspaper are under a collection of super imposed 2 tone elipses split in to quarters, with no explanation. 'Black Kites 1997' is the skull (On the flyer) and has a grid drawn on to it in graphite. The patterns are rythmical and more or less perfect, as is a lot of the graphically driven work on display. The artist is also clearly open to experimentation as he shows a collection of works using circles on graph paper. For his starting point for these he spat toothpaste on to the paper! This collection is called 'First Was the Spitting 1993'. A piece that stood out for me was 'Chicotes 2010'. Orozco displays a collection of burst and discarded tires that he has found on Mexican Highways filling a whole room in the Tate. He twins the strips of tire with poured aluminum. The pieces have an aquatic feel about them, resembling seaweed and whale skin, emphasized by the liquid forms of the metal poured over them.

More information about the exhibition can be found on the Tate Modern's website. If you do pay this exhibition a visit be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of it!