Friday 6 February 2015

New Work


In October I returned to Northern Print after quite a long time away from the printing press, equipped with brand new rollers! My former college tutor, Brian Waters, passed on the set of lovely handles and I bought new rollers for them. They are gorgeous!

I christened them by rolling up a polycarbonate plate with some sumptuous blues and a touch of viridian and got down to wiping the plate with high mountains and glaciers in mind.
 
These are the two images I created - the first one tending more to the abstract, but both of them celebrating the seductive forms, textures and light of snow and ice under sunshine and blue skies.
 
 
A month or so later I was busy again, working on some Cumbrian subjects and further afield, the Matterhorn (Swiss Alps) and Nanda Devi in the Indian Himalaya.
Here you can see the original drawing I made at Gornergrat above Zermatt, from which I drew out and wiped the inked up polycarbonate plate. When finished I passed it through the press to produce the final image.
 
 
The same process was used to make these monotypes of the Langdale Pikes and Wasdale in Cumbria.
 
 
In January I had a very satisfactory day at Northern Print making these totally contrasting images - Nanda Devi in the Garwhal Himalaya and Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick.
 
 
These are the studies that inspired them.

But now, it’s off to North West Scotland in search of snowy mountains and some new drawings.
I’ll leave you with a taste of the two monotypes I made this week, hot off the press. One is from the Torridon Hills - Liathach - and the other - maybe wishful thinking for finding something similar ‘up north’!