Major work done!

I've done some major work on my Hortoise mezzotint since I last wrote about it.  It's still not looking great as a print, but as a plate i'd say it's getting there. Have a peek at the progress....

September 19th through 25th

Quite the break. Returning to the canvas feels really good. I have not felt the much expected self doubt having taken such an indulgent rest from my paints. Perhaps this is because I explored very lovely things whilst being away. In Dublin, we visited the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.

We went to see Francis Bacon's studio which had been transported from his home in London after his death. From the walls, to the dust on the floor, one was able to be a Bacon Voyeur. The exhibit was more than just the studio, it was rife with personal effects and a looping video of an interview filmed in his studio years back.

We strolled through the permanent gallery, through rooms of Corot landscapes, and past large winterscapes made by Courbet. Just as we were leaving, my eyes found themselves pinned to Manet's Music in the Tuileries. I guess I did learn that this painting sat in Dublin somewhere along the way, but I did not remember this fact! Indeed, this painting is one of the first to mark the Impressionist movement but despite its lofty history, I was focussed on something more simple than that. Manet and his black line - will get me every time!

A sneak peek behind the scenes in the Apothecary

It's about that time for another release in the Apothecary.  I have been toiling away over the weekend to come up with my latest creation to give you all a little peak at what's to come once I complete my ongoing work on the 'Hortise'.  Like all other images from this series, this one will also be rendered as a mezzotint. Enjoy!

As Promised

As Promised, here is the print from the litho stone I wrote about in the last post.  I also added a layer of fondino colour for the glasses.

A bit of a break to make something different

After a bit of time away from working... and especially after such intense work on my mezzotint plate I was back at it this week with a few smaller side projects and a lithography workshop at school.  I thought it was a perfect opportunity to just do something totally different and work in a much less controlled way. With a fully prepped stone just begging to be tainted with ink and pastel I came up with this....  a great memory from a great night on our summer vacation in Ireland,

I have since printed the stone with some additional work that I'll post in the near future.  In the mean time enjoy the fruits of my labour this past monday morning!

150 hours in

The weather has been good and hot here in Italy! Which means even more reason to keep on trucking along with this current project and stay cool in the shade of the indoors.  I'm about 150 hours into the plate and this is what it's looking like.  In about 25 more hours of work I should be ready to pull a first proof and see where to go from there. Luck for me this is the bulk of the work in this first stage and then everything starts to move faster and easier from that point on. Subtle blends of tone and strong highlights will really start to take shape at that point.

Summer Studio Sessions

Just because school stops doesn't mean the studio closes!  I've been doing my best to keep working hard even though I've been doing lots of R&R and travelling around Italy. Since the school studio has closed for the summer I'm somewhat limited to the kinds of work I can be doing at home,... nothing toxic, and pretty much no printing.  I have however been going steady on prepping copper plates for future mezzotints. Its been a lot of hard work that has not only been physically tiring and time consuming, but has also started to take a bit of a toll on my right arm.  I've ordered a Rollerblade wrist-gaurd to combat the strain on my wrist as well as a tennis elbow brace to help stabilize my elbow as I rock.  All of this is more preventative than anything and will hopefully allow me to make these kind of prints for a long time to come.

I'm lucky right now that even though the school studio is closed, a good friend of mine has access to another print studio for the summer and has been kind enough to give me free access to proof and do small amounts of work after hours.

Most notably I managed to complete the rocking on my large 30cmx30cm plate for the Hortise as well as the initial tracing. These steps are always the most dull steps the process so now its all just fun and games as I work to make the copper come alive with an image.

On the side I've been making a few small plates for fun... nothing worth of writing about, but surely they will get filled with imagery soon!