Eternal City - early days yet!

I was in Rome for the second time a few years ago, and did this sketch of the Teatro Marcellus. There was something about it, and I knew it was a foil to my painting that I was working on at the time, Fractured City. So the intention to paint this was always there, the sketch a little kernel for the future.

For Incognito 2017, the fundraiser for the Jack & Jill Foundation, I conceived of three "cityscape" postcards. So  still the painting was on my mind.

I took a printmaking workshop at the beginning of April this year in order to learn the Chine collé technique and quickly did an intaglio from my sketch.

Finally, I unrolled some canvas, quite a large piece (takes up most of the wall in my attic studio) and blocked in Eternal City.

I started to apply metal leaf in the negative areas behind the architectural structures.

I had applied some texture before blocking in the painting, but then decided that I wanted some rougher texture on the older part of the Teatro building.

I will gesso over this scrim burlap and re-block before I get into the meat of painting.

The texture of the columns is mostly smooth rather than canvas.

Incognito 2017 fundraiser

Just before Christmas last year, I received my "Incognito" kit: 3 postcards with plastic pockets (to protect finished pieces) and a return envelope. I was going take part in Incognito 2017, a fundraiser for the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation which supports the children and families of children affected by brain damage. I took part in a fundraiser for this charity a few years ago, The Big Egg Hunt Dublin, for which I painted a huge egg, which was auctioned off after public display at two locations (there were over 100 artist decorated eggs). Incognito 2017 was both less and more ambitious: there were no giant objects (eggs, pigs, hares) to be decorated and sold at auction, instead, artists simply had to create small works of art on postcards, signing the back only, and each and every postcard was sold at the same price of €50. The buyer would not know until buying a piece who the artist was, amateur or professional, famous or struggling artist. I got to work.

I decided early to do paintings/sketches related to the cityscape series I have been working on, planning to mount them on the postcards when finished. I began by attaching some pre-gessoed canvas to a board and added tissue for texture on the surface.

As is my usual practise when beginning a painting, I paint an undercoat of quinacridone violet. I like this colour and the way it sometimes warmly and happily peaks out of a finished painting.

I blocked in my basic image with yellow paint and applied metal leaf.

 Early stages of painting show some greens and blues.

When I had finished the painting on the paintings I decided they needed a bit more oomph and brought out the oil pastels for a bit of colourful drawing.

This is "Fracture" finished, prior to cutting from the board and mounting.

This is "Loss" prior to cutting from the board and mounting.

And this is "Eternity", which is related to a current large painting I am working on "Eternal City", also prior to cutting from the board and mounting on the postcard.

The art works were sent to the Jack and Jill foundation in late January and displayed last weekend at The Solomon Gallery, along with more than 1500 other cards! By Sunday afternoon all the cards had been sold making this a very successful fundraiser! I was planning to go into Dublin on the Friday when Incognito 2017 opened, but found out (via FaceBook) that there were enormous queues and that some people had been waiting upwards of four hours just to get in the gallery, so I decided not to go. However, an online gallery is now available here, though I do not know how long it will be live. I am happy to say that I was correct in identifying some of the more famous Irish artists who took part but it is a credit to all of the artists to give so freely of their work to this very worthy cause.

Intaglio and Chine collé printing

I was out early on Sunday to head into the National Print Museum in Dublin in order to attend a printmaking workshop given by artist Elaine Leader. I signed up for this workshop because the technique of "Chine collé" was featured and I have been curious about this technique since I became aware of it about 20 years ago (I had never heard of it in printmaking classes I had in art school in Toronto). To start the day we were given some pieces of thin plastic (or thick acetate?) referred to as "axpet" (which I had also never come across before). Once I removed protective film from the axpet I could use it as a plate to do an intaglio sketch on. My tool of choice (we had our pick of several  etching tools) was a converted large sharpened nail. I ended up with two plates, the first one, done in the morning a city ruin sketch and the second, done in the afternoon based on one of my stick sketches.

The plate was inked with a dark ink, cleaned and then given a "roll-out" layer of translucent colour. For the Chine collé I ripped two random pieces of a light weight handmade paper. Wallpaper paste is thinly spread on the back of the paper and they must be placed upside down on the plate (so that the glue will adhere to the print paper). The Chine collé is the last thing to do before going to the press as the paste must be very thin and thus can dry out quickly -- make sure your paper has been removed from its water bath and blotted before you prepare the Chine collé paper!

We were printing on lovely Fabriano paper, so it needed to be in the water bath at least 10 minutes before blotting.

This is a close-up of the sticks print, with two pieces of Chine collé.

 Although I had the sticks plate ready to go, Elaine Leader was talking about the embossing technique, and I wanted to quickly try it out. I cut several pieces of sandpaper into "natural" shapes, got my paper ready, and at the press itself, placed the shapes onto the back of my first piece of axpet. A piece of tissue paper is placed between the plate with shapes and the paper, which keeps the paper clean (and in my case, it was a great barrier between the paper and rough sandpaper I was using for incredible texture).

I was thrilled with the way the embossing worked and wanted to see if Chine collé could be worked with it, so I started the process again. 

I thought the workshop was fabulous! I learned so many things in such a short space of time and can now think about how these processes can be used in other works.

Incognito begins!

I started the small pieces for "incognito", this year's fundraiser for the Jack & Jill Foundation (supporting children and families). As I mentioned in my last week, I will not post finished pictures until after the final event a few months from now: the finished pieces will only be signed on the reverse so that buyers will not know who the artist is until after the sale. All pieces will cost the same price.

Because I wanted my paintings to be textured, I decided that, even though the cards seemed robust, it would be better if I did the paintings on canvas and then affix them to the cards when finished. I used tissue paper and pva glue to create texture.

The pieces are so tiny, it was easy to find a leftover piece of pre-primed canvas that was suitable to staple to a board. I marked out the sizes so that I can cut them when finished, After the texturing dried, I used a pin to prick any air bubbles and then painted my signature undercoat of quinacridone violet. 

Without giving too much away (especially as I don't really know what will happen when I start painting!) I can say that I have been looking at some old sketches.

These cityscapes are from 1981 sketchbooks, inspired by watching the sunrise through blinded office windows in downtown Toronto.

This sketch was inspired by a visit to Rome a few years ago.

I have a fair idea what all three pieces will be and how they will relate to each other, but this is all I will tell about the "incognito" project until the end of April, when the event will be over!

Incognito!

A few years ago I participated in a charitable fundraiser The Big Egg Hunt Dublin, which was a great success and also enjoyable. The Jack and Jill Foundation fundraiser for 2017 is called "incognito" and I am looking forward to starting my contribution. Before the holiday I received my incognito package, consisting of 3 small cards and an envelope with which to return them to the Foundation. Artists have been asked to create up to three small works, signed only on the back of the card, thereby being an initially unknown creator. All completed artworks will be displayed at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin in the spring, and will be for sale at a set price. The artists will remain unknown until the works are bought. I already know what I want to create on the three cards, so will get to them soon. I won't be posting finished pictures until the fundraiser is over, but I may post some teasers of work in progress. Happy New Year!

Sketching!

I have been enjoying sketching again lately and using the opportunity of receiving flowers to have a subject which I have always loved, tulips. I thought I would post a few of these sketches. The sketch below is done using a 3B or 4B pencil.

I am also having fun with watercolour pencils. A friend recently mentioned "water pen" to me, something I have not yet come across -- must investigate!

Tulips are sometimes exhibitionists!

Another soft pencil sketch.

As I am reusing some old sketchbooks with blank pages, I am also coming across older sketches. This is an avocado pencil sketch from 2001.

This sketch is from the last Umha Aois; Experimental Bronze Casting symposium I attended (Ventry, Co. Kerry, Aug-Sept 2001). It is a drawing of my husband's pit furnace and handmade bellows.

Of course sketches may contain kernels for new paintings. My recent trip to Rome obviously inspired this as a counterpoint to my recent painting "Fractured City".