Colour Chaos
The expression “out of chaos comes order” often springs to mind not only in the progress of my own work but also during my printmaking workshops and this was certainly the case over the weekend!
Here is the list of things that I had planned to cover:-
1. The multiple plate print (particularly in etching)
2. Viscosity printing (in etching, collagraph and monotype)
3. Relief printing (in etching and collagraph)
4. The “dolly”, or “a la poupée”, method of inking up a colour etching or collagraph plate
5. Chine Collé
6. Masks and stencils
7. Other hints and tips about inking up colour collagraph plates
8. Monotype and monoprint.
9. Colour reduction lino cut and/ or multiple block lino.
I had spent the previous evening marking examples in books from my library with “sticky notes” and digging out various original examples from my plan chest. At the beginning of the first day everyone gathered round while I tried to give brief explanations and show a variety of colour printmaking techniques. “Tried” and “brief” being the operative words – so many questions and ideas were thrown up that we barely got past the first 5 sets of examples before we started to feel overloaded with the prospect of never-ending possibilities! So we stopped at Chine Collé with a view to coming back to the rest at some other stage. It is always difficult to know how much information to provide at first. I tend to verge on the ‘too much’, rather than the ‘too little’, which does perhaps cause a considerable amount of chaos, both in the head and in the workshop space! But ultimately, through the learning process, and the exchange of experiences and ideas between people, it always results in the emergence of a range of varied and arresting imagery.
As it happened – by the end of the 3 days students had covered almost everything – adding to their own learning curves by looking over other people’s shoulders and following the progress of each individual, thus gathering valuable information from the amorphous development of many different ideas and techniques.
Some of the photos I took are too blurred to include – I don’t seem to have got the hang of my phone camera yet. But these are some examples of what went on over the weekend. Watch out for another of these 3 day workshops – I am planning to add one to my Summer programme (tbc).
