A few nights ago I woke at some ungodly hour and had one of those 'eureka moments'. I realised that there was a way to feed my over-arching interest in breaking up the space of a rectangle with areas of colour and my need to work in lots of mediums and ways simultaneously that might not end up in an amateurish mishmash.
What if I hone in on motifs that break up the space in ways that remind me of what I like in my fused plastic collages and use those to draw from. Once I have a drawing I can use it as stimulus for whichever medium I feel the urge to work in. It makes things simpler (eliminates lots of motifs) and hopefully will give me a body of work that holds together.
I took lots of photos in just that way while in Somerset and my home and studio are rich with material. Today, to begin the theme I projected a photo of a hallway of a house we stayed in in Somerset on the wall of the studio and set up my drawing board some way away. I tried to think of the rhythm of the place. I wanted to get lots of information so I could make choices later. I was documenting the space first. I looked at Annabel Gault and Emily Nelligen.
I didn't want to use local colour as a starting point when I began my follow-up monoprint. I looked at some Deibenkorn and tried to keep the rhythm idea and to select harmonious colours that would play in the rectangle in a believable way. This was the first Akua Ink print made with wet paper in my new press. I rushed things a bit, because I was impatient to see how it would work. I am delighted with the intesity of the colour and can see lots of possibilities, even if this print is a bit lame. And I forgot to work backwards!
In a 2nd print (too awful to show), I used the ghost and worked with the leftover ink, working backwards this time. I'm not too keen on the colours, cleaning brushes with Akua is a bit of a hassle and needs more determination on my part!
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