in the studio

I started this week finishing up before. After loading in 5 paintings at Angel Hair the previous week, I realized I needed one more piece there. So before is now complete and installed and ready for their opening tomorrow!

before, acrylic and ink on canvas, 40" x 60"

The rest of the week was spent working on monotypes for #printoctober. I switched at the beginning of the week from gouache to acrylic and have just about gotten to the right level of how much paint is enough, without being too much. It's a sort of fine line. The last image is a ghost print, which is printing what's left on the plate after a print is pulled. You can see there's residual paint to print, but the image isn't really there to be a worthwhile piece. It can be reworked with drawing or painting, and that is probably what I will do.

Other printmaking ideas to tackle: collagraphs, watercolor pencil monotypes, paper litho, inocut, styrofoam plate relief prints. And, a small etching press is on its way to my house so apparently more printmaking will be in the future after this month's #printoctober is done. If you are interested in seeing other printmaking, I recommend you check out the #printoctober hashtag on twitter.

in the studio

This week has been another long week. Began by starting a new piece! yay! This has to be done in the next couple of days because it's getting installed on Wednesday...no pressure. Here's a bit of the evolution of the piece. buh-bye roots and growth, say hello to before.

how do I get back to where I was before?

Someone on twitter decided that #drawingaugust (which I missed doing but enjoyed checking out) and #paintseptember really ought to flow right into #printoctober. I signed up. I've been thinking maybe to get back to it. The chances of me doing this without some sort of challenge are pretty slim. I have no press. I can't find my brayer. Or my woodcut tools. (which I never liked anyway) And the idea of doing one print a day for a whole month is really unlikely unless I go the monotype route, so I trialed one of those. The top image below is the plate on the left and the print on the right. The lower image is the following day's work. I repainted the plate and pulled the print from the floor so I could apply more pressure on it. More coming about this next week.

Also this week, History Repeats came down from Intrigue Spa in Dyer and all the newer paintings went up at Angel Hair in Griffith. before will be heading there next week. Once I finish it. Before Wednesday.