Making collagraph prints.
My images begin with time spent outdoors — sensing, observing and sketching. Back in my studio, I use mountboard as my base - the printing matrix - and start to manipulate the surface, both cutting into and scoring it as well as building on it using different media: textured papers, Polyfilla, glues, carborundum, and found materials.
Collagraph printing plates are created slowly— in a process that includes both cutting down into the surface as well as layering up textures. The resulting marks and surfaces hold different quantities of ink giving a full range of tonal values.
Sensing and Observing
Much of my process begins outdoors — not walking far, but being still. I sit, listen, and notice how light moves across bark or how bramble shadows land on paper. These moments guide the forms that emerge.
Drawing
Sometimes I take boards out with me and draw directly onto them. The marks are loose and instinctive, shaped by place, light, and the textures around me.
Building
In the studio, making my printing matrix starts with a piece of mountboard on which I first sketch out my image. I then start the fun and all-consuming creative process of bringing the image to life with different textures; cutting and scoring the card, glueing and layering textured papers and fabrics; spreading different media like Polyfilla, gesso and PVA then adding seeds or carborundum powder. Each material brings its own quality to the plate and each will hold different amounts of ink creating a full tonal range from the very dark to the brightest light. Once I’m happy with plate and it has completely dried, it is sealed with a thin coat of shellac to withstand the printing process.
Inking and Printing
Once sealed with a thin layer of shellac, the plate is inked intaglio-style and wiped by hand. I often ink plates ‘al la Poupee’ with involves blending several colours on the plate in a painterly style. I then place the plate on the press and lay over the dampened paper. Each print is unique, pulled through the press with its own nuances of tone, pressure, and accident.
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