Beef and hedgehog- unlikely couple

I had the wonderful opportunity to work on some copper plate etchings at Savannah School of Art and Design these last 2 weeks!!! Thank you for Jennifer Jenkins for that opportunity.
The two prints are not at all related, and I barely got the second one tolerable. The first print was a bull and rider titled Refined Beef and the second one was a round plate with a little hedgehog all curled up. I'll post a picture of the bull and rider for now. I am submitting it to the AASU faculty exhibition in September.

I have to mention a great exhibition up currently downtown Savannah. Curtis Bartone's etchings, drawings and paintings adorn the walls of the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery on the corner of Whitaker and West Henry st. Works will be up until Sept 24th. Curtis uses very detaild linework in his etchings, so they are fabulous when viewed in person, but pictures do little justice for them.


Curtis talks of his works: "I view the act of art-making as a way to explore and to question man's attempts to tame, control, and consume his surroundings." "My paintings and drawings, filtered through art history and mass media, attempt to make sense of seemingly disparate elements and create connections and order in what appears to be disharmony."

If you have a chance to check it out, it's well worth it!

Third Bird

Two new prints to share. I have been working so hard this past week, to get these done. Next week when school starts, my time to work will diminish to next to nothing. I am teaching at Armstrong Atlantic State University, and just recently got a bid to teach a drawing class at the Macintosh Art Association, so that increases my load a little.

So I did one more bird solar plate, and editioned the cow print for the portfolio "Picturing the Beast". I had to print the cow prints on the press at school, since my little press at home was too small for the paper size. I'll go pick up those prints tomorrow and add a pic. I changed the colors a little for the final print for that.

The other print is another bird common to Finland in the winter time. The three birds, especially the Great Tit and Eurasian Bullfinch are birds that I remember watching from my grandmothers kitchen window every winter. They bring back a wealth of warm fuzzy memories to me. This one, I don't have pictures of color separations or proofs yet, but will add them later.

Second bird print

So I finished printing my second bird solarplate this afternoon with the help of my husband who willingly submitted to helping me wipe plates and blot paper. I had a hard time proofing, and trying to figure out colors. I printed one proof on a animal book page, below, and thought it looked nice, but then figured since I don't have similar pages, all the prints would be really different and decided to ditch the idea. I might print some stragglers later on on sime different papers just to try the idea out once more.

I also attached the colorproofs and separations so you get a better idea of the process I go through. The last print, I drew with pencil on mylar, this time around I used a water soluble color pencil (black) on the same material. I like the texture from the pencil better. It was easier to get an even grainy surface, so from now on I will use it. The only bad part was that you can't erase mistakes as easily.

New bird print

I am trying to get a lot of printing done before school starts next week and to have something new to submit to exhibitions. Just working on stuff helps me think and process ideas for future projects as well. I am trying to figure out what direction to go with my art, sinc I have been doing factoryfarming for so many years now. Like said in my previous post, my thoughts are dwelling on the forests so I just worked on a little birdy native to Finland.
My accomplishment for today is printing this new triple solarplate. I did a couple of color proofs before settling on the final color, the third print on the right is the finished print. For the last piece of paper I also printed color separations of the plates to show to my students as part of a solarplate demo.

I am working on another bird solarplate and woodcut right now and got a chance today to talk to a friend who does japanese woodcuts as well. He recommended flexcut carving tools from Japan Woodworker. They are supposed to handle very well, and be razor sharp. I ordered myself 4 to test them out. I was happy to see that they were much cheaper than tools that I bought earlier this year from McClains. When I get a chance to try them out, I'll be sure to let you know how they work.

Website updated

I updated my website with a new design this weekend. There are some new pieces in the galleries as well. The squirrel logo was something different for the page for a change. I figured it would reflect me well, since lately my mind has been dwelling on woods and forests a lot and squirrels are seen as busy bees and thifty (-like my husband sees me).