Putting it out there

Plasencia Dreams 1&2

So, scarily, I have today placed a couple of nicely framed originals for sale in my local fine art gallery (as seen above). I let the proprietor set the price and so this experience is a new one for me.  I'm viewing the whole thing as an experiment that I'm going to try to enjoy and learn from.

I thoroughly enjoyed crafting these hand modified prints (HMP). They started life as a print of a watercolour I painted during our Autumn 2021 trip.  Early in the trip we'd stayed just outside Plasencia towards the bottom end of the Jerta valley.  A lovely cycle path ran from our campsite to the Presa del Embalse where my sister-in-law and I had spent a lovely afternoon wandering around and swimming in the lake.  Later in the trip, when we were parked up and chilling just outside Isla Cristina for a few days, I'd grab my paints each afternoon as the temperature rose, and slowly but surely I painted one of my favourite scenes.

Presa del Embalse de Palsencia - available as a limited edition print here

Fast forward to the tail end of last year as an idea began to form for a small series of original prints.  I couldn't face using the original watercolour but I did have a printed copy that hadn't quite made the grade as a limited edition.  I hate to see waste, especially of the lovely portfolio rag that I use for my limited editions, and so my idea began to take shape using this print as the background.

I had recently become the proud owner of a Woodzilla press, my lovely husband gave it to me for my recent 'significant' birthday.  I was keen to put this to use and so my new series was to include a linocut of mine too.  On it's own my linocut is very simple (I am still new to this skill) but I felt that, combined with my colourful watercolour, I could make it shine.

My printing session went well and, alongside 'plain' prints, the two for the Plasencia series worked wonderfully.  I then proceeded to carefully cut out the flower heads, being sure to leave all the stems intact and cut them out in one piece (I had plans for these pieces I removed).  It took me a while to choose the first colour scheme (the orange flowers) as I did have quite a few monoprint backgrounds I quite fancied using.  Eventually I settled on the vibrant orange and chose the pink/purple for the next print.  The monoprint was collaged on to the back of the print which just left the flower buds to be painted.  For these I painted in acrylics and used my trusty Rotring isographs to add the details.  Reading it back here makes it all sound a very quick process, it wasn't lol.  

As I think I've mentioned - I don't like waste, and so those carefully cut flower heads found a home on two of the other prints from the original session.

Experimental Flow 2&3

Happily, one of these has since been worked on further.  One of my Christmas presents was a small set of Brusho paints which |'d not used until I started to play with this next print.  I hadn't quite realised the potency of these paints, they are gorgeous.  In this instance I mixed a little of the crystals with plain water until I felt the colour and transparency met my requirements.  Keeping it simple, the sky and foreground were painted before attaching the 'cut-outs', I then moved onto the flower buds.  Again I wanted to paint these in acrylics but boy was I in for a surprise.  I'd set my heart on a lovely lemony yellow and was using process yellow to achieve this.  However, each time I painted the bud it turned green!!  A slightly different green dependent upon whether I was painting over sky or foreground, but green none the less.  Layer upon layer still produced a green.  I can only presume that the brusho paints somehow react more than normal watercolours might when paint is layered on top.  Nine layers of acrylic it took in the end and even then I had to switch to ochre, then white and then back to process yellow in order to get there.  Was it worth it?  I have no idea.  Do I like this print?  Yes, even though it doesn't have quite the same depth I feel as the Plasencia series.

Experimental Flow No.2

Experimental Flow No.3 is still a work in progress but No.1 is finished.   This is the simplest rendition of the five.  It is purely adorned with watercolour making this one a hand painted print (HPP).  I've friends that like this one the best. I like it, but I also love the vibrancy of the Plasencia series.  What do I know though.  Art is definitely in the eye of the beholder.  Sometimes I feel too 'close' to a piece I've nurtured and crafted until completed, I'm no longer objective then for quite a while.  With these first two into the gallery I've taken a leap into the unknown.  I can't imagine I'll regret it.

Experimental Flow No.1

Edited to add - Experimental Flow No.1 & 2 are now available to purchase from Walkmill @no. 7 in Knighton

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.  If you're interested in anything you can always use the contact form by clicking on the 3 lines top right of this page.  There is also the option to comment below.

Wendy xx