My first blog

Well.... here I go deeper into the depths of the Internet. I'm not quite sure what to say as I'm a little shy when it comes to such new things.

I guess I could say that I was thinking I would like to thank everyone who made it out Hycroft House for my show opening.

On Jan. 18th fellow artist Andrea Chamberlain (www.andreachamberlain.org)

 and jewellery designer Teresa Smed ( www.dottedloop.com) and I had the opportunity to show new work in the amazing and historic Hycroft House. Although I thought I create fairly large print pieces, I saw them shrink in size in relation the expansive ceilings and walls of the house. Talk about living large!

For this show I did a series of landscape monotypes which is a new genre for me. I found it really enjoyable and it's a subject I think I will go back to. For those not familiar with monotypes I will give a quick explanation. I do what is considered a reductive monotype in that I roll the whole plate with black ink and then “draw” into it with rags, cards, fingers, etc. to achieve the whites and grey tones. Once I feel the image is complete I lay a piece of dampened paper onto the plate and roll it through the press I keep at home. Now all the ink has transferred onto the paper and the image is in reverse. This will be the only print I can pull.

 For the Hycroft show I added hand-colouring to the prints with chalk pastels. I use high quality Sennelier pastels in thin layers to make sure I can maintain the tones created in the print. I'm really enjoying this technique and have a host of images that I plan to use it on.