I was beginning to wonder where I'd disappeared to .......................
I've not been on holiday, or ill, I've just been working to the exclusion of everything else, I'm very sorry I've been so neglectful of my blog and not explained sooner.
So where did I leave off?
I think in my last blog post, I said I was going on a Screen Printing course, and so I did.
I had a WONDERFUL weekend, loved every minute. There was a group of eight of us, and the people on the course were so nice, everyone was very good natured and interesting. The tutor was lovely too, and a very good teacher. I plan to return and do some more Screen Printing soon.
The course was a gift, my family and Hugo all clubbed together and gave it to me for my Birthday, what a fantastic thing for them to do, I'm very grateful to them, such a wonderful present.
The image I'm showing you, is the piece I finished the weekend with.
There are four colour separations in this print, you can see the different layers I painted and drew on acetate, for each colour.
And above is the paper showing my working out the colours for each layer.
When I was at art college a long time ago, I did a little etching and quite a bit of Lithography. I'd always regarded screen printing as something you create bold graphic images with, and lots of flat colour, and that didn't really interest me. But when I saw Gerry Turley's screen prints, it changed my view of screen printing completely. You can build up fine layers, like with lithography, so I'm very enthusiastic about screen printing now.
This print fits quite nicely in an Ikea frame, always a useful thing in terms of keeping the costs down on framing.
Everyone on the course did an edition of six prints.
I haven't signed and numbered my prints yet, I must do that.
I quite like the idea of doing a set of four prints along the same lines as this piece, based on my sculptures.
Screen printing is so exciting, watching the image materialising as each layer is printed, is magical. There's a lot of practical stuff that goes in to the making of each layer, many different stages, but then you're rewarded with the end result of a picture, it's very gratifying.
I did my course at Edinburgh Printmakers, and I'd recommend them to anyone, it's a fantastic set up. Their website is here.
Before I go, I thought I'd give you a hint of my blog post for Friday, just to prove I'm not running off in to the mists of time and getting lost again.
On the 28th October last year, 2011, I did a blog post (here) about starting to knit a lace dress.
It's now finished!
And that's what my blog post on Friday is going to be about, showing lots of photos of the finished piece.
Cheerio!
Vanessa xxx