A new figurative work

Inspired by the work of Brenda Hartill, one of my favourite printmakers, I’m now working on a vertical landscape project. Some of my previous prints, such as Gold Elements, have used a number of separate plates that I have arranged in different combinations, and I have used the same approach here. This one, as yet unnamed, uses seven different pieces and a range of materials and textures. This semi-figurative image will be challenging, as I have to align the plates accurately, but it’s going to be fun to do.

Some of the pieces have been laser-etched into the birch plywood surface, whilst others have had textures added by hand using acrylic gels, crackle paste and kitchen foil. The images on these plates can be seen as ‘slices’ through the view you can see in the sketch – clouds, hills, trees down to the dry stone wall and wheat at the bottom.

Below are some of the plate pieces I’ve used. Some, such as the dry stone wall/wheat section at the bottom, have been hand drawn in ink, scanned and used to guide a laser machine to etch into the surface of my usual birch plywood plate material. Other elements were down using a graphics program and etched in the same way. The third type of section plates will be made by smearing pumice gel and other, smoother acrylic gels and or/crackle paste and making marks in the surfaces.

Preparation of the seven plate pieces

Areas of this piece were masked and coated in glue, to apply carborundum to specific areas

Plate sections with laser-etched marks at the top, rough-textured pumice gel, kitchen foil and scalpel scoring

Today, the varnished pieces have been drying in my garden in the warm sun, so they might harden enough to be ready for printing in the Print Room at the University of Lincoln later this week. I’ll also be taking some other semi-figurative landscape plates along to print. So, just for the next two weeks or so, I’ll be putting my abstract work to one side and having a couple of figurative print days.