I thought that I had made up my mind on the images for the all-important back wall of my exhibition. I was going to use one of the fossil-like plates, so I spent an afternoon in the Print Room at the University of Lincoln, ready to try the plate shown below.

A plate for 'The Fourteen'?: collagraph plate detail

The plate printed well, but I wanted a quality that was far greater and enigmatic than ‘good’ or ‘ok’. On a whim, I revisited one of the crescent moons printed a few days earlier. I realised that the variety of materials and textures had such huge potential, and that I could exploit this for use on that wall. So, I got to work on testing the six plates…

A wall full of anomalies: decision made! Crescent moon print 1

A wall full of anomalies: decision made! Crescent moon print 2

A wall full of anomalies: decision made! Crescent moon print 3

The results were very encouraging. The combination of the two blues used and the deep impressions in the Somerset paper really made me smile when I saw the prints. Most importantly, multiple prints produced subtle differences in the patterns – interesting and intriguing ‘anomalies’ that embodied the title of the exhibition. I haven’t shown prints from the chosen plate here, as I want to save that surprise for the show!

So, for that tricky back wall display, it’s decision made!

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In the meantime, please have a look at a filmed introduction on my printmaking, shot at The Ropewalk earlier this year. You can see it on:

You Tube https://youtu.be/zU8fnbvyJIw
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/152998998

Follow the story of the exhibition at: #Anomalies16

Find all my posts about Art Printworks stories on Twitter at: #artprintstories