I have now reached the end of my six week Australian adventure. The whole trip has been an incredible experience and I have learnt so much from the people I have met and worked with over this time. The printmakers I have spent time with have been welcoming and generous with both their time and knowledge. As a result my practice has been enriched and I am excited about putting my new skills into action on my return to the UK.
I said to Theo when I arrived that I was prepared to do any jobs needed and I don’t mind just observing if I am going to get in the way. As Theo is used to printing by himself he has had to develop his own way of handling large sheets of paper without a second pair of hands. It has been really interesting over the past few days observing and occasionally helping Theo prepare and work on some large scale linocuts.
I also took this opportunity to draw and process the lithographic stones I had prepared. Now Theo has a completely different etching and processing method to my own, so I was really interested to see his method of approach.
The reason I wanted to come and work with Theo is because he works with a lot of indigenous artists and has been known to take his press and studio to them. NFP stands for No Fixed Press. When you choose to print outside of a studio environment you have to become resourceful and adaptable and that is exactly what Theo has done. He makes some of his own materials and has developed ways to recycle and re use others. This is what I wanted to learn from him, a way to be more resourceful within my own practice as a printmaker and collaborator.
I have only been in Cairns a few days and so far I have managed to check out most of the local art galleries and spend time with Theo Tremblay at Tremblay Editions NFP. Theo is a local master printer and has kindly agreed to let me spend just over a week in his studio, assisting in some editioning. As collaborating with artists is part of my own practice and something I am wanting to expand on I feel I can learn a lot from Theo. I spent a couple of days in his studio graining a stone and playing around with some drawing before helping tear down paper and prepare the studio for editiong next week.
On my first day in Cairns I checked out the regional art gallery and an exhibition of Alick Tipoti who Theo has collaborated with a lot on some large scale lino cuts. Check out his website http://www.alicktipoti.com/ABOUT.4.0.html
His lino cuts our impressive with the foreground and background blurring into one. What looks like some kind of crazy patterning in Alick’s work is actually a series of hidden figures and animals which connect directly to his ancestry. His work is a must see if you ever get the chance.
Due to some internet issues I have been unable to keep my blog up to date. I have now left Ballarat and finishing my trip with 11days in Cairns.
The workshop in Ballarat went well and I feel confident the students will be able to continue with the process now that I have gone. It was there first experience of lithography and after creating a quick test plate testing out the drawing materials, they began working on a new plates putting everything they had learnt into practice.
I on the other hand managed to make progress on my transfer paper research and spent a few days playing around with an image experimenting with layering and composition. These are some of my results:
So I have been in Ballarat for a week now as an artist in residence at the Federation university art school. My aim was to come here and continue with some lithographic transfer paper research I had started back home, give a talk to students about my practice and run an intro to plate lithography workshop (my workshop is running over the weekend so will update then)
I have been trying to make a textured transfer paper that could be used by artists as a way to produce a different style of marks. Before coming out here I prepared some transfer paper to work on which through my first set of experiments discovered they have a use by date. Crayon drawing works but solvent washes don’t. For the last few days I have been experimenting with the strength of the solvent wash and the age of the transfer paper, and have made Links regarding these things. Lots of questions have been thrown around regarding solutions and reasons for unreliable results, however I am unable to explore all of these during this short residency but will continue with this research once back in the UK.
