Jazz Green : Artist Journal

Posts tagged ‘print’

all codes lead to Roma [a canvas]

May 20th, 2010

Another canvas in the ‘ virtual travels in colour’ series…

Roma 2010, mixed media intaglio collagraph on paper and canvas

Another view…

Here is a photograph of a small alley in the Trastevere district of Rome…

A quick perusal of Youtube returned this holiday video; an early morning stroll through Trastevere…

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painting by numbers

January 16th, 2010

Another hand-coloured, intaglio collagraph print on paper, mounted on canvas… titled according to my colour value rules (read about that here..).. and this one is called… Nepal


Nepal 2010, intaglio and painting on canvas

which called for a quick visit to the encyclopedia for the casually-minded, wikipedia… shown below, is a topographical map of the country, bordered by India to the south, and China to the north.

There is a rich and diverse geography to Nepal, with tropical low-lying plains in the south, rising up through verdant foothills up to the mountainous peaks of the Himalayas. Curiously, the country has five distinct seasons – spring, summer, the monsoon season, then autumn and winter. When I think of Nepal, I think immediately of tea, and of the very abstract agricultural patterns of the steep hillside plantations. So, it seems not so far-fetched to see similar striations echoed in my own work – however unintentional.

…

Thinking more about painting by numbers (after Gerhard Richter and his colour chart paintings) leads one to the master of appropriation, Andy Warhol..


Andy Warhol, Do It Yourself (Landscape) 1962

…and then, Damien Hirst (all three artists were featured in the recent Colour Chart exhibition)..

Damien Hirst - spot painting
Damien Hirst, 2-Methylbenzimidazole 2008/09

Hirst inherits the concept of art as a mass-produced brand from Warhol, using assistants for his chemical spot paintings, and then later manufacturing ’spot painting kits’ with strict instructions as to the completion of the artwork for the new owners. Rules for these spotted works included the spacing beween the dots and that a single colour appears only once in the final composition. Many of the titles (and the ideas) for Hirst’s work are appropriated from medical textbooks and technical manuals – inspired by his idol Francis Bacon, who found inspiration in many a documentary or medical image.

Artistic appropriation is good; it’s about finding something interesting and then applying it to something else, for a different purpose – whether it’s conceptually based or process-related.

Thinking back to the paint colour charts and the assignment of names to certain colours (and my reuse of them), these branded (sometimes trademarked) names are yet another type of appropriation, taking words out of their original context (or putting them in a new context) -  their minimal poetry promises a piece of paradise, a taste of the exotic, in harmony with the natural world – less about colour meanings or symbology, but more about instilling ideas and aspirations in the potential buyer.

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intaglio, to go

January 4th, 2010

i have been feeling somewhat under-the-weather (by the cold, with a cold) during my break from the day job … so after christmas i have really pushed on with something that i have been meaning to do for some time.. to make something of all the prints from my collagraphs (i constructed them exactly one year ago; you can see the digital scans of the collagraph plates here, i played a little with photoshop)..

my background is in fine art printmaking and it’s always been there in my work, one way or another (papermaking, embossing, monoprinting), but i’ve no real desire to make pretty editions, it’s just the processes that i like.. here are a couple of artist proofs or A/Ps together with the original scans of the corresponding plates, printed using oil-based etching inks on hahnemühle 300gsm paper..

collagraph - intaglio print

the only problem being that you do get through a good lot of quality paper..  after fifteen or so pulls from the plates i ended up with about six clean, sharp prints, so the rest i have decided to handcolour…

here is one altered collagraph print close-up, showing the textures of the surface embossing..

they were first sealed with a varnish and then i carefully adhered them to some small canvas blocks… [no frame required]..

there is something about prints, surfaces that are so tactile and appealing (due i think, to the printmaker’s close engagement with surface from the very beginning of construction) – it is no wonder i have a myopic vision with surfaces, i’ve been consumed by them for years (see some of my art college days work here..) – all this tactility is lost behind a box of glass and wood..

i had the idea that i wanted to reconstruct the malleable 2d print (the twin or ghost of another surface) into a three-dimensional form.. actually, this is an idea that i have been harbouring for years, wanting to make the printable surface the artwork, but when looking into etching on copper it was too costly for me..

i have cubed six of the altered intaglio prints so far (very time-consuming).. not even sure if they are intaglio prints anymore, maybe this is the middle ground, part painting, part printmaking, part object.. here are a couple more of the collagraph printing plates with residues of ink; they will never be discarded..

collographs or collagraphs, sometimes called collotypes or collage prints: the printing matrix is constructed from a base of strong card into which you can incise, carve or texturise with fillers, powders, sand, tissue paper, glue, paint or collage (anything goes, just musn’t be too deep or hilly).. they can be printed relief (as in woodblock) or intaglio (as with drypoint engraving or etching).. collagraphs are essentially very eco-friendly printmaking, and a little bit arte povera, with recycled or found materials..

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The website of British Fine Artist Jazz Green MA RCA. Abstract landscape paintings, fine art photography. All images and text copyright the artist.