Have you ever watched a coastal storm slam the beach with huge waves and high winds? Storm watching can be pretty exhilarating and artistically motivating. If you can get in between gusts and raindrops to collect some local plants, you have the makings for some fun indoor creativity.
Local foliage collected from the yard.
Kitchen Table Printing Studio with a view, wish I had windshield wipers.
You don’t need a fancy art studio to do this kind of printmaking. My excuse for having an oversize, high bar style table is seen here. Mono-Prints are prints that are inked and pulled that will be one of a kind. Each time you pull a print from a plant, with its organic nature, it can’t be replicated. The plants are ready, paper is cut, inks are lined up, brushes await, palettes are placed, and most importantly, we have plenty of paper towels. Looking forward to making a bit of an artsy mess.
I nerd out on how new and exciting this method of printmaking can be. Unlike a woodcut or etching where you create the image, these subjects are a mystery until you print them. I prepared this thistle by cutting either side of it so that only the center section remained. Not only is a round object difficult to print, but also, check out that interesting pattern that was revealed on the inside.
Inked Thistle with a Fan Brush
Thistle Mono-Print on Unryu Rice Paper
This thistle got the ink treatment with a fan brush and relief printing ink. Using the right paper helps you take a better print from your subject. In this case, Unryu Rice paper is the ticket. The paper needs to be flexible but strong enough to get around your subject and pull the details from it without it breaking or crushing your subject.
Letting the Inks Fly
It’s fun to have several different plants to experiment with and combine in prints. The thistle was paired with dried american carrot blossom and fire-weed. The Pine was paired with its own pine-cone. After printing a few cones whole, I opted to slice one in half, again, making its texture more interesting.
Thistles, Pines, and Bladderwrack
Chilly dog
Bladderwrack and Fossil Shell
No, I didn’t print Lily. She was curled up on the couch next to the kitchen table studio trying to keep warm from the storm. The sun did come out long enough for me to take a sunlit picture of the Bladderwrack with a Miocene Era bivalve fossil shell. Directly after that we stole outside for a quick run on Yaquina Head.
Storm watching on Yaquina Head
There’s our hole in the storm where the sun broke through and it was squalling by the time we made it back. It’s a magnificent spot to pick up some inspiration to keep the mono-printing going. One of the opportunities of the new location is the potential to invite you to demonstrations and workshops, such as botanical mono-prints or gyotaku fish printing, at the studio/gallery. Would you be interested? There are several potential demo and workshop subjects so leave me a comment below or contact me about what you might be interested in learning. Also, feel free to ask any questions about printmaking below. Thanks for reading, feel free to like and share, and I hope to see you watching our King Tides this weekend on the Headland!
