The Absence of Nature
The printing, upholstering and final result of ‘The Absence of Nature’ chairs. The blue chair, entitled Chair (The Presence of Nature) Or, ‘Life’ is upholstered in a six-colour screenprinted fabric. The white chair, entitled Chair (The Absence of Nature) Or, ‘this should be an empty space on a plinth, though the plinth wouldn’t exist without nature either…’ is upholstered in a single colour screenprinted fabric.
The piece is meant to highlight the beauty, detail and intricacy of nature against the bland, colourless state of the alternative, exploring biodiversity and the loss of nature.
The fabric was developed during my AA2A residency at UCLan in Preston.
AA2A Residency – University of Central Lancashire
Since October last year, I have been artist-in-residence at University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston. I’ve been working on a specific project to create a piece called The Absence of Nature, which (I think) will be a series of chairs highlighting the increased extinction rates of beetles due to climate change and loss of habitat.
I knew that I wanted to use metallic and iridescent inks to screenprint fabric for the chairs so have spent a large amount of my time at UCLan experimenting with different inks, finishes, fabrics and pigments to get what I wanted. I’ve finally started to achieve something with Golden’s interference colours (thankyou Golden!) but it took a lot of research and experimentation.
I have also spent some time at Manchester Museum‘s entomology department, drawing from the thousands of specimens they have. I plan to go back and do some more research – Dmitri and his colleagues at the museum couldn’t be more helpful and to draw from real specimens is invaluable.
As part of the residency I’ve been experimenting with textures and fills, using trugrain and various media to achieve what I wanted, playing around with levels and exposure in Photoshop and when exposing the screens.
I’m finally starting to see the results I want – just need to create the final designs for the fabric using the many beetles I have been sat drawing since the residency started…
Hot Bed Press ’20’ Exhibition
I’ve been lucky enough to be selected for the Hot Bed Press 20 Year anniversary exhibition. Held at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, the exhibition features 20 artists selected from the printmaking studio’s members and runs from now until 16th September 2014.
Four of my screenprints were chosen to be part of the exhibition, including one that I’ve just completed. In the same style as my previous urban sketch screenprints but much larger, it shows the view from the top of Shudehill Car Park (see my earlier rant about views from car parks here). As I use paper stencils to get the background colours, printing this caused all sorts of problems due to the stencil warping and stretching over such a large area. However, I didn’t want to use photo screens for all parts of the artwork as it creates a final image that’s too perfect for me.
I was really pleased with the final piece especially once framed by the lovely and helpful ‘In the Picture Framing‘, who have just opened up in Woodend Mill in Mossley, where I have my studio.
Artists’ Proof Exhibition
My new series of screenprints are being exhibited at Bank Quay House in Warrington. Part of a group show, the Complete Printmakers from Hot Bed Press will be exhibiting alongside the Wrexham Regional Print Centre.
The exhibition runs from 4th April – 26th May 2014 at Bank Quay House, Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1NN. Go to their website for opening times and further details.
Manchester City Centre Screenprint
These photos show the different stages of creating this six colour screen print. All the layers except for the last one are paper stencils handcut by me. The greys only have a touch of burnt sienna and/or yellow ochre in to make them warm greys rather than a bluey, cold grey.
Drawings for screen printing
I’m going to use these drawings for a series of screenprints. I’ve started (and almost finished) the first one and after a few issues, have the next lot exposed and ready to be printed. I’m using paper stencils for the background colours, so everything is a bit ‘off’ on purpose – I didn’t want it to be perfect and consequently, end up looking like it had been Photoshopped…
I’m off to Hot Bed Press in Salford tomorrow to start on the second image – I’ll try to remember to take pictures to show each stage…
I’m also going to start on a bigger drawing of Manchester City Centre – at the same scale but to encompass more. I’ve been scouting around trying to take pictures from the tops of car parks but have so far been politely asked to remove myself from each one as I might hurt myself or something similar (?!). So remember everyone – taking a picture is MUCH more dangerous than parking your car. Seriously though – apparently I need to get permission from the owners first. I’ll let you know how I get on!
20:20 Print Exchange
The sorting for the 20:20 Print Exchange is happening this week. The 20:20 is a national print exchange organised by Hot Bed Press whereby printmakers from studios across the UK each submit an edition of 25 prints measuring 20cm x 20cm. The prints are then sorted and each participant gets a random selection of prints back. Last year over 300 people submitted prints – I won’t reveal how many people have entered this year but it’s a LOT more…
My 20:20 entry is a three colour screenprint entitled ‘Print Manufactury’, created from a drawing I did of the Hot Bed Press studio building. The base white colour and the blue door were both created using paper stencils cut from newsprint. The third and final layer of black was from a photo-emulsion screen.
Here’s the original drawing…
And here’s the final screenprint. I used Somerset Grey paper so I could apply a white background for the building. I wanted it to be a completely self-contained image on the paper so removed anything outside the building that might ground it – for example the pavements, streetlights and surrounding buildings.
Being A Freelance Artist 