27 MONTHS OF LITHO

I have just finished my 27 month residency at Leicester Print Workshop (LPW) and thought this would be a good opportunity to recap on what Ive done over the past few years.
Since April 2015, I have attended LPW 220 times, approximately 2- 3 times a week for 7- 8 hours a day !
I am extremely grateful to have received 2 grants to help finance this project, one from the Arts Council of England and the other from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. These grants enabled me to make the 140 mile return trip by train rather than driving.
I have enjoyed the Fellowship immensely, it has been an incredible opportunity to make a new body of work in a different medium and to learn a new discipline. One of the best things about the experience has been being part of the LPW community.  LPW is a special place, with over 180 members and is a really friendly and supportive environment in which to work. Throughout my 2 years there, there have been many opportunities to engage and share learning with other artists using the workshop and the critical support and friendships made through these interactions have benefitted me enormously both personally and professionally.

I would like to say a massive thanks to all the LPW staff and members but particularly to Lucy Phillips Director of Leicester Print Workshop and of course to Serena Smith for sharing her vast wealth of lithography knowledge and for being endlessly patient! Huge thanks as well to Nina who has been such a great colleague to share this journey with.

So to recap what Ive been up to:

I have worked on over 20 stones, from quite large ones to small graining ones. I have experimented with registering multiple stones, using photolithoplates, adding colour by means of monoprinting, chine colle, collage and hand colouring. I have experimented using different greasy materials from crayon, pencil, rubbing block to watery tusches and ink and used frottage, masking tapes, transfer paper and sgraffitto. I have printed on to a variety of different papers and collaged prints on to concrete.
Ironically (and not intentionally!)  the first stone I worked on involved a tree as did the last ones.
Here are some of the prints Ive made and stones Ive worked on:

        First print I made using dry and liquid tusches and transparent monoprints for colour

                      First  small stone made using masking masking tapes - not a great success!!

            First stone made using a combination of above 2 techniques - (masking tapes, variety of                                                               dry and more liquid tusches)

                           

                 

                             Two stones registered together to produce a print with greater tonality

 

                             Resulting print with multiple monoprints added to give colour

                                                                  Small graining stone

                        Resulting lithograph collaged on to Japanes paper and then on to concrete

                    Another large stone using a combination of dry and liquid tusches and tapes

                                             The resulting prints on paper (with monoprint)

                                Then printed onto Japanese paper, then collaged onto concrete

       
         Other examples of  lithographs printed onto Japanese paper and then collaged on concrete

Lithography is not without its trials and tribulations - I think this was one of the most dramatic events that happened during the process! Fortunately I was still able to take prints fro it

Here is one printed on paper with multiple monoprints added for colour and tone

And here is one on Japanese paper with monoprints and collage that has been stuck on concrete

My very last stones that I processed were done with liquid tusche (something I would like to experiment more with). They were both of the same subject (an old tree stump) but one was more drawn into than the other. I was glad I did two as I over etched the first one!

It has been a steep learning curve trying to master lithography but I can see the progress Ive made since I started. I am keen for lithography to remain a big part of my arts practice and after a short break aim to try to attend LPW once a week so as not to lose the skills Ive learnt.
Nina and I will be having an exhibition of the work we have made during our Fellowship which will run from November 4th 2017 - 11th January 2018 at Leicester Print Workshop. We are also involved in another exhibition  at the Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donnington will show our work and that of the 2 previous recipents of the Lithography Fellowship, Kate Desforges and Soraya Smithson and Serena Smith who taught us all. That exhibition will run from September 30th - October 22nd 2017 (opens 30/09/17  - 6 - 8pm)  All welcome!

March 2017

MOKULITO
Mokulito is lithography on wood instead of stone - it was discovered by Prof Seishi Ozaku in Japan over 30 years ago.It combines both lithographic and woodcut marks and doesnt need any strong acids or solvents unlike traditional lithography. There are lots of good u tube videos on line about the process including several by the  polish artist Ewa Budka from East London Printmakers who has been researching the process for several years.
My colleague Nina has been experimenting with the process a bit too and has achieved some interesting resukts so I thought it was time I had a go too.
So using a piece of plywood I:
1. Sanded the plywood down
2. Nina had found lithographic ink and crayon worked better than watery tusche -The plywood was drawn on and I also gouged into it to create white marks
3. The drawing was left to dry and rest for a few hours and then chalked and gummed and left
overnight
4. The gum was then washed off with water and the wood kept damp using damping cloths
5.. A  really runny ink (50% litho ink :50% plate oil) was rolled onto the damp plate very quickly.
(a foam disposable decorating roller was used rather than a traditional glazed roller)
6.. The plate was dried and then a thin piece of slightly dampened Japanese  /Hahnemuhle paper was placed over the plate and then the whole lot run through the etching press.
8. In total about 6-8 proofs (of variable quality !) were produced before the plate became too messy / unusable.

I liked the way the wooden grain was picked up and the marks that the lithographic ink produced and it was a much quicker, freer, experimental/ (but also inconsistent !) process compared to traditional stone lithography and best still - no graining! However I think I prefer the detail and more reliable marks achievable with stone (although maybe I just need more practice?)

Heres my plate (I had visited the Robin Hood Gardens Estate in Poplar recently which was my inspiration)

And the subsequent print:

January /February /March 2017

Over the past few months I have been trying to edition stones prior to finally getting rid of the images by graining. This is 'Stripped Bare',  I printed off 10 proofs onto Japanese Kozo paper then block printed a gold- green coloured transparent ink (containing plenty of extender). The ink was rolled on to a pre cut photo -lithoplate and then placed on to each proof and rolled through the etching press to transfer the ink to the paper.

Here is a finished test print: (for the final edition I went for a slightly greener block print)

I then decided to crop the image and then using the starch paste that is described in my 4/3/16 blog post I stuck the prints onto individual concrete tiles that I had made earlier. The prints were protected with several coats of archival uv resistant varnish. I am hoping to have an edition of 8. Here is the finished piece framed

I also proofed an edition of 10 of my Faded Glory print on to Kozo paper and on a slightly smaller concrete tile using the same starch paste method. Here is one of the finished framed prints:

Finally, having my editioning head on I aimed to try and get an edition of 8 of the Liminal Zone print on Somerset Newsprint paper. This proved to be quite a challenge as the stone hadnt been opened for a while and the first proofs taken were quite pale and blotchy. To try and remedy this a layer of asthphaltum was rubbed over the stone and then the stone rolled with a thin layer of noir a monter ink and 10 proofs taken.

The proofs were printed on to Somerset newsprint paper. Once the ink was dry the paper was dampened and a blockprint similar to the Stripped Back proof was added. A piece of photo lithoplate was cut to the image size and a thin translucent ink (with lots of extender) mixed

This was rolled on to the photolithoplate and then the plate placed over the dampened image and the whole lot run through the etching press. Here is the finished proof.

I also started a couple of new stones: 

Here they are finished:

The first stone I printed 10 proofs onto Japanese paper and once the ink had dried I blockprinted a thin layer of transulucent ink rolled on to a photolithoplate . Allowing for some mistakes I made an edition of 8 - here they are drying. I plan to collage them on concrete as before.

For the second stone I made 10 proofs printing again onto Japanese paper. I then cut multiple small pieces of varnished card to fit the different areas of colour on the print. Using lots of extender I rolled 9 different coloured inks onto the apprpropriate piece of card and then placed them on the print and ran it through an etching press, Here is one of the finished proofs collaged on to concrete and framed: